A bombshell opened the third day of testimony in a week-long administrative hearing challenging the medical fitness of a former associate of George Tiller, Ann Kristin (Kris) Neuhaus.
Neuhaus’s file of “Patient #10” showed the “mental health exemption” diagnosis– legally required before obtaining a post-viability abortion– was time-stamped one week after the date of the abortion!
Psychiatric expert, Dr. Liza Gold, has been testifying this week in Topeka about eleven patient files from Neuhaus that the state Healing Arts Board believes illustrates medical negligence and failure to follow the standard of care.
For years, Kansas pro-lifers worked to end the “referral” scam for late-term abortions in Wichita, in which a failed abortionist (Neuhaus) was issuing “psych” referrals of “substantial and irreversible harm to the mother” to justify post-viability abortions.
Dr. Gold explained that there are essential components that should be documented in the record of any psychiatric evaluation. The medical standard of care requires at least some of them be in found in the medical record …but “Neuhaus doesn’t have any of them.”
The scant documentation in Neuhaus’ minimal “record” of Patient #10 is shocking. There is no documentation that shows the day and time that Neuhaus met with this girl to discuss her medical history, and assess her current mental condition.
Worse yet, this 18-year-old Kansas girl was already on anxiety medication! Patient #10 deserved:
- a phone call to her prescribing doctor,
- a careful evaluation from a genuinely trained psych professional,
- a well-documented patient file, and
- arrangements for immediate professional intervention and follow –up psychiatric care.
Instead, she got an expensive abortion –a week ahead of being issued the legally-required mental health referral.
“Patient #8” was yet another dismaying example of the manipulation of fragile teens. A 13-year-old New Jersey girl obtained a Wichita abortion within one week of discovering she was 5 months pregnant! This girl had reportedly expressed that she “would kill herself or die, or neglect the child or beat it senseless.”
Gold said that distress is a normal reaction to adverse human situations like the sudden discovery of pregnancy by an adolescent. However, adolescents are notoriously changeable, impulsive and dramatic, so such declarations within the first week of learning about being pregnant certainly do not indicate an irreversible mental disorder.
There is nothing in Patient #8’s record to show Neuhaus did any kind of professional assessment, engaged a child psychologist or offered treatment options. Patient #8’s record shows no arrangements were made to guard this girl’s safety after the abortion, which Gold insisted was Neuhaus’ professional duty to insure.
Gold has issued these firm opinions over the last three days:
1. evaluating women for abortion is not a real life event in the practice of psychiatry;
2. abortion is not a treatment or intervention for psychological disorders;
3. there’s no separate standard of care related to abortion;
4. the Neuhaus diagnoses of acute anxiety and major depression are not ‘irreversible’ as there are standard effective treatments for them;
5. even with a genuine mental evaluation, a provider could never conclude that irreversible mental health could ensue from carrying a pregnancy to term.
Responding to the three days of hearings so far, Kansans for Life director Mary Kay Culp said:
“The facts being revealed at these hearings illustrate why former A.G. Kline deserves an apology, if not an award, for trying to enforce Kansas law to stop Tiller and Neuhaus’ fraudulent late-term abortion practices, rather than the baseless ethics charges filed against Kline that were nothing more than a coverup to keep these and other facts away from the public.”
“There were solid reasons why every judge who looked found probable cause to believe that late-term abortion crimes had been committed in Kansas–crimes that to this day have yet to be properly revealed, much less dealt with. Instead Kline was hounded out of Kansas, brought back twice for “ethics” trials and now faces loss of his law license. We applaud the Kansas Board of Healing Arts for having the courage to pull back the curtain–something we hope to see continued as the Planned Parenthood case goes back to court in Johnson County in late October.”
Defense testimony begins on Thursday from three former employees of the Tiller clinic, one physician and Neuhaus. After the hearing concludes, the presiding judge will issue his opinion about Neuhaus to the state Healing Arts Board for further action, including license revocation.
LifeNews.com Note: Kathy Ostrowski is the legislative director for Kansans for Life, a statewide pro-life group.
