You
Wouldn’t Take a Dog to that Clinic
By Michael
R. Shannon
Fetuses
all across the Virginia are smiling on their sonograms this week in the wake of Attorney
General Ken Cuccinelli’s opinion that concludes the Commonwealth can legally resume
oversight over “clinics” that abort the unborn.
Now
Missy — on the way to abort her child — will be comforted by the knowledge that
she will soon enjoy service and thoughtful attention from the same type of competent,
licensed professionals she encounters at the veterinary hospital when she takes Fifi in to
be spayed.
Curiously
enough, the thought of a safer abortion outrages the unborn death lobby. They are so angry
it makes you thankful they are opposed to personal ownership of handguns.
Tarina
Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro–Choice Virginia, complains that meeting the as
yet unwritten, potential regulations would be “financially prohibitive”
for abortion mills.
This
puts me at a loss. I thought when the “choose death” activists’ assured us
their only goal was to save women from “dangerous back alley abortions” they
were worried about safety. Evidently the objection was to geography and market share.
There appears to be no problem if dangerous abortions take place in a strip shopping
center facility operated by Planned “Parenthood.”
Ms.
Keene would have you believe Cuccinelli has authorized jack–booted Baptist deacons to
storm abortion factories, flinging their tracts into the face of would–be ex–mothers
and Molotov cocktails into the offices.
Reality
is somewhat less dramatic.
Brian
Gottstein, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office explains, “The state
has long regulated outpatient surgical facilities and personnel to ensure a certain level
of protection for patients. There is no reason to hold facilities providing abortion
services to any lesser standard for their patients."
Today
we have “medical facilities” where the survival rate is zero and the enterprise
is viewed as hands off when it comes to regulation? Maybe NARAL would prefer abortion
factories be treated like a funeral home. Nobody gets out of there alive either. But wait,
funeral homes ARE regulated in Virginia.
Hmmm.
What about classifying abortion “clinics” as slaughterhouses? Nope, the state
has inspectors and regulations there, too. Possibly butcher shops? Or death row?
Democrats
routinely saddle pro–life pregnancy centers with laws and regulations expressly
designed to force them to close, yet it is somehow unfair for Planned “Parenthood”
to measure up to the regulatory standards of the Bark & Purr Animal Hospital.
The
reality is Cuccinelli’s opinion concludes the state Board of Health has the authority
to require “doctors” who perform abortions to use proper care in diagnosing the
age of a fetus, hold hospital privileges and follow requirements for the use of general
anesthesia in non–hospital settings. Abortion “counselors” are to receive
professional training and the buildings may have to undergo structural changes that would
allow women to be quickly transported to a hospital in the event of life–threatening
complications.
Hardly
a draconian regulatory regime — although it is possible that when a woman is informed
that her “doctor” is not considered competent enough to perform surgery in a
hospital and today’s anesthetic will be a shot of whiskey, it could reduce her
enthusiasm for an abortion.
Cuccincelli
is also very clear that any new regulations and oversight must conform to the Penumbra of
Death established by the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe Vs Wade.
Del.
Adam Ebbin (D–People’s Republic of Alexandria), a man who is easily startled,
whined, “"It is frightening to think of what Cuccinelli will do next… He is
not working on what is important to Virginia consumers.”
Setting
aside Ebbin’s fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the attorney general
(Cuccinelli is not manager of the Customer Service Department at MEGLOMART), just what is
the AG about these days?
Let’s
see, Cuccinelli is fighting Obamacare and its unconstitutional mandates; illegal
immigration’s costs to taxpayers and crime victims; and he is working to expose the
“global warming” scam that threatens to impose ruinous taxes on consumers and
business.
Alexandria
residents could well be more concerned with unlicensed arugula farmers, but a majority of
Virginia residents care strongly about all those issues.
Meanwhile,
back at the controversy, the AG’s opinion does not break new legal ground, from 1981
to 1984 abortion “clinics” were regulated and I don’t recall a crippling
shortage of dead babies.
It wasn’t
until the election of Gov. Charles Robb (D–Hot Tub) that abortion “clinics”
were allowed to run as wild as mortgage bankers.
Finally,
this week’s controversy has revealed something I thought I would never see. After a
decades–long search we’ve at last found a business Democrats believe should be
spared “burdensome regulations!”
It just
happens to be a multi–million dollar enterprise that kill babies.
Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and
advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the
globe. He can be reached at michael-shannon@comcast.net.
Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and
advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the
globe. He’s a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker and can be reached at
michael–shannon@comcast.net.
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Michael R. Shannon
MANDATE: Message, Media & Public Relations
703-583-6277
571-969-1995 Google Voice
http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrshannon
http://americaspeakon.org/blog/contributor/23
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