By Maria V. Gallagher, Legislative Director, Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation
Abortion center inspections—long a source of controversy in Pennsylvania—have apparently resumed in the Commonwealth.
A check of the state Department of Health website shows that inspections of Planned Parenthood Keystone locations in Allentown and Warminster occurred in July.
Prior to the latest posting, the last inspection reports listed were from February. No reason for the five-month hiatus in inspections is indicated, but observers surmise the ostensible reason was COVID-19.
However, the pandemic is all the more reason why abortion facilities in Pennsylvania should have been inspected. After all, the health and safety of countless women were—and are- at stake.
Abortion center inspections are a matter of law in the Keystone State. A 2011 statute was enacted in the wake of the Kermit Gosnell scandal. The abortionist was suspected of killing hundreds of newborn babies in his “House of Horrors” facility in West Philadelphia. Prosecutors could bring criminal charges in only a handful of cases, because Gosnell had destroyed so many records. Gosnell did preserve something else: the severed feet of his victims.
Gosnell is now serving three consecutive life-terms in prison for the murder of three precious newborn babies. He was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of an adult female patient Karnamaya Mongar.
State Senator Mike Regan, a Republican serving Cumberland and York counties, sent a letter to the Wolf Administration a number of weeks ago. Regan demanded accountability from Gov. Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Rachel Levine for the lack of inspections at PA abortion facilities.
Many state lawmakers have chided the Wolf Administration for a lack of transparency in its response to the pandemic. The oversight of abortion facilities has been similarly opaque, with citizens wondering when abortion center inspections would resume.
In the Gosnell grand jury report, jurors stated that pro-abortion politics had prevented abortion facilities in Pennsylvania from being inspected while Gosnell plied his grisly trade. Republican Governor Tom Ridge and Democratic Governor Ed Rendell refused to order inspections, claiming that they could prevent “abortion access.”
Hair and nail salons received greater scrutiny than abortion facilities.
Gov. Wolf is a close ally of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion operation, and is a former volunteer clinic escort. He has vetoed numerous pro-life bills and has pledged to veto any bill in the future which limits abortion.