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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, On May 13, 2013, a jury in a Philadelphia Court of
3Common Pleas convicted abortion provider Kermit Gosnell of 3
4counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of infants born
5alive following attempted abortions and one count of
6involuntary manslaughter in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a
7patient who sought an abortion at Kermit Gosnell's abortion
8clinic, the Women's Medical Society in West Philadelphia; and
 
9    WHEREAS, On May 13, 2013, a jury in a Philadelphia Court of
10Common Pleas also convicted Kermit Gosnell of 21 counts of
11performing illegal late-term abortions and 210 counts of
12violating Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act which, among
13other requirements, mandates a 24-hour reflection period
14before an abortion may be performed; and
 
15    WHEREAS, The report of the Grand Jury in the Court of
16Common Pleas, First Judicial District of Pennsylvania,
17Criminal Trial Division, certified on January 14, 2011, begins,
18"This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered
19women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally
20delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of
21pregnancy-and then murdered these newborns by severing their
22spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he
23carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he

 

 

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1overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal
2disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their
3wombs and bowels-and, on at least two occasions, caused their
4deaths."; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The report of the Grand Jury detailed findings of
6dangerous and unsanitary conditions in the Women's Medical
7Society: "The clinic reeked of animal urine, courtesy of the
8cats that were allowed to roam (and defecate) freely. Furniture
9and blankets were stained with blood. Instruments were not
10properly sterilized. Disposable medical supplies were not
11disposed of; they were reused, over and over again. Medical
12equipment-such as the defibrillator, the EKG, the pulse
13oximeter, the blood pressure cuff-was generally broken; even
14when it worked, it wasn't used. The emergency exit was
15padlocked shut. And scattered throughout, in cabinets, in the
16basement, in a freezer, in jars and bags and plastic jugs, were
17fetal remains. It was a baby charnel house."; and
 
18    WHEREAS, The report of the Grand Jury described an
19"inexcusable" and "complete regulatory collapse" by the
20Pennsylvania Department of Health in inspecting,
21investigating, and appropriately sanctioning Kermit Gosnell
22and the Women's Medical Society; specifically, officials with
23the Pennsylvania Department of Health failed to perform routine
24inspections of the Women's Medical Society, refusing to inspect

 

 

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1the clinic for years and even decades at a time, and failed to
2investigate specific and credible complaints against Kermit
3Gosnell and the Women's Medical Society; and
 
4    WHEREAS, The report of the Grand Jury detailed repeated
5complaints to the Pennsylvania Department of Health involving
6Kermit Gosnell and the Women's Medical Society: "Several
7different attorneys, representing women injured by Gosnell,
8contacted the Department. A doctor from Children's Hospital of
9Philadelphia hand-delivered a complaint, advising the
10Department that numerous patients he had referred for abortions
11came back from Gosnell with the same venereal disease. The
12medical examiner of Delaware County informed the Department
13that Gosnell had performed an illegal abortion on a 14-year-old
14girl carrying a 30-week-old baby. And the Department received
15official notice that a woman named Karnamaya Mongar had died at
16Gosnell's hands. Yet not one of these alarm bells-not even Mrs.
17Mongar's death-prompted the Department to look at Gosnell or
18the Women's Medical Society"; and
 
19    WHEREAS, The problem of dangerous and substandard
20conditions and practices at abortion clinics is not confined to
21Pennsylvania but extends to other states around the nation
22including Illinois; and
 
23    WHEREAS, In January 2012, the Associated Press and the

 

 

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1Chicago Tribune reported that "(a)n increased scrutiny of
2Illinois abortion clinics in the wake of revelations about a
3'house of horrors' in Philadelphia revealed that some
4facilities had gone up to 15 years without inspections, and two
5now have closed after regulators found health and safety
6violations. The renewed oversight by state regulators led to
7the permanent closure of a clinic in Rockford (in January
82012), following the closing of a clinic in suburban Chicago
9(in October 2011), according to documents obtained by The
10Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request";
11and
 
12    WHEREAS, On July 20, 2012, Tonya Reaves, a 24-year-old
13mother of a one-year old son, entered an abortion clinic at 18
14S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago; she was 16-weeks pregnant and,
15at 11 am that that morning, she underwent a dilation and
16evacuation ("D&E") abortion, an abortion procedure often
17performed in the second trimester which involves significantly
18more risk to the woman than earlier term abortions; while in
19recovery, Ms. Reaves suffered significant bleeding and, more
20than 5 hours after her abortion, she was finally rushed by
21ambulance to Northwestern Memorial Hospital; at Northwestern,
22doctors performed an ultrasound and discovered an incomplete
23abortion; in response, they performed a second ("D&E")
24procedure; however, Ms. Reaves continued to suffer pain and
25other complications; a second ultrasound was then performed and

 

 

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1doctors learned that Ms. Reaves had suffered a "perforation";
2she was taken into surgery where "an uncontrollable bleed" was
3discovered; an emergency hysterectomy was performed, but Ms.
4Reaves died at 11:20 pm; and
 
5    WHEREAS, An autopsy report released in early September 2012
6confirmed that Ms. Reaves suffered from an incomplete abortion
7and that pieces of placenta were still attached to the inside
8of her uterus even after the second D&E procedure was performed
9at Northwestern; had a 3/16 inch perforation in her uterus near
10impression marks that appeared to have been made by forceps,
11instruments typically used during a D&E abortion; suffered an
12"extensive" perforation of her broad uterine ligament with the
13possible severing of her left uterine artery; and had one to
14one-and-a-half liters of blood and blood clots inside her
15abdominal cavity indicating that Ms. Reaves had bled about 30
16percent of her total volume of blood into her abdomen following
17her abortion at the Michigan Avenue abortion clinic; therefore,
18be it
 
19    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
20NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
21the Illinois House of Representatives extends its condolences
22to the families of the victims of Kermit Gosnell and to the
23family of Tonya Reaves; and be it further
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, That the Illinois House of Representatives
2condemns the criminal actions of Kermit Gosnell, the dangerous
3and substandard conditions at the Women's Medical Society in
4West Philadelphia, and the inexcusable dereliction of duty by
5the Pennsylvania Department of Health and other state officials
6in failing to properly inspect, investigate, and sanction
7Kermit Gosnell and the Women's Medical Society and to
8appropriately inspect other abortion clinics in the State of
9Pennsylvania; and be it further
 
10    RESOLVED, That the Illinois House of Representatives urges
11the Illinois Department of Public Health to pursue a regime of
12regular inspections of Illinois "pregnancy termination
13specialty centers" (abortion clinics) to ensure compliance
14with Illinois law governing those centers or clinics,
15specifically 77 Ill. Adm. Code 205.710 (2013), to ensure that
16centers or clinics failing to meet legally required and
17medically appropriate standards for patient care are either
18closed or comply, within an agreed upon time, with an approved
19plan to correct deficiencies, and to properly respond to and
20investigate complaints and other credible allegations it
21receives concerning conditions and conduct at these centers or
22clinics; and be it further
 
23    RESOLVED, That the Illinois House of Representatives urges
24the Illinois Department of Public Health to ensure that the

 

 

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1provisions and intent of 1 U.S.C. 8 and Illinois' complementary
2statute, 5 ILCS 70/1.36 (2013), are properly enforced and
3respected and that "pregnancy termination specialty centers"
4(abortion clinics) are complying with these laws.