Maryland Presents an Alternative Approach to Abortion Clinic Regulation

The New York Times: Maryland’s Path to an Accord in Abortion Fight, by Eric Eckholm:

The 18-year-old woman arrived at Johns Hopkins Hospital by medevac helicopter in critical condition. Her uterus and bowel had been pierced during a late-term abortion that had started in New Jersey and ended at an unmarked, unregulated clinic in Elkton, in northeastern Maryland. . . .

The near disaster in an Elkton mall led to something rare in this era of polarized abortion politics — sharply tightened oversight of Maryland abortion clinics that came into full force this year and won praise from both sides of the political divide. The state’s first system of licensing and inspecting the clinics has already improved patient safeguards without imposing costly burdens, defenders and opponents of abortion rights agree. . . .