Earlier this month, the Pro-Life Action League published an article about a new Carafem abortion clinic in Skokie, Illinois, one of Chicago’s northern suburbs. Then, late last week, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter called our office seeking a comment on this new abortion facility from Pro-Life Action League vice president Ann Scheidler.
The article ran on Sunday, and one quote in particular from Carafem’s Melissa Grant jumped out at me:
“Part of our efforts to normalize abortion services is to advertise about it,” she said. “We use a loud voice when talking about the service we provide.”
With that in mind, take a look at how Carafem described its day-to-day activities in its application for a certificate of occupancy, which the Pro-Life Action League obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request:
Notice, of course, what word is not there.
So much for all that talk about “a loud voice.”
And now that Carafem is up and running, don’t be expecting the Illinois Department of Public Health to be checking up on them. That’s because a loophole in the state’s complicated regulatory scheme allows abortion facilities to escape licensure—which means, in turn, that they also escape oversight.
Carafem now joins all 13 Illinois Planned Parenthood abortion clinics and six other abortion facilities statewide that are unlicensed, which means that the Illinois Department of Public Health has no authority to inspect them—ever.
