By Sarah Terzo
Then-Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams describing Kermit Gosnell’s abortion clinic after raiding it under suspicion that he was prescribing illegal narcotics. Keep in mind that this clinic was legally doing abortions:
“There was blood on the floor. A stench of urine filled the air. A flea infested cat was wandering through the facility, and there were cat feces on the stairs. Semi-conscious women scheduled for abortions were moaning in the waiting room or the recovery room, where they sat on dirty recliners covered with bloodstained blankets.
All the women had been sedated by unlicensed staff – long before Gosnell arrived at the clinic – and staff members could not accurately state what medications or dosages they had administered to the waiting patients. Many of the medications in the inventory were past their expiration dates.
Investigators found the clinic grossly unsuitable as a surgical facility. The two surgical procedure rooms were filthy and unsanitary. Agent [Stephen] Doughtery described them as resembling “a bad gas station restroom.” Instruments were not sterile. Equipment was rusty and outdated. Oxygen equipment was covered with dust, and had not been inspected. The same corroded suction tubing used for abortions was the only tubing available for oral airways if assistance for breathing was needed. There was no functioning resuscitation or even monitoring equipment, except for single blood pressure cuff in the recovery room.”
James Taranto, “Back Alley Abortion Never Ended.” Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2013.
Editor’s note. This appeared at Clinic Quotes and is reposted with permission.