By Cheryl Sullenger
St. Louis, MO – For the 75th time, emergency responders were called to the Reproductive Health Services Planned Parenthood in St. Louis – the last abortion facility in Missouri – for a woman suffering an apparently serious medical emergency.
The Coalition for Life St. Louis reported that on November 21, 2019, a fire unit arrived at the RHS Planned Parenthood at 1:26 p.m. followed fifteen minutes later by an ambulance that had shut off lights and sirens before approaching the abortion facility.
Minutes later, paramedics emerged from RHS Planned Parenthood pushing a gurney on which laid a woman in the Fowler’s position completely covered by a sheet. The Coalition for Life St. Louis reported that the woman appeared to be unconscious.
The Fowler’s position is a seated position with the gurney angled at between 30 and 90 degrees. This is done to aid in respiration and is used for women suffering from vaginal hemorrhages.
This incident underscores the dangers of this particular Planned Parenthood at a time when the Department of Health and Senior Services is fighting to enforce a decision not to renew RHS Planned Parenthood’s abortion facility license in the wake of an investigation into mishandled life-threatening medical emergencies that took place last year.
“This emergency shows that nothing has changed at RHS Planned Parenthood to improve their sloppy practices that are endangering the lives of women,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, which has been tracking and documenting medical emergencies at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood for more than ten years. “In fact, RHS Planned Parenthood staff continues to defy the Missouri authorities by refusing to fully cooperate with an investigation into patient safety issues.”
A 62-page deficiency report was issued on June 13, 2019, detailing the horrific incidents in which multiple failed abortion attempts were made on three women, one of which nearly died from blood loss and another who suffered from sepsis, a life-threatening infection.
Residents who were part of the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health Family Planning Fellowship, an abortion training program affiliated with Washington University St. Louis and Barnes Jewish Hospital, participated in the failed abortion attempts at RHS Planned Parenthood. Five of the residents involved refused to submit to interviews requested by the DHSS.
In fact, instead of attempting to comply with licensing regulations, Planned Parenthood has attacked the DHSS with falsee stories that the state was forcing women to undergo two pelvic exams prior to abortions and that the DHSS was tracking women’s menstrual periods. Both stories were fabricated to publicly smear the DHSS through the use of a compliant, abortion-friendly main-stream new media.
An administrative hearing was held in October to determine whether the DHSS was within its rights when it ordered that RHS Planned Parenthood’s abortion facility license not be renewed due to the dangerously sub-standard patient care practices. The facility is currently operating on a stay from the Administrative Court.
A decision is expected from Administrative Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi sometime in February 2020.
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood of the Greater St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, which operates RHS Planned Parenthood, has opened a new surgical abortion facility across the Mississippi River in Fairview, Illinois, where abortion facilities undergo very little oversight. The facility was built in secret as a back-up plan, in the event RHS Planned Parenthood lost its abortion facility license in Missouri.
“All Planned Parenthood has done is export its dangerous practices to Illinois where it knows it can get away with them,” said Newman. “That makes the Fairview abortion facility even more dangerous that the St. Louis Planned Parenthood, because in Illinois, there is little to no accountability. That shows how little concern these people have for the lives and safety of the women they pretend to serve.”
