The Horror of Substandard Medical Care in Georgia, Part I

About this time last year, Atlanta Women’s Medical Center injured a woman. The state investigated and found the center had violated a number of regulations including failing to meet the requirements of its elevator waiver, failure to properly monitor patients and chart their medical condition, and failure to properly sterilize instruments. While the Center was not penalized in any significant way when the Healthcare Facility Regulation Division issued its report in January of this year, the state did deny the renewal of their elevator waiver on August 30, 2012 and ordered the center to “ensure AWMC is in compliance with all of the rules and regulations governing ambulatory surgical centers”.

Brian Looby, Division Chief of Healthcare Facility Regulation affirmed the decision on October 1, and the decision was affirmed for a third time November 8, 2012 by Avery Flower, Deputy Division Chief of the Healthcare Facility Regulation Division. Yet, Atlanta Women’s Medical Center continues performing abortions and has not been “in compliance with all of the rules and regulations governing ambulatory surgical centers” since August 30, 2012. Yesterday, November 16, 2012 another woman was injured at the Atlanta Women’s Medical Center. According to the ambulance dispatcher, they did not tell him there was no elevator in the building. Some twenty five minutes later, the patient was brought down stairs in what looked like a chair.

We do not know, yet, the extent of the injury to the patient. What we do know however, is that another woman was injured by a facility clearly out of compliance with the laws of this state. Despite having a number of strong laws on the books that govern how those in the medical profession are to comport themselves, Georgia has chosen to ignore those abortionists that violate those same laws and in the coming days I will give concrete examples of how the state of Georgia is another Pennsylvania.

Two years ago, there was a late term abortionist in that state that operated what even the Pennsylvania District Attorney called a “house of horrors”. To say that the condition of that center was squalid is more than an understatement. There had been complaints initiated with the State that were ignored year after year until 2010 and by then things were so bad even the Drug Enforcement Agency begged for action by the state. The horror of abortion in Georgia rises to that level in my opinion. The stories I am hearing from patients who have been harmed and from former staff of these dens of death are stuff horror stories are made of.

I believed Governor Deal had no idea of the extent of the issue in this state. So I attempted to meet with him and/or his Chief of Staff. My meeting request was denied and the scheduler for his Chief of Staff never bothered to return any of my numerous calls. It is now not hard for me to imagine he does know and is choosing to do what so many others have done and are doing, ignoring the fact that Georgia women are being injured at the abortionists' hands.

Since Roe v. Wade established abortion in America, there have been more than 1.2 million abortions in Georgia. I do not know how many of these women came out of an abortion den diseased because many of these doctors operate in unsanitary blood spattered environments. I do not know how many women will never be able to have children because the doctors did not exercise a minimum standard of care and perforated her uterus or bowels or one of the other common injuries women face at their hands. What I do know is that the hands off abortionists policy of the State of Georgia has allowed thousands of women to be injured. I can only pray that one of them was not your mother, daughter, aunt, niece or cousin. I can only pray that you will join us in calling for these abortionists to be brought into compliance with the laws of the state so that more women will not be subjected to the horror that is substandard medical care in Georgia.

A Wonderful Thing in Georgia

A wonderful thing happened in Georgia on October 1, 2012. The Department of Community Health affirmed the denial of the waiver request of Atlanta Women's Medical Center located at 235 W. Wieuca Road, Atlanta, Georgia. This facility performs abortions up to twenty four weeks and regulations required that facilities such as these that are located on the second floor must have an elevator. This center does not, hence the request for the elevator waiver. After obtaining the waiver it became apparent they were not taking care to meet its requirements because when investigated it was determined they routinely failed to escort patients down the stairs after surgery and on at least one occasion failed to inform the 911 operator there was no elevator which delayed the EMTs in getting an injured patient out of the building. So it is wonderful news that the waiver was denied – the health of women was routinely being put at risk each and every time they failed to meet the waiver's provisions. Thank you Governor Deal and Commissioner Cook for putting Georgia's women first!

As excited as I am about the affirmation, I cannot and could not answer the questions that have been coming in about AWMC's status. Is AWMC still doing abortions or were they shut down? As of this writing they are still doing late term abortions, putting the health of Georgia women at risk and I can find no information online about what happens in these instances. Does the state issue a cease and desist order telling them to shut it down? Is there some kind of grace period they have to bring themselves into compliance with the ambulatory surgical center regulations? Can they just say they are no longer performing second trimester abortions and remain open doing only first trimester? These are questions I have no answers to. I have several calls into the Department of Community Health and I will ask these questions if anyone returns even one of those calls. Stay tuned. If I get answers I will pass them on to you . . .

Action Alert – Georgia Women Put First!!!!

A little more than a month and a half ago, I began writing about Georgia women being in danger because an abortion center, Atlanta Women's Medical Center chose to ignore the requirements for two story ambulatory surgical centers. They refused to install an elevator claiming an undue hardship (despite bringing in more than three million dollars of revenue each and every year), and safety of their staff over the safety of the women on whom they had just performed surgery. Today I ask you to join me in thanking Governor Deal (404-656-1776), and Commissioner Cook (404-656-4507) for taking action to deny the ongoing waiver to this facility that had put thousands of Georgia women at risk each year.

 

The Department of Community Health, on August 30, 2012, declined to renew the waiver because the center "failed to supply facts, financial, architectural, or otherwise, showing why it would not currently be feasible to construct an elevator, relocate to the first floor or otherwise come into compliance with the requirements of Rule 290-5-33-10 (f) without causing undue hardship. They were also cited for failing to assess the patients and provide an escort down the stairs after the surgery as well as failing to document that patients were escorted down the stairs as required in the waiver.

The Department of Community Health allowed for and accepted a request for an administrative review of the August 30^th decision. On October 1, 2012, DCH affirmed the decision to deny a waiver.

All across America states are finding that abortionists have failed to exercise reasonable standards of medical care to the patients that seek their services. Many facilities when inspected have been found to be squalid, and some are known to pass diseases and infections to the patients. It is more than heartening to see that our state is unwilling to allow abortion providers to flagrantly violate state laws and provisions for ambulatory surgical centers. Join me in applauding the willingness of leaders in our state to take steps to ensure patient safety in a procedure that routinely injures women and terminates the lives of children. Please call the Governor and Commissioner Cook. Let them know we appreciate their leadership on this issue.

Running to the Battle: Help Make Georgia Safe

I was interviewed on the Dave Madeira radio program this morning (http://bit.ly/QeXhih) and the discussion left me heavy as I recounted how many young girls and women are silently carrying the weight of their decision to terminate the life of their child. Many do not feel they can talk about their experience in the abortion center because of the deeply imbedded shame we feel once our wombs are emptied of the child. On the show I recounted the testimony of a young teen who without her parents' or any adult in her sphere of influence knowledge, terminated her child and for two years carried the weight of it until that Saturday when we prayed with and for her. She took off running around the Church, exclaiming her freedom from the burden she had been carrying, now celebrating that she was no longer bound. While I can rejoice that she was freed, and I do, my heart was heavy as I remembered there are so many more women and girls that still carry the shame and weight of their experience in one of America's abortion chambers.

With all this heaviness hovering around me, I happened upon this article: http://bit.ly/OL6ps1 . Even the title is gruesome so I ask that you click on the link and it will take you to the story. While reading this horror story, I received an email from someone in Georgia wondering how the State can be held accountable and ensure they are inspecting and monitoring abortion centers. As you know, there is an open review of Atlanta Women's Medical Center that was found to have violated a waiver the state had granted seven years ago. In addition to having violated the waiver it was determined they routinely put patient safety at risk even failing to properly sterilize instruments and chart patient treatment. (Note: they have changed their name. Could they be planning an end run around the Department of Community Health by reorganizing as a doctor's office? Please tell me no!). The state denied their new waiver request, but they continue to operate even putting patients at risk. A wheel chair bound woman had to navigate the steps because they continue doing business with no elevator. I shudder to think what would have happened if they needed to get her out quickly. Her wheel chair was in the car of the driver that brought her to the clinic.

I have also written about another abortion center that is allowed to operate as a doctor's office rather than a surgical center. Based on patient testimonies, the so-called doctor accepts Medicaid to pay for abortions. He uses a narcotic so strong that women cannot immediately wake up from the procedure, some not waking up for more than twenty four hours. He fails to properly complete abortions causing women to have to return for a second procedure or as was the case with one woman, experiencing three to four days of in-hospital antibiotic treatment so the infection can be brought under control in order to complete the procedure. Because this is a doctor's office there is no state oversight unless a patient files a complaint with the medical board. And as was the case with this patient, those complaints may mysteriously disappear allowing the abortionist to continue operating without repercussion for violation of patient safety and laws. It is even thought that someone notifies the physician of complaints before an inspector shows up so that he can fix whatever may be wrong inside the clinic – including sudden fires that destroy records and equipment even though no person is ever identified for what was deemed arson. Hmmm.

Let's add insult to injury, take a look at this article: http://bit.ly/UQGfY4 about a clinic in Alabama. And guess what? The owner of this facility has a clinic in Columbus, GA. Is that clinic putting women's health at risk as well? The abortionist was the subject of a 76 page scathing report that included charges of failing to properly train staff or document the credentials of those allowed to perform abortions. I can't help but wonder what kind of treatment and record management of that treatment is happening in Columbus.

In each of these cases complaints had to be brought by those outside of state government. Unless a pro-life activist or patient filed a complaint, we have idea if the state knows the condition of one abortion center much less the 18 or so that are operating, some as surgical centers, and some as doctor's offices. These abortionists could hurt women routinely and the citizens of Georgia would never know because of a clear lack of oversight. Georgia has at least two abortion centers that do not appear to be registered with the state, nor do they appear to be reporting the numbers of abortions performed, both violations of Georgia law. Yet you can Google them on the net and see they are performing abortions every day. We have to assume it is with the State's blessings because they have been reported and the Governor, we are told, is confident his Commissioner and staff are taking appropriate steps.

What can citizens do when the state refuses to bring any level of accountability into an industry that is the least regulated yet most dangerous? Perhaps you can help document breaches of our laws; take pictures of violations and video them as well. Perhaps you are able to set aside 10 minutes to make phone calls, or send letters and emails to the Governor and your legislator. Perhaps you can attend rallies, willing to speak out. And/or, you can refuse to vote for those that will not show leadership on an issue so vital to women's health. Perhaps you can run for office yourself. Now is not the time to back down or back up. It is time to run to the battle for the health and welfare of women in Georgia. Are you willing? Let me know.

The Nightmare Continues

And I am still in in. I cannot let go of the images that were painted in my mind as I listened to the horror that young woman experienced. I cannot imagine how she felt when she learned her baby, now dead, was left inside her and she could not reach the doctor. I wonder what it will take to shake things up enough in Georgia so that the government will begin enforcing the laws on the books. Abortion centers throughout the state are subjected to less inspection and regulation enforcement than nail salons! And when violations are found, our government refuses to take action that will move the state toward the standard of care most women expect. You may recall that the Atlanta Women's Medical Center was cited for failing to sterilize instruments according to policy and failing to properly chart patient records. If one abortion center that is licensed is this reckless in its standards of care, I am sure the other abortion centers, especially those that are not licensed, are putting patients at risk because they fail to properly sterilize the instruments and properly monitor and document patient care. 

According to the Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Public Health, Georgia ranks among the top 10 states in the United States with high case rates for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis¹. It is not hard to imagine that some of these cases of sexually transmitted diseases are caused by the unregulated abortion centers and doctors' offices (whose primary business is abortion) that do not properly sterilize equipment. I can imagine that some of these doctors and centers do not have an AUTOCLAVE, the equipment most physicians use to sterilize instruments. Without that piece of equipment, the doctor must rely on some antiseptic that I cannot imagine is strong enough to thoroughly clean the instruments, particularly those that have been contaminated with blood.

 

I am reminded of the abortionist that was arrested in Philadelphia, PA after he murdered a woman and seven babies. His facility and practice was described as a filthy fraud². The Pennsylvania District Attorney rightly categorized the case as a disregard of the law and disdain for the lives and health of mothers and infants. Yesterday I wrote about just such a case here in the state of Georgia. Clearly the doctor in that case cared less about the mother and her health than he did about rushing through her procedure – so much so that he left the baby behind. I wonder if the inside of his facility is as squalid as the one described by the PA attorney general. Has he patched equipment together with duct tape as Gosnell did (see pictures in the Pennsylvania DA report – warning, they are graphic and disturbing). Is there blood in and on the instruments as they reused the equipment time and again without sterilizing it?. Because Georgia is failing to hold abortionists accountable for the surgical care they provide every day, there is no way to know how many women have come away from this abortion center and others infected or harmed in some way. Perhaps we should ask those women to come forward and tell their stories. It is time to force our Governor, Legislators, and even ourselves to face the horror that is abortion in Georgia.

 

1. http://health.state.ga.us/pdfs/epi/gers/Nov08GER.pdf
   
2. http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/PDFs/GrandJuryWomensMedical.pdf
   

Action Alert 2: Georgia Women in Danger

Tears stream from my eyes because of the destruction of my people! Lamentations 3:48 (NLT)

Someone posted this comment on my blog post of last night (http://bit.ly/SIPI0F): "I'm not comfortable with calling Gov Deal and demanding that the killing centers follow state regulations on sanitation and elevators. I understand the idea --- slow 'em down for a little while by tying up some of their blood money in conforming to standards ---- but how will it look if the babies' fellow Georgians call in the hundreds demanding that they be murdered according to nice state regulations? What we needed to do in 1973 and every year since then is call in the thousands, every day, and demand that the Gov and legislature of GA nullify Roe v. Wade and simply enforce the murder/manslaughter laws in our Code against doctors, nurses and anyone else who performs abortions."

Really? Has the abortion debate become so politicized that we would not want to protect women from the physical harm is that heaped on top of the trauma of terminating the life of a child? Today there are women all over Georgia facing the same uterine perforation as the patient who was harmed in October of 2011. There are women all over Georgia facing the same death that happened in 2009 in one of these unregulated abortion centers. I pray our hearts have not become so calloused that we do not care about these women who actually believe the lie that abortion is the safest surgical procedure in the United States and Canada. I pray that our hearts are not so dark that we would not call the Governor and whoever else we need to call to ensure that the State of Georgia is not a party to the physical maiming or death of women.

Our state through our laws, policies and procedures has promoted a standard of medical care that creates an expectation of protection, whether through tort law or Georgia Code provisions. Before this information became available, I believed that every abortion center was subject to that standard of medical care. To learn this is not the case and has not been the case over the past 40 years is beyond troubling. Many of the abortionists in this state and the nation are not well credentialed. Some such as the physician in North Carolina who ranted about "ugly black babies" (http://bit.ly/NYEC9C) do not have privileges in local hospitals because of their dismal surgical performance. Others are being investigated for fraud as they bill the government for abortions through Medicaid (http://bit.ly/NXYKFu) . Centers such as the one in Chicago that did not get medical assistance for a patient whose abortion they botched show a wanton disregard for women and their "reproductive health" (http://exm.nr/MHrC8u). The reality is that the state of Georgia cannot assure us these atrocities are not routinely happening here. They have no way of knowing because they do not enforce the laws of the state and when they learn of a violation they take no steps to bring the violators into compliance.

Can we in good conscience ignore that our laws are violated with the blessing of our state? I cannot. I pray you will join me in calling our Governor and the Department of Community Health to make sure Georgia shows leadership in making sure every abortionist in Georgia is held accountable for violations of our laws.

Action Alert – Georgia Women are in Danger

I began writing this post last night. Not even midway through it, I had to set it aside, unable to write so grieved was my spirit. I had always thought that states did their due diligence to ensure that while they may not have agreed with the Roe v. Wade decision, they took care to promote and enforce a reasonable standard of medical care. Even Roe allowed for states to impose reasonable regulations where they had a compelling interest and in my mind a woman health is certainly a compelling interest. But I quickly learned this is not the case and abortionists in Georgia have had free reign to do what they will, whether it met a reasonable medical standard or not. And more disheartening is that this lack of regard for the health of the woman is happening on the watch of a "pro-life" Governor, Senate and House.

I received an email late last night from a fellow pro-life warrior that included this blog post from Jill Stanek: Stop the Madness, Georgia Abortion Clinic has Violated Regs and Waivers for two Decades. Jill makes it clear that the Atlanta Women's Medical Center's plan from its inception was not one that would place them "at the forefront of excellence and service in the provision of women's healthcare" as their website assures us is their mission. From the very beginning Atlanta Women's Medical Center chose to ignore the requirement for two story ambulatory surgical centers by refusing to install an elevator as the regulations required. They cited financial concerns. In maintaining "an organization dedicated to our own values and beliefs" Atlanta Women's Medical Center, has placed the health of Georgia women beneath their own values and beliefs while collecting multiple millions of dollars each year. As a result Georgia women are at risk.

Has anyone been hurt in this abortion center? Yes. In fact, documents show they perforated the uterus of a woman in 2011. When the Governor's Department of Community Health investigated, they found that the center had not met the requirements of the elevator waiver. They chose to ignore the requirements the waiver imposed to escort women from the second floor to the first citing a danger to their staff. They had no problem however, endangering Georgia women, allowing them to walk out of the center alone. Atlanta Women's Medical Center also failed to meet medical standards of care when charting patient information and sterilizing equipment used in the abortion procedure. Now what I do not understand is why on earth the State of Georgia would allow them to do so. More importantly why would Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia, allow an abortion center found to have violated the regulations outlined in our laws, to continue its operation unchecked? Let's make sure we understand this correctly. An abortion center in Atlanta violates Georgia laws and regulations, hurting women in the process, and the Governor's Department of Community Health gives that abortion center a pass, ignoring the laws he is required to take care to faithfully execute as outlined in the Georgia Constitution.

I also do not understand why this multi-million dollar business would need a waiver of the regulations. This facility performs more than four thousand abortions each year and receives $450 – 850.00 for each one. Can someone explain to me why the State of Georgia waived the elevator requirement? It is also unclear why the Department of Community Health has not enforced penalties for AWMC's failure to meet the waiver requirements and to properly sterilize their instruments. I can't help but wonder how many women entered that National Abortion Federation certified center disease free and left disease ridden. And then I learned this: there are at least six abortion centers in the state of Georgia that perform thousands of abortions annually that are not licensed and are not under the jurisdiction of the Department of Community Health! One of those unlicensed centers killed a woman in 2009. The only penalty for the doctor – a $10,000 fine. All of this happening at the same time he was defrauding the state and federal government of hundreds of thousands of dollars. To add insult to injury, I have information that suggests there are also another two abortion centers that do not even report the abortions performed to the state.

Atlanta Women's Health Center is seeking a new seven year elevator waiver. The community comment period ends in five days. Please call (404-656-1776), fax (404-657-7332), and/or email (http://gov.georgia.gov/00/gov/contact_us/0,2657,165937316_166563415,00.html) Governor Deal and ask that the waiver be denied. Join me in calling on Governor Deal and the staff he appointed to the Department of Community Health to enforce the regulations on the books by no longer allowing abortion centers that perform thousands of surgical procedures each year to avoid licensing because of an obscure rule that allows doctors to perform abortions in their offices. Join me in asking Governor Deal to protect Georgia women. Do not take no for an answer!!!!