MONTGOMERY ABORTION CLINIC SHUT DOWN BY ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AFTER 68-PAGE REPORT SHOWS FLAGRANT AND REPEATED VIOLATIONS OF LAWS AND HEALTH REGULATIONS

June 11, 2010

MONTGOMERY —The Foundation for Moral Law, a pro-life, religious liberties legal organization in Montgomery, Ala., is pleased to report that Beacon Women's Center, a 27-year-old abortion mill, has been permanently shut down for multiple and repeated violations of the health code and criminal law, according to a consent decree signed June 8, 2010, by Beacon officials and the Alabama Dept. of Public Health.

Foundation for Moral Law President Judge Roy Moore stated,

“I appreciate the work of the ADPH in this egregious case and I urge them to continue to step up their inspections. They have saved thousands of lives in the process. We look forward to the day when all abortion clinics will be closed in this state.”

Beacon (left) agreed to surrender its license to the health department after ADPH investigators issued a deficiency report on Beacon on April 2, 2010—-a lengthy 68-page report that includes everything from failure to report suspected sex abuse of minors to failure to obtain proper legal consent to failure to comply with many requirements of the Women's Right to Know Act (offering information for informed consent, ultrasounds, etc.). Here are some “lowlights” from the report:

• No clinic policy handbook. Beacon was repeatedly asked for its policies and procedures on numerous visits by ADPH, but none was ever produced. (p.8)
• Failure, and ignorant of duty, to report possible sex abuse." There was no documentation the Center reported a 14 year old who was pregnant by a 16 year old. Employee Identifiers #1 and #2 were unable to locate policies and procedures for the Center and EI#2 acknowledged she had no policy for when or to whom to report abuse or neglect of a minor. The Center had no policies for parental consent and mandatory reporting consistent with state law. EI #7, the Medical Director and physician performing surgical abortions, was unsure of the required reporting requirements.” (p. 10-11)
• Failure to offer ultrasounds. Beacon failed to offer an ultrasound to many patients, although they were instructed to initial the form to state that they had. (p. 12)
• Failure to offer “Did You Know” video—ever. For example, “During an interview with EI#2 on 1/27/10 at 3:10 PM, she verified she had not offered the patients the opportunity to view the video and she had been instructed to give only the books. EI#2 stated she had never offered the video to patients.” (p. 13) Though never offered the video, patients were instructed to initial that they had.
• Failure to abide by 24-hour waiting period. (p. 15)
• Unsanitary recovery room. “[C]hairs in the recovery room were noted to be an infection control risk with foam showing on each chair.” (p. 39) “Of the three recovery room patients observed, the Center staff failed to clean medical equipment that came in direct contact with patients skin and wash their hands after direct patient contact per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.” (p. 50)
• No medical waste pick-up. Since May of 2009, Beacon had no medical waste disposal service and was simply dumping such waste in its regular dumpster. (pp. 55-57)

Ever since the Alabama Dept. of Public Health decided in 2006 to start enforcing the health code and annually inspect Alabama's abortion clinics, one after another of the state's abortion clinics have been either closed or placed on probation. Beacon was placed on probation in 2006 primarily for a multitude of violations that show the staff at that clinic either do not know or do not care about basic medical record-keeping, sanitary requirements, or narcotics prescription requirements.” (See this post for details.) It has only been downhill since and, as a result of their most recent inspections, parent company Summit Medical has agreed in a consent decree signed June 8 to surrender their license and close their doors.

If the name Summit rings a bell, it's because it was at another Summit clinic in Birmingham—Summit Medical Center—that a 6-pound dead baby was born to a woman given abortion drugs by a nurse. The public outrage at such a horrible episode led to that Summit clinic's closure as well as the re-institution of the ADPH's annual inspections of abortion clinics. Since that time, the Foundation for Moral Law has repeatedly urged the ADPH to strengthen its regulations and called for the closure of deficient abortion clinics.

Until abortion is illegal and rare, agencies like ADPH must have the “teeth” and, if necessary, the public pressure exerted upon them to inspect clinics and enforce the health regulations in place. As the last four years of inspections in Alabama have shown, holding abortion clinics accountable to basic medical standards is too high a standard for many of them to meet.

The Foundation for Moral Law, a religious-liberties, pro-life legal organization located in Montgomery, Alabama, is dedicated to restoring the knowledge of God in law and government through litigation and education relating to moral issues and religious