Letter to the Editor

To the editor:

After reading the July 25 letter from Michael Nolan of Crestwood, I felt compelled to write. Mr. Nolan’s defense of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood facility and his pretense to “care” for poor women is misplaced.

Planned Parenthood’s main focus is abortion, not health care, for women. They provide less than 1 percent of the nation’s PAP tests, and less than 2 percent of breast exams. None provide mammograms.

Yet they commit more than 30 percent of the nation’s abortions: 324,000 per year, 887 per day, one every 90 seconds.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) did not renew the license of the facility because they failed the inspection process and refused to make needed changes. These are just some of the infractions noted on the inspection report:

* Expired meds, IV fluids, and supplies as old as six years (repeated violation)

* Staff reusing single dose injectable medications for more than one patient to “save money” (repeated violation)

* Tears in the exam tables; these tables could not be cleaned to ensure that women were not exposed to infections

* Dust covering equipment and supplies

* The refrigerator had not been cleaned in over 1.5 years according to a staff member (health care assistant) who had been working in the clinic for that period of time. He had no idea who was responsible for that.

* Failed to properly sterilize instruments that are used from woman to woman

* Medication refrigerator temperature was recorded as “out of range” with no intervention or resolution for several days. Anything stored in this refrigerator was compromised.

There were also at least three patients that required hospitalization due to botched abortions at the facility. The doctors who performed these abortions refused to talk to representatives from the DHSS.

Over the last nine years there have been at least 72 documented cases of women being transported from the St. Louis Planned Parenthood facility by ambulance.

If Mr. Nolan is truly concerned about the health and well-being of women, he would be encouraging people to contact the Planned Parenthood Clinic to urge them to comply with the licensing requirements of the state and to cooperate fully with the investigation.

Michelle Breihan
Oakville