By Dave Andrusko
If you were to go by a story in Wednesday’s Columbus Dispatch, abortionist Harley Bank permanently lost his license to practice medicine in Ohio “based in part on allegations that he improperly prescribed drugs to men without keeping patient records, state records show.” And while that would be true, it is only a part of the story of a man that reporter JoAnne Viviano describes as “known as the first physician to perform a legal abortion in Ohio.”
It is true, as confirmed by Greater Columbus Right, that the 79-year-old Blank had signed an agreement last month to surrender his license which was formally revoked by the State Medical Board of Ohio on November 14.
It is also true, as Viviano reported, that Blank “helped establish Founder’s Women’s Health Center, Columbus’ first abortion clinic.” But you’d never know from her story that the abortion clinic in general, Blank in particular, has a long and sordid history. There is only a back-handed allusion to the fact that Blank had been sued multiple times.
For example, Greater Columbus Right to Life, citing a 2013 lawsuit, reported that Blank had been sued for a 2012 abortion which the woman said left her unable to bear any children. The allegation was that even though there were
several indications that the woman was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy at her initial consultation, when she returned to the practice three days later she was diagnosed with a uterine pregnancy and Dr. Blank, “went through the motions of an abortion. No abortion was actually done, because the pregnancy was corneal [ectopic].” A week later, the patient was rushed to the hospital via an ambulance where she was later found to have a “ruptured cornual pregnancy, right hemoperitoneum, and right hematosalpinx” and anemia due to acute blood loss. Essentially, the ectopic pregnancy that was ignored ruptured, she had to have both fallopian tubes removed, and she lost a lot of blood.
Greater Columbus Right to Life also cited a laundry list of Founder’s abortion clinic’s violations. Viviano acknowledged, “Blank has been involved as recently as September” with Founder’s.
Viviano subtly chastised Greater Columbus Right to Life because in its response, “It does not refer to the prescription allegations.”
For her part, Viviano does not refer to two state investigations of Founder’s which resulted in 13 and 15 pages of violations, respectively.
In its press release responding to the news that Blank’s medical license had been revoked, Greater Columbus Right to Life wrote
there is no doubt that a large part of the reason has been the extensive work done by Greater Columbus Right to Life staff and volunteers for the past five years to uncover the true conditions of the clinic, refer injured patients to legal counsel and state regulators. We have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make this a reality, and it is paying off.