Pro-Choice and Pro-Safety

I make no secret on this blog or in real life that I am pro-choice. I despise the weekly protests at Planned Parenthood downtown which mostly serve to deter women without health insurance from getting birth control and reasonable gynecological services.

But being pro-choice does not mean that I want a free-for-all for abortion clinics. It means I want no woman to be forced to use unsafe practices to make her choice. It means I want an end to shoddy back-door clinics. But here in Pennsylvania, state health officials overlooked this task for the last 15 years. 15 years!!! Luckily, here in Pittsburgh, when inspections resumed in 2010, no grave dangers were discovered. Unfortunately, for women in Philadelphia, that was not the case. Two women are dead, and hundreds of babies were aborted in ghastly ways.

Shame on a former pro-choice governor for neglecting safety at the expense of choice. Shame on Pennsylvania's state health officials for sitting idly by at the expense of our women and children. Shame on the reactionary politics for only resuming inspections after the Philadelphia clinic owner was brought to trial. Shame on the residents of Pennsylvania for not demanding better service from our state officials. Shame on us all if this happens again.