About those "Safe" and "Legal" Abortions...

State Reports

Founder's 2013

Founder's 2012

Planed Parenthood 2013

Planned Parenthood 2012

Complete Healthcare for Women 2012 Note: CHW no longer performing abortions.

Capital Care Network Cuyahoga Falls Inspection Letter and Order to Close (Source: ODH)

Licensure, Violations, Sanctions, Criminal Histories,  and Lawsuits

Dr. Harley Blank (Founders) sued for performing a fake abortion on a woman with ectopic pregnancy (Source: Courts. Note: victim info redacted)

Dr. Harley Blank (Founders) motion to compel discovery. (Source: Courts)

Dr. Harley Blank (Founders) too distraught to respond (Source: Courts) 

Dr. Michaelis (Founders) plead guilty to Attempted Gross Sexual Imposition, Public Indecency, and Voyerism. Victims were minor girls. (Source: State of Ohio Medical Board)

Dr. Michaelis (Founders) Medical Licensure Information (Source: State of Ohio Medical Board)

Complete Healthcare for Women OSHA Violations 2012 (Source: Pro-Life Nation). Note: CHW no longer performing abortions.

Botched Medical Abortions at Planned Parenthood 2012 (Source: State Medical Board) 

Dr. Pablo Pons (Planned Parenthood) sanctioned by State for unethical sexual relationship after fathering child with mentally distressed patient. (Source: State Medical Board)

Dr. Pablo Pons (Planned Parenthood) Medical License Information (Source: State of Ohio Medical Board)

Women Deserve Better

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The Gosnell trial  opened many Americans' eyes to the horror of the abortion clinic.  Those who work and volunteer in the pro-life arena have been disgusted, but not especially surprised, by what was discovered in the Gosnell trial. We are familiar with the mainstream media ignoring case after case of botched abortions – sending women to hospitals and morgues on a too-frequent basis. We are familiar with the disparate treatment received by women because they are poor or in a minority.  We have seen, time and time again, the failure of regulators to shut down facilities that offer substandard care, and we have become accustomed to being treated like extremists in a giant game of political football – when all we want is to promote a culture that is capable of loving the mother and protecting her baby at the same time, regardless of their economic status, their social status, or their zip codes.

We are all on different spiritual and emotional journeys, but I think that we are all united by a common effort to seek out Goodness and Truth.  The truth, however, can be hard: abortion is not good if it is performed in a cleaner environment.  Abortion is not good just because the child is ripped apart inside the womb. The truth is that abortion is never good. NEVER.  That said, the reality is that pro-abortion organizations have been successful in shaping the public narrative to convince our culture that they are there to protect women's health and to defend the rights of women.  The mantra "safe, legal, and rare" was coined by President Clinton two decades ago, and today it is accepted without question.

We are not going to change that narrative without doing more to uncover what is happening at the abortion clinics in our community.  The best way to do this is to simply share what state regulators have found and what victimized patients have reported.  We do this not because we take any enjoyment in it, but because people deserve the truth.

Planned Parenthood on East Main Street performs abortions. In fact, in 2012 it performed 1,610 abortions. That was an increase from the 1,450 performed in the year prior.  However, since they consider themselves to be specialists in excellent care for women, let’s talk about what state inspectors found at their facility in the last 14 months: violation after violation of the state laws and regulations designed to protect women. In total, state inspectors released fifteen pages of violations on inspections done in March of 2012 and February of 2013.  Examples of these violations include:

• Filthy suction equipment covered in a “heavy layer of dust and dirt”
  
• Patient care materials stored in unsanitary and unsafe conditions
  
• Repeated failures to properly document, store, secure, and dispose of controlled substances, including narcotics
  
• One in four (25%) of the patient records inspected showed patients who had undergone surgical procedures or been administered anesthesia were discharged on their own, without a caretaker or other responsible person
  
• Failure to properly document that nursing staff were inoculated from and free from Tuberculosis
  
• Failure to post information on how to make complaints to the Department of Health
  
• Failure to properly document when patients received drugs, including abortion-inducing drugs, painkillers, and IVs
  

In addition, Planned Parenthood's East Main facility botched five chemical abortions in 2012.

Women deserve better.

Next, let’s take a look at the abortion clinic located at 1243 East Broad Street, frequently referred to as “Founders.” 

Founders is infamously known as the first abortion clinic in the state of Ohio. Last year, the original clinic shut down and is now occupied by Capital Care Network, which closed its Lima office in February. (UPDATE: state health officials shut down the Summit County office on April 22nd).  The legacy of Founders clinic was 1319 abortions in 2011.  State officials listed thirteen pages of violations that included:

• Failure to maintain all four operating rooms to a safe standard
  
• Patient tables had failed safety standards and when connected to electricity would shock patients
  
• tables had been declared unsafe for at least two years, but were still used in operations
• Expired surgical privileges from staff (one in 2008, one earlier in 2012)
  
• Failure to document “doctors” had valid medical licenses
  
• Failure to document that the “doctors” had admitting privileges at area hospitals
  
• Failure to have a mandatory transfer license with an area hospital
  
• Failure to train staff, provide them with job descriptions, provide them with orientation, maintain records of schedules

UPDATE: In 2013, State inspectors again visited Founder's.  State Officials listed fourteen pages of violations of state law.  The violations were documented after state officials reviewed general office practices and reviewed a sample of ten random patient files.  In 2012 there were 2128 patient visits at Founder's.  Violations include:

• Failure to notify patients that an abortion doctor does not have medical malpractice (In Ohio, a physician is required to have malpractice or notify his or her patients in writing that the physician does not have insurance).
• In 7 out of 10 patient files reviewed, a volunteer without a medical or nursing license administered Cytotec (also known as misoprostol - an abortion causing drug) and prescription-strength painkillers.  The volunteer noted that she was a "relative" of one of the nurses and had formerly been a LPN until the license lapsed "sometime in the 1980's."
• Eight out of 9 medical staff failed to have the appropriate orientation and training on file (note: this was also a citation the year prior).
• In several instances, there were not physician orders for the administration of abortion causing drugs.  
• Failure to document who provided IV sedation for one patient.
• Patients discharged "to self" following surgeries - Ohio law requires that a patient who is discharged after surgery be accompanied by a second responsible adult, unless a doctor documents that the individual is safe to go on her own. 

In addition, Dr. Harley Blank, the co-owner of Founder's, is currently being sued by a 29 year-old former patient. The patient visited Dr. Blank in 2012 for a surgical abortion.  According to the lawsuit, the young woman went to Dr. Blank for an abortion. Despite several indications that the woman was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy at her initial consultation, when she returned to the practice three days later she was diagnosed with a uterine pregnancy and Dr. Blank, "went through the motions of an abortion. No abortion was actually done, because the pregnancy was cornual."  A week later, the patient was rushed to the hospital via an ambulance where she was later found to have a "ruptured cornual pregnancy, right hemoperitoneum, and right hematosalpinx" and anemia due to acute blood loss.  Essentially, the ectopic pregnancy that was ignored ruptured, she had to have both fallopian tubes removed, and she lost a lot of blood.  This young woman will never be able to have children.  We are keeping her in our prayers, and we are saddened at the reminder that this procedure hurts women every single day. This civil lawsuit was filed in December of 2013 and has not yet gone to trial (as of January 2014).

This is the legacy of Founders’ Women’s Clinic. Women deserve better.

Women deserve better. Always.

Abortion is never a woman's best or only option.

Every Saturday morning, GCRTL volunteers peacefully pray outside of the Founders Clinic at 1243 East Broad Street.  We are also building times and groups on other days and at other clinics. If you’d like, you are welcome to join us.  If you cannot join us, we invite you to adopt one of our counselors by praying for her or him, and the women to whom we minister.


You can help our work to promote a culture of life  by joining GCRTL today.