by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 1, 2005
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- The national corporate office of
La Quinta Inns has asked a local Wichita-based hotel to prevent staff
from the office of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller from
using the facility as a staging area for women having abortions.
The
Wichita La Quinta Inn offered discounted rates for women traveling to
the Midwestern city to obtain late-term abortions.
Tiller's staff also used the hotel as a "labor annex" to his abortion facility. The late-term abortion procedures take 3-4 days to complete and staff from his abortion business would stay at La Quinta with the women to monitor them during the abortion process.
According to Operation Rescue, which unveiled the activities at La Quinta, the national corporate office sent an investigator to Wichita to look into the complaints. The representative discovered that the local La Quinta was renting rooms to Tiller's staff in order to provide monitoring and follow-up abortion services.
La Quinta Inn corporate representative Teresa Ferguson told the pro-life group that the corporate office also told Tiller to stop the practice, which she said was illegal.
Ferguson also told Tiller that he could no longer use the hotel's name in literature or on his web site to promote discounted rates or abortion services.
Troy Newman, president of the organization, thanked the "hundreds of men and women of conscience who called and brought Tiller's association with the La Quinta to the attention of the corporate office."
"We are thankful that the La Quinta Corporation has done the right thing and sent Tiller packing," Newman said.
The news comes just days after Newman's group learned that a woman suffered a botched abortion in early January at Tiller's abortion center had died at a local hospital. Newman said he believes she likely stayed at the La Quinta Inn.
ACTION: Contact La Quinta Inns and thank them
for disassociating their Wichita hotel from George Tiller's abortion
business. You can send a note to them by going to http://www.lq.com/lq/contact/contactus.do?action=edit
