|
'08 Walk for Life * PICTURES FROM 2006 MARCH FOR LIFE * Pregnancy Centers          About Us Volunteer Donate Home |
"What type of doctors work in these clinics? Many have lost legitimate practices and find the abortion industry welcomes them. Medical boards are reluctant to deal harshly with abortionists because of the political nature of abortion," said Joan Maloof, a program manager at the Post-Abortion Counseling and Education Crisis Pregnancy Centers. According to Maloof, women who aren't actually pregnant are sometimes conned into thinking they are by staff members, then billed $500 for abortion services. In cases involving patients who die after undergoing botched abortion procedures, their cause of death is sometimes linked to "pregnancy complications," Maloof said. "Abortion clinics and providers are not held to the same standards as are other medical professionals," Maloof said, adding that the clinics get away with it because the federal government does not regulate abortion clinics. Maloof's concerns were echoed by Carol Everett, a former abortionist who turned to Christianity and became the president of the pro-life Heidi Group, Inc. Everett said the unregulated, cash-payment nature of the abortion industry lets providers hire doctors who've lost their practices, even for illegal drug abuse and other serious indiscretions. Everett claimed doctors at the clinics are often hired as independent contractors and information about their earnings is not readily available to the Internal Revenue Service. "There are no 1099s. Nothing," she said. "Everyone's paid in cash." A simple first trimester abortion costs around $100, but later term abortions can cost from $500 to $4,000, Everett said. "The doctors do three abortions an hour." Everett contends that doctors at abortion clinics make money even if their "patient" isn't pregnant. For example, if the pregnancy test is negative, the doctors commonly tell the women that the test itself "wasn't sensitive enough to pick up early pregnancies," she said. "So then they would take them in and give them a sonogram. They would find some kind of tissue in the uterus and convince them they were pregnant. They would perform a procedure and scrape their uterus, and document it as a six-to-eight-week old pregnancy." Although there are no reliable statistics on how many of these lucrative, cash-based clinics are run by gangsters, the ongoing prosecution here in Chicago opens a new view to the world that exists at the intersection of abortion and organized crime. A hidden camera, planted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Centracchio's abortion clinic on the city's West Side, captured him on tape allegedly plotting bribes to local politicians. The FBI tapes, gathered via closed circuit television, reveal other interesting facts as well. "The CCTV equipment recorded Centracchio engaging in sexual activity with a woman who was part of the clinic's administrative staff," according to a defense document filed in Centracchio's racketeering case. When asked if the Washington-based National Organization for Women was aware of the federal racketeering probe of Centracchio's abortion clinic, NOW spokeswoman Sarah Fox said "no," and refused further comment on the issue, deferring other questions to another source at NOW who did not return phone calls. Telephone calls seeking response from the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League also went unanswered, as did calls seeking comment from abortion clinics in the area. Maloof charged that the clinics are placing profits above patients, claiming that "abortion doctors are doing from 25-40 procedures a day, not taking the time to consult with their patients and most often referring women to other medical professionals for treatment of complications. Does this sound like good medicine, or maybe just a fast buck?" By Gene J. Koprowski CNS Correspondent March 05, 2001 Copyright 2001 Jay Sekulow and ACLJ
Be a TLC Lifeguard
Before You Leave...
|