Megan McArdle Doesn’t Understand the Kermit Gosnell Case
“Of course it’s true that health and safety regulations can be used as a backdoor means to achieve a de-facto ban on a constitutionally protected right,” wrote McArdle. “But that doesn’t actually seem to be the issue in Pennsylvania, does it?”
Well, it was the issue—back in 2011.
Through 2011, Pennsylvania legislators just as eager to exploit the Gosnell tragedy as antiabortion activists (two groups that are not always mutually exclusive) and religious groups battled against medical associations and pro-choice activists over regulations.
Despite no support from Pennsylvania medical organizations (and outright criticism from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists), pro-life Gov. Tom Corbett signed the TRAP bill into law in December 2011.
Pennsylvania’s TRAP law mandated that clinics adhere to guidelines designed for ambulatory surgical centers — which include medically irrelevant and prohibitively expensive architectural renovations such as wider hallways and parking lots.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, five clinics providing surgical abortion have shut down after Gosnell’s arrest. Two (run by the notorious Steven Brigham, also ignored by the DOH despite complains) were shut down by the DOH, and three were forced to close because they could not afford the renovations.
Though, also according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, 65 private physicians offer abortion services to ladies of means, poor and working women in Pennsylvania who can’t afford boutique abortions now only have 13 clinics available to them; almost half of Pennsylvania women live in counties without an abortion provider. (So, yes, quite a lot has changed.)
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