Australian Accused of Doing Non-Consensual Abortion on Mentally Disabled Girl
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 25, 2008
Queensland, Australia (LifeNews.com) — An Australian abortion practitioner is facing a discipline hearing by a medical panel on an accusation that he did a late-term abortion on a mentally disabled woman without her consent. Mark Schulberg, who also does abortions in Victoria, faces a Medical Practitioners Board hearing.
Should he be found guilty of serious misconduct, he could face a suspension of his medical license.
The hearing comes as the state parliament of Victoria grapples with a bill to officially make abortions legal by taking an old, un-enforced statute prohibiting abortions off the books.
According to a report in The Age newspaper, the case involves a woman who was more than 24 weeks pregnant at the time of the abortion.
The abortion was done at Schulberg’s abortion center in Croydon, the only place in the state that does abortions for disputed mental health reasons on healthy babies.
Under state law in Victoria, the guardian of a mentally disabled woman can’t give consent for her for an abortion. Instead, the guardian must submit an application to a state agency that evaluates such requests.
The Age indicated the medical board was notified of the complaint by the Office of the Public Advocate, which advocates for the rights of people with disabilities.
The board will hold a formal hearing after it reviews the evidence in the complaint and believes there is enough evidence showing the medical practitioner engaged in serious unprofessional conduct.
The newspaper indicated the hearing can result in no action, a settlement, counseling for the medical personnel involved, or a surrender of the medical license.
This isn’t the first time Schulberg has come under fire, as he has routinely been accused of doing "cosmetic" abortions on babies who have club feet, webbed fingers, cleft palates or other conditions that are easily corrected.
One abortion advocate who talked with the newspaper worried pro-life advocates would use the case to promote opposing abortions.
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