Women have filed more than 600 complaints against an Indiana-based abortion practitioner saying he submitted false and misleading reports to state health officials about their abortions.
Representatives from Indiana Right to Life and Lake County Right to Life held a press conference late Tuesday announcing that 626 consumer complaints were filed against Gary’s Friendship Family Planning abortion doctor Ulrich Klopfer, who lives in Illinois but does abortions in Indiana. Each complaint is the result of a terminated pregnancy report containing errors or omissions, the group says.
Klopfer is the same abortion practitioner who has come under fire for failing to report abortions on teen girls who were victims of rape.
Indiana law requires abortion doctors to submit terminated pregnancy reports to the Indiana State Department of Health for every abortion performed. Complaints were sent today to the Indiana Attorney General and delivered to the Lake County Prosecutor. The complaints come less than two months after 17 women filed nearly 500 complaints against Klopfer for improper terminated pregnancy reports for abortions done in Allen County, Indiana.
As the groups informed LifeNews, “Lake County Right to Life and Indiana Right to Life requested copies of the publicly-available terminated pregnancy reports from the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) and reviewed each report supplied by ISDH for abortions done between July 2011 and June 2013. Every terminated pregnancy report had errors or omissions, ranging between one and 15 mistakes per report. In total, pro-life officials found 3,678 errors and omissions on the 626 reports.
“Incorrect information on the reports ranged from stating that the post-fertilization age of the fetus was 88 weeks to the estimated number of weeks of gestation not correlating with the date of last menses and date of termination. Omitted information ranged from excluding whether or not a post-abortion examination was done to leaving out the date(s) of previous terminations,” they said.
Twenty Northwest Indiana women submitted the complaints. In their complaint forms, they requested the immediate suspension of Klopfer’s medical license, pending a full investigation. Lake County Right to Life officials are also requesting a meeting of the Lake County Prosecutor as the local prosecutor has the authority to bring criminal charges against Klopfer. Indiana law states that failure to complete and submit the report on time carries a Class B misdemeanor charge.
“These errors and omissions on the reports we reviewed are inexcusable,” stated Mike Fichter, President and CEO of Indiana Right to Life. “We urge the Attorney General, the Medical Licensing Board and the Lake County Prosecutor to address these 626 complaints immediately. Businesses across Indiana are held to state laws in their respective fields and we believe the abortion industry should be held accountable as well.”
“Mistakes on every report for every abortion performed simply demonstrate sloppy work,” said Lynne Scherschel, Board Member for Lake County Right to Life. “Terminated pregnancy reports are an important accountability measure for client health and safety. All the errors and omissions are concerning, but especially alarming are omissions like whether or not an examination was done to be sure the abortion was complete. The state and county must take corrective steps immediately, starting with suspending Dr. Kloper’s medical license until a full investigation is done.”
“This is not the first time Dr. Klopfer’s alleged business filings have caused community alarm,” said Cy Huerter, Lake County Right to Life Vice President. “In May, complaints were filed with the Indiana Attorney General’s office and the Indiana Medical Licensing Board after Dr. Klopfer failed to report an abortion on a 13-year-old within the time specified by state law. The termination of pregnancy report shows that Dr. Klopfer performed an abortion on a 13-year-old on September 28, 2012, but the Indiana Department of Health did not receive the report from Dr. Klopfer until January 23, four months after the abortion instead of within the three days required by law. He has also failed to properly report abortions on girls under age 14 in Fort Wayne and South Bend, Ind.”
View a Consumer Complaint and Termination of Pregnancy Report example here.
