Facility Closes in Maryland Run by Man Who Killed Woman in Botched Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 29, 2010
Severna Park, MD (LifeNews.com) — It’s official. The Gynecare Center run by embattled abortion practitioner Romeo A. Ferrer, who has been under fire involving a case of a woman he killed in a failed abortion, has closed. Two pro-life groups have confirmed that a replacement abortion practitioner will not do abortions in Ferrer’s stead.
Ferrer is closing his abortion center after a 10-year campaign from dedicated pro-life organizations.
The Maryland Board of Physicians suspended his medical license but pro-life advocates were hoping for more.
The Gynecare Center is not scheduling new appointments and does not have an abortion practitioner to replace Ferrer. Operation Rescue discovered replacement abortion practitioner Ghevont Wartanian had been hired to fill in for Ferrer during his suspension.
But, due to the publicity surrounding Ferrer’s troubles and an unrelated illegal late-term abortion scheme operated by fellow Maryland abortion business owner Steven Chase Brigham, Wartanian had expressed reluctance to do abortions at Ferrer’s troubled clinic beyond September 30.
Wartanian, a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology, had been sued over 18 times for malpractice and negligence for incidents ranging from the death of newborn babies to causing brain damage and a host of other medical mistakes.
Last week, Wartanian met with local pro-life leader and local 40 Days for Life prayer campaign organizer Michael Martelli of Living Hope for Life, who had moved the event to Wartanian’s private office where no abortions are done, hoping to persuade him to stop abortions at Ferrer’s clinic.
After a cordial 45-minute discussion, OR indicates, Wartanian agreed to stop doing abortions effective immediately. He called Gynecare, canceled his existing appointments, and told the abortion center he would not be coming back.
"We have confirmed that Gynecare is closed and will not reopen its doors," Martelli says. "The office suite that Gynecare has operated in for years is already listed
for rent, and we have confirmed with the listing agent that the current tenant will be completely out of the office soon."
Now, the answering machine for the abortion center tells women seeking abortions to use the phone book or Internet to find another location.
"Gynecare is no longer a functioning abortion mill, and the two abortionists that worked there are not currently engaging in the abortion business. This is a huge victory for the team of pro-life groups that worked together for this outcome," said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman.
Ferrer faces permanent license revocation for the abortion-related death of Denise Crowe in 2006. Ferrer could also face criminal charges for killing Crowe during a second trimester abortion after he overdosed her on pain-killing drugs while failing to monitor her vital signs.
The Maryland medical board suspended Ferrer’s license on an emergency basis on September 8.
The complaint against Ferrer revolves around a February 2006 abortion he did on a 21-year-old African-American woman, Denise Crowe, at Gynecare Center in Severna Park.
The woman sought a second trimester dilation and evacuation abortion procedure but it eventually claimed Crowe’s life and left her three-year-old son without a mother.
Ferrer is accused of failing to properly administer pain medications, failing to monitor the patient’s respiration and ventilation, and failing to employ standard methods of care to resuscitate the patient. He is accused of giving her a fatal overdose of meperidine, a narcotic also known as Demerol.
The case was stagnant for years until the Maryland Board of Physicians, in April, filed a petition against Ferrer for "failure to meet the standard of quality care" in his negligent treatment of Crowe that resulted in her death. That case is still under consideration and could take months to resolve.
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