Six state employees responsible for overseeing a squalid Philadelphia abortion clinic where two women died have resigned or been fired, Gov. Tom Corbett said Tuesday while announcing tougher standards for clinics statewide.
"This doesn't even rise to the level of government run amok. It was government not running at all. To call this 'unacceptable' doesn't say enough. It's despicable,'' Corbett said about the failures of state agencies to inspect the clinic and act on complaints against its operator, Dr. Kermit Gosnell.
The employees from the departments of Health and State either have resigned or been "terminated" since mid-January, Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley said. Three other employees resigned before a grand jury report detailing atrocities at the clinic became public last month, he said. Harley would not specify who resigned or was fired.
Department of State supervisory lawyer Chuck Hartwell and Basil Merenda, former secretary of state, told The Associated Press they were terminated.
Merenda said he did not appear before the grand jury and Corbett's aides did not speak to him as part of their review. He said the state Board of Medicine, on which he served, never got a case against Gosnell.
"Do you think for one minute that if I had known what was going on with the Gosnell complaints that I would have tolerated that? Come on," Merenda said.
The four others who resigned or were dismissed Friday, according to Harley, were Department of State attorney Mark Greenwald and Department of Health senior counsel Kenneth Brody, chief counsel Christine Dutton and deputy secretary for quality assurance Stacy Mitchell. None could be reached for comment.
Action is pending against eight other state employees, whom officials removed from overseeing abortion clinics until the investigation is completed, Harley said.
The Health Department last inspected the Women's Medical Society in West Philadelphia in 1993, and the Department of State ignored complaints against Gosnell, Corbett said.
"People were not doing their jobs, plain and simple," Corbett said.
More than 20 clinics will get annual and random unannounced inspections by the Health Department unit that inspects hospitals and outpatient surgery facilities, the governor said. Clinics must hold to a higher standard, he said. Any facility failing to report a serious incident will face a fine of up to $1,000 a day.
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