Abortion Clinics in the U.S. shutting down at an incredible rate:

Jojy Cheriyan MD;MPH-Spetember9,2013

New restrictions imposed on abortion by individual states have led to the shutdown of 58 abortion clinics (so called Planned Parenthood Clinics) in the recent past. This constitute 10% of the total number of abortion clinics across the country, according to the Bloomberg News from New York. Clinics are struggling to adhere to new 'strict-regulations' for using abortion-related operating rooms and medical equipments.

Pennsylvania, recently, tightened abortion laws after the incident of barbaric and inhuman killing of live fetuses by Dr.Kermit Gosnell, a gynecologist who ran an abortion clinic for decades. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for allegedly 'snipping' the spinal cord of live born babies with sharp scissors. Five abortion clinics have closed down, in Pennsylvania, since the passage of the new laws and many others are struggling to pay for the required changes. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania claimed that it would cost US$450,000 for the upgrades to their two facilities.

In Texas, the new state laws passed, in July this year, put immense pressure on abortion clinic owners. The new laws require abortion clinics to become outpatient centers and doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Three facilities have already shut down in the state since the new laws came into force. The state law makers also slashed the family planning funding in the state budget.

According to Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization, this kind of decline in abortion clinics is incredibly dramatic, and first major decline since legalization of abortion in 1973.

US House Republicans and Republican led state governments took the fight against abortion clinics soon after Gosnell was arrested. The massive campaign organized by the Catholic Church and its allies also led to a staunch opposition against abortion. A group of House Republicans wrote to attorney generals of all 50 states in May 2013, citing the Gosnell trial and asking what exactly the individual states were doing to "protect the civil rights of newborns and their mothers."

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