Pro-Life Action League ,A Simple Example of Why Abortion Clinic Inspections Are Necessary

The Pro-Life Action League was founded by Joseph M. Scheidler in 1980 with the aim of saving unborn children through non-violent direct action.

We are doing all we can to stop the killing and the exploitation. Some of our key activities are:

• Abortion Clinic Presence
• Public Protest
• Confronting the Abortionists
• Promoting and Defending Activism
• Broadcasting the Pro-Life Message
• Youth Outreach

Abortion Clinic Presence

Through prayer vigils outside abortion facilities and sidewalk counseling, we reach out to abortion-bound women and couples with abortion alternatives, confidential counseling, access to pregnancy resources and other help, and witness to the value of the lives being destroyed inside.

We believe sidewalk counseling is the most important pro-life work God has given us to do. Praying outside abortion clinics is the first step in becoming directly involved fighting abortion.

Public Protest

We raise awareness of the injustice of abortion through marches, pickets, prayer vigils and especially Face the Truth Tours, during which we hold large abortion pictures on busy streets to show what abortion does to the unborn child.

Since 2007, we have kept a constant monthly protest presence at Planned Parenthood Aurora, one of the nation's largest abortion facilities as well as protesting numerous pro-abortion politicians and other public figures who oppose the rights of the unborn babies.

Confronting the Abortionists

We confront the abortionists and abortion promoters wherever they are. We picket and demonstrate outside abortion facilities, pro-abortion events, the offices of abortion organizations like NOW and Planned Parenthood and even abortionists' houses. We infiltrate their meetings and groups.

Through our programs we've closed eight abortion clinics in Chicago alone and nearly a hundred across the country.

We expose the bias of the pro-abortion media and have blocked pro-abortion advertising. We put pressure on pro-abortion politicians and call abortion supporters within the church to change their ways and defend life.

We have converted abortionists. Their testimonies on how they got into and out of the dirty abortion business are collected on our Meet the Abortion Providers videos.

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Promoting and Defending Activism

The League helps pro-life activists organize effective programs, trains them to become successful pro-life leaders in their communities and saves lives through direct action. We provide training materials and conduct training workshops in many areas of pro-life activism.

A key resource is Joe Scheidler's book,CLOSED: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion. This invaluable pro-life manual has galvanized thousands of pro-lifers into activists and has bewildered the purveyors of abortion.

We have fought many court battles to defend our right to peacefully protest abortion, especially the landmark NOW v. Scheidler RICO case, securing rights for all pro-lifers.

Broadcasting the Pro-Life Message

We have appeared on Nightline,Hannity's America, The O'Reilly Factor, Crossfire, Oprah, Good Morning America and many other programs and been covered inNewsweek, Time Magazine, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune to name just a few. Throughpress releases we comment on current life issues and inform the media of our activities.

We keep in touch with our supporters through a 24-hour Action NewsHotline, with commentary on current pro-life issues and action alerts. Our Life-Update message keeps our supporters aware of current events and issues via e-mail—see "Sign Up Now" on our homepage to sign up. We publish a quarterly newspaper Action News on all our life-saving activities.

We conduct seminars and conferences, lecture before student groups,speak at pro-life rallies, and debate at leading universities.

Youth Outreach

We get young people involved in learning about the life issues and fighting abortion through ourGenerations for Life division. Generations for Life helps teens form vibrant pro-life clubs and trains them through a yearly Youth Leadership Conference. We also encourage teens to participate in pro-life activism.

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Financial and Legal Information

Below you can find the most current Form 990, audited financials and other legal information about the Pro-Life Action League:

• Audited Financials [PDF]
• Form 990 for Fiscal Year 2010 (Most current available) [PDF]
• Tax Return for 2011 [PDF]
• Policy on Political Activity [PDF]
• Articles of Incorporation [PDF]
• By Laws [PDF]
• Conflict of Interest Policy [PDF]
• Whistleblower Policy [PDF]
• Privacy Policy [PDF]

Related Pages

• Pro-Life Action Comes of Age: The Founding of the Pro-Life Action League, 1980-1987—First installment of our 25th Anniversary retrospective
• Pro-Life Action on the March: The Expanding Mission of the Pro-Life Action League, 1988-1995—Second installment of our 25th Anniversary retrospective
• Pro-Life Action under Siege, 1996-1998—Third installment of our 25th Anniversary retrospective
• Pro-Life Action Fights Back, 1998-2005—Fourth and final installment in our 25th Anniversary retrospective
• Today in League History—News briefs from the past, posted daily during the League's 30th year
• Info on League membership, tax status, etc., in the Questions and Answers section of this site

Copyright © 2013 Pro-Life Action League, 6160 North Cicero Avenue, Suite 600 Chicago, IL 60646
Tel: 773-777-2900 • Fax: 773-777-3061 • Newsline: 773-777-2525 • E-mail:info@prolifeaction.or

http://prolifeaction.org/about/

If you’ve been around the abortion debate for any length of time, you’ve probably come across the term “TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws.”  TRAP is a term used by supporters of legal abortion to describe any number of health, safety, or licensing regulations placed on abortion clinics at the state level.

And if you google the term “TRAP laws,” you’ll discover a cruel irony: The so-called pro-choice movement wants to “keep” abortion “safe, legal” and rare“, but they’ll wail and gnash their teeth when lawmakers call for increased scrutiny of abortion clinics, so we have to wonder how concerned they really are about women’s safety.

Take, for instance, the National Abortion Federation (NAF). The very first sentence on the NAF’s page on TRAP bills defines them as those which “single out abortion clinics for unnecessary, politically motivated, restrictive regulations.” Such “onerous requirements,” NAF complains, “are also unnecessary because abortion clinics are already highly regulated.”

Later, they return to the use of the adjective “unnecessary” and, for good measure, slap on “burdensome” to describe “regulations on clinics that are irrelevant to the functionality and safety of abortion practice.”

NAF’s Utter Contempt for Abortion Clinic Regulations

You may recall that when abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s infamous “House of Horrors” in West Philadelphia was raided by the DEA in 2010, it hadn’t been inspected in 17 years.  Clearly, if there was a state that needed to get its act together and step up its oversight of abortion clinics, it was Pennsylvania.

And once the macabre findings from Gosnell’s charnel house were made public, lawmakers in Pennsylvania did enact legislation that ensures, among other things, that state inspectors will visit abortion clinics regularly.

It’s telling, then, that the very first state that NAF cites on its page bemoaning TRAP laws is none other than Pennsylvania. (And as an aside, it’s also worth noting that the Gosnell Grand Jury scolded NAF for knowing about the horrifying conditions within Gosnell’s facility in late 2009 but neglecting to contact authorities).

Of course, if the National Abortion Federation is right, then the increased scrutiny of abortion clinics will prove to be “unnecessary.”

But is it?

The Proof Is in the Inspection Reports

For a clear example of why close oversight of abortion clinics is necessary, consider the example of Planned Parenthood’s York Center abortion facility, located in the city of York, Pennsylvania.

On June 20th, 2013 the Pennsylvania Department of Health inspectedPlanned Parenthood’s York Center. Compared to the inspection of the previous year, this year’s inspection went quite well. The numerous significant violations brought to light during the June 2012 inspection had pushed the clinic to make the the decision to become a “Class A” abortion clinic with a lower standard than the “Class B” surgicenter license than had originally been sought.

This year’s inspection found two violations, and both were significant as they were both related to safety of patients at the facility (as opposed to paperwork or building codes).

First, there was no IV cut down instrument tray. Second, that there was no oxygen in the oxygen tanks.

What’s interesting is the explanation that Planned Parenthood staffers gave in response to being cited for these violations. They claimed that “the cut down tray instruments were in the facility but not packaged as a cut down tray unit.”

Seriously.

In an emergency (which is the only time a cut down is done — i.e., when a patient is in grave danger of bleeding to death) the pack has to have all the various instruments and supplies needed to do the cut down immediately. It goes without saying that in an emergency, the last thing clinic staff should be doing is running around the clinic and looking for all the necessary instruments.

But as a result of this year’s inspection, all the instruments were gathered for the cut down tray, which Planned Parenthood claims is now centrally located.

As for the oxygen tanks being empty, Planned Parenthood claimed that the tanks were actually full, but that the Planned Parenthood employee who was questioned by state inspectors about the tanks did not know how to operate them.  Full stop.

An empty oxygen tank is, of course, useless.  A full oxygen tank that cannot be operated is also, of course, equally useless.

Yet, the facility’s plan of correction did mention that staff members were trained in the use of the tanks when the oxygen supply company came out the next day.

So now, as a direct result of a state inspection, an abortion clinic that had no IV cut down tray or operable oxygen tanks now has both.

Surely, the National Abortion Federation would agree that IV cut down trays and oxygen tanks that actually work are hardly “irrelevant to the functionality and safety of abortion practice.”  Yet without the increased oversight of abortion clinics — which the NAF opposes tooth and nail — the inspection that found these violations at Planned Parenthood’s York Center wouldn’t have happened.

It’s Little Wonder Why Abortion Clinics Don’t Like Being Inspected

Some inspections will actually close down abortion clinics.  Others will reveal that the operators really don’t have the safety of women foremost in their minds.

That it is necessary for state inspectors to show a medical facility how to protect their patients speaks to the tendency of all human beings to be lazy, but especially to the clinic’s lack of respect for life.  It should come as no surprise that those who would cut babies into pieces may find it difficult to show much concern for the lives of their mothers.

Related

• WaPo Editorial: “No Evidence of Serious or Widespread Unsanitary Conditions” in Virginia Abortion Clinics. Really?
• http://prolifeaction.org/hotline/2013/ppyork/#more-33063