Full Text of HR0406 98th General Assembly
HR0406 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, On May 13, 2013, a jury in a Philadelphia Court of | 3 | | Common Pleas convicted abortion
provider Kermit Gosnell of 3 | 4 | | counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of infants born | 5 | | alive
following attempted abortions and one count of | 6 | | involuntary manslaughter in the death of Karnamaya
Mongar, a | 7 | | patient who sought an abortion at Kermit Gosnell's abortion | 8 | | clinic, the Women's Medical
Society in West Philadelphia; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, On May 13, 2013, a jury in a Philadelphia Court of | 10 | | Common Pleas also convicted Kermit Gosnell of 21 counts of | 11 | | performing illegal late-term abortions and 210 counts of | 12 | | violating Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act which, among | 13 | | other requirements, mandates a 24-hour reflection period | 14 | | before an abortion may be performed; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, The report of the Grand Jury in the Court of | 16 | | Common Pleas, First Judicial District of
Pennsylvania, | 17 | | Criminal Trial Division, certified on January 14, 2011, begins, | 18 | | "This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered | 19 | | women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally | 20 | | delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of | 21 | | pregnancy-and then murdered these newborns by
severing their | 22 | | spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he | 23 | | carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he |
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| 1 | | overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal | 2 | | disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their | 3 | | wombs and bowels-and, on at least two occasions, caused their | 4 | | deaths."; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, The report of the Grand Jury detailed findings of | 6 | | dangerous and unsanitary conditions in
the Women's Medical | 7 | | Society: "The clinic reeked of animal urine, courtesy of the | 8 | | cats that were
allowed to roam (and defecate) freely. Furniture | 9 | | and blankets were stained with blood. Instruments
were not | 10 | | properly sterilized. Disposable medical supplies were not | 11 | | disposed of; they were reused, over
and over again. Medical | 12 | | equipment-such as the defibrillator, the EKG, the pulse | 13 | | oximeter, the blood
pressure cuff-was generally broken; even | 14 | | when it worked, it wasn't used. The emergency exit was
| 15 | | padlocked shut. And scattered throughout, in cabinets, in the | 16 | | basement, in a freezer, in jars and bags
and plastic jugs, were | 17 | | fetal 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 | 20 | | Pennsylvania Department of Health in inspecting, | 21 | | investigating, and appropriately
sanctioning Kermit Gosnell | 22 | | and the Women's Medical Society; specifically, officials with | 23 | | the
Pennsylvania Department of Health failed to perform routine | 24 | | inspections of the Women's Medical
Society, refusing to inspect |
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| 1 | | the clinic for years and even decades at a time, and failed to | 2 | | investigate
specific and credible complaints against Kermit | 3 | | Gosnell and the Women's Medical Society; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, The report of the Grand Jury detailed repeated | 5 | | complaints to the Pennsylvania Department
of Health involving | 6 | | Kermit Gosnell and the Women's Medical Society: "Several | 7 | | different attorneys,
representing women injured by Gosnell, | 8 | | contacted the Department. A doctor from Children's Hospital
of | 9 | | Philadelphia hand-delivered a complaint, advising the | 10 | | Department that numerous patients he had
referred for abortions | 11 | | came back from Gosnell with the same venereal disease. The | 12 | | medical examiner
of Delaware County informed the Department | 13 | | that Gosnell had performed an illegal abortion on a 14-year-old | 14 | | girl carrying a 30-week-old baby. And the Department received | 15 | | official notice that a woman
named Karnamaya Mongar had died at | 16 | | Gosnell's hands. Yet not one of these alarm bells-not even
Mrs. | 17 | | Mongar's death-prompted the Department to look at Gosnell or | 18 | | the Women's Medical Society"; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, The problem of dangerous and substandard | 20 | | conditions and practices at abortion clinics is
not confined to | 21 | | Pennsylvania but extends to other states around the nation | 22 | | including Illinois; and | 23 | | WHEREAS, In January 2012, the Associated Press and the |
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| 1 | | Chicago Tribune reported that "(a)n increased scrutiny of | 2 | | Illinois abortion clinics in the wake of revelations about a | 3 | | 'house of horrors' in Philadelphia revealed that some | 4 | | facilities had gone up to 15 years without inspections, and two | 5 | | now have closed after regulators found health and safety | 6 | | violations. The renewed oversight by state regulators led to | 7 | | the permanent closure of a clinic in Rockford (in January | 8 | | 2012), following the closing of a clinic in suburban Chicago | 9 | | (in October 2011), according to documents obtained by The | 10 | | Associated
Press through a Freedom of Information Act request"; | 11 | | and | 12 | | WHEREAS, On July 20, 2012, Tonya Reaves, a 24-year-old | 13 | | mother of a one-year old son, entered an abortion clinic at 18 | 14 | | S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago; she was 16-weeks pregnant and, | 15 | | at 11 am that that morning, she underwent a dilation and | 16 | | evacuation ("D&E") abortion, an abortion procedure often | 17 | | performed in the second trimester which involves significantly | 18 | | more risk to the woman than earlier term abortions; while in | 19 | | recovery, Ms. Reaves suffered significant bleeding and, more | 20 | | than 5 hours after her abortion, she was finally rushed by | 21 | | ambulance to Northwestern Memorial Hospital; at Northwestern, | 22 | | doctors performed an ultrasound and discovered an incomplete | 23 | | abortion; in response, they performed a second ("D&E") | 24 | | procedure; however, Ms. Reaves continued to suffer pain and | 25 | | other complications; a second ultrasound was then performed and |
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| 1 | | doctors learned that Ms. Reaves had suffered a "perforation"; | 2 | | she was taken into surgery where "an uncontrollable bleed" was | 3 | | discovered; an emergency hysterectomy was performed, but Ms. | 4 | | Reaves died at 11:20 pm; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, An autopsy report released in early September 2012 | 6 | | confirmed that Ms. Reaves suffered from an incomplete abortion | 7 | | and that pieces of placenta were still attached to the inside | 8 | | of her uterus even after the second D&E procedure was performed | 9 | | at Northwestern; had a 3/16 inch perforation in her uterus near | 10 | | impression marks that appeared to have been made by forceps, | 11 | | instruments typically used during a D&E abortion; suffered an | 12 | | "extensive" perforation of her broad uterine ligament with the | 13 | | possible severing of her left uterine artery; and had one to | 14 | | one-and-a-half liters of blood and blood clots inside her | 15 | | abdominal cavity indicating that Ms. Reaves had bled about 30 | 16 | | percent of her total volume of blood into her abdomen following | 17 | | her abortion at the Michigan Avenue abortion clinic; therefore, | 18 | | be it | 19 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 20 | | NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 21 | | the Illinois House of Representatives extends its condolences | 22 | | to the families of the victims of Kermit Gosnell and to the | 23 | | family of Tonya Reaves; and be it further
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| 1 | | RESOLVED, That the Illinois House of Representatives | 2 | | condemns the criminal actions of Kermit Gosnell, the dangerous | 3 | | and substandard conditions at the Women's Medical Society in | 4 | | West Philadelphia, and the inexcusable dereliction of duty by | 5 | | the Pennsylvania Department of Health and other state officials | 6 | | in failing to properly inspect, investigate, and sanction | 7 | | Kermit Gosnell and the Women's Medical Society and to | 8 | | appropriately inspect other abortion clinics in the State of | 9 | | Pennsylvania; and be it further
| 10 | | RESOLVED, That the Illinois House of Representatives urges | 11 | | the Illinois Department of Public Health to pursue a regime of | 12 | | regular inspections of Illinois "pregnancy termination | 13 | | specialty centers" (abortion clinics) to ensure compliance | 14 | | with Illinois law governing those centers or clinics, | 15 | | specifically 77 Ill. Adm. Code 205.710 (2013), to ensure that | 16 | | centers or clinics failing to meet legally required and | 17 | | medically appropriate standards for patient care are either | 18 | | closed or comply, within an agreed upon time, with an approved | 19 | | plan to correct deficiencies, and to properly respond to and | 20 | | investigate complaints and other credible allegations it | 21 | | receives concerning conditions and conduct at these centers
or | 22 | | clinics; and be it further | 23 | | RESOLVED, That the Illinois House of Representatives urges | 24 | | the Illinois Department of Public Health to ensure that the |
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| 1 | | provisions and intent of 1 U.S.C. 8 and Illinois' complementary | 2 | | statute, 5 ILCS 70/1.36 (2013), are properly enforced and | 3 | | respected and that "pregnancy termination specialty centers" | 4 | | (abortion clinics) are complying with these laws.
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