PHILADELPHIA — Abortion clinics in Pennsylvania will receive greater scrutiny under regulatory controls announced Feb. 15 by new Gov. Tom Corbett in the wake of the state government’s failure to supervise a horror-filled Philadelphia clinic.
Seven employees of the state’s Departments of Health and State have been fired or have resigned since a grand jury issued in January a devastating report regarding those agencies’ shortcomings in overseeing the Women’s Medical Society in west Philadelphia, Corbett told reporters.
Corbett announced a series of changes in each department, including the requirement that each abortion clinic will be inspected annually and will be subject to random inspections.
Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, the owner of the clinic, was charged with eight counts of murder — one in the death of a 41-year-old woman and seven in the deaths of viable, fully delivered children who were killed outside the womb. The grand jury reported that a February 2010 raid of the clinic found deplorable conditions, which resulted in its closing and Gosnell’s medical license being suspended.
Gosnell, whose abortion practice at the clinic was approved by the Department of Health in 1979, had never been certified as an obstetrician/gynecologist. None of his employees were licensed to operate or to provide anesthesia.
The grand jury report found there had been no state inspection of the clinic since 1993 in spite of complaints.
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