| | '''The ''L.A. Times'' Describes an Overcrowded Abortion Clinic, But Opposes a Missouri Law to Improve It''' | | '''The ''L.A. Times'' Describes an Overcrowded Abortion Clinic, But Opposes a Missouri Law to Improve It''' |
| − | The ''L.A. Times'' reported Monday that "Planned Parenthood's clinic here in central Missouri performs about 600 first-trimester abortions a year, drawing patients from areas several hours away. Surgical abortions take place in two '''small''' exam rooms as the patient, often sedated with a Valium, lies on a padded table, her feet in stirrups. The recovery room, painted blue, is '''crowded''', the vinyl recliners positioned so close to one another, '''patients could hold hands'''."<ref>Stephanie Simon, "Facilities that regularly provide first-trimester terminations — including the pill version — may be regulated as outpatient surgical centers. Two of the state's three clinics would have to close," Los Angeles Times (Sept. 10, 2007), http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-abortion10sep10,1,4090012.story?coll=la-headlines-nation</ref> | + | The ''L.A. Times'' reported Monday that "Planned Parenthood's clinic here in central Missouri performs about 600 first-trimester [[abortion]]s a year, drawing patients from areas several hours away. Surgical [[abortion]]s take place in two '''small''' exam rooms as the patient, often sedated with a Valium, lies on a padded table, her feet in stirrups. The recovery room, painted blue, is '''crowded''', the vinyl recliners positioned so close to one another, '''patients could hold hands'''."<ref>Stephanie Simon, "Facilities that regularly provide first-trimester terminations — including the pill version — may be regulated as outpatient surgical centers. Two of the state's three clinics would have to close," Los Angeles Times (Sept. 10, 2007), http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-abortion10sep10,1,4090012.story?coll=la-headlines-nation</ref> |
| − | Its inhumane to subject mothers to over-crowded post-abortion facilities like that. [[Planned Parenthood]] enjoys an annual profit of over $50 million as the [[United States]]' largest [[abortion]] provider,<ref>http://www.lifeissues.org/pp/index.html</ref> but a clinic pleads poverty in complying with a new Missouri law requiring the same conditions for abortion patients as other surgical patients.
| + | It is inhumane to subject mothers to overcrowded post-[[abortion]] facilities like that. [[Planned Parenthood]] enjoys an annual profit of over $50 million as the [[United States]]' largest [[abortion]] provider,<ref>http://www.lifeissues.org/pp/index.html</ref> but a clinic pleads poverty in complying with a new Missouri law requiring the same conditions for abortion patients as other surgical patients. |
| | Missouri merely extended a law that already exists for outpatient (ambulatory) surgical centers to [[abortion]]. Missouri's Ambulatory Surgical Center Licensing Law ("the Act") was amended effective August 28, 2007.<ref>Codified at section 197.200 of the Revised Missouri Statutes.</ref> Prior to the amendment the Act defined an ambulatory surgical center as any "establishment operated primarily for the purpose of performing surgical procedures or primarily for the purpose of performing childbirths and which does not provide ... accommodations for patients to stay more than twenty-three hours ...." The amendment expands the definition to include any establishment that performs five or more first trimester abortions per month or any second or third trimester abortions. | | Missouri merely extended a law that already exists for outpatient (ambulatory) surgical centers to [[abortion]]. Missouri's Ambulatory Surgical Center Licensing Law ("the Act") was amended effective August 28, 2007.<ref>Codified at section 197.200 of the Revised Missouri Statutes.</ref> Prior to the amendment the Act defined an ambulatory surgical center as any "establishment operated primarily for the purpose of performing surgical procedures or primarily for the purpose of performing childbirths and which does not provide ... accommodations for patients to stay more than twenty-three hours ...." The amendment expands the definition to include any establishment that performs five or more first trimester abortions per month or any second or third trimester abortions. |