By Troy Newman

In a “Wonderful Life” every time a bell rang an angel got his wings, but at Operation Rescue, when an abortion mill shuts its doors we rock out. “Another One Bites the Dust” by the rock group Queen blares at maximum volume from our office stereo system every time an abortion mill closes. It is a time honored tradition in the Operation Rescue office dating back to 1991.
The OR national headquarters is located in former abortion mill. The rock and roll could be heard for blocks away on the day we shut down that clinic down.
Fortunately, the music is digital or we would have worn the old vinyl record thin from celebrating all the abortion clinics that have lately closed. Since 1991, over 1,400 chop shops have shut down for good leaving just slightly over 700 killing centers in the USA. The numbers don’t lie. Two-thirds of the industry has closed up shop and blown out of town. That’s something to rock about!
And the winds of change continue to blow in our favor.
In the years since the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey Supreme Court decision, the push from state legislatures has been to focus on placing restrictions and regulations on abortion mills and their staff. Although the attempts have been piecemeal, many laws have been enacted and enforced resulting in the closure of clinics in several states.
A few years ago, the Missouri legislature passed a common-sense safety law forcing abortionists to have hospital privileges in order to stay open. As a result, at least one abortion clinic was closed, and our stereo blasted at full volume.
Kermit Gosnell’s license to kill was suspended by the Pennsylvania Department of State’s Board of Medicine after they raided his death camp and declared it a “shop of horrors” after finding numerous health and safety violations. His abortion mill was ordered to close. Another one down.
Maryland regulators are finally stepping up to the plate after an 18-year old girl suffered a botched abortion at the hands of the unlicensed abortionist Steven Brigham. The state ordered Brigham to cease and desist from the practice of medicine and suspended the licenses of his two quack associates for helping Brigham evade the law. Operation Rescue is pushing the Maryland Attorney General for criminal charges. Brigham’s Elkton abortion mill is closed. Yet another one down.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (LDHH) revoked the clinic license of Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport last week and ordered them to halt all abortions there after finding that they didn’t even bother to monitor a patient’s vital signs or physically examine women prior to abortions. The action was the first immediate suspension under the new Louisiana law, signed by Governor Bobby Jindel, which allows the State to order an abortion mill to cease operations. Another one bites the dust.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli recently placed abortion mills under the same standard of care required by other outpatient surgical facilities. Abortion mills around the country often operate in a gray area and outside any regulatory oversight. I predict there will be some “for sale” signs going up soon in Virginia, and I better warm up my stereo.
Laws and regulations that end with “now you can close the abortion clinic” are always a good thing for the babies. I know from first-hand experience that when abortion mills close, babies are saved.
So long live the regulators, the enforcers, and the prosecutors who apply the law and close abortion mills. We can all hold hands and sing the refrain, “bump, bump, bump, another one bites the dust!”