New Jersey Right to Life113 North Avenue West Cranford, NJ  07016 PRESS RELEASE 

Contact:  Marie Tasy

Executive Director

(732) 846-2000

March 15, 2007--

New Jersey Right to Life called on Governor Corzine and State Health Officials to provide outreach services to women today after the release of a State Health Report surfaced in yesterday's Bergen Record citing various infection control and sanitization issues at Metropolitan Medical Clinic in Englewood, NJ.  The clinic has been shut down since February 24 after Newark Beth Israel Hospital notified the state that the clinic performed a botched abortion on a 20 year old woman which required a hysterectomy and nearly resulted in the woman’s death.

According to the newspaper’s account, state health officials investigating the clinic found “forceps encrusted in ‘brownish blood-like residues,’ rusty crochet hooks used to remove IUDs and a quarter-inch of dark red ‘dirt and debris’ under an exam table.  Sterilized items were also not stored or handled properly. For example, two plastic open top bins of sterile forceps, speculum and gauze kits were stored directly on the carpeted floor next to the copier in the main office and surgical instruments were found in the same drawer as light bulbs.   

Marie Tasy, Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life, said, “Metropolitan Medical Clinic is one of the largest abortion clinics in the country performing over 10,000 abortions a year.  Many of the women who frequent this clinic are Medicaid patients, which means Metropolitan Medical Clinic is receiving a large percentage of state money which comes from taxpayer dollars.  The State of New Jersey has an obligation to reach out to women who have gone to this clinic to find out whether any of them have experienced any complications or if any may have developed a sexually transmitted disease through the use of unsterilized instruments.�  Tasy called on State Officials to advertise and implement a 1-800, toll free number for women who may have gone to Metropolitan Medical Clinic and are experiencing adverse health issues.  “Veterinarian Clinics possess better infection control standards than this clinic,� said  Tasy.       

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