Dr. Tiller's Late Abortion Patients

Last night, I went to make a cup of tea. All the cups I normally use were in the sink (whoops), so I reached to the back of the shelf where I keep my "special" mugs, and I pulled a mug for Women's Health Care Services, Dr. Tiller's now defunct clinic.

There has been renewed interest in his clinic and the doctors he worked with. More specifically, Dr. Ann Kristin Neuhaus, who provided the legally required second opinion for Dr. Tiller's late abortion cases from 1999-2006. 11 cases are under review, because someone filed a complaint to the State Board of Healing Arts.

I read about it in this article. One of the patients in question, a 15 year old from Illinois, bothered me in particular because the author of the article makes it seem like she got an abortion because she didn't like basketball anymore, and that's it. The cases described in the article are missing a lot of details in general, ie, was the 15 year old pregnant because her 22 year old boyfriend impregnated her? Did she spend 20 weeks trying to get an abortion and was unable to raise funds and ended up at Dr. Tiller's clinic? If there is anything my experience in the field has taught me, it's that the reasons and psychology of a woman seeking an abortion is very complex. Just like people in general. We aren't one-dimensional images that can be fully understood in a few sentences. People reading these articles can easily jump to the conclusion Dr. Tiller was doing abortions on young women for totally ridiculous reasons. He didn't do that.

Dr. Tiller didn't take abortion lightly and did not give abortions to people who were flippant about it. He just didn't. I am thinking because of HIPAA laws the article couldn't reveal more, and as Dr. Neuhaus stated herself, she was worried anti-choice people would get ahold of these documents. Clearly her fears were correct. Obviously, if Dr. Neuhaus was cutting corners and not properly documenting these cases, then that is wrong. I could only find articles about this from the anti-choice perspective, so it's hard to fully determine what was going on her.

It just saddens me that anti-choicers are still obsessing over this clinic which is now closed. Dr. Tiller has been dead for 2.5 years. RIP.

What's the matter with Kansas?

Recently, a new law was signed by Kansas governor Sam Brownback that significantly altered standards by which all (three) abortion clinics in the state must operate by. These regulations are onerous are best. New regulations include:

• Procedure rooms be at least 150 square feet in size


• Storage areas for “janitorial supplies and equipment” be at least 50 square feet per procedure room


• Recovery area must be at least 80 square feet per patient


• Temperature must be between 68 and 73 degrees in operating rooms


• Temperature must be between 70 and 75 degrees in recovery rooms


• Feature separate dressing rooms for staff and patients


• These dressing rooms must be equipped with a toilet, a sink and a place to store clothes


• Have 13 different types of drugs on hand


• A patient is now required to stay in the recovery room for at least two hours after her procedure, even if the procedure requires no anesthesia


• Clinics must also have a licensed nurse in the clinic when abortions are done

AND THE LIST GOES ON.

These regulations were sent to providers on June 17th. The deadline by which clinics had to comply to these new requirements by is....

Wait for it...

July 1.

Yup. You have 14 days to completely redesign your clinic. You know, just draw up some blueprints. Meet with some construction people, figure out the pricing. Order the materials. Complete the construction. In two weeks. NBD.

Obviously, many are up in arms stating that these new requirements are ridiculous and exist solely to shut clinics down. Republicans and anti-choicers counter saying they are just looking out for women’s health. “Without any oversight, women really are in danger,” Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, said Tuesday, as she took a sip out of her piping hot cup of bullshit.

The Planned Parenthood believes they will be in full compliance with the regulations by the deadline, but the Center for Women’s Health in Overland Park is likely to be denied a license due to these new regulations. They are challenging the law in court saying they were not given enough time to comply to the new law. Aid for Women, a clinic in Kansas City, is closed, at least temporarily due to the new restrictions. It is worth noting they were not even inspected, but were simply denied a license based on information included in their application.

What is interesting about this is that there are places, in the state of Kansas, that do not have these type of guidelines. Specific room size, temperature, patient recovery time, etc are not regulated in this way. Those places?

HOSPITALS AND SURGERY CENTERS.

*FACE PALM*