KS Rep Says State Must Regulate Abortion Clinic Safety
by Mary Rettig
March 18, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Kansas lawmaker is proposing a bill to hold abortion clinics to a required level of sanitation in order to operate.State Representative Peggy Long-Mast says Planned Parenthood released quality standards in 1999, and it is from those standards that House Bill 20-53 takes its wording. The legislation states that abortion clinics must have adequate lighting, sterilized instruments, and doors wide enough to let a gurney pass through, among other requirements.
Unfortunately, Long-Mast says the bill has been proven necessary, especially after some recent and disturbing discoveries by police in her state upon entering a number of abortion providers' facilities. "The clinics in Kansas looked more like back-alley abortion clinics," she notes.
"As a matter of fact," the State Representative reveals, "one clinic in Kansas City actually had 'Northrup Construction' [written] on the door, and when detectives went in in September of 2003, they found a roach-infested place where there was carpeting on the surgical floor." And in the same clinic, she adds, they found medications that were not labeled and an entire staff that had no medical expertise at all.
Long-Mast says Planned Parenthood talks about legalized abortion creating greater safety for women, often touting the result of Roe v. Wade as having contributed toward an America in which abortion is safe, legal, and rare. But sadly, she asserts, although abortion is now legal in the U.S, it is still not safe -- and definitely not rare.
But even while "abortion rights" proponents claim to care about the safety of women, the Kansas lawmaker observes that many continue to resist external regulation of safety standards. She says it is amazing how fiercely pro-abortionists are fighting to keep from having minimum safety requirements imposed on abortion facilities, especially after recent serious incidents involving an infamous Kansas abortionist.
"George Tiller, who's well known throughout the nation for his late-term abortions has had six ambulance calls to his abortion clinic in the last six months, and there is one confirmed death," Long-Mast points out. And now, she says victims of his dangerous operation are coming forward, ready to talk.
"This is the first year," the State Representative says, "that I've ever had individuals come to me who have actually suffered from botched abortions and are willing to come forward now and speak, letting the public know that [abortion] is not safe."
Rep. Peggy Long-Mast is hopeful that House Bill 20-53 will pass on Friday (March 18) and proceed to the Senate. She is urging Kansas citizens who care about women's health and safety to call their state lawmakers and ask them to support this important bill.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
