Falls Church, VA – Operation Rescue has learned that an abortion clinic, which is suing the State of Virginia to block clinic safety standards, has botched a second abortion that has required emergency patient hospitalization in just three months. Both incidents took place after Falls Church Healthcare filed the challenge to the new regulations in June, 2013.
Heavily redacted 911 records obtained by local activists working with Operation Rescue show that an ambulance was summoned to the Falls Church Healthcare abortion clinic at around 6:30 p.m. on September 10, 2013. Police were dispatched to assist rescue units at the request of rescue units.
Recordings of police radio communications and a CAD transcript released by the Falls Church Police Department indicate the clinic was “worried about protestors causing a scene.”
“Abortion clinics are actually worried that pro-life activists will document life-threatening medical emergencies and turn them in. Secrecy allows them to continue inflicting sub-standard practices on vulnerable women without consequences for their bad behavior,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue. “In fact, this isn’t the first time we have received 911 records related to Falls Church Healthcare, and each time, we seem to receive records that have been redacted more than the last. It’s as if someone is trying to cover up for this shoddy abortion business.”
In August, Operation Rescue posted video featuring a 911 audio recording showing a woman being removed from the clinic on a stretcher during an emergency that occurred on June 27, 2013. Records indicated she was a 24-year old woman suffering from “hyperventilation following anesthesia” who required “ALS” or Advanced Life Support.
Falls Church Healthcare underwent a licensing inspection in August 2012, after Virginia enacted new safety regulations for abortion clinics. The inspection report, obtained by Operation Rescue, listed 63 pages of deficiencies discovered at that clinic, including:

• Bloody, reused vacutainer holders
• Dried blood on leg support of procedure table
• Bloody door and wall outside procedure room
• Cloth leg covers reused for multiple patients
• Dirty recovery recliners
• Improperly washed linens that could spread infection
• Contamination of pathology containers with blood from physician’s gloves
• Undated, open vials of medication
• No emergency “incident tray” in one procedure room
• Expired supplies, including an emergency IV line that expired in 2003
• Failure to maintain equipment
• No process for STD screening and reporting
• No policy for reporting patient deaths

After failing its inspection, Falls Church Healthcare filed suit challenging the new regulations.
On Wednesday, October 9, 2013, a judge denied a motion brought by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli seeking to have the abortion clinic’s suit dismissed. Cuccinelli, who is currently in a contentious campaign for Virginia’s governor, has faced harsh – and undeserved – criticism from abortion groups angry about the new regulations. However, those regulations actually benefit women by providing minimum safety standards that can close abortion clinics that endanger women by refusing to comply with the law.
“If any place needed to be held to minimum safety regulations, it is Falls Church Healthcare,” said Sullenger. “This clinic’s owners simply don’t want to clean up their Gosnell-like abortion mill and have taken measures to make sure they never do. The losers here are women as well as their babies. The clinic owners have gotten wealthy, just like Kermit Gosnell, cutting corners on women’s health. Women everywhere should be appalled that Falls Church Healthcare owners apparently don’t think women deserve better than a bloody, back-alley-style clinic and incompetent abortionists.”
The abortion clinic is owned by Rosemary and Wayne Codding.
View Falls Church Healthcare’s profile page at AbortionDocs.org.