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Second New Jersey Abortion Clinic Closed for Violation of Health Regulations

New Jersey Department of Health has health inspection information for only 1 of 21 abortion clinics

By Elizabeth O’Brien

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ, June 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Human and Health Services has temporarily closed down the only abortion clinic in Atlantic City due to violations of state health regulations.

After receiving an anonymous complaint, city officials began an investigation on Monday of “Alternatives”, the city’s only abortion clinic, which provides second-trimester abortions. Inspectors found that the clinic violated health policy regulations in its “records, infection control and its physical plant”, Courier News reports.

Human and Health Services spokesperson Tom Slater refused to reveal any more details about the health code abuses that were discovered inside the clinic. He admitted, however, “some violations occurred and there were enough in several areas that we agreed to curtail admissions.” He also stated, in a report by Press of Atlantic City, that he and clinic employees are “very eager to get things done and get the clinic reopened.”

This is the second clinic that has been shut down in New Jersey within the past six months due to health violations. This January, the Metropolitan Medical Associates clinic in Englewood closed after a young woman nearly died from a botched abortion. Twenty-year-old Rasheedah Dinkins was comatose in a Newark hospital for a month after the abortion (see http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07030201.html).

State officials investigated the Metropolitan, The North Jersey Media Group reports, and their gruesome finding included, “forceps encrusted in ‘brownish blood-like residues,’ rusty crochet hooks used to remove IUDs, and a quarter-inch of dark red ‘dirt and debris’ under an exam table at an Englewood abortion clinic.”

Marie Tasy, Executive Director for New Jersey Right to Life (NJRL), told LifeSiteNews.com that after the Metropolitan was shut-down, she filed a request with the State Department of Health. Under the Open Public Records Act, she asked to look at the health inspection reports for all abortion facilities in the state of New Jersey within the last five years (Jan 2002 through April 2007).

The Department of Health responded by asking her to send them the names of all the abortion facilities in the state because they did not have a complete list. Of the twenty-one names that Tasy provided, they claimed to have information on four—the only four facilities that are licensed by the state to perform abortions after 14 weeks. These included the Metropolitan and Alternatives. Moreover, of these four, the department possessed information dating from the past five years for only two of the clinics.

When NJRL finally received the government record, it contained files on the Metropolitan Medical Associates clinic only. The report was based on the investigation that took place after Dinkins nearly died earlier this year. Tasy is still waiting to receive information regarding the other abortion clinic inspections.

Paula Howard, Regulatory Officer from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, thanked Tasy for the list of abortion facilities, but said that upon review, the files “did not contain any inspection reports for Alternatives for the time period specified.” 

Since then, the Health Department conducted its recent investigation of the Alternatives clinic and discovered the health violations. Tasy commented, “We can only hope that our request prompted the investigation of Alternatives and hopefully other clinics in future.”

She continued, “I think it’s an outrage that the state of New Jersey is negligent in their duty to inspect abortion clinics and that it appears that veterinarian clinics are safer and more regulated than abortion clinics in the state of New Jersey.”

 “This (Alternatives) is the second abortion clinic that has shut down for health violations in the last 6 months, and the silence is deafening from the pro-abortion groups that claim to care about women’s health.”  

To respectfully voice concerns:

Jon Corzine
Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
Phone: 609-292-6000
Email through the website: http://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/governor/govmail/govmail_1.pl

Fred Jacobs
Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services
P.O. Box 360
Trenton, NJ 08625
Phone: (609) 292-7837
Email; fred.jacobs@doh.state.nj.us

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

New Jersey Woman Suffers Coma after ‘Safe, Legal’ Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07030201.html

After Comatose Victim, Two More Women Injured At NJ Abortion Mill Come Forward
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07030601.html

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