June 19, 2012
Pittsburgh, PA - In the wake of abortion scandals involving accused murderer Kermit Gosnell and unlicensed abortionist Steven Chase Brigham, Pennsylvania has passed a new abortion clinic licensing law that is set to go into effect today. The new law will require abortion clinics to submit to inspections and meet minimum safety standards. One abortion clinic, Allegheny Women's Center, voluntary closed on June 15, 2012, rather than comply with the law. Five others will be forced to stop all surgical abortions as of today. A recorded telephone message at Allegheny Women's Center in Pittsburgh informed callers that the abortion clinic closed "due to circumstances beyond our control." Last year, two abortionists at Allegheny Women's Center, John Barrett and Alton Lawson, were arrested for illegally prescribing drugs. Out of Pennsylvania's 22 abortion clinics, only one, Hillcrest Women's Medical Center in Harrisburg, actually met all requirements and received a full license. Thirteen clinics, including all Planned Parenthood abortion facilities in the state, received provisional licenses will continue to supply surgical abortions on a temporary basis for the next 3-6 months. If the clinics do not meet all of the requirements by that time, they will no longer be allowed to do surgical abortions. Two abortion clinics affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania or the University of Pittsburgh have been placed under hospital regulations. The new law does allow the five clinics that must stop surgical abortions to continue to dispense abortion pills. "All but one clinic could not initially meet all the standards. That fact alone speaks volumes to the shoddy conditions that exist at abortion clinics, not only in Pennsylvania, but across the nation," said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation, who has long supported clinic regulation legislation. "These laws are important tools with which we can hold accountable an abortion industry that has run amok for over three decades." Gosnell and eight of his employees were arrested in January, 2011, and charged with numerous related to illegal late-term abortions. Gosnell and three of his employees were charged with murder for killing viable babies born alive during late-term abortions amid squalid conditions. New Jersey abortionist Steven Chase Brigham, who is unlicensed in Pennsylvania, was banned from owning abortion clinics in that state. His last two abortion clinics there were ordered to close in April.
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