Pro-Choice individuals and organizations claim to be concerned first and foremost with the medical needs of women. Therefore, it is hard to understand why such organizations oppose regulations that would make abortion safer.

Here are some examples as to why such regulations are needed.

Abortionist Don Sloan is quoted here from his book Choice: A Doctor’s Experience with the Abortion Dilemma. New York: International Publishers 2002 (with Paula Hartz):

“The polarization of the two sides in the abortion battle has everyone over a barrel. The pro-choice people find themselves fighting good, healthy, correct state regulations because many of those regulations are emanating from anti-abortion pressure groups as a political ploy.”

Reporter Hannah Selinger describes her trip to an abortion clinic this way:

“In all the years I have spent writing and thinking about a woman's right to choose, I have never set foot in an abortion clinic, because I have never needed to. In my mind, I had always pictured a clean and comfortable place…This was no Westchester clinic. The place was dirty and dark and the women in the room outside were standing, as there were no chairs. A woman beside me was crying. . In the press, the issue of the right to choose will be reduced to the terminology of precedent and privacy. But the visceral reality of abortion--the grimy clinic, the sobbing and hapless young woman…cannot be understood by such desensitized vocabulary."

"The Raw Story: The Real State of Abortion Rights before Alito" January 12, 2006

A police officer said this of the Dr. Krishna Rajanna's Kansas abortion clinic:

"Trash was everywhere and roaches crawling across the countertops, with a smell of stench in the room. My partner observed the procedure room was filthy, he told me he saw dried blood on the floor and the room looked nasty to him. In a statement to me, one witness related how Rajanna was a filthy man who did not properly sterilize his equipment. I thought I had seen every vile, disgusting crime scene but was in for a shock when I started this investigation."

The Department of Health noted, “After one of the procedures the nurse was observed preparing the room for the next patient. With gloved hands the nurse removed the visibly soiled paper cover from the procedure table. With the same gloves, the nurse pulled fresh paper to cover the table and prepare it for the next patient. A packet of sterile instruments was then opened and set up for the physician. The gloves had not been changed. Following the procedure, the dirty instruments were taken to the cleaning room. Interview with staff revealed that she did not know how much disinfecting solution to use when doing cleaning. In addition one of the two sinks was being used to discard dirty solutions. After scrubbing the instruments, the staff person placed them into this dirty sink and gave them only a water rinse before wrapping them for the sterilization process. Residue may have been left from the matter that had been dumped into this sink. This residue could adhere to the cleaned instruments. “

Ohio DOH registry # 992272 10-25-99

During a 1989 inspection of Blue Coral Medical Center, health inspectors found:

--The clinic employees unlicensed non-nursing staff to monitor patients in the recovery room.

--Single use disposable equipment such as the suction tube used to remove the contents of the uterus during the abortion and plastic syringes used to give medication into the vein or into the muscle are reused.

--Biohazards waste material is not disposed of properly.

--Abortion suction machines were dirty, stained and the tubing contained residual matter from previously completed abortions.

--The facility failed to properly dispose of blood-covered needles and sharp instruments, which had been used to give medications.

--Dirty, used patient gowns were improperly discarded.

--A plastic shopping bag of these soiled used patient gowns was hanging from an oxygen tank.

--There was no soap found anywhere in the facility to allow staff and clients to wash their hands to prevent the spread of infection and cross contamination.

--Stirrups of procedure tables were padded with underpads and tape that was stained with what appeared to be blood.

--The clinic does not ensure patient confidentiality.”

Findings of HRS September 25-26, 1989 Site Visit

At the Ladies First Abortion Clinic, Findings of HRS October 3, 1989:

“ ---The entire physical plant from the entrance, examining rooms, surgical suite, recovery room, bathrooms, lab room, offices, sterilizer room and storage rooms is filthy.

--- Old dirty mops were found leaning against walls in the bathroom and sterilizer room.

--- A large, dead cockroach was found on the counter in the sterilizing room.

--- Men’s old socks were found on shelves in the recovery room.

--- After the procedures, patients lie on one of seven old, torn, ripped, and flat examining tables that are lined up next to each other in a back room of the clinic.

---The gloves they reported as sterile were open and not sterile.

---Gauze pads that were stained yellow were found recently sterilized and packaged for use.

---There was no hot water available in the clinic including the surgical suite, recovery room, or the bathrooms.

---None of the three bathrooms nor the sink in the recovery room had any soap.”

At Miami International Esthetic Center, Inc:

“ ---The clinic failed to ensure adequate restroom facilities for the patients and staff due to the fact that the clinic had no toilets. Staff and patients were using a portable commode.

---The facility failed to provide basic necessities for infection control such as no hot water.

---Single use disposable items were reused. These items include disposable urinary foley catheters. Reuse of such products is considered unacceptable practice. In addition, putting an unsterile tube into a patient’s urinary bladder may result in serious infection and harm to the patients. Single use plastic suction catheter used in the abortion procedure was reused.”

Findings of HRS On Site Visit October 10, 1989

From 20/20 "A Woman's Right, A Woman's Risk" March 8, 1999:

"There were jagged edges on some of the instruments that were supposed to be smooth, which literally tore the uterus of this young woman." said Attorney General John Cornyn says, in the wake of the death of a 15-year-old Jamie Garcia, who died from massive infection, investigators found one nightmare condition after another at the clinic in Houston.

At Women's Service Center (Findings of HRS Sept 22-23 1989 visit):

“ ---Sterile techniques were routinely compromised.

---Clinic staff indicated that equipment, clearly labeled with instructions to dispose of after a single use, were reused.

---Paper used to wrap equipment for sterilization is reused until it is so dirty with blood or ripped that it must be discarded.

---Clinic staff could not report when the Vacuum Suction machine had been last cleaned.

---The clinic had no policies or procedure for protecting patient confidentiality.

---Infection control procedures are so inadequate that patient safety is threatened.

---The clinic does not conduct tests to definitely determine that a patient is pregnant prior to performing an abortion.”

"There was actually an abortion suction device in this place that had green mold growing in it, When we got there, there wasn't any soap in the place, so our inspectors had to go next door to wash their hands. No matter how hard they searched, clinic personnel couldn't find a single sanitary surgical glove in the entire clinic. Patients recovering from general anesthetic were attended by untrained, unlicensed personnel. And an oxygen mask still had lipstick on it from a patient who had needed it some time before. In addition, the expiration date had passed on nearly 70 different kinds of medication being used in the facility. These are deplorable conditions. The clinic appears to be little more than a satellite operation of the back alley abortion mill we closed early this week. We are powerless to ensure that women will receive safe, adequate health care in abortion clinics."

Secretary Gregory L. Coler, Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services
PR Newswire, Florida HRS secretary closes second Miami abortion clinic, 9/27/1989

"When I first assumed the position of director of this office, Office of Licensure and Certification, HRS, Tallahassee, Florida, I visited representative facilities of the different types we license. I reviewed the statutes and regulations of each different type of facility. The one facility type where I learned we had extremely limited authority to ensure quality care was abortion clinics. The situation still exists today. I have personally surveyed three abortion clinics over the last two weeks and am profoundly concerned about the practices and care I observed."

 Connie E. Cheren, Director, Office of Licensure and Certification, HRS
St. Petersburg Times, Editorial, Abortion clinics should meet basic health care standards, 10/12/1989

"In addition, the place was filthy -- blood stained pads and sheets, filthy surgical equipment, a general lack of infection control. These places cannot be permitted to operate in this way. . . We've been into 15 percent of the abortion clinics in this state, and they are unsafe; they are unclean, and they're not places where women should be going to receive abortions."

Connie E. Cheren, Director, Office of Licensure and Certification, HRS
St Petersburg Times, Scrutiny of abortion clinic standards will continue, 10/13/1989
PR Newswire, Florida HRS secretary closes second Miami abortion clinic, 9/27/1989

"It is hard to believe that a place like this can exist in the age of modern medicine, There wasn't even any hot water. Anybody knows that the very first requirement for sanitary conditions is hot soapy water. On top of that, there were no restroom for patients or staff. There was a serious lack of sanitation throughout the clinic."

Greg Coler, Florida health inspector
PR Newswire Association, Florida Department of HRS closes fourth abortion clinic, 10/13/1989

"There were dead cockroaches in the (abortion) sterilizing room, and men's old, dirty socks on a shelf in the recovery room. There was no hot water and the hot water taps had been broken for some time. There was no soap at the clinic's three sinks and there wasn't a single sterile surgical glove in the place. A filthy mop that a veteran public health doctor said stunk of dried blood was stored with medical supplies. The air vents were covered with filth. Cobwebs draped down from the ceiling sprinkler system. And debris was scattered from one end of the place to the other. What's incredible about that is we were sitting in the parking lot Monday waiting for the owner to show up so we could do an inspection, when a cleaning lady came out of the clinic and told us she'd been cleaning up in there all day. It makes me wonder what the place looked like before it was cleaned up."

Greg Coler, Florida health inspector
PR Newswire, Florida HRS closes Broward County abortion clinic, 10/5/1989

All of these abortion clinics were operating legally.  If they had not been inspected, they would still be operating. They were closed because these states had laws about conditions in abortion clinics- regulations saying what is acceptable in a clinic and what isn't. Here is what pro-choice organizations have to say about those laws: