More Texas Abortion Practitioners Face Disciplinary Hearings

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 12, 2012   |   1:55PM   |   Austin, TX

The Texas Medical Board has scheduled for more abortion practitioners for hearings before Informal Show Compliance and Settlement Conferences based on complaints of them not following state laws.

The complaints were the result of a three-month undercover investigation conducted by Operation Rescue with the assistance of The Survivors. The complaints included evidence of numerous violations, including the illegal dumping of private patient medical records, violations of the informed consent laws, and failure to report suspected child sex abuse.

Robert L. Prince, Margaret Kouril Kini, Pedro J. Kowalyszyn, H. Brook Randal, and Sherwood C. Lynn are scheduled to appear before the state medical board on July 25. A total of 10 abortion practitioners have been summoned for hearings by the Texas Medical Board. Franz Theard and Douglas A. Karpen are also facing Board discipline. Their hearings have been set for May 16, 2012.

Last month, the medical board disciplined two abortion practitioners from the troubled Whole Women’s Heath abortion chain, Alan H. Molson and Robert E. Hanson, based on the complaints. Molson, 60, and Hanson, 72, both admitted before the Board to conduct that constituted violations of the standards of patient care. Each were fined $3,000 and ordered to take continuing medical education classes in risk management.

Also as a result of Operation Rescue complaints, Whole Women’s Health in Austin and McAllen, along with the waste disposal company Stericycle, were fined $83,000 for the illegal dumping of identifiable remains of aborted babies.

“During our undercover investigation of abortion clinics in Texas, we did not find a single abortion clinic that complied with the law,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation. “There is now an official record that Whole Women’s Health and other abortion businesses in Texas have broken the law. But our investigation revealed just the tip of the iceberg. This problem of abortion clinics violating health codes, standards of patient care, and even criminal statutes is prevalent at abortion clinics in every state.”

Newman indicated Molson, 60, admitted during an Informal Settlement Conference last October that he did not routinely see patients at the time of the post-abortion follow-up visit and that most follow-up visits were done by medical assistants, who are unqualified to provide the proper post-abortion care. He also admitted that the medical assistants would evaluate the patients and provide prescriptions for birth control pills that were pre-signed by Molson, if the patients met certain parameters. These admissions all constituted violations, according to the Board order.

Hanson, 72, admitted during his conference that he sees patients for the first time on the day of the abortion and fails do a complete history and physical. Only limited vital signs of the patient are checked before the abortion.

Molson and Hanson were also accused of HIPAA violations for the illegal dumping of private medical records and for illegal dumping of aborted baby remains. The Board found that since both abortion practitioners were “Independent Contractors” for the Whole Women’s Health abortion business, which operates multiple abortion clinics in Texas, they had no authority or control over the clinic’s dumping practices, therefore were not in violation.

Newman was present at both Informal Settlement Conference meetings and gave a witness statement against Molson and Hanson to the Board.

“Molson and Hanson slipped out of the illegal dumping allegations on a technicality,” said Newman. “In fact, two Whole Women’s Health abortion clinics that we investigated were fined tens of thousands of dollars for the improper disposal of recognizable aborted baby remains by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, so those allegations were proven to be true.”

Newman said a third abortion practitioner , William Watkins West, was accused but not disciplined by the Board.

Operation Rescue and The Survivors conducted a statewide investigation that consisted of recorded phone calls to abortion businesses and combing through dumpsters located outside them. In total, the probes found abortion practitioners and their staff violated informed consent laws and the state’s 24-hour waiting period before an abortion. They also found staff coached minor girls to cross state lines to avoid Texas parental notification laws, ignored cases of child sex abuse, illegally disposed private patient information in violation of HIPAA, improperly handled and disposed of controlled substances and the remains of aborted babies, and maintained their facilities in substandard conditions.

“Our investigation focused on what the average woman would experience if she sought an abortion in Texas, and how the abortion clinics appeared and operated on an everyday basis,” said Newman. “From what we found, women are subjected to a variety of abortion abuses as a matter of routine. Violating the law is standard operating procedure for abortion clinics in Texas.

In addition to the ten Medical Board cases, Whole Women’s Health abortion centers in Austin and McAllen were cited by the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality for the improper disposal of the remains of babies victimized by abortions. Stericycle, a disposal company used by abortion clinics nationwide, was also cited for their improper disposal of human remains in Austin.

“Currently, abortionists all over the country are facing hearings in the coming weeks with state disciplinary boards and criminal courts,” Newman has said. “While we are encouraged by the recent trend in several states to finally enforce the abortion laws on the books, we know that this is only a beginning.”

“In all our years of studying the abortion cartel and working to expose their misdeeds, we have never found an abortion clinic that complies with all the laws they should,” he said. “Abortionists are out there right now endangering the lives of women and wrongfully or illegally taking the lives of innocent pre-born babies that laws have been enacted to protect, yet there is so little accountability that abortion clinics openly operate as if the laws do not exist. That is why we investigate, expose wrongdoing, report it, and demand enforcement.”

Operation Rescue recorded one of Theard’s employees coaching a caller who claimed to be a minor seeking an abortion, to cross state lines to avoid having to comply with the Texas parental notification law.

The caller posed as a 17-year old minor who wanted an abortion and the receptionist quickly scheduled an abortion for her for the following Saturday at 9:00 am and told her to bring and I.D. and $460. Then the abortion center staff helps the caller evade Texas law.

Caller: Can I get a note for the doctor? Um…
Lupa: Why?
Caller: For school?
Lupa: [Unintelligible]—school?
Caller: ‘Cuz I’m still in high school.
Lupa: How old are you?
Caller: Seventeen.
Lupa: If you’re 17, your parent needs to come with you.
Caller: Oh, uh, I don’t want the–
Lupa: Do they know you’re pregnant?
Caller: No. No.
Lupa: We have another clinic. It’s in Sunland Park in Santa Teresa–
Caller: Santa Theresa where?
Lupa: Uh-huh. There you don’t need an appointment and you don’t need your parents. You could go on Tuesday.
Caller: On Tuesday? Oh.
Lupa: Yes, and it will be at 1:30.
Caller: 1:30? With the same doctor?
Lupa: Yes, ma’am.
Caller: Okay. So on Tuesday, in Santa Teresa I can go–?
Lupa: –address?
Caller: I need the address.
Lupa: It’s 5290 McNutt Road.

Lupa then assures the caller that she will see Dr. Theard and that she does not need to tell her parents.