Abortion Clinic Storing Remains of Aborted Baby in Fridge With Medications May be Shut Down

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 19, 2015   |   4:15PM   |   South Bend, IN

The state of Indiana is focusing on shutting down a South Bend abortion clinic that was found to have stored the remains of an aborted baby in the same refrigerator as medicine.

Indiana state health officials have formal complaint seeking to revoke the operating license of the Women’s Pavilion abortion clinic in South Bend. Papers from the state indicate the abortion clinic is charged with violating Indiana Code 16-21 and multiple health and safety rules.

The actions come after police, last March, executed a search warrant on Ulrich G. Klopfer’s Women’s Pavilion abortion clinic in South Bend, Indiana, seizing documents and other property.

Klopfer’s troubles began when volunteers with Indiana Right to Life filed 1,200 complaints against him for not reporting child sex abuse and other information required by the State based on Termination of Pregnancy reports obtained by the pro-life group through a public records act request.

The complaints prompted St. Joseph County Prosecutor Mike Dvorak to ask the Police Special Victim’s Unit to conduct a criminal investigation into the abortionist’s activities. This raid on Klopfer’s South Bend abortion clinic was part of that investigation.

Violations at that time included: Failure to comply with the 18 hour waiting period between the signing of consent forms and the abortion; Remains from an aborted baby stored in the same refrigerator as medications; and oxygen tanks and other emergency equipment lacking proper maintenance or just not working, among other violations.

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Now, according to the new complaint from the state health department, the Indiana State Department of Health conducted an inspection of the abortion clinic in late October 2014, and found multiple violations. On December 9, the ISDH requested a formal plan of correction for each deficiency, followed by a second notice on January 6.  As of January 28, the ISDH had still not received a plan of correction.

Indiana Right to Life, which sent a copy of the complaint to LifeNews.com, says the state health department noted the following deficiencies:

  • Failure to ensure patient care services were provided by a qualified person during one or more of the recovery periods.
  • Failure to ensure patients were monitored by qualified personnel other than the physician performing an abortion while using conscious sedation.
  • Failure to implement written policies and procedures for surgical abortions according to appropriate standards of medical and patient care.
  • Failure to present a valid Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certificate.
  • Failure to ensure that annual competency assessments were performed for all nursing and other clinic personnel performing lab tests.
  • Failure to provide drugs and biologicals in a safe and effective manner in accordance with accepted professional practice.

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St. Joseph County Right to Life issued this statement regarding this latest development in South Bend:

“We commend the Indiana State Department of Health for taking action against the Women’s Pavilion abortion facility. We have been troubled by practices at the facility for some time, and this complaint by the state validates our concerns. The inordinate number of code violations (27) for the facility represents a clear danger to women who are seeking abortions in South Bend. Most outpatient surgical facilities in St. Joseph County have no code violations at all. The average number of violations for outpatient surgical centers in the county is less than one.

Furthermore, the long history of these violations shows a disregard for the law that should be of great concern to our community. This also shows a clear need for oversight of our local abortion provider. This oversight could be facilitated by local ordinance 69-14, the Patient Safety Bill, which is now before the St. Joseph

County Council. This ordinance will help ensure that abortionists in our community will be held to a higher medical standard in the future. Like other outpatient surgical centers, abortion providers need to be held to high medical standards to protect the health and safety of their patients.”

In January 2014, Klopfer was criminally charged by Lake County, Indiana, prosecutors with failing to file a timely report, a Class B Misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The charge is related to an incident of statutory rape on a 13-year-old girl. Klopfer, who gave the girl an abortion at his Gary, Indiana, abortion clinic in September, 2012, filed the report nearly four months later than state statute requires, leaving the girl at risk of further sexual abuse.

Also in January, Klopfer was forced to close his Fort Wayne abortion clinic due to his inability to obtain a required hospital transfer agreement or an emergency care pact with another physician.