Health

These Are The Health And Safety Violations That Shut Down The St. Louis Planned Parenthood Clinic

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Abortion advocates called it an attack on women’s health when the Missouri Health Department threatened to shut down a St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic, but a report listing numerous health and safety violations paints a different picture.

The inspection report, published by CheckMyClinic.org, was acquired through a request for public records from the health department and online sources. It contained a lengthy list of practices that could have put hundreds of patients at risk. (RELATED: CNN Cuts Black Pro-Life Activist From Abortion Episode Of ‘United Shades Of America’)

Several of the violations were listed as repeat offenses:

  • Expired meds, IV fluids, and supplies, some as old as six years
  • Staff using single-dose injectable medications for more than one patient to “save money”
  • Medications not stored properly

Some of the violations could put the clinic in legal jeopardy:

  • The staff did not log their abortions over 18 weeks gestation
  • Patients not given their Patient Bill of Rights
  • The clinic did not send fetal tissue for pathology evaluation

Dust covered emergency equipment and supplies all throughout the clinic, fire extinguishers were not regularly tested and rips in the covers of exam tables left patients exposed to infections.

Additionally, staffers were not given proper backgrounds checks, orientation or infection control training. They also cleaned surgical equipment without wearing personal protective equipment and failed to sterilize instruments that could be used on multiple patients.

Reports from 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2016 all showed similar and repeated violations. A 2016 report from the St. Louis Fire Department revealed that emergency services had been called 58 times between 2009 and 2016, or once every 46 days.

The Missouri Health Department cited those health and safety violations, as well as what the health department referred to as “deficient practices” involving physicians and residents who treated patients at the clinic, when it gave Planned Parenthood until May 31 to bring everything into compliance.

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