An abortion clinic in Germantown, Md., is one of the few providers of late-term abortion left in the United States. However, thanks to the efforts of pro-life advocates in the area, the clinic is scheduled to shut its doors.
Germantown Reproductive Health Services is under contract to be sold to Maryland Coalition for Life, a group that has worked for years to shut the abortion clinic down. This grassroots pro-life organization has staged steady protests against the clinic in the past, but in 2011, they opened up a crisis pregnancy center right across the parking lot from the clinic, encouraging pregnant women to opt out of killing their child and explaining their options.
Dennis Donnelly, media director for the coalition, stated, “It’s a miracle. You fight for something for seven years, and all of a sudden it’s handed to you.” He explained that a donor came forward this summer, and with the raising of some extra funds, the pro-life group was able to make a buyout offer to the owners of the abortion clinic.
Germantown Reproductive Health has been in operation for over 20 years and became especially highlighted when they hired Nebraska abortionist LeRoy Carhart in 2010. Carhart is well known for performing late-term abortions. He issued a statement on Thursday about the clinic’s closing:
I am doing everything in my power to keep my practice open, and I am considering options looking toward the future…It’s heartbreaking that anyone would want to take health care away from women and families by targeting our clinic.
Carhart is now working to open a new clinic in the area and has assured pro-abortion activists that he will continue to provide late-term abortions. Diana Philip, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, is fully supportive of this new clinic.
“I have spoken to Dr. Carhart and he is in the process of trying to get his facility operating…It will be the same clinic staff and they are hoping not to have any interruption in providing this service,” she stated.
Operation Rescue gives some detail about late-term abortions, a form of abortion pioneered by George Tiller:
The Induction abortion takes 3-4 days to complete. On the first day the woman is given an ultrasound to determine the gestational age of her baby. Then… a lethal dose of the heart medication Digoxin is injected into the baby’s heart or into the amniotic fluid directly through the woman’s abdomen…Digoxin gives the baby a fatal heart attack.
The abortionist then goes on to induce labor so that the woman gives birth to her murdered baby. Although the women are supposed to come back into the abortion clinic, they frequently don’t make it in time and instead deliver their dead babies at home or in their vehicles.
Forty-three states have some sort of prohibition on abortions late in the pregnancy, and 17 states completely prohibit abortions performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Photo credit: Quinn Dombrowski via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
