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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 30, 2013
Contact: Mallory Quigley, 202-223-8073

Former Employees Speak Out about Clinic Negligence & “Gosnell-Style” Conditions

Wilmington, DE – Today three former Planned Parenthood of Delaware employees testified before a bipartisan panel of the state legislature. The two nurses and one former manager allege that: 

• PPFA officials knew about improper, dangerous “after hours” abortions being performed by abortionist Eric Schaff without any support medical staff
• Failed to inform as many as 200 women of their positive tests for Gonorrhea and Chlamydia and failed to notify 87 women of the results of their colposcopies
• Placed patients in grave danger through poor care by assigning medical responsibilities to employees who had insufficient or no medical credentials
• Rushed through abortions at a speed that made patient safety unsustainable given the level of staff and medical expertise
• Denied the drug RhoGAM to low-income, Rh negative women who need it within the first 72 hours after an abortion to protect future pregnancies from greatly increased risk of stillbirth

“The consequences of championing abortion masked as health care for women will prove tragic in state after state,” said Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser.

“As these hearings have progressed, we have learned that Planned Parenthood of Delaware has often operated with a startling disregard of cleanliness and patient safety,” said Ellen Barosse, founder of the Delaware pro-life group A Rose and A Prayer. “Now we know that many of the shortcomings that endangered patients outlined in General Assembly testimony had also been uncovered by national Planned Parenthood Federation audits. The national Planned Parenthood found serious issues related to patient safety – even allegations of improper, dangerous ‘after hours’ abortions – yet never closed the Delaware affiliate down or reported its findings to public health officials.  Instead, it continued Planned Parenthood of Delaware’s accreditation.

“While the abortion industry has been busy protesting that the filthy conditions in Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s abortion clinic are unknown in the rest of the industry, evidence presented in these hearings by professionals who resigned in protest show that inadequate and unsterile conditions did occur elsewhere, and suggest that they might be the norm. 

“While it appears that the national Planned Parenthood Federation is aware of these facts, it has not taken the actions necessary to clean up the problem. The questions now are: If the national Planned Parenthood Federation repeatedly accredited its Delaware affiliate, knowing the conditions there, how many more facilities that endanger women have they accredited across the country?  And why didn’t it take strong action here?  It shouldn’t be left to brave nurses to campaign for basic standards of sanitation and appropriate health care.”

Nurses Joyce Vasikonis and Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich previously testified to the “meat-market style assembly-line abortions” which led them to quit their jobs. Earlier this year, the Delaware State Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline filed a complaint against their former colleague, abortionist Timothy F. Liveright, calling him a “clear and immediate danger to the public” after he sent five women to the emergency room this year alone.

The SBA List has compiled an ever-expanding fact sheet on abortion industry negligence and brutality occurring nationwide.

The Susan B. Anthony List, and its affiliated Political Action Committees, the SBA List Candidate Fund and Women Speak Out PAC, are dedicated to pursuing policies and electing candidates who will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List emphasizes the education, promotion, mobilization, and election of pro-life women.  The SBA List is a network of more than 365,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.

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