Corbett Fires 6 State Workers Over Clinic Controversy

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett is making 18 changes to Health and State Department policies, in response to an investigation of why state inspectors ignored warning signs about a Philadelphia abortion clinic where a doctor allegedly killed live babies.

The governor calls Health and State Department regulators’ failure to follow up on complaints about Kermit Gosnell’s clinic “despicable.”
The Administration has fired six state workers, and action is pending against eight others.

"People died because people did not a) follow the law, and agencies of government did not do their job and inspect to protect those individuals."

"We boiled it down to this: people need to do their jobs. It’s not enough to prosecute the wrong-doing. We need to change the culture. That starts here. That starts now."

Corbett’s new policies will require annual inspections of abortion clinics, and the public posting of the reports on the Department of Health website.
Regulators will need to review complaints of serious events at any clinic within 48 hours of an initial report, and then visit the facility on-site within five business days.
Corbett is also ordering the Health and State Departments to share information with each other on a monthly basis, and work toward conducting joint investigations of facilities.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams says he applauds Corbett’s actions.

Senate Hears About Horrific Conditions at Clinic

The State Senate held the first of several hearings into why state regulators ignored warning signs about a West Philadelphia abortion clinic investigators have described as a “house of horrors.”

The hearing was filled with graphic details about Kermit Gosnell’s clinic, where authorities say babies were born alive and then killed. Conditions inside the facility were so bad, according to Philadelphia Homicide Unit Chief Ann Ponterio, that the Grand Jury had to wear hazmat suits during their visit to the clinic.

Ponterio says state regulators share the blame for what happened there. "Despite complaints, repeated complaints over years, they ignored them. The Department of Health and Department of State never once set foot in this clinic. And the grand jury found they didn’t do their jobs. They had the authority and the responsibility, and they chose not to act."

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams says police officers and inspectors were shocked at what they saw inside the clinic, which they raided as part of a prescription drug sting. "Bloodstained walls, bloodstained beds and unclean sheets. Women walking around almost in – like zombies. They had been drugged to the state of being zombies."

Health and State officials are expected to testify at future hearings. Several bills are in the works. One would change regulation standards for abortion clinics, and another would force inspectors to visit facilities where complaints have been filed. Gosnell is to appear in court today.

Mosher: Gender Selection Abortion Spreading

Longstanding cultural desires and China’s continued one child policy have created a world where more and more unborn girls are being aborted according to Population Research Institute President Steven Mosher. Mosher is in Pittsburgh this week to speak to the National Right to Life Committee Annual Convention being held near the airport. Mosher says he has been in classrooms in china where of the 30 or so students more than 20 are boys. He says he has also seen too many mysterious deaths among newborn girls. “ The little boys always seem to do just fine, “ says Mosher, “and so I went and asked elderly midwives what was happening and they said they were being given instructions by some parents that any girls children being born should not be allowed to survive.”
Mosher says it is not just a problem in China. A recent study in the Indian state of Punjab found that 130 boys are born for every 100 girls. The normal birth rate is 106 boys for every 100 girls. Mosher says it is not just a rural issue. He says the worst rate seen anywhere in the world is among the upper caste in Punjab where there are 300 girls in every 1,000 live births. “That means 7 of 10 unborn baby girls are being killed,” says Mosher. India has a law against sex selective abortions but it is rarely enforced. Most European countries have similar laws that are enforced with the exception of Sweden. Mosher says that has lead to “abortion tourism” to Sweden.
With the lack of women of marrying age in some Asian countries it could be assumed that the value of those remaining females would be great. Mosher says that is not the case. He says the lack of females has turned women into a commodity rather than desirable humans. He says girls are being married younger and the number being sold into sex slavery is increasing. Mosher says the lack of women has also lead to increased violence among single men, increased gang populations as men look for a surrogate family and he claims it has increased the incidence of homosexuality and rape as men look for an outlet for their sexual desires.
Mosher says sex selection abortion is now being seen stateside. Recent data shows some Asian American communities are using abortion to choose the sex of their children. Mosher says the first-born children of these populations show normal sex ratio however, “if the first child was a son, the sex ratio of the second born children was also normal. But what happened if the first child was a girl? The number of sons outnumbered daughters by 50-percent.” Illinois has had a law on the books since 1975 making sex selection through abortion illegal. Pennsylvania followed suit in 1989 and Oklahoma has just approved such a ban. Mosher says he expects Georgia to follow suit soon and then other states may follow.

NLRC Open Convention in PA

The National Right to Life Committee opened its three-day national convention Thursday morning and the group’s leadership is optimistic about the future. NRLC President Wanda Franz says recent studies show more Americans are calling themselves “pro-life” and the number of abortions performed in the US continues to fall even as the number of women of childbearing age increases. She says it all points to a changing mood in the nation. A mood they hope to be able to tap into in the November elections. NRLC Political Director Karen Cross says that new mood is already showing up in the political arena. She says the last few months have been exciting to watch. “Every week its almost like Christmas for me,” says Cross. She says many of the races pit candidates with clearly defined differences when it comes to abortion issues. That includes the US senate race in Pennsylvania between Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey. Toomey is strongly Pro-life, Sestak is Pro-choice.

The National Right to Life Committee leadership is also praising some state level gains made in the last year including a law in Oklahoma that will force those performing abortions to display the ultrasound in a place where the woman can see the image. Other states with ultrasound viewing laws only force the procedure provider to offer the pregnant woman the opportunity to see the image. NRLC State Political Director Mary Spaulding-Balch says that is a slight difference from other ultrasound viewing laws but one that clearly makes a difference. “In the states where they are offered the opportunity to view there has not been a single challenge and yet when Oklahoma simply changes the language to the point that the ultrasound must be displayed it is challenged by our opponents,” says Spaulding-Balch. That law is to go into effect in October.

The group is also taking an interest in the confirmation of Elena Kagan. NLRC Executive Director David O’Steen says his organization will “very actively oppose” the nomination of Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court. Hearings for Kagan begin Monday. The Committee has already sent a letter to all members of the Senate asking that Kagan be rejected. The letter lays out an argument that Kagan was key in defeating the partial birth abortion bill during the Clinton administration. He says Kagan’s writings show she strongly argued with the president that he should not support the bill saying it was unconstitutional and that pro-choice groups “will go crazy.” O’Steen says those writings also show that Kagan is a “social engineer” and will be more interested in driving change if she is added to the court rather than defending the constitution. The letter to the Senators reads in part, “she believes that ‘it is not necessarily wrong or invalid’ for appointed judges ‘to mold and steer the law in order to promote certain ethical values and achieve social ends.’” O’Steen says the NLRC Federal Legislative Department will be lobbying members of the Senate Judicial Committee but they will be, “choosing people to speak with based on, of course, the anticipation of success and Arlen Specter (D-PA) is history… it seems he has been rejected by both parties now.” The letter says Kagan will “treat the US Constitution not as a body of basic law that truly constrains both legislators and judges, but rather, as a cookbook in which may be found legal recipes that will allow the imposition of the policies that Ms. Kagan deems to be justified.”