Melanie Lyon of Voices for Life is pleased to report that this week, Whole Woman's Health announced the closing of its clinic in South Bend, Indiana, which, according to its own records, is responsible for the deaths of at least 1,100 babies over the past four years.
"They're going to not only close their doors for good in Indiana, but they are also going to withdraw from suing the state against the abortion ban that was passed back in September," she tells AFN.
Whole Woman's Health is an abortion chain with locations in five states, and it had a difficult time getting started in South Bend because of the other clinics' track records.
"Stuff like rust on the equipment," Lyon notes as one issue. "They were fined $80,000 for dumping fetal remains in the trash at their location in Texas. They were denied their license application; they ended up appealing to a federal judge, Sarah Evans Barker, and she allowed them to open without a license."
So for the first two years, the South Bend clinic operated without any supervision by the state before its license was granted.
Though the clinic is closed in Indiana, the abortion chain reportedly plans to open a new branch in Niles, Michigan – a location just across the state line where abortions are legal up to birth.
As for health regulations, another pro-lifer points out that they can only be successful if they are enforced.
Maria Gallagher of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation tells AFN Pennsylvania state health officials had to wade through literal weeds to enforce clinic regulations at the Hillcrest abortuary in Harrisburg. It had a troubled history but was in business for decades before it stopped killing babies.
"At one point, there was an inspection that was done by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and it found more than 40 pages of health and safety violations just at that one facility," Gallagher relays. "It was basically a house of horrors."
Soon after that, a group of state senators wrote a letter to the PA Health Department, demanding that Hillcrest be shuttered. Eventually, operators voluntarily surrendered their abortion license.
The pro-lifer says it is a wonder that anyone ever went there for an abortion. And since the clinic closed more than five years ago, no one has wanted to buy the building.
"The building has stood vacant for years – a monument to the exploitation of women and the destruction of precious babies," she recently wrote. "Now, it is mercifully being reduced to a pile of rubble."
"Hillcrest had weeds two to three feet tall in front of the building; it was an absolute dump," Gallagher details. "The owners did not take care of the facility. They let it go to ruin, and we're glad to see it demolished."
She calls Hillcrest's demise a testament both to the state for enforcing its regulations and to the pro-life counselors who showed up there every day to counsel women against abortion.
Gallagher calls the demolition a "triumph of justice and perseverance."
