*Graphic* The Conditions at This MI Abortion Clinic Were So ‘Dangerous’ & ‘Disgusting’ It Was Shut Down
- Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:29pm by
Erica Ritz
(Photo: Target8 News)
A Michigan abortion clinic has been shut down by the fire marshal over conditions the city described as potentially “dangerous to human life or the public welfare.”
And when you see the pictures, you’ll understand why.
Michigan’s Target 8 News has background on the story:
The photos, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, were taken by police when they entered the Women’s Medical Services Building on Dec. 26, 2012 to investigate a break-in.
The photos show unsanitary conditions, including stained medical equipment near an examination chair, trash near lab equipment and discarded in a storage room, and water stains and holes in a leaky ceiling that is falling apart. The investigator also reported “blood dripping from a sink p-trap in a room used by patients.”
Police did find evidence of a broken rear window connected to the break-in. But it’s what they found inside the clinic that prompted the fire marshal to shut the place down.
Here are a few of the photos:
(Photo via Target 8 News)
(Photo: Target 8 News)
(Photo: Target 8 News)
The Muskegon Chronicle details a few more of the disturbing discoveries made by police:
…unsanitary conditions throughout the clinic including used hypodermic needles in unsecured containers, “blood on the floor and walls in multiple locations” as well as dripping from a sink trap in a patient room, and “uncovered buckets containing unknown fluids” in the operating room.
A police detective who investigated after the initial patrol officers’ entry reported seeing “dried bloody handprints on the ultrasound machine and smears and blood splatters on the walls and floors throughout the business.”
The detective reported that televisions, stereos and cash remained in the building, but police could not determine whether whoever broke the door had actually entered the clinic.
Authorities are investigating whether any of the damage was caused by whoever allegedly broke the back door, but much of the squalor appears to have built up over time.
But Dr. Robert Alexander, who ran the clinic, blamed the alleged intruders.
“The last time I was there, when I left, it was pristine,” he insisted in a call with Target 8 News. “It was good.”
Target 8 adds that Women’s Medical Services in Muskegon is not a licensed clinic, but that there is one in the larger city of Grand Rapids.
A little background history on Robert Alexander(I refuse to refer to a butcher as a doctor):
Abortionist Robert L. Alexander By Matt C. AbbottThe following is a recent news release (slightly edited) by Monica Migliorino Miller, director of the Michigan-based Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and author of the excellent book Abandoned:Robert L. Alexander, M.D., whose abortion clinic in Muskegon, Mich., was shut down Dec. 26, 2012 by order of that municipality’s fire department due to building and health code violations, has been hired to perform abortion procedures at Summit Medical Services, a Detroit facility, advertising itself under “Abortion Services and Birth Control,” located at 15801 McNichols Avenue in Detroit.
According to a Dec. 28 release of MLive.com and the Michigan Chronicle, the fire marshal’s order to close Alexander’s Muskegon clinic at 863 Apple Avenue followed after police officers, investigating a broken rear window, noted numerous code violations in the facility. Michigan’s director of public safety, Jeffrey Lewis, noted that the closure was in response to fire, health and building code violations.
Perhaps no other abortion provider in Michigan has had a more troubled and checkered medical career than Robert Alexander, plagued by violations of law, court convictions, jail sentences, a series of botched abortions, and the repeated revocation of his license.
For various reasons, Alexander’s Muskegon facility is his fourth clinic to close since 2008.
The discoveries made by city personnel at Alexander’s Muskegon facility are consistent with observations made at the former Women’s Choice facility in Ann Arbor, Mich., from which Alexander was evicted by court order in December 2005. Alexander had been using a spare room in that facility for months to store garbage, including medical waste material, because he had lost his contract with a waste removal company.
Alexander relocated his clinic to a store-front in Ypsilanti. In a June 2006 affidavit, a young woman who had accompanied her friend to Alexander’s 9 S. Washington facility in Ypsilanti states that “the clinic was in disarray, dirty and unsanitary.” (Affidavits are available from CPLS upon request.) Without notifying his landlord, Alexander moved out of the Ypsilanti storefront when he could no longer pay the rent on the offices. Many anti-abortion activists observed women leaving Alexander’s Ypsilanti clinic in a confused state of mind, had difficulty walking, and some even vomited in the parking lot, apparently because they were not given enough time to recover from the anesthetic used in Alexander’s abortion procedures.
More recently, complaints filed by Operation Rescue with Michigan state regulatory agencies cited the following violations at Alexander’s Muskegon facility:
The complaints include allegations related to 24 standard of practice violations, 23 facilities violations, and 7 environmental waste disposal violations. Some of the allegations include:
- a) Non-qualified personnel providing services.
- b) Violation of the 24-hour waiting period.
- c) Using a broken ultrasound machine to “show” patients their fetus and gestational development.
- d) Failure to remain on premises during the post operative portion of the patient’s stay.
- e) Failure to keep adequate medical records.
- f) Unsanitary surgical practices, including the use of unsterilized or reused equipment during abortions.
- g) Maintaining unsanitary facilities.
- h) Furnishment of false information on drug records.
- i) Failure to properly dispose of medical waste.
- In 2006 Alexander was sued by Ameritech Publishing, Inc., for a debt exceeding $30,000 (Washtenaw County 2nd Judicial Court case no. 05-808-CK).
- Alexander’s professional past has faced several legal challenges. Most notably, “In September 1988, [Alexander] was convicted in federal court, by jury trial, on 12 of 15 counts brought against him. The conviction included one count of conspiracy to distribute eight controlled substances and eleven counts of distributing or aiding and abetting the distribution of four of those controlled substances. [Alexander] was sentenced to several concurrent four-year terms of imprisonment, a $25,000 fine, and a three year special parole term…”
- These violations and unethical practices resulted in the revocation of Alexander’s license. A lengthy complaint filed against Alexander in 2002 (File no. 02-682-NH) states that after suffering an abortion procedure carried out by Alexander, the defendant required “total abdominal hysterectomy and resection of her cecum and proximal ileum.”
- A Wayne County case filed in July of 1993 (Docket No. C-255) states that Alexander used inappropriate instruments during an abortion procedure, causing perforation of defendant’s uterus. The complaint indicated that Elizabeth A., the woman who sought the abortion, was seven weeks pregnant, but Alexander had miscalculated that the unborn child was 16 to 17 weeks gestational age. Ironically, this abortion took place at the Summit clinic where Alexander was “moonlighting” at the time.
- More recently, a June 2009 case argues that Alexander performed an incomplete abortion on a patient whose pregnancy was at 26 weeks gestation. Michigan law does not permit for abortions beyond 24 weeks except in cases involving health of the mother.
Tom in NC
