Nirav Shah, M.D.

Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

Dr. Nirav Sha, New York State’s Health Commissioner, has resigned after a lawsuit revealed that his department was inspecting tanning salons more than the 225 abortion facilities in the state.

The New York Post is reporting that Shah is stepping down amid rising criticism over his department’s negligent regard for women’s reproductive health for failing to regularly inspect abortion facilities. In some cases, facilities had not been inspected for more than a decade.

Contrast this with restaurants in the state where an inspection by the health department is required every year and tanning salons that must be visited every other year.

“Abortion clinics are as much a public concern as tanning salons,” said Greg Pfundstein, executive director of a pro-life organization known as the Chiaroscuro Foundation.  “More oversight is needed. Right now, New York is only inspecting a fraction of abortion providers, and only very rarely. It’s hard to know which facilities are safe.”

Shortly after the Kermit Gosnell scandal erupted in Philadelphia where a sub-standard clinic was permitted to operate without inspection for years, Pfundstein filed a Freedom of Information Request seeking information about how often New York state health inspectors were visiting abortion facilities in that state.

The information disclosed was shocking. As The Post reported earlier this week, eight of the 25 abortion facilities subject to state inspections had not been inspected at all since the year 2000. Five of the remaining facilities were inspected only once during the same time period.

A few days after this bombshell revelation was made, the state’s Health Department admitted that it only inspects abortion clinics when they receive a complaint – which is the same policy under which Kermit Gosnell was permitted to operate for so many years in Philadelphia until that state drastically revised its policy last year.

“The State Department of Health vigorously and aggressively investigates any and all allegations of physician misconduct, or complaints against a facility under its direct supervision,” said  Health Department spokesman Bill Schwarz. “This includes 22 complaints since 2005 against the 25 DOH-regulated facilities that provide reproductive health services – all of which will also be subjected to re-inspection within the coming days.”

However, insiders in New York insist that Shah’s resignation has nothing to do with the abortion facility scandal and that he landed a job at the Kaiser Health Foundation.

“This has been in the works for quite awhile,” a source told The Post.

This may be true, but that still leaves major questions unanswered – such as why the estimated 225 abortion providers in New York state are not being regularly inspected.

Could abortion politics have something to do with this shocking lack of oversight?

Of course! The abortion industry is the nation’s staunchest opponent of abortion facility inspections because of the costs involved in the proper upkeep of their facilities.

For instance, the Center for Reproductive Rights refers to them as “TRAP” laws, which stands for “Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers” which they claim force a higher standard on abortion facilities than other health care clinics.

“Compliance with these physical plant requirements may require extensive renovations or be physically impossible in existing facilities,” the Center argues on its website. “TRAP laws may also allow unannounced state inspections, even when patients are present.”

If other ambulatory clinics are required to meet these standards, why not abortion facilities? For instance, the abortion industry vigorously fought the imposition of new regulations in the state of Texas which were merely intended to bring abortion facilities into compliance with the same rules that govern the management of other ambulatory surgical centers. It also requires that RU-486 chemical abortions be performed according to FDA safety standards, and requires doctors who perform abortions to be qualified to treat life-threatening complications after botched abortions, and to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

In spite of these common sense laws, the Center insists that these “excessive and unnecessary government regulations” are an “ever-growing trend among state legislatures” who just want to “increase the cost and scarcity of abortion services” for the sole purpose of “harming women’s health and inhibiting their reproductive choices.”

That’s just the politically correct version of the real story – which is all about how profit means more to the abortion industry than women’s health. What other reason do they have for refusing to allow state inspectors into their facilities?

Thankfully, even some pro-abortion legislators in New York are beginning to see the light and demanding to know why abortion facilities are not being inspected.

“It’s kind of scary. The lack of inspections is really quite frightening,” said Staten Island state Sen. Diane Savino (D), who supports abortion rights. “These are facilities where women are seeking medical care. We shouldn’t allow these medical facilities to take second fiddle to inspections for tanning salons and restaurants.”

The scariest part about this story is that most women still think abortion is safe in this country just because it’s legal. As far too many victims have already learned, nothing could be further from the truth.

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