Most supporters of legalized abortion tout a familiar refrain. Abortion, they, say, should be “safe, legal, and rare.” (I’ll leave discussion of the incongruity between the notion that legal abortion is a relatively safe and amoral act and the belief that it should be “rare” for another time.) There are plenty of examples that give the lie to the idea that because abortion is legal, it is therefore safe. The latest is that of Summit Medical Center in Birmingham, AL, which was closed by the State of Alabama following an investigation into a horribly botched abortion:
The State Board of Health took six weeks to investigate the incident and suspend the abortion mill’s license. After calling the incident “egregious,†health department agent Dr. Donald Williamson indicated that the clinic might not reopen. The woman went to the Summit Medical Center on February 20, and was given an ultrasound by a non-physician in violation of Alabama law. She was told that she was six weeks pregnant when in fact she was 8 months along. Non-physicians then administered the abortion pill, RU 486, a drug approved for use only in early pregnancy and is responsible for at least 7 deaths since it hit the US market in late 2000. Six days later, the woman delivered a six pound, four ounce dead baby at the hospital emergency room.
It gets worse. Diagnosing a woman as six weeks pregnant when she was in fact eight months pregnant requires a staggering amount of either (a) incompetence; or (b) deceit. Yet this is the reality of the abortion industry. I find it interesting that as of this writing, the websites of Planned Parenthood, NOW, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the National Abortion Federation contain nary a word on Summit’s closing–nor on the suspension of Summit abortionist Deborah Lyn Levich’s license. Even the Associated Press is covering this story, yet the major pro-abortion groups do not see fit to issue so much as a statement. And we’re supposed to believe that they really care about keeping abortion “safe”?
Related Coverage
- RealChoice: More on the Closing of Summit
