Pro-life groups are outraged that Washington, D.C. has failed to properly address allegations that a D.C. abortionist is using brutal and illegal tactics to end the lives of babies.
“It is deeply disturbing that allegations related to the legal practices and safety protections in this abortion clinic have gone ignored for a year; giving abortion clinics and practitioners a pass,” March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said on Wednesday.
“We only need consider Kermit Gosnell to see that similar allegations unchecked caused massive harm not only to the babies taken by abortion but to the many women who suffered grievous consequences from the lack of oversight and accountability,” she added.
Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna pressed D.C. officials Wednesday with questions about the five preemie-sized aborted babies recovered from Dr. Cesare Santangelo’s Washington Surgi-Clinic, which performs abortions from the earliest stages of pregnancy up until 26 weeks of pregnancy.
Though it has been a year since the babies were discovered, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser will not say whether autopsies have been performed on the babies’ bodies or address the possibility that Santangelo is performing illegal abortions.
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The District does not have any laws that regulate abortions.
Under Luna’s questioning, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said that “if the allegations” about Santangelo “are true,” he supports removing the abortionist’s medical license. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
These allegations include a lawsuit which accused Santangelo of bungling the removal of a baby so badly that fetal debris ended up in the lungs of the mother, who reportedly died.
Luna’s questioning was quickly highlighted by the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, the group that discovered the babies’ bodies; by Live Action, by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America; and by the March for Life.
“These babies deserve to be seen and have JUSTICE!!” the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising said in a tweet praising Luna.
“Zero action taken by corrupt DC @MayorBowser,” Live Action founder Lila Rose tweeted. “CONGRESS MUST act to bring justice for the five.”
Emily Erin Osmet, the vice president of communications at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, pointed out that it has been exactly a year since pro-life activists with the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising discovered the babies.
“Today marks one year and still no justice has been served for the ‘D.C. Five’ – five late-term babies (potentially born alive) were aborted, placed in a bag and headed to an incinerator when a whistleblower intervened and their bodies were turned over to D.C. police,” she said.
Osmet praised Luna for grilling the D.C. authorities on where the investigation stands and “calling out the heinous acts committed in our nation’s capital and the city’s apparent unwillingness to even conduct autopsies on the remains of the D.C. Five.”
“One year later we have no answers, no convictions and no accountability, not even autopsies,” she said. “D.C. police – directed by D.C. politicians – have shown more interest in arresting pro-life advocates for writing on the sidewalk with chalk than in holding abortionists accountable for horrific born-alive abortions.”
“We call for justice, transparency and accountability for our nation’s most vulnerable children,” she added.
Bowser has not responded to many requests for comment from The Daily Signal.
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