One of the doctors who has been picked by Martin Haskell’s Ohio abortion business to treat patients who may become victims of botched abortions has himself faced discipline from medical boards in Ohio and Kentucky.
As LifeNews.com reported yesterday, pro-life advocates in Ohio are upset that the state health department has granted Haskell’s abortion business a variance allowing him to avoid complying with state law requiring a transfer agreement with a local hospital to transport patients who are injured in botched abortions for immediate medical care.
Ironically, documents the pro-life group Operation Rescue obtained reveal obstetrician William Bowers, who has been accepted by the Ohio Department of Health to offer emergency hospital care for botched abortion patients of Haskell’s has been disciplined in Kentucky and banned from the practice of obstetrics for five years. He also faces further discipline in Ohio.
Bowers was named in the ODH variance because Haskell and other abortion practitioners who work at his facility lack hospital privileges as required by law. The variance allowed Haskell’s late-term abortion facility in Sharonville to stay in business as long as two other physicians agreed to provide hospital care whenever Haskell or his associates inflict injuries on abortion patients.
As OR informed LifeNews today, Bowers was placed on five years of probation in January and ordered to cease the practice of obstetrics after the gross mismanagement of a wanted pregnancy resulted in a dead child. Bowers settled a claim with the parents for $250,000 and he has been ordered not to perform any obstetric procedure and take additional training classes.
Operation Rescue president Troy Newman said a review of five other medical charts from his Kentucky practice indicated Bowers failed to meet the standard of care for each of those five patients. The Medical Board in Kentucky found Bowers’ conduct “borders on gross ignorance and is malpractice” and said his treatment of patients was “below minimum standards and constitutes gross negligence.”
Newman also indicated that the State Medical Board of Ohio, on May 11, issued a letter to Bowers stating that it intended to determine whether it should also discipline Bowers based on his negligent behavior in Kentucky. He says it is common for state medical boards to impose discipline for conduct in another state and Bowers was given 30 days to request a hearing but the records OR obtained show he didn’t request one.
“This new information about Bowers’ incompetence reinforces our belief that the ODH acted improperly and with poor judgment in expanding Haskell’s variance to include Bowers,” said Newman.
“Now, after a woman has been seriously injured by Haskell’s abortionists, who cannot meet the legal standards of Ohio’s laws, she is rushed off to a hospital where Bowers awaits to inflict his substandard brand of medicine upon her. This presents completely unacceptable risks to women. In order to restore public confidence in the Department and protect the public, the ODH must rescind Haskell’s variance immediately,” he said.
In 1996, Ohio passed a law requiring that all ambulatory surgical centers must be licensed by the state and, in 1999, it came to the attention of the Ohio Health Department that abortion clinics were not in compliance with the law, having never applied for licensing. The OHD began the process of insuring that all abortion clinics came into compliance.
Haskell refused to comply and, after years of court and administrative battles, the administration of former Ohio governor Ted Strickland granted a variance [exception] allowing the late-term abortion practitioner to open a new abortion facility in Sharonville, Ohio, the Women’s Med Center at 11250 Lebanon Road. The state gave him this variance on the condition that he maintains privileges at an area hospital, a lesser standard than a transfer agreement.
Now, Haskell’s variance has been modified and Ted Wymyslo, the health department director, says Haskell is no longer required to have privileges at an area hospital or a transfer agreement. He is allowed to operate by having his partner, Roslyn Kade, and two other Cincinnati doctors, David Schwartz and Walter J. Bowers*, handle his emergency complications.
That decision is meeting with strong condemnation from Virgil Lovitt, the mayor of Sharonville and president of the Sharonville Board of Health.
“Now, Martin Haskell can continue to perform abortions without meeting these requirements, and he can replace his skills with other doctors that, also, do not need to meet the written state regulations,” he said. “Any abortionists working at the Women’s Med Center are now covered by the credentials of Dr. Haskell’s partner, Roslyn Kade, and two doctors off-site. This has expanded the variance to beyond the career of this 71-year old abortionist. Martin Haskell can finally retire and his late term abortion center will legally be able to operate indefinitely.”
