New Report Exposes California Practitioner Who Killed Woman in Failed Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 6, 2010
San Diego, CA (LifeNews.com) — A new investigative piece by a former Los Angeles Times reporter further exposes a southern California abortion practitioner who was allowed to keep his medical license despite killing a woman in a botched abortion. Andrew Rutland killed a woman during an abortion by administering anesthesia to her and not knowing the proper dosage.
The case concerning the woman’s legal abortion death is pending and the medical board and a Administrative Law Judge James Ahler told Rutland to stop doing abortions until its conclusion.
However, Rutland was caught in an undercover sting operation scheduling an abortion in violation of the order to stop doing them while his disciplinary case proceeded.
Now, blogger William Heisel, a former reporter for the Times and Orange County Register, has written six-part series of investigative reports called "The Shadow Practice" that focuses on Rutland and some of his associates.
The pro-life group Operation Rescue, which has helped expose Rutland, applauded the new report.
"Heisel’s report exposes the links between Rutland and a group of shoddy abortionists and other troubled doctors who are able to continue practicing by slipping out of the mainstream and into the shadows by working at cash only clinics in primarily immigrant neighborhoods," the group told LifeNews.com. "That is so they can operate under the radar with little chance that a patient who does not understand English and may be in the country illegally will report their abuses to the authorities."
"Heisel reveals abortionists who prey on immigrant and minority women with dangerous abortions and a painkiller distribution scheme where hundreds of thousands of pills are prescribed without a physician ever examining the patient, and where insurance companies are over-billed to increase the profit margin," the organization continued.
"For those who wish to understand the true nature of the crisis that exists at America’s abortion mills, this series is a must read," Operation Rescue said.
The California Medical Board had asked for the emergency suspension of Rutland’s license after one of its investigators caught him scheduling a surgical abortion at a Chula Vista, California, abortion center in February.
Rutland was barred from performing abortions and surgeries in January at his acupuncture clinic in San Gabriel and the board interpreted the order to include drug-induced abortions.
The Board is pressing forward with a full Board hearing to revoke Rutland’s license "as expeditiously as possible."
After the February hearing, Kathleen Nicholls of the California Medical Board commented, "How many patients have to die before a doctor is shut down? It’s unfortunate someone else is going to have to die to change this order."
The patient in the case where Rutland killed her saw Ying Chen visiting Rutland’s San Gabriel facility last July for a second-trimester abortion.
Rutland injected lidocaine, a local anesthetic, in her cervix and the woman began to have an immediate reaction. The abortion practitioner began to perform CPR but the board documents say there was a "significant delay" in him calling 911 for emergency medical help for the woman.
Ying was in cardiac arrest when the ambulance arrived and was taken to a hospital, where she died six days later. An autopsy revealed Rutland gave the woman the wrong dosage of the anesthesia.
Related web sites:
Read the six-part report on Rutland here.
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