Erie (Pennsylvania) has first abortion clinic in 20 years

Pittsburgh Post Gazette ^ | Friday, September 05, 2003 | Associated Press

[pittsburgh gop guy]

Erie has first abortion clinic in 20 years

Friday, September 05, 2003

Associated Press

ERIE, Pa. -- An abortion clinic has been approved for Erie County, where the procedure has not been available for more than 20 years.

"We are committed and dedicated to making freedom of choice a reality for the women of Erie," said Linda Locke, chief operating officer of American Women's Services. "For too long, the women of Erie have been forced to drive out of the county to have abortion services provided to them."

Dr. Steven Brigham had been seeking to open the clinic in downtown Erie -- the state's fourth largest city -- for nearly four years. It will also treat women for sexually transmitted diseases and provide reproductive health services.

The state Department of Health granted Brigham an exemption from a required transfer agreement between a clinic and a hospital that agrees to provide emergency services to the clinic's patients. No area hospitals would sign the agreement, but state and federal laws require hospitals to treat patients in emergency situations.

Dave Halligan, one of a handful of protesters with People for Life, a national anti-abortion organization, said, "This is a sad day for Erie County. ... We need to be here, to tell the women that come through here about loving alternatives."

[pittsburgh gop guy]

"The state Department of Health granted Brigham an exemption from a required transfer agreement between a clinic and a hospital that agrees to provide emergency services to the clinic's patients."

Thanks Governor Ed Rendell.

[BlessedBeGod]

FYI

[Calpernia]

Ping

[RonF]

The state Department of Health granted Brigham an exemption from a required transfer agreement between a clinic and a hospital that agrees to provide emergency services to the clinic's patients.

Is this a requirement to operate any other kind of clinic in the state?

No area hospitals would sign the agreement, but state and federal laws require hospitals to treat patients in emergency situations.

Well, duh. What would happen to the hospital if someone showed up at their doorstep in the event of a complication from abortion and they refused her service? "Sorry, we don't have an agreement with the clinic you received care at, so we won't help you." Are you kidding?

[joesnuffy]

Lightning rods for the wrath of God

[pittsburgh gop guy]

If it's up to Rendell, there would be an abortion clinic in every county in PA where it would be profitable to have one.

[pittsburgh gop guy]

If it's up to Rendell, there would be an abortion clinic in every county in PA where it would be profitable to have one.

[Coleus]

`

[RonF]

Maybe so, but that doesn't answer my questions. If this requirement to have an agreement with a hospital for handling emergency cases applies only to abortion clinics and not other medical clinics, I'd guess that it was unconstitutional. I'd also wonder what the need for it was, given the state law mentioned that if someone shows up at an ER, they have to be treated regardless of their source and ability to pay. If this condition was set up due to some demonstrable need, that's one thing. If it was set up purely to frustrate clinics from providing abortions, then that's another. Abortions are legal. Trying to block them through some unreasonable process is not.

[Polycarp]

"The state Department of Health granted Brigham an exemption from a required transfer agreement between a clinic and a hospital that agrees to provide emergency services to the clinic's patients."

Thanks Governor Ed Rendell.

George W. Bush's close friend, pro-abort "Catholic" Tom Ridge, did exactly the same thing when he was governor, which allowed this same doctor's clinic in State College to open in the mid 1990's.

You expect this kind of support for baby murderers from atheistic Democrats like Rendell.

But he's no different than George Bush's Homeland Defense Dept Secretary Ridge.

Ping. (As usual, if you would like to be added to or removed from my "conservative Catholics" ping list, just send me a FReepmail. Please realize that some of my "ping" posts are long.)

[Polycarp]

If this requirement to have an agreement with a hospital for handling emergency cases applies only to abortion clinics and not other medical clinics, I'd guess that it was unconstitutional.

No its not! Its common sense. Everyone in the medical fields who knows anything about the abortion industry knows that abortion "doctors" are the dregs of society as well as the most incompetent docs in medicine. Unlike the requirements of any other type of specialist who performs invasive procedures, they couldn't adequately treat complications from the procedures they perform if their patients' lives depended on it.

I'd also wonder what the need for it was

See above. Abortionists are all butchers who couldn't cut it in any other field. The state has an interest in assuring they be able to get competent care since they have legalized this barbarous procedure and allowed it to be performed by unqualified hacks.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Sad development.

[Politically Correct]

Time to get out the digital camera and set up a web page.
Photograph of everyone going in, posted to the web.
Don't get close, better don't be seen.
Watch the traffic disappear and the butcher move on to somewhere else.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Saundra Duffy]

Just another hell hole for exploiting women and killing babies for fun and profit.

[RonF]

I'd like to know the logic behind this comment:

The state has an interest in assuring they be able to get competent care since they have legalized this barbarous procedure and allowed it to be performed by unqualified hacks.

According to the posting, state law requires that any hospital must treat any person who shows up at their ER needing care. So, what then is the need for this agreement they're talking about? It's not like the hospital is going to refuse care to anyone in it's absence.

[pittsburgh gop guy]

No, I think you are missing the point by about a mile and a half. I believe that all health care facilities have to have the agreement with, usually the closest hospital, to provide care in case something goes wrong while the patient is at the clinic or doctor's office. What happened here is that the PA Dept. of Health, run by someone appointed by radical pro-abort Ed Rendell, approved an exception that every doctor's office/clinic/school has to have. If it were not an ABORTION clinic, it would not have gotten the approval to operate.

And someone bitched about Tom Ridge. Yeah, he is a pro-abort Catholic. But guess what, he was governor for 7 years, and his administration did not grant exceptions to the law like Rendell's just did. And Ridge was from Erie, but never did anything to bring an abortion clinic to Erie. So, you can rip on Ridge all ya want, but babies will be killed in Erie now because of Ed Rendell.

[Polycarp]

But guess what, he was governor for 7 years, and his administration did not grant exceptions to the law like Rendell's just did. And Ridge was from Erie, but never did anything to bring an abortion clinic to Erie. So, you can rip on Ridge all ya want, but babies will be killed in Erie now because of Ed Rendell.

You are simply wrong. This is an excerpt from an article I wrote, Catholic Activism--Is it Worth It? for a national Catholic newspaper March 15, 2001 :

While a Congressman, Ridge had initially supported Ronald Reagan’s Mexico City policy, preventing US funds from going to overseas agencies supporting abortion services, then subsequently reversed his position. Just as one of Bill Clinton’s first acts as President was to overturn the Mexico City policy of the previous administrations, one of Ridge’s first acts was to overturn the 14 year old policy of Pennsylvania regarding family planning services. According to The Newsletter of Planned Parenthood of the Susquehanna Valley:

"...Since 1981, Pennsylvania has been one of only a few states that did not invest funds in contraceptive health services. Governor Tom Ridge made good on his campaign pledge to support funding for comprehensive family planning services by including $2.03 million for 'women's medical services' in his first budget...(legislators) inserted language that could have prohibited medical providers like Planned Parenthood from responding to patients' requests for abortion information or referral...Governor Ridge removed the ...'gag rule' language before signing the final budget. Ridge noted that he was 'expressly withholding (his) approval of that language'."

In May of 1995, Ridge emphatically stated that Pope John Paul II’s new encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, would not cause him to reassess his position on the issue. In 1996, Governor Ridge joined other pro-abortion republican Governor in calling for removal of the pro-life plank from the Republican National Platform. Then during 1997, his Department of Health waived a requirement of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act that requires an abortion clinic to obtain a written transfer agreement with a local hospital, allowing a new abortion clinic to open in State College. Newspapers quoted the clinic's director as saying the waiver allowed the clinic to open early, and the first abortion clinic ever in the central Pennsylvania Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown was open for business.

[hocndoc]

It's worse than simply waiving a State licensing requirement for an abortion facility where second trimester abortions are going to be done. (RonF, It's not uncommon for surgical facilities or other special use medical clinics to have specific requirements. Texas has a complex set of rules and added to them this year. )

http://www.all.org/communique/cq950224.htm
""PRACTITIONERS: Florida-Stephen Brigham, an abortionist who had recently begun doing abortions in Pensacola (communiqu‚, 1/13/95, p. 1) has had his license suspended by the state of Florida. Brigham's license has been on permanent inactive status in Pennsylvania since 1992, was suspended in New Jersey in 1994 and was revoked in New York in 1994. Brigham's attorney claims that the suspension will be challenged.(Reading: "Abortion Doctor Will Challenge Suspension," Reuters, 2/7/95; "Florida Suspends License of Doctor at Abortion Clinic," New York Times, 2/6/95, p. A15; "State Suspends Doctor's License," Pensacola News Journal, 2/5/95, pp. 1A, 5)""

A Google search on this man shows that he seems to work overtime to break laws concerning zoning, abortion facility rules and regulations, and most especially, safe and usual medical care.

http://www.lifenews.com/state128.html

I have no idea why anyone would go into business with this man, much less why the State would waive good medical practice rules. Why did he get his medical license back?

[RonF]

I'll grant you that this man should not be practicing medicine of any kind. But I can also tell you that the Chicago papers seem to have a story on someone like this every month and they usually have nothing to do with abortions; they're practicing some other speciality, or general practice. It's easy to pick out one bad case; it doesn't indicate anything about the general case.