Black Women Destroying Black Women while Saving Planned Parenthood

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

President John F. Kennedy, 1961 Inaugural Address

In 1961, many Blacks embraced the idea of passing the torch to a new generation – an idea that embodies responsibility, discernment and courage. President Kennedy defined this birthright as one built on strength, discipline and sometimes bitterness. What appropriate verbs for articulating the black experience in America – a legacy that should not be squandered or easily vanquished by the political expressions of the day. Yet, Star Jones, Nia Long and all the black women Keli Goff of the Root describe as “…Saving Planned Parenthood” have done exactly that – they have spit on the legacy of generations of black women instead favoring the politics of abortion over the lives of millions of blacks that have died in Planned Parenthood’s abortion centers.

Strong words, yes. Betrayal, yes. The cost of the betrayal: the lives and reproductive health of women who have believed and will believe Planned Parenthoods’ dogma because those spouting it are respected actresses, journalists, political leaders or entertainers. I cannot believe that any of these women looked past the rhetoric Planned Parenthood, has fed them to determine the truth of why Planned Parenthood centers are closing. It is not because they are suppliers of health care to women. The reality is that they are contributors to some of the very health issues many women and black children are facing such as breast cancer, bacterial and sexually transmitted infection, extreme premature births and infertility among other injuries including death.

To this day I remain haunted by the death of Tonya Reaves, a vibrant young twenty four year old that Planned Parenthood in Chicago left bleeding for more than five hours after a failed abortion during her fifth month of pregnancy. She did not have to die. But Planned Parenthood has so little regard for life that they left her there for more than five hours, unable to help herself as her life’s blood drained from her body. I am incensed by their rhetoric that this is a matter of access to contraception! No this is a population control agency continuing its objective to control the population we “don’t want too many of”, as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed in her 2009 New York Times interview. Tonya was one such victim of Planned Parenthood’s population control agenda.

The Root, carelessly continues the lie that black women lack “access to contraception” calling it “one of the key predictors for escaping poverty”. Since 79% of Planned Parenthood’s surgical facilities are located within a two mile walking radius of a Black or Latino neighborhood (see this study: http://www.protectingblacklife.org/pp_targets/index.html)one would think there would be far less Black and Latino women in poverty in these very same neighborhoods. After all, they tell us “When it comes to women’s health, they are the first line of defense for most lower-income women in America". This misinformation turns a blind eye to the fact that Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the nation. Instead they disguise this truth in the propaganda that "abortion accounts for less than 10% of their services".

The Planned Parenthood centers that are closing, are closing because the so call doctors in those facilities render such poor care, they cannot get admitting privileges to nearby hospitals and/or because they refuse to raise the facilities to ambulatory surgical center standards. Like Philadelphia’s Kermit Gosnell, they subject women to a myriad of horrors in the name of unfettered abortion rights. Most of these butchers are not held accountable for the poor services they render. In fact in most states while they may occasionally face disciplinary action, they are allowed time and again to go back to business as usual of butchering women. They want Black women to continue seeking this Gosnellian treatment because they refuse to raise their abortion centers to reasonable standards of medical care.

Not all Black women have drunk Planned Parenthoods' poison. Some of us get it. We stand as the dam, blocking the "undoing of human rights" of Black women and black babies and will continue to do so until the scourge is removed from our community.

A Plea for the Enslaved

Some of you may have never thought about this issue, but it is time we all take a stand. Please read this post by my guest Bishop Aubrey Shines. Will you join Bishop Shines in making a difference? I know I will and am.

A Plea for the Enslaved

By Bishop Aubrey Shines

More people live in slavery today than at any other time in history. In spite of what many people believe, America is not immune to the horrors of human slavery. Slavery continues to thrive within the borders of the United States of America because regular citizens like you and I have not forced the issue.

In recent months, the devastating issue of human trafficking within our borders received a degree of media attention because of the arrest of over 150 criminals and the liberation of over 100 women who had been enslaved. In fact, the vast majority of those enslaved are not women at all. They are young girls who have not even reached their teen years. They are typically poor, immigrants who speak little if any English. They are lured away by claims of prosperity for themselves and their families. Instead they are met with the harsh life of slave labor and sexual servitude.

Such tales seem to be the horrors of distant third world countries. The reality is that human trafficking is happening every day right in front of us. The state of Florida where I live is the third in chosen destination for human trafficking in the U.S. The probability is high that you have actually seen a person living in bondage without even realizing it. Their captors control them by threatening their lives and the lives of their family.

Congress has created committees, police departments have allocated budgets and Hollywood occasionally becomes enamored with the subject and gut-wrenching dramas are produced. However the prolonged spotlight necessary to end human trafficking must come from the pews and pulpit. If the church does not become fully engaged on this issue, it will only get worse.

The lives that are at stake are not only the lives of the women forced into sexual servitude, but also the lives of the children that they conceive. When the enslaved women make it to freedom, they tell shocking stories of being forced to have abortion after abortion after abortion. Their multiple interactions and encounters with organizations like Planned Parenthood should raise calls for concern by abortionists and their staff. Unfortunately Planned Parenthood staff rarely take the opportunity to help these women and free them from their captors.

The Body of Christ must stand in the gap for these women. We must not allow them to languish alone. Most community tasks forces on human trafficking do not encourage people to take matters into their own hands. This is wise counsel. Human trafficking is a $9 billion dollar industry backed by true life dangerous and evil criminals. However, you can make a huge impact by learning, looking and reporting. Learn what modern day slavery really is. Look for signs of it in your everyday encounters. And report it to the proper authorities.

Hail Satan or Amazing Grace, What is your Choice?

Activists on both sides of abortion have convened in Texas, as that state seeks to regulate an industry that has long operated outside traditional standards of medical care. Those that advocate for abortion are cheering Wendy Davis, a Senator that filibustered a bill that would have banned abortions after five months, and would require abortion centers to meet the reasonable standards of medical care typically applied to surgical centers. Ms. Davis and her supporters successfully blocked the passage of the bill last week, and this week both sides again convened in Austin after Governor Perry called a special session to vote the bill up or down.

Yesterday, pro-abortion advocates chanted "Hail Satan" in an attempt to drown out the voices of pro-life advocates, singing Amazing Grace. While these rabid advocates of “choice” expose who it is their efforts are dedicated to, I think it is critical to remind women throughout this country that back alley abortion is alive and well in America.

No matter what stage of pregnancy the woman is in, her physical and mental health and sometimes her life are at risk. Here are a few examples:

Its March, 2000 and 22 year old Semika Shaw entered the Philadelphia House of Horrors run by Kermit Gosnell. She was five months pregnant. He perforated her uterus, and then sent her home without additional medical care. Two days later she died from sepsis – a whole body reaction to the infection that resulted from the perforation.

Its 2001 and Carol Howard visited the Orlando Women’s Center for an abortion at a little more than five months. Staff of abortionist Pendergraft gave her RU486 and Cytotec , inducing a long, hard and painful labor. She delivered a live baby at a local hospital, who has severe disabilities as a result of the drugs given to Carol.

It’s May 2003, and Michelle Armesto Berge, is coerced by her parents, even though she is 18, to abort her six and a half month pregnancy, She wanted the child and planned to marry the baby’s father. Her parents won the fight. While in George Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services center, she refused to deliver her baby into a toilet bowl, as ordered by clinic workers. Instead she delivered her dead baby on the floor next to the commode, a sight that haunts her to this day.

Its January 7, 2004 and 15 year old Tamia Russell enters the WomanCare of Southfield, Michigan abortion center for a six month termination of pregnancy. Her 24-year-old boyfriend’s sister had driven her to the facility to obtain an abortion by Alberto Hodari, without parental consent or Judicial bypass as required by state law. She returned to the facility the next day complaining of bleeding heavily and before she could get to a hospital she died of "Uterine infarction with sepsis, due to status post second trimester abortion" according to the medical examiner.

Christin A. Gilbert, who was 19, died after a 7 month abortion on January 13, 2005. Christin had been raped sometime in 2004. Her rapist was never found. After the botched abortion, Gilbert was rushed into the Wesley Medical Center ER in Wichita, Kansas. Gilbert suffered complications during her abortion that were not fully diagnosed, an autopsy concluded.

Its November 16, 2006 and Ms. S. Cummings learns she is pregnant. She enters Western Women’s Center in Michigan for an abortion. Four days later pathology reports reveal Ms. Cummings may have an ectopic pregnancy. Ms. Cummings is called back to the clinic four times before she is told to go to the emergency room where it is discovered she indeed had an ectopic pregnancy. Ms. Cummings lost her right fallopian tube as a result of the negligence of Dr. Jacob Kalo.

Its August 17, 2007 and “Jane Roe”, entered the Lincoln(NB)Planned Parenthood office for an abortion in the 8th week of pregnancy. Reports are that “during the suction abortion, she felt a sharp, excruciating pain and asked abortionist Severson to stop. Three employees then held the woman down while he completed the suction process in spite of her pleas” and she later lost 80% of her bodies’ blood as well as suffered a complete hysterectomy.

Its September 7,2008 and a thirteen year old who had been raped, entered Planned Parenthood on 16th Street in Washington, D. C. for an abortion. When she leaves a few hours later, she is sterile. They perforated her uterus, tore her bowel and ripped her cervix among other injuries.

It’s November 2009 and Karnamaya Mongar, a recent immigrant from Bhutan sought an abortion at 5 months pregnant in Gosnell’s House of Horrors in Pennsylvania. Over sedated by unlicensed staff, she died from an overdose of Demerol.

It’s August 9, 2010, and D.B. went to American Women’s Center in Voorhees, New Jersey, for a pregnancy termination at 5 months. New Jersey law states that abortions can only be done up to 3 1/2 months at clinics not licensed as ambulatory surgical centers or hospitals. The abortion was begun in NJ, then the following morning D. B. was taken to another location in Elkton, MD for its completion. The abortionist, Nicola Riley had perforated D.B.’s uterus, shoved the remains of baby into her abdominal cavity, and pulled out part of her bowel through her vagina.

It’s July 20, 2012.Tonya Reaves, 24 years old, enters a Planned Parenthood at 18 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. After perforating her uterus and leaving parts of the baby inside her, Planned Parenthood wantonly disregard her life - they let her bleed in their facility for more than five hours before sending her 1.7 miles down the way to emergency medical care. Tonya died from hemorrhage following a Dilation and Evacuation abortion.

Its February 7, 2013 and 29 year old Jennifer Morbelli trusted LeRoy Carhart to terminate her 8 month pregnancy because she had been told her daughter would suffer seizures if birthed. At the conclusion of Carhart’s medical care, Jennifer ‘s amniotic fluid in her womb spilled into her bloodstream, making it impossible for her blood to clot. Jennifer coded six times before dying. LeRoy Carhart was nowhere to be found as Jennifer’s family frantically tried to find him to help her.

Hail Satan indeed. He has drunk the blood of more than fifty five million innocents. He has taken the lives of future children as the coat hangers in suits and dresses the industry calls doctors, shred the insides of untold numbers of women, now never able to have children. His blood thirst frequently consumes the lives of women in untold numbers because no one tracks their deaths for fear the secret will get out: Abortion is legal yes, but is a procedure that is anything but safe. Hail Satan indeed.

“Choice” is in the air. What side do you choose?

Ending the War on Women- The Assault Stops Here

Quite the drama has been unfolding in America since 2009 when Gosnell’s House of Horrors was unveiled. News of twenty first century segregation, inducing labor then “snipping" the spinal column of children born alive, and teens sedating patients don’t begin to describe all that was wrong with that Pennsylvania abortion center. And then we heard of Douglas Karpen, a Houston, Texas late term abortionist so diabolical that he twisted the heads of babies off their necks, and sometimes stuck his finger in their throats so they suffocated (as described by former workers in his center). He too catered to late term abortions including those beyond the legal limit, encouraging the workers to simply turn their heads if bothered.

And steeped in the practice of butchering the babies is the little known fact that women also are being butchered - actually injured and sometimes murdered at the hands of the abortionist. Rapin Osathanondh killed Laura Hope Smith. Gosnell killed Semika Shaw and Kanamaya Mongar. Douglas Karpen killed Denise Montoya. Leroy Carhart killed Janet Morbelli. Tyrone Malloy killed Sherika Mayo. The list is long and growing of women entering abortion centers to exercise their “choice”, only to leave in a body bag or ambulance because of the substandard care received at the abortionist’ hand. Tonya Reaves is another that did not make it out alive. She haunts me. A young 24 year old that Planned Parenthood cared so little for, they left her bleeding in one of their facilities for five hours before seeking emergency medical care. She did not have to die. If they had just cared enough about her to move her 1.7 miles down the way to the trauma unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital when they first punctured her uterus, she would be alive and with us today.

Countless women have been and are being mutilated – cervixes ripped, bowels torn, uteri punctured and intestines pulled out, some never to have children again. Even more have been infected with bacterial and/or venereal diseases because the instruments are not properly sterilized, if they are sterilized at all. Steeped in the rhetoric of a woman’s right to choose is the little known fact many of those victimized by the abortionist are black, brown, and poor women from every community around the nation. The utter lack of regard for these women and their health has been disguised in the pro-choice rhetoric we hear every day and untold numbers of unsuspecting women are being traumatized and some even terrorized - to death - at the hands of the abortionists who are little more than the butchers that used to hide in America’s back alleys. They no longer skulk in the dark corners of those alleys. Instead they brazenly enter through the front doors of abortion centers across the nation. Our daughters, nieces, cousins, aunties and friends deserve better.

For the past several days I have been trying to write this post. I have been wrestling with exactly how to sound the alarm. Many of you have kept up with my posts over the years so you know I am committed to changing how Americans in general and blacks in particular, filter the political rhetoric. Do we filter issues through progressive, liberal lenses that embrace an increased government presence in our lives, or do we filter issues through conservative lenses of smaller government and fewer taxes? Actually, I pray that at the end of the day we filter issues through Biblical lenses, leaving the political on the sideline because the political has caused a life and death struggle for many of us. Many of those in the struggle are the black, brown and poor women who have no idea they may not make it out of the struggle alive. When we view the issues through the filter of the Bible, it is a game changer. We then pursue the change as “salt and light” ambassadors whose charge comes from our Lord.

It is time to stop this assault on our daughters, nieces, cousins, aunties and friends. Will you help sound the alarm? Commit with me to tell at least ten women in your sphere of influence about abortion’s real impact on women. Do you know and black women, brown women and/or poor women? Please tell them what is happening to women all over the nation. Please send them this post. Inbox me at talkaboutitcd@gmail.com to enlist in the growing army whose mission is to stop this assault on women. It is not too late to make a difference. Please tell me you will.

Enough!!!

I have to confess, I have not fought as hard as I could for the women that choose abortion. My focus has been mostly on the babies in the womb, fighting to give them a chance at life, a chance to join us living, breathing beings on the journey set before us. While some might view the fight for the baby as the fight for women, that is not always the case and today I declare it is time to fight equally for both the mother and the child. The spin and the lies used to entice women to seek abortions have crippled many women reproductively. The Gosnell trial is proof positive of that. I am angry that those who support abortion are using the trial to continue the spin that in urban communities, reproductive health is a matter of black and poor women’s lack of access. I am angry that they are using the trial as a commercial for Planned Parenthood, still seeking to drive women towards the abortionists’ knife. So today I am upping the ante and fighting equally for the women and their babies, especially black women since they are the target of the abortion giants. I hereby put Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the National Abortion Federation and all the other rabid abortion supporters on notice - Black women are not dumb, nor are we stupid. We are not some monolithic group of imbeciles that will continue drinking from the potion concocted to control the black birth rate. Enough is enough.

As the trial of late term abortionist Kermit Gosnell progresses the testimony is appalling, revealing a base mind that subjected women and babies to such horrors that they are almost unbelievable. Here we are in the twenty-first century reading about an abortionist that practiced segregation, separate but equal waiting rooms for people of his own race. He thought so little of black women that he allowed unlicensed personnel to medicate and treat them during abortion process, but ‘treated’ white women himself. The center was so filthy that it reeked of cat urine, blood and a variety of other unidentifiable odors. His practice was so demonic that he and the workers in his center thought it not strange that baby feet lined the shelves encased in specimen jars while many other baby body parts were ‘bagged’ and thrown into the basement where rats waited to feast. It was not thought strange that labor was induced and babies were “delivered” to then have their spinal cords “snipped” by the unlicensed personnel including one that said it was “raining fetuses and blood” at times. They thought it not strange that baby body parts so filled the pipes they had to be unclogged two to three times a week.

Adding insult to injury, it is clear that Planned Parenthood knew of the issues with Gosnell’s center long before the February 18, 2010 FBI/DEA raid: “Steinberg said that when Gosnell was in practice, women would sometimes come to Parenthood for services after first visiting Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic, and would complain to staff about the conditions there. We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health," Steinberg said as she sat with Steinem before Tuesday's events” http://bit.ly/Z9nIKQ

The Commonwealth of PA, the National Abortion Federation nor Planned Parenthood did anything to warn women about the condition of Gosnell’s abortion center: “Despite his various efforts to fool her, the evaluator from NAF readily noted that records were not properly kept, that risks were not explained, that patients were not monitored, that equipment was not available, that anesthesia was misused. It was the worst abortion clinic she had ever inspected.” (page16, PA Grand Jury Report). Instead they have used this tale as a commercial for Planned Parenthood: “Of the Gosnell trial, Steinem added: "It makes more clear why you need Planned Parenthood."

Also, they have used this case to advocate for access to Medicaid while blaming the prolife community: “The evidence suggests a number of factors led women to Gosnell: Medicaid's refusal to cover most abortions; the scarcity of providers in Pennsylvania; fear of violent protesters; and a right-wing culture that has stigmatized abortion.”

Pro-abortion forces are working overtime to push America toward the belief that Gosnell is an aberration, an exception to the standard of providing quality medical care. But the facts reveal that belief is the furthest from the truth. There are many more abortionists that are applying Gosnellian tactics: unlicensed personnel fudging ultrasounds to disguise the age of the baby, unlicensed personnel administering anesthesia (including propofol – the drug that killed Michael Jackson); lack of licensed personnel to monitor patients during recovery; reuse of instruments designed for one use only; numerous botched abortions that have left baby parts in the woman and most distressing perforating the uterus of the patient resulting in a complete hysterectomy and sometimes death.

Planned Parenthood surgical centers along with others all have many of these same conditions. In fact, two Planned Parenthood nurses in Delaware quit recently because they feared their licenses were being jeopardized. Another Planned Parenthood spokesperson, in Florida acknowledged there are as many as 1200 abortions that end in the baby being born alive. Alisa LaPolt Snow, went on to say "We believe that any decision that's made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician" suggesting they might not find the snipping procedure to be horrible at all since they would do nothing to aid the infant born alive. And just last year, Planned Parenthood’s idea of following “standard medical procedures and the law” resulted in the death of young Tonya Reaves after they perforated her uterus and left her laying in their center for more than five hours before seeking emergency care. By the time they sought medical help for her (which clearly their “doctor” failed to provide) it was too late and Tonya died a tortuous death because they did not care enough about her to get help immediately.

Enough! Women beware! Black women especially beware! It is time we sound the alarm and help women to know their health is at risk in these abortion chambers around the country. It is time we sound the alarm and let women know they may not come home from their “safe and legal” abortion. Remember Tonya Reaves, remember Janet Morbelli, remember Shirika Mayo, remember Semika Shaw, remember Laura Hope Smith. . . Remember the other 395 women that have died because they sought a safe, legal abortion. Sound the alarm! Women beware! Black women especially – beware!

Honesty, Kermit Gosnell and the Abortion Industry

This morning I came across an article (Yes, let's be honest about Kermit Gosnell's abortion 'house of horrors') that quite frankly took my breath away and not because it was good. In fact I could not decide which emotion would win the day - anger, outrage, or disbelief. Using a picture of the Endangered Species billboard that I was involved with three years ago, the author wrote to persuade the reader that Gosnell was an exception, an aberration that people like me would use to create more laws to restrict abortion in America. She went on to make a series of outrageous statements, painting pro-lifers as terrorists while stating “The goal of "pro-life" activists isn't to draw attention to an illegal butcher in order to protect women and babies. The braying about Gosnell is a ploy to shame the media into covering the issue from the anti-abortion perspective, conflating the illegal procedures performed by Gosnell with safe, legal abortion”.

Jill Filipovic’s idea of honesty is to dismiss the mainstream media’s lack of coverage of one of the most horrific serial murder cases of this and the last century, suggesting that before the pro-life tweet fest that forced coverage,there was extensive coverage of his murderous ways. It does not matter to her that there was not. In fact, Gosnell's House of Horrors did not make the nightly news or page one until a week ago, the fifth week of his trial. Ms. Filipovic like many other abortion supporters, worships at the altar of abortion and at that altar it is easy to dismiss the reality that Gosnell took deliberate steps to destroy the lives of viable children while collecting their body parts as trophies he openly displayed throughout his shop of horrors. What has become clear through his trial is that he cared nothing for the women that paid a thousand or more dollars for his services or for the lives of the children he decapitated.

Jill’s type of honesty allows her to join Gosnell’s defense attorney in suggesting that poor, black and brown women should not expect mayo clinic standards in an urban area. As she brushes aside the reality that the medical standards of many abortionists leave women over-medicated, infected with various STD’s, and even dead, she chooses to spin the indoctrination that the issue faced by these poor, black and brown women was due to a lack of access to abortion and their inability to use Medicaid to pay for it. The last I looked, Gosnell made millions of dollars off of these poor, black and brown women, some paying almost two thousand dollars for the procedure. And there are many other abortionists across the country who are making millions such as the wife and daughter of an Atlanta abortionist that flaunt their wealth in every episode of Big Rich Atlanta. Much of what occurred at 3801 Lancaster is the standard of the abortion industry. Ms. Filipovic like the others that blindly support abortion at all costs, wants America to allow women to continue to be reproductively maimed, keeping abortionists free to shred babies into unholy confetti while providing substandard medical care.

I for one reject the idea that abortion is safe. Ms. Filipovic, on the other hand, believes that “Legal abortion in the United States is today one of the safest medical procedures around”. This, I say, is a lie that has been perpetuated by abortion supporters. I remember Tonya Reaves, who at the hands of Planned Parenthood’s Title X abortionist, was left to hemorrhage to death after her uterus was perforated. They did not seek emergency care for her for more than five hours - she did not have to die. I remember Shirika Mayo whose iron blood count was so low she should have been transfused instead of being given a second trimester abortion by a Planned Parenthood preferred provider, who punctured her uterus and took her life. I remember Jennifer Morbelli who was abandoned by her Title X abortionist when her amniotic fluid seeped into her blood sream. I remember Laura Hope Smith whose abortionist did not know CPR or have oxygen nearby to help resuscitate her after the procedure. These ladies deaths are the tip of the mountain of substandard care provided by many if not most of the abortionists in America.

The idea that abortion is “inaccessible … for low-income women, who are disproportionately women of color, and for rural women” is yet another lie that is being spun on the altar of abortion. Low-income women of color have long been targeted by the abortion industry. In fact, most of the surgical abortion centers of Planned Parenthood are located within a two mile walking radius of a Black or Latino neighborhood as documented by Protect Black Life's 2012 study. This is the same Planned Parenthood that wants America to believe their primary service gives “women the tools to both prevent unintended pregnancy and care for wanted children”.If she could find the abortion center to terminate the life of her child, she could find that same center to get the so called tools.

The Gosnell Case is the rule rather than the exception. The Gosnell case proves that the coat hanger of the past has put on a suit and can be found in abortion chambers around the country and that Ms. Filipovic is newsworthy. Pro-life laws did not create Gosnell, lack of enforcement of the laws did. May that never happen again.

The Two G’s: Gosnell and Georgia and Tales of Horror

Since the third week in March, there has been riveting, ghoulish and ghastly testimony about a Philadelphia abortionist named Kermit Gosnell, on trial for eight counts of murder. It is alleged he killed more than 100 babies by “snipping” their spinal cord to ensure “fetal demise” (his words). Despite a mainstream media blackout, the articles that can be found on the internet are chronicling testimony in terms that can only be deemed horrifying. Phrases like “It would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.”, “Literally, it is a beheading, it is separating the brain from the body”, “I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien,” “she called aborted fetuses “specimens” because “it was easier to deal with mentally” are just a sampling of what the jury has heard since the trial began. As the prosecution and defense are weaving this tale, much of what is being heard is so ghoulish that it defies the imagination to believe this has been happening in any state in this nation. Yet, the Pennsylvania grand jury, legislators of the Commonwealth and the prosecuting attorney have documented evidence found at 3801 Lancaster that verifies it was happening and was only stopped when Gosnell was arrested. In fact, the arresting agents had to wait until he completed two or three abortions before they could take him into custody.

In addition testimony of staff of the center discloses tales of dirty instruments being used repeatedly without sanitation in between each use. There are tales of unlicensed staff not only performing abortions, but administering anesthesia to knock the woman out. They described incidences of fudging ultra sounds to disguise the gestational age of the baby and storage of aborted babies body parts on shelves and in refrigerators where staff kept their meals. Pictures from the “house of horrors” as Gosnell’s facility has been dubbed, showed operating tables with tears in them, rusted in part, surrounded by blood caked medical instruments. These reports are particularly disturbing because they are eerily similar to reports we are hearing in Georgia. However, we cannot tell you for sure what is true because the state of Georgia has taken no steps to enforce the laws on the books with regard to ambulatory surgical centers in this state. Nor has the state taken steps to shut down abortion centers when reported violations are found in one of only six licensed abortion facilities (the remaining twelve centers are unlicensed).

In Georgia, former staff of one abortion center described the reuse of instruments that had been soaked in a solution so many times that they were now straight rather than curved as they were when taken out if its packaging. These instruments, they report, should have only been used one time and the abortion center experienced a rash of staph infections that disappeared when the practice was stopped for a short period of time. They described tables that were duct taped and sometimes blood caked because they were not sanitized. Another center acknowledged to the state they were not sterilizing instruments according to their own protocol, much less to a medical standard that ensured sterilization. This facility in a follow up visit by the state, documented they performed thirty-five procedures in one six hour period, again demonstrating a failure to sterilize the operating arena between each procedure. State documents cite building code violations, including lack of a sprinkler system in a building where abortions are performed on the second floor.

Some unlicensed staff explained though they were only trained as medical technicians, they performed sonograms. Unlicensed staff routinely administered anesthesia, including propfol (the drug that killed Michael Jackson) to patients. Another report is that linen used during the surgical procedure usually are re-used and only laundered at the end of the week when staff took them home. Two abortionists were cited by the state - one for failing to meet normal standards of medical care when performing an abortion on a woman whose blood iron count was so low she should have received transfusions, and the other for performing second trimester abortions in an unlicensed facility. Both these abortionists only paid a nominal fine that in no way measured up to the harm inflicted.

The horror in Georgia is that twelve abortion centers have almost no government oversight and do not meet the Department of Community Health published regulations for ambulatory surgical centers (the Department of Community Health’s Rule 290-5-33-01 defines an “ambulatory surgical treatment centers” in this way: any institution, building or facility or part thereof devoted primarily to the provision of surgical treatment to patients not requiring hospitalization, as provided under provisions of GA Code Section 88-1901). These centers have not been inspected nor provided standards to minimize injuries to patients. The six that are licensed are not inspected routinely and when the Department of Community Health does inspect and finds violations, there are no legal ramifications for the violators.

A Pennsylvania employee, when testifying reported that “ Under Governor Robert Casey, … the department inspected abortion facilities annually. Yet, when Governor Tom Ridge came in, the attorneys interpreted the same regulations that had permitted annual inspections for years to no longer authorize those inspections. Then, only complaint driven inspections supposedly were authorized. Staloski said that DOH’s policy during Governor Ridge’s administration was motivated by a desire not to be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions” http://bit.ly/10p91Dh. With all my heart I hope that this is not the stance of Governor Deal. I have reported before that Governor Deal’s spokesperson stated he is fully aware of our concerns. Yet he has taken no visible action to bring Georgia’s abortion centers into compliance with the laws that have been on the books for decades. I can only pray that he will soon be spurred into action so that none of the abortion centers here will grow to the level of horror of that center in Pennsylvania.

Governor Deal Refuses to Help Women in Georgia!

On Tuesday March 12, 2013, history was made in Georgia. Men and women, Black, White, Latina, and Asian, young and old came together, united for the cause of making Georgia safe for women entering abortion centers around the state. They came to make the Governor aware that twelve to fourteen of the eighteen to twenty abortion centers are not licensed as surgical centers, yet perform thousands of surgeries each year. They came to remind the Governor that these unlicensed centers have no government oversight unless a patient complaint is filed and even if a complaint is filed, the state has not taken action against the abortionist.

They came to let the Governor know even those that are licensed are not made to comply with the dictates of the license, instead they are allowed to operate outside the law. They came to inform the Governor that women are entering some of these centers disease free, but are leaving with infections, bacterial and others, that are sometimes impacting their ability to bear children in the future. They came to let the Governor know that women still die in abortion centers in Georgia, to tell him of the death of Shirika Mayo after her uterus was perforated when the abortionist “departed from and failed to conform to minimal standards of acceptable and prevailing medical practice". These citizens of Georgia came together to make a difference asking the Governor to protect women from the trail of botched abortions and unsanitary conditions plaguing abortion centers in this state because Governor Deal has done nothing.

Before we left the Capitol that day, the Governor’s spokesperson, Katie Rogers, Health Policy Adviser who described her responsibility as the Governor’s designee for working with the Department of Public Health and Department of Community Health, assured us Governor Deal is fully aware of the concerns we have related to health care for women in Georgia. She assured us that each issue had been reviewed and was understood. She then informed us that Governor Deal cannot instruct his direct reports to “faithfully execute” the ambulatory surgical center laws. She never assured us the Governor would uphold his constitutional responsibility, instead saying he cannot give his staff, department heads who work at his pleasure, directives. She was so strong in her delivery, we wondered out loud why he would not protect the women of this state. Some believe it is because the number one customer of the abortionist is the black woman. I reject that notion at this point but do think he is shamefully ignoring his responsibility to protect those that are vulnerable,and blindly entering these centers believing they are safe.

Governor Deal’s appointees/department heads, have gone to some lengths to begin camouflaging abortion in Georgia. In January of every year until he took office, the Department of Public Health published the numbers of abortions by ethnicity and facility. Georgia averages between 30,000-36,000 abortions every year. Since the Governor took office, those numbers have not been published or provided when requested through the Georgia Open Records Act, asking for the records required to be collected under Georgia Code - Health - Title 31, Section 31-10-26 or Georgia Code - Crimes and Offenses - Title 16, Section 16-12-141. No other Governor including Democratic Governors, has denied these records, so why is this one and why now?

Whether the woman is a member of the nearly 60% African American, 23% White, or 17% Latina/Asian population that have entered the abortion chambers, she should be assured that the laws of Georgia are being enforced to guarantee a sanitary environment or to ensure that facility will be closed down if it is not. Every woman should be assured that the abortion center’s physical environment meets code standards and if needed emergency medical personnel can safely and quickly get them out of the facility and to a hospital. Every woman should be assured that if a fire were to occur, there are sprinkler and other fire abatement equipment available in each facility. There should be qualified medical personnel and equipment available should CPR or other emergency medical assistance be needed. We expect licensed personnel to administer anesthesia or complete sonograms as is the standard in other medical offices where surgeries are provided. These conditions and more are prevalent in Georgia’s abortion centers and we invite you to join us in demanding these facilities be made to comply with the longstanding laws of the state.

Governor Deal should not expect to remain Governor if he will not fulfill his constitutionally outlined duty to faithfully execute the laws of the state. Please call 404-656-1776 and remind him that the voters that elected him have the expectation that he will enforce these laws. Enlist the aid of your neighbors and friends to call on the Governor to keep Georgia women safe. Someone's health, someone's life depends on it.