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LONDON, September 19, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Along with laser hair removal and Botox, a Polish clinic in London provides abortion. And it is not shy about what it does, listing abortion and its price on the facility’s website.
Tooting Medical Centre (TMC) offers medical and dental services to a mostly Polish clientele. Among its services are early medical abortion, sexually transmitted infection testing, and contraception supply, including intrauterine devices, or IUDs, which can act as abortifacients.
Famous for its strong pro-life culture, Poland has largely banned abortions. Thus, centers like TMC cater not only to London’s substantial Polish community but also to Polish “tourists” who seek legal abortions in England.
Because of the moral aspect and other issues, TMC’s services should give any potential patient pause.
“This medical center has a rocky history,” said Rhoslyn Thomas from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, citing reports by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a government oversight agency.
The CQC inspected the Polish clinic in the last few years about 10 times responding to a number of complaints and concerns. In early 2014, the organization found serious risks with X-ray equipment (potential exposure to radiation), and the laboratory “not fit for purpose” because of the unsafe equipment.
“We observed that a nurse did not wash her hands on entering the laboratory nor when she left. Nor did she wash her hands before or after handling a blood sample. There was therefore a risk of contaminants being brought into and taken out of the laboratory setting,” read page 13 of the report.
Specifically in relation to abortion, during inspections in 2014, they “found that the necessary approval from the Secretary of State to carry out termination of pregnancies had not been applied for.” The report also states that, “Following our visit on 28 January 2014 we received new information that raised further allegations about whether terminations of pregnancies were carried out illegally. These allegations have passed to the Police for their own investigations under the Abortion Act 1967.”
Among the infractions pointed out after 2014 unannounced inspections were “no clear statement about awareness of any risks associated with termination of pregnancy, no agreed emergency pathway in place for emergency treatment, no appropriate systems in place to assess the risk of infection and to prevent, detect and control the spread of infection in respect of the laboratory services.”
The provider suspended and restarted “termination of pregnancy” in 2015 with a new gynecologist, the CQC stated. The previous one barely spoke English, even though some 15 percent of the patients were English speaking and the clinic was in London.
The CQC now claims that TMC is “safe, effective, caring, and responsive,” even though the inspectors did not talk with the women. They “did not observe [abortion] care because no women had appointments for termination during the inspection.” The report from a November 2015 inspection said “the gynecologist was aware of two cases where women had gone to hospital after treatment, but he had not documented this in the women’s notes or recorded the occurrences as incidents, both of which would have been good practice.”
The CQC noted that the clinic had not been the subject of anti-abortion protests. However, in the summer of 2016, people started praying outside the facility. Local pro-lifers are raising an informative campaign with leaflets and speaking to residents in the area individually to raise awareness of what is happening at this center.
The TMC staff does not appear concerned with abortions taking place at the facility. “No one indicated that to me,” said Thomas, who spoke with the nurse, the registered manager, and the receptionist.
The manager and the owner of the clinic did not respond to questions from LifeSiteNews.
Anyone interested in the campaign should write to: Rhoslynthomas@spuc.org.uk
