Livonia Abortion Clinic Cited

Waste Violation in April Was Corrected

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials said Thursday a Livonia doctor's medical clinic that performs abortions violated state medical waste disposal standards when it mixed medical waste with regular garbage in April.

The violations -- which the department said have been resolved -- came to light after a local group of abortion opponents said it found medical waste mixed with regular garbage.

State investigators told Dr. Reginald Sharpe of the Women's Advisory Center in Livonia that his clinic violated the state Medical Waste Regulatory Act by placing medical waste in containers with nonmedical waste, putting medical waste in non-labeled containers, not having a medical waste management plan and not being registered as a medical waste producing facility.

Investigators found bloody gauze pads, bloody examination gloves and a curette tube with blood and bodily fluid in the trash with nonmedical garbage, according to a letter the department sent to Sharpe in May.

Department officials said Thursday they did not find fetal remains or patient records that members of the Citizens for a Pro-Life Society said they found in the clinic's garbage in April.

State law requires that medical waste be disposed of in red, labeled, biohazard bags placed in separate medical waste containers and removed by a licensed medical waste hauler.

Sharpe was given a May 30 deadline to comply. Robert McCann, a department spokesman, said investigators returned and found the clinic in compliance on June 16.

McCann said Sharpe was not fined because this was the clinic's first violation. Citizens for a Pro-Life Society plans to highlight the practice of improper medical waste disposal at a news conference today in front of the Livonia clinic on 6 Mile Road.

The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires patient records be kept in a secure location accessible only to authorized personnel.

Monica Miller, head of the Citizens group, said the purpose of entering private property to get waste from various clinics was is "to show a repeated lack of compliance with Michigan state statutes."

Response

By Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph.D
Director of Citizen's for a Pro-Life Society

No matter what the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says regarding its one time search of the Women's Advisory abortion clinic trash dumpster; the fact is we found the remains of aborted babies in that trash dumpster. We found the dismembered remains of at least ten aborted babies altogether. We did several searches of the dumpster behind the clinic and found these babies on April 5, 12, and 19th. These victims of abortion were mixed in with the most bloody medical debris one could possibly imagine. We made an on-site video-tape record of the searches.

Anyone can see for themselves what we found by going to You Tube: "Abortion Dumpster Scandal--Women's Advisory". Just because the DEQ's in it’s one-time search didn't find the babies doesn't mean that they weren't there. The DEQ told me that they do not separate out the trash. Patton's original story mentioned that these aborted babies were buried on the very day the article appeared but unfortunately the article was edited before it went to print. Yes, an actual burial of these aborted babies took place on June 27th, attended by 600 people at a funeral Mass presided over by a bishop!

Apparently Free Press editors think bio-hazard waste is a more important story than unborn babies found in an abortion clinic trash dumpster, retrieved by pro-lifers and buried by the Catholic Church. At least the Free Press did something on the bio-hazard waste problem but the burial of the babies was a rare, worthy, important event. It is sad that the Free Press failed to see its significance.