By Dave Andrusko
Ulrich Klopfer’s South Bend abortion clinic
We’ll presumably know more later today or tomorrow but as NRL News Today was about to post its last story, Amanda Gray of the South Bend Tribune reported that the Wednesday hearing scheduled for notorious abortionist Ulrich Klopfer had been cancelled. That could mean any of a lot of things, including a settlement with a man who is habitually facing misconduct charges.
This particular set of issues had to do with Klopfer’s abortion clinic in South Bend. He has already been forced to cease doing abortions at his Fort Wayne and Gary abortion clinics.
As we wrote, on June 26 the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) denied Klopfer’s request for a license renewal for his South Bend abortion clinic with the ISDH citing a laundry list of problems.
Gray reported that the ISDH sent a letter to Klopfer, dated June 26,
stating that the application for license renewal was denied after a recommendation from the Abortion Clinic Licensing Program. The letter cited a “history of non-compliance, ongoing non-compliance, untimely and unacceptable plans of correction and pending license revocation.” Specifically, the letter referenced a June 3 inspection in which inspectors found evidence that medical abortions were taking place without requiring a woman requesting the procedure to wait 18 hours before having an abortion, as required by state law.
The letter further stated, “The program believes these deficiencies provide further evidence of the clinic’s inability to comply with and follow existing state law and that such behavior is an intentional and willful act.”
Klopfer appealed and has been allowed to continue doing abortions there until an administrative law judge hears the case.
Klopfer has been accused of much more, as NRL News Today has written. For example, back in July he was given a “pretrial diversion” by the Lake Superior County Court for failing to report an abortion on a 13-year-old girl, as required by Indiana law.
Klopfer was charged with the same misdemeanor in St. Joseph County. But last December he was granted the same kind of pretrial diversion “with charges dismissed within a year if he abides by terms of the program,” according to Gray.
And then there are the 1,833 alleged violations that stem from record keeping and advice and consent law errors Klopfer made while performing abortions in Gary, South Bend, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. Indiana Right to Life explained the specifics:
According to the alleged violations in the Attorney General’s complaint, Klopfer submitted 1,818 termination of pregnancy reports with missing or incorrect information. He failed to submit two termination of pregnancy reports on time for 13-year-old girls. Six times, he failed to ensure informed and voluntary consent was obtained through appropriate counselors. Finally, he failed to obtain informed and voluntary consent for seven patients at least 18-hours prior to the abortion procedure.
As Gray noted in an earlier story, Klopfer’ attorneys, Mary Watts and Joshua Burress, asked for a summary judgment on the basis that Klopfer did not “knowingly” violate state statutes and in the case of the informed consent laws, Watts argued, did not violate them at all.