10 May 2010

12th & Delaware

Lapsed Catholic Heidi Ewing and her friend Rachel Grady, two filmmakers made famous by their documentary Jesus Camp, released an "objective" film about the Pregnancy Care Center in Ft. Pierce, Florida, and its rival abortion clinic across the street. Father Tom Euteneuer featured in the film, which premiered at Sundance in January.

The main problem is that the Pregnancy Care Center only agreed to the film because they were told it would focus exclusively on its work helping mothers and their infants. Mesdemoiselles Ewing and Grady, however, unbeknownst to PCC, snuck across the street and gave equal time to the abortion clinic. The final edit, which claims to be an objective documentary, is anything but; the directors conveniently left out information about the abortionists' felony convictions, the lawsuit filed against them for violence against the PCC, and the monetary judgment won by Fr. Euteneuer after having received death threats from the clinic workers. The film also leaves out the abortion clinic's abysmal inspection report, which turned up 13 violations of Florida law. Fr. Euteneuer sums them up on his Facebook page:

During observation of the facility conducted with the Administrator [Candace Dye]:

*She was unable to locate sterile suturing supplies and equipment;
*She was not aware of the requirement for the facility to have sterile suturing supplies and equipment;
*She stated that the facility does not have cardiac monitoring equipment;
*She stated that a physician had donated a defibrillator, however, she was unable to locate it
*She acknowledged that the facility does not have a crash cart;
*She stated that the facility does not have position descriptions for any staff member;
*She acknowledged that the facility does not have mandatory written policies and procedures for the following: Patient admission, pre- and post-operative care, physicians’ orders, medications storage and administration, sterilization and disinfection, medical records and facility records, emergency measures and anesthesia.
*She acknowledged that the facility does not have written policies and procedures related to anesthesia.
*The Administrative Assistant acknowledged that she has not monitored the temperature on the refrigerator that is used to store medication and testing supplies for the past 13 months.

The Report revealed that in each of the above violations, the Administrator stated that she was not aware of the legal requirements to operate a second-trimester abortion clinic in the State of Florida.


This from the same woman who's been operating the clinic for 20 years. Frightening.

You can read the PCC's official statement on the film 12th & Delaware here.

For those with the gumption, you can send Heidi Ewing a message, as I did, letting her know her mendacity has not gone unnoticed.