Alabama to reevaluate rules governing abortion clinics

This is certainly a step in the right direction, but it fails to address the principal issue here: that late-term abortions - those that occur during the third trimester of pregnancy - will remain legal in Alabama indefinitely. Unfortunately, there's little that Alabama, or any other state, for that matter, can do about this tragic situation. For all practical purposes, states must condone abortion on demand throughout all nine months of pregnancy...thanks to the United States Supreme Court.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — State health officials have determined Alabama's rules for abortion clinics are not clear enough and will be revised, a move that comes just months after a clinic was closed amid allegations of numerous rules violations.

Rick Harris, who directs the department's Bureau of Health Provider Standards, would not specify the areas of Alabama law that women's clinics are having trouble understanding. But he said Wednesday proposed amendments should be ready in about 45 days. ...

Harris said three of the state's nine remaining abortion clinics have been inspected in the past week, and those findings supported the need for a change.

Anti-abortion groups have been especially dogged in their demands for reform in the months since a state health department investigation uncovered several violations at the Summit Medical Center in Birmingham, including abortions being performed without a doctor's presence.

In one case, health officials reported that a woman delivered a stillborn baby at an emergency room in February after a Summit nurse gave her the RU 486 abortion drug even though her blood pressure was too high and the baby was nearly full-term.

More specifically, the woman delivered a 6-pound 4-ounce stillborn child after being told by Summit staff that she was six weeks pregnant, in spite of the fact that she had been given an ultrasound that would have clearly shown otherwise. The only reasonable conclusion is that the clinic deliberately falsified records in order to avoid unwanted scrutiny by state health officials.

For more, see my previous posts on this incident: here, here, here, here, here, and here.