Australia Panel Learns Abortion Practitioner Engaged in Abortion-Rape Coverup
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 26, 2008
Queensland, Australia (LifeNews.com) — A medical panel in Australia had convened a hearing to focus on potential discipline for an abortion practitioner who did a late-term abortion on a mentally disabled woman without her consent. The panel learned that Mark Schulberg failed to contact authorities about the fact the woman was raped.
Schulberg faced a Medical Practitioners Board hearing on Monday and, should he be found guilty of serious misconduct, he could face a suspension of his medical license.
The case involves a mentally disabled 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.
But the issues involved are more serious than failing to obtain consent, according to a Western Australia Today report.
Schulberg also allegedly failed to contact police to let them know the woman was a rape victim who was legally incapable of consenting to sexual relations.
The board heard that Schulberg reportedly coordinated the abortion in March 2005 with the father of the disabled woman, who had raped her and was sentenced to seven years in prison earlier this year.,
Attorney Kevin Armstrong told the medical board that the abortion Schulberg did could have made it more difficult for police to prosecute the rapist by destroying the baby, whose DNA could tie the criminal to the crime.
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 newspaper indicated the board also learned that a social worker at Northern Hospital contacted the state for an application for the abortion to go ahead. Not willing to wait, the woman’s father convinced Schulberg to go ahead with the abortion.
Schulberg allegedly talked with the woman’s doctor, who indicated the application had been approved. Schulberg’s attorney said he should have known he needed to wait for the state to give him approval, but said that lack of knowledge about the law doesn’t constitute serious misconduct.
Schulberg is expected to testify in the hearing today, 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.
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