At the same time when Oklahoma lawmakers are trying to stop abortions altogether in their state, Julie Burkhart is working to expand them.
Burkhart plans to open a new, late-term abortion business in Oklahoma City this summer, according to Rolling Stone. The businesswoman has a shady reputation, having once run an abortion clinic for late-term abortionist George Tiller. She currently owns and runs an abortion business in Wichita, Kansas.
On making the decision to expand her abortion business to the conservative state, Burkhart said: “After the physician in Oklahoma City went out of business, I felt like it was even more important. If you want abortion care in Oklahoma, currently you have to go to Tulsa or Norman. Our clinic will go further in terms of gestational limit, and it will be one more site for people to go to.”
Her comments hinted that the new Oklahoma facility will do late-term abortions. In a February interview, she confirmed that it will: She told Bloomberg that they will do abortions up to 24 weeks in Oklahoma, LifeNews reported. Burkhart’s current move-in date is June 20, according to the report.
She complained to the liberal magazine that she has been facing a lot of obstacles to open her new abortion facility. She said many Oklahoma businesses did not want to work with her because of the nature of her business, making her feel “ostracized.” She also said the state Department of Health made it difficult to get an abortion clinic license.
“I think it was a mixture of people not understanding or knowing exactly what to do — because no provider of abortion had wanted to open a clinic since the Seventies — and I think we had some obstructionists in the Department of Health who thought maybe we would just go away,” Burkhart said.
In the previous interview, Burkhart also complained about financial woes, claiming that her Kansas facility was barely breaking even, though it takes in about $1 million a year and though she is expanding to Oklahoma.
She said she also is keeping her eye on a new Oklahoma bill that would strip abortionists of their medical licenses and basically ban abortions in the state. The state legislature passed the bill earlier this month; but Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed it on Friday, LifeNews reported.
If state lawmakers override Fallin’s veto and the bill becomes law, Burkhart said she may consider filing a lawsuit. During the interview, she claimed that her abortionists have “good hearts” and she wants to do “everything in our power” to protect them.
Despite Rolling Stone’s glowing report, Burkhart and her abortion facility have poor reputations for patient care and safety. Cheryl Sullenger, a leader of Operation Rescue, described Burkhart this way:
Burkhart is a militant pro-abortion activist who once worked for the notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller as head of his now-defunct political action committee. During that time, Burkhart was paid by Tiller to lobby against common sense laws that provided late-term abortion limits, as well as safety standards and accountability for abortion clinics. She also opposed efforts by [Kansas] Attorney General Phil Kline to investigate the non-reporting of child sex abuse at Kansas abortion clinics.
In December, pro-lifers uncovered even more evidence of shady goings on.
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A 911 call from November revealed a desperate mother saying that her teenage daughter was being forced to have an abortion at Burkhart’s Wichita facility, LifeNews reported. According to police, the mother called 911 after receiving text messages from the teen saying that her estranged father was holding her at the abortion facility against her will. Police arrived at the scene but Burkhart did not cooperate well with the police, according to reports. She refused to say whether the teen was inside her facility or speak to police while being recorded, according to the report. Her obstruction prevented the police from checking on the teen’s welfare.
Last July, pro-lifers also uncovered evidence that a woman had been severely injured in a botched abortion at her Wichita facility. According to 911 audio from the incident, Burkhart initially told an ambulance crew not to rush there or turn its lights on for the woman, LifeNews reported.
Burkhart also appears to be employing an abortionist with a sordid history. Sullenger reported that Wichita doctor Leslie E.F. Page was once disciplined by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts for “professional incompetency.” In February 2015, Operation Rescue obtained documents showing Page had secretly signed on to work for Burkhart as an abortionist.
In her interview with Rolling Stone, Burkhart said she had abortionists lined up to work at her new Oklahoma facility, but she did not mention any names.
Burkhart’s business expansion is life threatening to unborn babies and their moms, but her intentions could fail. Abortion rates are dropping to historic lows across America as more women choose life for their babies. And as a result, abortion facilities are losing business and closing their doors at a record pace.
