Nearly 2 in 3 Illinois Abortion Clinic Had No Health Inspections for Years

A new report shows that some of Illinois’ abortion clinics had not had an inspection from the state’s Department of Public Health in almost a decade.

The report from Illinois Right To Life says that 63 percent of the abortion clinics in the state had not received a health or sanitary inspection in three and a half years.

“The failure of the Department of Public Health to conduct regular health and sanitary inspections leaves women open to the prospect of unsterile surgical tools, dirty operating rooms, incomplete medical attention, infections, and possibly more deaths,” the group says.

The group discovered there is no inspection policy for abortion clinics regarding cleanliness or sanitation.

“It’s quite scary,” Emily Zender, the group’s executive director, says in the report. “While news reports warn of MRSA, urge flu vaccination, and praise hospital Ebola training, abortion providers are allowed to perform invasive surgical procedures in unsanitary conditions.”

The state’s five Planned Parenthood locations that perform abortions are not licensed and the state has not inspected them for sanitary conditions since 2000.

The state could not provide documentation that women who underwent abortions in the unsanitary clinics were warned about possible exposure to HIV or other infections and diseases because of dirty equipment.