More on Illinois' abortion clinic inspections

The Daily Herald has more from the Associated Press' research into Illinois' attempt to start inspecting abortion clinics again after years of neglect. Most notable is the results of their inspection of the Women's Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood, its closure and the insane reaction of Larissa Rowansky, the abortion clinic's co-owner.

One of those facilities — the Women's Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood — closed when the owner decided to surrender its license rather than pay a $36,000 fine or endure an expensive legal fight with the state. The fine was for violations including the clinic's failure to perform CPR on a patient who died after a procedure. Its owner told the AP her clinic was safe and she felt victimized by the surprise inspection after 15 years....

Larissa Rowansky, a co-owner of the Women's Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood, said her clinic helped women and provided the best care that a professional clinic could provide.

But Illinois inspection reports detail citations for practices such as frozen TV dinners stored in a biohazard lab refrigerator that also held placental or fetal tissue. The clinic's dusty equipment, lack of a supervising registered nurse and failure to perform CPR on a patient who later died also drew citations.

Rowansky said that patient didn't need CPR because she was speaking to emergency workers when she was taken to a hospital after her abortion. The patient "lied about her condition," Rowansky added, saying the woman had bronchial pneumonia and was too ill to have an abortion.

The other violations uncovered by the state inspectors were technicalities, Rowansky said.

"It was unfair," she said of the state's inspection last year, the first in 15 years.

A separate inspection of the building resulted in more citations for fire hazards. Fixing the problems and paying the fine would have cost more than a year's revenue, Rowansky said.

"I tried to help women to get legal abortions," she said. "If someone wants to work against that, there's nothing I can do."