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States need to close all non-essential services, including abortion clinics
Abby Johnson
Healthcare professionals have had to take every measure available to them to both protect themselves from the worldwide novel coronavirus and see to it that their patients are well-cared for and have the medical aid they need. While several states have already closed all non-essential businesses, Ohio, Texas, Kentucky and others have both decided to protect women and demand abortion clinics also stop “non-essential and elective surgeries.”
Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have sued a handful of states to stop the orders. But abortion is not healthcare, and hundreds of abortion clinics are unsanitary -- filthy, ideal locations for pandemics to spread. This is why all abortion clinics should be shuttered right now, for both the protection of women and those who work in the clinics.
The National Abortion Federation has it understands “that abortion isn’t a stroke or a heart attack, and it can be scheduled out. But it can’t be scheduled out indefinitely.” That’s accurate in that, at some point, the “pregnancy” becomes a born baby, right?
Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion vendor in the nation, have suggested it is a good idea to have healthcare workers “wear gloves, gowns, or masks if you have respiratory infection symptoms.” They have started asking for donations of these items as well, taking away resources for people who are in desperate need of them in hospitals.
So, why wasn’t it already their policy to wear gloves or masks? Because the abortion industry cares more about the bottom line than about its patients or its workers. I know because I worked for Planned Parenthood for eight years, rising to become the director of my clinic in Bryan, Texas.
Although we never dealt with a pandemic like what the world is currently facing, we were faced with difficult circumstances, like an oncoming hurricane and lack of possible resources. And we always knew how to cut corners. That's what happens across the country in abortion clinics today.
Abortion clinics are some of the dirtiest and grossest places for women who are in true need of help, according to state health department inspection records. Instead of getting the help they need, women are put in precarious situations, oftentimes with unqualified and untrained staff. That employee that’s giving a woman anesthesia may not even have a nursing license. That front desk employee may also be putting together baby parts after the abortion to make sure the doctor got everything out. That table the woman is sitting on may have a few rips and tears, or even bodily fluids -- it's a perfect place for spreading diseases. And those instruments used in abortions may not have been properly sanitized before being used on the next woman.
Abortion clinics do not provide essential services or healthcare. Abortion is not healthcare. According to Planned Parenthood’s own annual report, in the past ten years pap smear tests have decreased by 78%, contraception services by almost 33%, and breast exams by 68%. They also receive over half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding a year. Why doesn’t the Trump Administration demand they donate personal protective equipment to hospitals that are caring for patients with COVID-19? After all, us taxpayers paid for those items already.
There are true resources for women in difficult circumstances with unplanned pregnancies who need help. Loveline is a ministry that I started last fall after seeing a gap that needed to be filled. There just wasn’t any kind of emotional and tangible support for women who needed immediate help like getting out of an abusive relationship, finding a place to live, and obtaining clothes and shelter. Since starting Loveline in October 2019, we’ve served 97 moms and 167 children and provided more than $40,000 in financial assistance for rent, utilities, and healthcare. Our supporters have provided over $80,000 in material assistance through online registries. This is real help, help that the abortion industry cannot provide because they are so focused on making money.
Those who work in the abortion industry are suffering, too. They are being forced to work in an environment that is not protecting them, by employers who don't care about their own families and welfare. Why is Planned Parenthood just now getting around to talking about sanitation in their clinics? Because they and other abortion clinics would rather stack their waiting rooms full of women who want abortions than take the time to give women options, to properly clean instruments, and to make sure their facilities are up to the same standards that all other medical facilities must meet.
Ohio, Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Iowa did the right thing in demanding abortion clinics, like other non-essential services, close in light of the state lockdown. Other states need to follow suit, or they are doing a horrible disservice to women in their state.
Abby Johnson is founder and director of And Then There Were None, author of Unplanned, and subject of a 2019 film.
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Fertility Clinics Cautiously Plan to Expand Services, Against Coronavirus Concerns
Tracy Clark-Flory
Last week, the New York Department of Health quietly issued an advisory clarifying that “sexual and reproductive health services” are “essential” and thus exempt from “shelter in place” requirements. The document went on to list services such as abortion, obstetrical care, STI treatment, and, perhaps more surprising, fertility services, including “infertility treatment.”
Just last month, fertility clinics across the country drastically limited services following guidance from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), which advised clinicians to avoid initiating “new, non-urgent fertility treatments,” with urgent cases being limited to only extreme circumstances. In response, thousands of doctors, patients, and supporters rallied around a petition urging more nuanced and permissive guidelines. Now, some New York fertility clinics have suggested that the health department advisory paves the way for expanded services, although contradictory guidelines from the ASRM complicate the matter.
’I needed to see this tonight! I have been in such a funk after having to cancel our retrieval in March,’ a patient wrotE.”
A few days after the advisory, the Twitter account for Kindbody, a fertility practice with offices in New York, posted, “The decision of how and when to provide fertility services is now one to be made between a patient and doctor.” CNY Fertility took to Facebook with a similar message: “We support this and will map out a proper plan over the next week for CNY Fertility to provide a safe environment for our staff and clients.” This week, RMA of New York sent out an email alerting patients that “the decision of how and when to provide these services is now one to be made between a patient and their doctor.”
This development has been strangely absent from headlines, given it follows a weeks-ago flurry of media attention around the initial shutdown of services. But it’s made the rounds in online fertility communities, where patients have celebrated with party popper emojis and multiple exclamation points. “I needed to see this tonight! I have been in such a funk after having to cancel our retrieval in March,” a patient wrote on CNY Fertility’s Facebook page. “This is the best news I’ve heard all week! Here comes the happy tears!” said another. The responses were not all positive, though: “Yes we’re all here in hopes of having our miracle babies, but at what cost? The virus is nowhere near over,” wrote one woman.
A petition launched last month for ASRM to reconsider its restrictive guidelines had garnered over 18,000 signatures, many from patients who had to put their fertility treatment on hold, and some of whom fear this pause could mean they never get another chance at having a baby. Beverly Reed, the fertility doctor in Texas who started the petition, said of the New York advisory, “I applaud this decision.” Meanwhile, however, ASRM on Monday revisited the guidelines it issued in mid-March and reasserted them, noting the “prevailing conditions on the ground, the fact that the number of cases and related deaths continues to increase, the recommendations of the CDC and other authoritative bodies, and the lack of available, approved, sensitive and specific testing.”
This presents two conflicting sets of instructions. ...Ultimately, clinicians must riddle this out for themselves.This presents two conflicting sets of instructions. The ASRM guidelines specifically advise against initiating new cycles of fertility treatment, while the New York advisory asserts that “the ultimate decision on when such services must occur is between a patient and clinical producer.” Interestingly, the New York advisory links to ASRM’s guidelines and a health department representative told Jezebel that it encourages “providers to consider relevant clinical guidance when making these decisions, such as those provided by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.” Ultimately, clinicians must riddle this out for themselves.
Lynn Westphal, chief medical officer at Kindbody, says the clinic has shifted to virtual services wherever possible and had previously limited services to urgent cases, “including taking care of patients needing fertility preservation because of a cancer diagnosis,” which falls in line with ASRM’s guidelines. Now, in response to the New York state advisory, the clinic is “carefully expanding our definition of urgent cases, and will be starting new fertility treatments on a case by case basis,” she said. Westphal emphasized that this will be done with caution. “There is a lot we still don’t know about the virus, and all patients will be counseled carefully about the risks and benefits of proceeding with treatment,” she said.
Extend Fertility, a clinic based in New York, has not changed its approach in response to the New York advisory, but Joshua Klein, chief clinical officer, says that the advisory “will help lay the groundwork for the transition back to providing fertility services in the near future.” Currently, the clinic has deferred the initiation of new treatment cycles and continued to treat patients who recently completed treatment cycles, while limiting in-office visits and initiating rigorous safety protocols. Klein noted that “many of our patients are struggling right now with the grief and anxiety that an indefinite pause on fertility treatment represents,” but says he is optimistic that “we will be able to resume fertility treatments soon enough that the impact of patients’ family-building will be negligible.”
Reed says that with the conflicting guidelines “it can be difficult to know which to follow,” but that following the stricter of the two might be “prudent.” That said, Reed speculated that “there may be clinics who feel comfortable with proceeding with treatment now that they have the support of their state,” and noted that ASRM has not threatened any consequences for not following its covid-19 guidance. Similarly, an ASRM spokesperson emphasized to Jezebel that it is an educational rather than regulatory body. Westphal argues that ASRM’s covid-19 taskforce “is a group of experts that provide valuable guidelines, but at the end of the day, the decision lies with the physician and the patient.”
Alongside the reasserted guidelines, ASRM acknowledged that covid-19 presents fertility clinics with a dilemma with no clear solution. The task force noted that “it is likely the... pandemic will be with us for some time, at least until an effective vaccine is available” and deemed it necessary to “begin to consider strategies and best practices for resuming time-sensitive fertility treatments.” At the same time, the panel of experts said that “the timing of the restart of infertility care, other than that currently deemed urgent or emergency, has yet, and may be impossible, to be precisely determined.”
In other words, whether it’s New York clinics currently considering a cautious expansion of services or potential future fertility industry return-to-work guidelines, even the “best” approach may be mired in uncertainty.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fertility-clinics-cautiously-plan-to-expand-services-against-coronavirus-concerns/ar-BB12J5FX?ocid=msn360
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