(Washington, D.C.): Today, the Center for Client Safety (CCS) team is providing oral testimony in a hearing requested before the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board regarding the intention of Hope Clinic—an abortion clinic in Granite City, Illinois—to quietly relinquish their facility licensure as an Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center (ASTC).
While Hope Clinic is not required under Illinois law to retain their ASTC license, they have voluntarily chosen to be licensed since the requirement was lifted in 2019. CCS and local partners have tracked more than two dozen reported medical emergencies followed by a failed inspection when they did not deal with those emergencies properly.
CCS Chief Impact Officer, Amy Gehrke, stated, “While the clinic claims facility licensure is an administrative and financial burden, ASTC licensure is the standard for clinics providing similar services, without the politicized exception for later term abortion. Oversight is not a burden and is necessary to ensure patient safety and the accountability of all medical professionals, including abortion providers.”
CCS Director of Investigations, Christine Smith, added, “Scaling back standard regulatory safeguards is never in the best interest of patients. As Hope Clinic has already failed one inspection for basic emergency protocol and has since not been inspected, the public can have no confidence that further failures will not occur without proper oversight.”
Both Amy Gehrke and Christine Smith will be providing in-person testimony today alongside other concerned community members and allied organizations.
For more information or to arrange an interview with AUL, contact Gavin Oxley at press@aul.org or 202-987-3321.
