SOUTH BEND, Ind.
(AP) - State health officials are trying to revoke a South Bend abortion
clinic’s license, citing recurring violations found during inspections of
the clinic.
The South Bend
Tribune reported Wednesday that it had obtained a complaint filed Jan. 28 by
the State Department of Health that seeks to revoke the Women’s Pavilion’s
operating license.
That abortion
clinic is the only one in South Bend and one of only three in northern
Indiana.
Indiana’s complaint
cites recent and recurring violations from inspections as evidence the
clinic isn’t following state laws and “is detrimental to the welfare of
clinic patients.”
An October
inspection cited 27 regulations the clinic did not meet, including proof of
staff certification, clinic procedures and disposal of expired medication.
The report also details clinic shortcomings, including that 15 out of 30
patient files showed patients were not monitored by qualified personnel
other than the doctor while under conscious sedation during an abortion
procedure.
Indiana’s complaint
states that in December the clinic’s administrators were contacted via mail,
given their first notice of noncompliance, and asked to submit a plan of
correction. By Jan. 5, they had not submitted an acceptable plan, and were
sent a second notice of noncompliance, it indicates.
State health
department spokesman Ken Severson said the state agency has received a
corrective plan drafted by the clinic, but not one that could be accepted.
Clinic manager Liam
Wilde said at a Feb. 10 St. Joseph County Council meeting that clinic staff
was working on complying with the inspection report. He said none of the
violations put patients in any danger.
Dr. Ulrich “George”
Klopfer performs abortions at the South Bend clinic through an agreement
with a doctor with valid admitting privileges in St. Joseph County.
Clinics operated by
Klopfer in Fort Wayne and Gary are licensed, but abortions are not being
performed there because he doesn’t have hospital admitting privilege
agreements with doctors in those counties, state records show.
Klopfer faces
criminal misdemeanor charges of failing to properly report abortions on
13-year-olds in Gary and South Bend. He is scheduled to appear March 26
before the Indiana Medical Licensing Board for a hearing pertaining to a
state investigation on complaints filed against his practices. He has said
in the past that he found it “amazing” that a paperwork error could
jeopardize his medical license.
Indiana’s other
surgical abortion clinics are located in Indianapolis, Merrillville and
Bloomington. A clinic in Lafayette is the state’s only one that offers only
drug-induced abortions.