ROCKFORD - The owner of the Northern Illinois Women's Center told the Rockford media that the abortion clinic would not be re-opening after the state of Illinois and NIWC came to a confidential agreement on January 4 allowing its re-opening.
A background on the clinic and its unprofessional atmosphere was released years ago by the Catholic News Agency, and Illinois public health officials chose to ignore the situation, refusing to investigate.
Last spring, legislation to require Illinois abortion clinic regulations to match other ambulatory care facilities was introduced by State Rep. Darlene Senger (R-Naperville). Although her proposal was narrowly defeated in the Illinois House, Rep. Senger's concerns raised public awareness of NIWC's substandards, and Illinois officials were finally directed to inspect the facility in June and again in September 2011.
The NIWC was shut down after the state found numerous health and safety violations, including such egregious offenses as:
• 3 of 3 operating rooms inspected failed to ensure a sanitary environment
• Failure to prevent contamination of clean surgical equipment;
• Gynecological cannulas (surgical instruments inserted during abortion procedures) were stained with a “brown substance”;
• Shoes were stored inside an open box of surgical gloves;
• Operating room #1 contained a box of opened surgical gloves stained with a dried “brown substance”;
• Autoclave equipment used to sterilize medical instruments failed biological testing on at least two occasions; such equipment should have been tested weekly but was untested for four months and then failed, leaving an undetermined number of patients exposed to unsterile surgical instruments;
• Failure to meet legal requirement for a qualified Registered Nurse to be present in the operating room during procedures, leaving unqualified and unlicensed personnel to do tasks reserved by law for licensed, qualified professional personnel;
• Failure to keep records as to persons accompanying patients, suggesting that women were left to care for themselves after surgery;
• Repeated deficiencies in record keeping;
• Failure of abortionists to have local admitting privileges, putting patients in life-threatening situations at risk of serious injury or death.
Last Friday, the director of the NIWC released a statement to the Rockford Register-Star, announced the clinic's permanent closure. He thanked the public and local abortion activists for their support over the 40 years of the clinic's operation, since just before the U.S. Supreme Court's abortion-legalizing 1973 Roe vs Wade decision. Reports from hospital observers surmise that during those years, over 50,000 babies' lives ended at NIWC.
"The staff is very saddened by the closing," NIWC's press statement said. "We are not done grieving this loss and still are struggling with surrendering to the idea that we will not be able to do this work tomorrow or the day after."
For twenty years, as Catholic News Agency reported in the You Tube above, faithful prolifers have prayed consistently for the clinic's closing. They also counseled hundreds of expectant mothers, and successfully convinced many to abandon abortion. A collection of YouTubes shows the NIWC workers' bizarre behavior over the years towards the persistent prolife demonstrators.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan must initiate medical standard investigations into all of Illinois abortion clinics. The Illinois General Assembly must revisit Rep. Darlene Senger's HB 2093 and Illinois must be allowed to dispose itself of the repulsive moniker, "Midwest's abortion dumping ground."
