Alabama Health Board Adopts Some of New Abortion Center Regs

NJ shuts abortion site over health risks ; more details released about unsanitary conditions in the abortion center     (update)

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Alabama Health Board Adopts Some of New Abortion Center Regs. On 21Feb07, an Alabama health panel adopted some of the new abortion facility regulations the state health department proposed after it found health and safety problems at abortion business across the state.

The new proposals will take effect 28 March 2007. The regulations, including the yet-to-be approved underlined proposed regulations, may be viewed on the ADPH website at http://www.adph.org/providers/assets/Proposed_amendments_Chapter420_5_1_1.pdf.

The committee did not adopt one proposal regarding backup abortion practitioners saying it needed more discussion.

The key component of the health department's suggestions revolves around a special training program any physician doing abortions in the state must complete.

State Health Officer Don Williamson said the health department, under the new proposal, would only allow someone to do abortions if they received special training from a qualified post-graduate program.

The training would require another certified abortion practitioner to sign off on training and all of the abortions during the program must be done in a hospital rather than a freestanding abortion business.

The State Committee of Public Health adopted the proposal, which becomes effective in 35 days, but put off a vote on whether to require all abortion practitioners in the state to be board eligible or board certified in obstetrics and gynecology.

Williamson said not all doctors who meet that criteria know how to do abortions and he said he would revise language for the committee to consider again in April.

During the debate on the proposals, pro-life groups said they weren't strong enough while abortion activists complained they were too strict.

Larry Rodick, state director of Planned Parenthood, said a requirement in the proposal that abortion practitioners or their backups must be able to do hysterectomies was unfair. Previously they only had to be able to arrange for the procedure with another physician.

he said it would cause some abortion practitioners to "stop services because they wouldn't be able to find the backup doctor that meets those qualifications."

Alabama Alliance Against Abortion president Father James Henderson said the state health department's new guidelines don't go far enough.

"This is not unexpected. What we saw was a watered-down approach where the state health department grudgingly gave in because of their embarrassment over Summit so finally they had to cave in and do something," he said, according to an AP report.

"We'll be back with more strong recommendations. We see that they uncovered a few problems, but we're not convinced that they're going to follow through and enforce the new rules," he added.

The new proposal comes after abortion businesses ran afoul of current rules.

At one abortion center, the abortion practitioner allowed a staff member to illegally gave a woman late in pregnancy the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug.

Another abortion business did not have a backup physician on hand kept inadequate medical records and conducted poor follow-up abortion care.

Earlier this month, abortion practitioner Deborah Lyn Levich, who worked at the Summit Medical Center abortion facility that was permanently closed in June after state health officials found numerous violations, let her medical license expire.

Levich let Janet Onthank King, 58, give the abortion drug to a woman with severely high blood pressure who needed medical attention. The woman later gave birth to a stillborn baby because the drug is only allowed for use in the early parts of pregnancy.

At Summit, state health officials said they found "egregious lapses in care, including non-physicians performing abortions, severely underestimating the gestational age of a fetus, failure to appropriately refer or treat a patient with a dangerously elevated blood pressure, and performing an abortion on a late-term pregnancy."

Following the incident, King fabricated the abortion center's records in an attempt to cover up what happened.

Authorities arrested King in December and charged her with misdemeanor charges including performing illegal abortions.

Summit Medical Centers operates seven abortion businesses in five states and has another abortion center in Montgomery, Alabama.

It is the abortion business that employed Malachy Dehenre, who lost his medical license in both Alabama and Mississippi because of botched abortions.

Following the incident at Summit, the state began inspecting the state's other abortion facilities, which led to finding problems at Reproductive Health Services in Montgomery.

The Alabama Department of Health suspended RHS's license in August saying that the abortion business did not have a backup physician on hand kept inadequate medical records and conducted poor follow-up abortion care.

Then, in November, state officials found the Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville violated 10 different health codes.

The state health department found the abortion center put women at risk by having those who called the facility experiencing medical problems after an abortion routed through to the abortion business administrator rather than a doctor.

Women who had serious bleeding or other complications following an abortion were not put in touch with a licensed physician.

Others were sent home early without allowing them any recovery time following the surgery.

The state health department also said the AWCRA abortion center routinely failed to document the gestational age of the unborn child prior to doing the abortion.
[posted 20Feb07, 22Feb07, LifeNews.com, Ertelt, Montgomery, AL]

Health Officials Release Info About New Jersey Abortion Center They Closed  New Jersey health officials released more information about why they closed down and Englewood-based abortion business that ran afoul of state health and safety codes. The Metropolitan Medical Associates abortion center is also the place where a botched abortion recently put a woman into a month-long coma.

Health inspectors found dirt and debris throughout the abortion facility, open packages of items that were supposed to remain sterilized before their use, and other problems.

"Two plastic open top bins of sterile forceps, speculum and gauze prep kits are stored directly on the carpeted floor next to the copier in the main office," the report said.

The information came in a report state inspectors gave to the Bergen Record newspaper.

According to the record it received, state officials found forceps encrusted in "brownish blood-like residues" and rusty crochet hooks used in abortions.

They also discovered dark red "dirt and debris" under an exam table that was a quarter-inch thick.

"There was a large dark orangish-yellow stained area, dirt, debris, and syringe caps found under the operating tables in operating rooms #1, 2, 3 and 4," according to the Record. "Employee #2 stated, 'We do not usually move these tables. The housekeeper cleans around the O.R. tables a couple of times a week.'"

The record reveal publicly for the first time why MMA, which does 10,000 abortions annually, was closed after a two-day investigation. The center also failed a follow-up visit last Tuesday and will continue to be shut down until it curbs the problems, state authorities indicated.

Other problems at the abortion center include a failure to institute an infection control plan and a staffer appointed to oversee infection control did not know about the expected responsibilities and did not have appropriate training.

The state also said MMA failed to notify it "of an event occurring within the facility that jeopardized the health and safety of a patient" -- referring to Newark resident Rasheedah Dinkins.

She became severely ill following the abortion and was transferred to Beth Israel Medical Center where she needed blood transfusions and had her uterus removed. She also suffered a stroke due to the serious blood loss and had one of her lungs collapse.

Dinkins said her mother and hospital officials told her she died en route to the medical facility from the abortion center but medical personnel were able to revive her.

"I was laying in my bed and I got the cold shakes," Dinkins, who filed a lawsuit against the abortion facility last week, said about her ordeal. "My body kept going numb. After that, I don't remember anything."

This is only the second time state health officials ordered one of the state's 650 ambulatory health centers closed but the second time MMA has been shut down. It was temporarily closed after health and safety violations in 1993.

Dinkins isn't the only woman who had an abortion at MMA and experienced problems.
Gloria Mozas of Cliffside Park is also suing the abortion center saying staff there misdiagnosed a tubal pregnancy and told her she miscarried the baby when she was actually pregnant with twins.
She told AP an abortion practitioner there did an abortion on her and told her he was just removing dead tissue. B ut a week later she had to undergo a medical procedure to remove the babies who had implanted into her fallopian tubes, causing her severe internal bleeding.
"I've been waiting for those doors to be locked for 3 1/2 years," she told AP.
[14March07, Ertelt, LifeNews.com, Trenton, NJ]

NJ shuts abortion clinic over health risks The NJ Health Department investigated conditions at Metropolitan Medical Associates in Englewood and state health officials have shut down one of New Jersey's largest abortion centers after finding violations at an Englewood clinic that posed "immediate and serious risk of harm to patients." Metropolitan Medical Associates will remain closed until it corrects the deficiencies that prompted the closure, state officials said. State reports show the clinic performs more than 10,000 abortions a year.
The shutdown order cited problems "including but not limited to infection control, instruments, equipment used for sterilization of patient care use items and the processing of equipment." The Department of Health and Senior Services refused to release the detailed list of violations to the public until the clinic has an opportunity to dispute the findings and the state issues its final report.

An order to halt medical services is extremely rare. This is only the second time in the last five years that the department has closed one of the state's 619 ambulatory-care facilities for "deficient care," said health department spokesman Nathan Rudy.
The state's two-day investigation of Metropolitan Medical was spurred by a complaint filed last week by Newark Beth Israel Medical Center after its emergency room treated a woman for complications following her abortion at the clinic, according to two sources close to the investigation. The hospital told the state it was concerned the abortion may have been done improperly, the sources said.

Newark Beth Israel officials declined to comment. Metropolitan Medical also did not answer inquiries for comment.
This is not the first time the Engle Street clinic has been forced to close because of infection control problems, Rudy said. For a short time, the state barred the clinic from providing care back in 1993.
Metropolitan Medical, which has operated in Englewood since the mid-1970s, is one of a handful of clinics in the state that perform not only first-trimester abortions but second-trimester terminations, as well -- up to the 24th week of pregnancy.
It is a frequent target of antiabortion protests and has been the subject of lawsuits over just how far protesters can go to block access to a clinic. In the past, protesters have chained themselves together and lain down in front of its entrance. These days, they hold regular prayer vigils.
The state has ordered the clinic to hire an infection control consultant and an administrative consultant, both of whom must be approved by the state and must be at the clinic "no less than 40 hours per week."
The consultants "shall have full authority to review, revise, if necessary, and implement all facility policies and procedures, particularly those related to administration, infection control, sterilization, housekeeping, emergency procedures, quality assurance policies and procedures and the overall practices of the facility." The consultants must submit weekly written reports to the state health department.

In the meantime, the clinic is redirecting patients to other local abortion facilities, including Women's Choice in Hackensack, which has the same owners as Metropolitan Medical.

The clinic is also telling callers that it will reopen next Tuesday. The state, however, is making no promises. "We will rescind the order once the major violations are taken care of and a plan of corrections, approved by the department, is in place," said Rudy. "And we do follow-up inspections to make sure all violations have been abated."

New Jersey statutes provide for penalties of up to $2,500 for each day that violations related to patient care are not corrected.
The clinic, meanwhile, is doing its best to downplay its troubles. Asked by a caller why the clinic was closed, the receptionist said only: "Everything's fine. We're just doing a little renovation." [28Feb07, Bergen Record, ] [8March07, Ertelt, LifeNews.com Englewood, NJ]