By Dave Andrusko
Back on May 7, Holly Gatling, Executive Director, South Carolina Citizens for Life, wrote a story for NRL News Today that outlined a very critical report from the South Carolina Legislative Audit Council harshly criticizing the state health department for numerous deficiencies in its inspection of the state’s three freestanding abortion facilities—deficiencies that could “result in serious problems for patients,” if the problems are not addressed.
This week the Post and Courier newspaper editorialized on this important audit [“Improve abortion clinic oversight”]. The editorial agreed changes are needed at the Department of Health and Environmental Control.
For example, alluding to the audit, the editorial cited
“inspections of the three abortion clinics in the state aren’t as thorough as required by law, that some abortion data might not be properly reported and that clinics’ plans to amend problems revealed during inspections are not validated by DHEC quickly enough.”
And then there is the inadequacy of the DHEC’s system for dealing with complaints and the lack of training and refresher courses for its inspectors.
“DHEC’s website also came up short,” the editorial continued. “The LAC said it is difficult to navigate and that inspection reports are slow to be posted. It also doesn’t post complaint investigation results as do other states.”
But there were other important recommendations from the audit (which can be read here) not mentioned. For example, the one that the abortion industry really hates: annual inspections. If everything is on the up and up, you wonder why they so oppose a once-a-year inspection. There is an illusion to ultrasounds in the Post and Courier editorial that Gatling made explicit in her story.
The audit calls on the South Carolina General Assembly to amend the state law to require a “pre-abortion ultrasound to determine the gestational age of the fetus for all abortions.”
Gatling concluded by putting abortion clinic regulations in historical context:
In 1994 the SC Legislature passed the Abortion Clinic Regulation Act after employees of a local abortionist reported he was grinding up the bodies of aborted children in a common sink disposal. The regulations survived a federal court challenge and all but three abortion business closed. At one time there were 14 abortion facilities throughout the state.
The issue is not that clinics are not regulated. The issue is that the regulations are not being fully enforced as mandated by law.
She then quoted leading pro-lifers including
House Judiciary Chairman Greg Delleney, a strong pro-life proponent, said he has long suspected that DHEC wasn’t enforcing regulations strictly enough. Violators should be fined or prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law,” Delleney said. “They need to be hammered.”
“I think it’s the culture at DHEC,” Delleney said of the report’s findings. “They don’t think enforcing abortion clinic violations is important. They’ve gotten away with this for way too long.”