The number of Texas abortion centers that have shut down, stopped doing abortions or at least paused abortions for a period of time is an excellent testimony to the effectiveness of pro-life legislation.
When the state legislature decided to ban abortions after 20 weeks and hold abortion clinics accountable for their failure to protect women’s heath — over the objections of gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis — pro-life groups pushing for the bill knew it would have tremendous positive effects.
LifeNews has reported on abortion facilities across the state that have ended abortions and put them on hold and today we can report on more good news, this time from the state capital.
Life Dynamics has confirmed that another abortion clinic has closed due to pro-life legislation. The Killeen Women’s Health Center just announced that they have been unable to obtain hospital privileges and will therefore temporarily close their abortion facility.
“Unfortunately, the clinic still schedules abortions in their Austin location where they claim that abortionist Andrew Evan Massman has local privileges,” the Texas-based pro-life group told LifeNews.
A sign on the door the abortion clinic and posted on Texas Alliance for Life’s Facebook page reads, “Our office is currently closed.”
Last month, Life Dynamics reported that a Dallas abortion clinic indicated that they will no longer be killing unborn children due to new pro-life laws passed by the Texas legislature.
“The Northpark Medical Group abortion clinic in Dallas has stated that they are not accepting any patients at this time because their physicians cannot obtain local hospital admitting privileges. The clinic is part of a chain of abortion clinics which performs abortions on a regular basis,” the pro-life organization said. “In July, Texas passed HB2 requiring abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of the abortion clinic. Because Northpark abortionists could not get hospital privileges, the center is unable to schedule or see any patients.“
Life Dynamics president Mark Crutcher says that the reason abortionists do not have hospital admitting privileges is because, “The competence and character of practitioners who work at abortion clinics is inevitably substandard and hospitals don’t want to have their reputations damaged by the stigma that accompanies both abortion and the people who do them. In addition, Hospitals realize that any link to abortion creates the possibility of protests and boycotts and may cause some patients and physicians to reject the hospital.”
Why are laws requiring abortion practitioners to hold admitting privileges necessary? Consider Angela’s story.
Angela was twenty weeks pregnant when she walked into a dingy abortion clinic in Santa Ana, California, on August 7, 2004. Her abortion was completed in five minutes with little or no pain relief by an 84-year old abortionist, Phillip Rand, who rotated his time between several clinics throughout Southern California.
When he was done with Angela’s abortion, he got in his car and began the three-hour drive on congested California freeways to another abortion clinic in Chula Vista, near the Mexican border, where he had more patients waiting. But when Angela started bleeding heavily, the two medical aids, who were the only ones left in the clinic, didn’t know what to do. One called Rand and asked him to return to the clinic to help the hemorrhaging women, but Rand refused. He was already an hour or so away and didn’t want to go back and risk losing business in Chula Vista. He told them to call 911 if she got any worse.
Angela did get worse – much worse. By the time paramedics arrived, it was too late. They found her in a pool of her own blood. There was no oxygen or no crash cart at the clinic, but it is doubtful that the two minimally-trained aids would have know how to operate them if they had been available. Angela was transported to a local hospital where she later died.
One paramedic was so incensed by how he found Angela that he reported Rand to his supervisor who, in turn, notified the Medical Board. A signed declaration from the paramedic noted, “This was the worst post-partum patient situation at a medical clinic I have ever encountered during my time as a paramedic.” Twenty months later Rand surrendered his medical license.
For Angela, there was no continuity of care. Rand held no hospital privileges. This allowed him to operate well below the standard of care at the cost of one woman’s life.
