Governor makes right ­ decision in clinic case

Governor Tom Corbett was right to fire several state employees and overhaul two state agencies in the wake of allegations that a Philadelphia doctor performed illegal abortions that killed a patient and viable infants.

The governor said that the state’s abortion clinics would be subjected to stricter oversight as a result of the investigation into the Women Medical Society, an abortion clinic in West Philadelphia.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, who ran the clinic, was indicted by a grand jury last month on eight counts of murder.

The 300-page grand jury report said state regulators ignored complaints about him and the clinic which was described by District Attorney Seth Williams as a “house of horrors.”

Corbett announced last Tuesday that four attorneys and two supervisors at the departments of Health and State were either fired or resigned Feb. 11 and that eight other employers involved in the internal investigation remain on the state payroll. Others had previously resigned, he said.

“This doesn’t even rise to the level of government run amok.” Corbett said in a statement. “It was government not running at all. To call this unacceptable doesn’t say enough. It’s despicable.”

The governor is right to fire state employees who were grossly negligent in their duties to provide oversight and to overhaul the agencies involved.

The state failed the victims of the alleged abortion mill. Prosecutors say most of the victims were poor women.

The grand jury report said the state Health Department and medical regulators had numerous opportunities to shut the clinic down over the years but ignored several complaints about the filthy conditions and illegal operations.

Gosnell is being held without bail. Arraignment is set for March 2.

A jury will decide his guilt or innocence.

Meanwhile it is necessary that the state acts now to prevent women from being the future victims other abortion mills or “house of horrors.”

(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)

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