A Chicago-area medical clinic that offers abortion services has been fined $36,000 by the state Department of Public Health because it has continued to promote surgical abortions on its website even after they lost their license to provide such services last fall.
The Women's Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood, Ill., was forced by the state to surrender its license in October. While the state cited violations including the clinic's failure to perform CPR on a patient who died following a procedure, the clinic's owner maintained that the facility is safe and that she felt victimized by a surprise inspection.
But the state found that the clinic's doors remain open and their website, as of Thursday, still promoted "first trimester abortion services from 6 to 14 weeks of pregnancy with two types of anesthesia," the Associated Press reports. The state has asked the clinic to remove the references to the services.
Prior to last fall, the clinic had gone 15 years without a full state inspection. State officials have blamed the backlog of inspections on a lack of funds and resources -- only 24 trained health inspectors are tasked with overseeing almost 2,000 facilities statewide.
The crackdown on abortion clinics was prompted by findings of disturbing conditions at a southeast Philadelphia abortion clinic referred to as a "house of horrors" last fall.