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“Deplorable and Unsanitary Conditions”

gosnellLast week, authorities made a shocking discovery while investigating a West Philadelphia abortion clinic run by Kermit Gosnell where a woman died following an abortion in November 2009.

In Gosnell’s office, they found two dozen frozen fetuses.

On Sunday, Gosnell’s license was suspended, with the suspension order detailing “deplorable and unsanitary conditions” that made his practice “an immediate and clear danger to the public health and safety.”

Today, on the pro-choice blog RH Reality Check, Rachel Larris has a post on Gosnell and the woman who died at his facility in November (the woman is identified by the Philadelphia Inquirer as Karnamaya Mongar).

Who does Larris blame for the woman’s death?

Why, pro-lifers, of course.

Larris writes:

The likely victim has been identified by the Inquirer and her story reminds us that she only turned to a clinic like Dr. Gosnell’s after being turned away from clinics in both Virginia and Maryland. Her struggle to get the abortion she and her family desired is exactly why outlawing abortion will never make it disappear and precisely why it should be legally practiced in safe, clean medical facilities. …

The Inquirer reports that according the order, an unlicensed employee may have distributed painkillers to Mongar. If the anti-choice movement had not been so successful in limiting abortion services the victim should have been able to get an abortion at a clinic in her state of Virginia or in Maryland. But reading about her case in the Philadelphia Inquirer shows the lengths to which women will go to terminate a pregnancy if needed. [emphasis added]

So, according to Larris, pro-life legislators in Virginia who have required that abortions past the first trimester must be performed in hospitals [PDF] share the blame for this woman’s death.

(For the record, Maryland does not have similar restrictions on where abortions past the first trimester can be performed. The Inquirer article merely quotes Mongar’s sister, Damber Ghalley, as saying, “They didn’t want to do it either. They gave the name of the Philadelphia clinic.”)

This makes Larris’ already breathtaking attempt to blame pro-lifers for Mongar’s death all the more asinine.

Equally ridiculous were the words Larris used to open her post: “No one in the pro-choice movement supports dirty healthcare clinics and doctors who practice irresponsible medicine.”

Oh?

For but one example, how to explain NARAL Pro-Choice America’s Virtual Rally to Support Dr. Leroy Carhart?

Take a look at Carhart’s facility and tell me the word “dirty” doesn’t come to mind.

Someone may also want to point out to Larris that another contributor to RH Reality Check has also written fawningly of Carhart, using words like “courageous” and “caring”.

Toward the end of her post, Larris claims, “Most reproductive healthcare clinics that provide abortion services are professionally run.”

Really?

Really?

Really?

Really?

You get the idea.

One wonders if Larris (and advocates of legal abortion generally) have given serious consideration to the possibility that the “deplorable and unsanitary conditions” in abortion facilities like Gosnell’s—not to mention the deaths of women from legal abortion—might be more common than they think.

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