Today, colleagues at Northeast Ohio Right to Life, Ohio Right to Life, and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society held a press conference after discarded fetal remains were found in the trash can outside of a Northeast Ohio abortion clinic. According to a report, the remains were recovered in a dumpster along with several other items. The unborn child was estimated to be at 17 weeks gestation. The bloody fetal remains, photos of which were shared by Denise Leopold of Northeast Ohio Right to Life, consisted of severed limbs, wrapped in a bloody blanket.
In addition to the fetal remains, the volunteer found bloody surgical instruments, urine cultures, and bloody sheets and drape. The items were disposed in violation of Ohio EPA’s hazardous and medical waste provisions which require human biological waste to be refrigerated or frozen, secured, and not able to spread infectious disease. The trash also included protected medical information that could be used to identify patients.
The materials were gathered over the course of multiple days.
This is not the first shocking news to come out of the abortion clinic located in the same place. In 2013, the Ohio Department of Health shut down the facility for failing to meet sanitation standards and other basic health and safety standards. The business was also subjected to DEA and other enforcement activity for conditions that included improper storage of medicine and theft of patient blood. The clinic, at which Burkons worked, was shut down in 2013, but Burkons was able to re-open the facility and obtain a new surgical license. Burkons is notorious among abortion providers and has been affiliated with numerous state abortion clinics, including now-closed Founder’s Women’s Health.
Beth Vanderkooi, executive director of Greater Columbus Right to Life, noted, “The callous disregard with which these clinics treat unborn children and their mothers is par for the course in the abortion industry; it is the reality that the industry and its apologists try to cover up by painting it in vibrant shades of pink and purple and calling it ‘feminism.’ Every day, courageous pro-life witnesses work to speak the truth to women and families considering abortion and reveal the truth of the abortion industry.”
Vanderkooi continued, “But today’s shocking revelations continue to reveal the truth: abortion is a violent, exploitative, and disgusting practice that trades in human despair and misery and profits from pain. We continue to pray for the day that the US Supreme Court recognizes that there is no right to intentionally destroy unborn children. Until then, this is the second incident in the past year that illustrates why the Legislature must revise abortion clinic licensing laws to eliminate a major loophole in Ohio that forces the director of the Ohio Department of Health to license any abortion clinic or other ambulatory surgical center that fills out the permit, pays a fee, and presents basic information such as an infection control plan. Ohio law does not offer any discretion to the Ohio Department of Health in granting these licenses. All a shoddy operator needs to do is change the name or file different paperwork. This happens again and again, as is illustrated here locally with Your Choice and its sister clinic Capital Care of Toledo. This is unacceptable.
This story will be updated as more details emerge.
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