Mount Vernon — It’s being reported that the Virginia Board of Health, this past Friday, adopted a new slate of abortion center safety standards. This news comes two days following the release of several health inspection reports obtained by the Family Foundation under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act.
These reports document 80 safety violations, mostly related to “infection prevention,” “drug storage and dispensing,” and “poor equipment maintenance.” One report identifies sanitary issues, citing traces of spilled blood (several layers worth, in various stages of coagulation) and the rather undignified discovery of fetal remains in the break-room freezer. The mysterious absence of employee background checks was documented among these findings, as well.
In these reports, the Family Foundation sees evidence of why abortion clinics ought to be kept cleaner and more sanitary. They see reasons why abortion equipment ought to be better maintained. They see examples of why abortion workers ought to be held to a more acceptable standard when it comes to matters involving patient care and medical safety.
But what I see is further proof of why the continuance of abortion needs to be brought to an end. And many of the folks I’ve been talking with here in the Mount Vernon area seem to share this opinion. We see the shameful abuse of women, robbed of their offspring. Deposed of motherhood. We see the sad culmination of political policies intended to suppress the preeminence of God. We see deep and profound neglect for the moral sovereignty of all involved.
We see all of this, not just in the exploitation of those individuals directly subjected to the abortionists’ intentions. But in the moral degradation of our entire community, where those in power have very intently sought to abduct the rights of our posterity in the womb, knowing perfectly well that our destiny is bound up with theirs. That these folks ultimately intend to hang us [and every last trace of our “inalienable” rights] from this same deadly hook seems almost a forgone conclusion.
Meanwhile, the Family Foundation has been pointing to these new abortion center safety standards with strange enthusiasm, casting the Board’s decision as a “pro-life” victory.
But I’m afraid there’s nothing particularly “pro-life” about the establishment of more abortion laws. On the contrary, the Board’s decision seems only to reinforce, perpetuate, and falsely legitimize the very mechanisms of injustice that groups like the Family Foundation claim (on paper) to oppose.
Joseph A. Glean
Former candidate for the Virginia General Assembly, 44th House District.