Dennis Byrne, writing about Kermit Gosnell’s case in today’s Chicago Tribune:
“We have no idea how many facilities like Gosnell’s have remained out of sight, out of mind of DOH for decades,” the report concluded. The department inspected Gosnell’s clinic only “sporadically” from 1978 to 1993 and never again until 2010. Why? Because “officials concluded that inspections would be ‘putting a barrier up to women’ seeking abortions,” the report said. Added an agency lawyer, “People die.”
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The abortion industry tut-tuts it all as a deplorable, yet a single, isolated incident. It ignores the clinics being investigated for botched abortions or hazardous facilities in Alabama, New Mexico, Minnesota, Maryland, Colorado and Florida. There may be more, since abortion record-keeping is abysmal.
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Today, who can confidently say exactly how carefully abortion clinics are regulated and inspected? Where are the independent audits, newspaper investigations, legislative hearings and proposals to strengthen those regulations? The abortion industry remains one of Illinois’ most powerful lobbies, frustrating any attempt to further protect women and infants from exploitation of the likes of Gosnell and who knows who else? Whether from apathy or outright hostility against pro-life advocates, we’ve placed too much trust in abortionists and their friends to regulate themselves.
