August 12, 2011
(WNS) — On Aug. 10, the Texas Medical Board announced it has scheduled disciplinary hearings for four abortionists caught in an undercover sting operation. Five others have already had hearings scheduled.
The Board will hear the evidence against the latest four on Oct. 28, then decide what disciplinary actions may be taken. Operation Rescue, which conducted the sting between December 2010 and February 2011, filed complaints against 14 abortionists after finding serious health-code violations at a dozen clinics.
“(Some) actually had fetal remains that were accessible by the public,” Operation Rescue President Troy Newman said. “And that creates a real hazard, a public health hazard.”
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality confirmed that fetal remains were found in the garbage at Whole Women’s Health clinics in McAllen and Austin. Other infractions included improperly disposing of private patient medical information, violating informed-consent laws, disregarding the 24-hour waiting period, instructing minors to have abortions in neighboring states to avoid Texas’ parental-consent law and mishandling drugs and prescription forms.
“In our investigations we have seen not one abortion facility complying with all the state, federal and municipal health codes and other sections of the law,” Newman said. So when laws are enforced — usually after pro-life groups blow the whistle — “we see these abortion clinics close and the abortion doctors lose their medical license. Some even go to jail.”
Thanks to recent legislation, Texas now has one of the strongest pro-life laws in the country: Abortionists must perform ultrasounds, and both personally show and describe the images to the woman. Under the law, if these steps are not taken, the woman cannot have the abortion; exemptions are granted in cases of rape, incest, medical emergency and fetal abnormality.
In June, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a class-action lawsuit against the state on behalf of all its abortionists and their clients, saying the law — matched only by a similar statute in Oklahoma — violates their First Amendment rights to avoid politically motivated speech. Furthermore, it “discriminates against women by subjecting them to paternalistic ‘protections’ not imposed on men,” and that the ultrasounds are a bioethics violation.
U.S. district Judge Sam Sparks has said he plans to rule on the case by September; all new Texas laws are slated to take effect Sept. 1.
