By Tara Shaver, Project Defending Life
Albuquerque, NM — In light of the recent revocation of abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus’s medical license by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts (KSBHA), Project Defending Life is renewing its request for the New Mexico Medical Board to investigate recent botched abortions in Albuquerque.
Neuhaus’ medical license revocation was the direct result of a complaint first filed by Operation Rescue Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger in 2006, alleging violations of the standards of patient care and a Kansas law that allowed only narrow exceptions to a ban on post-viability abortions.
In Kansas, Neuhaus provided the required second consenting opinion that the continuation of a pregnancy would cause “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” of the woman if the pregnancy continued. All of Neuhaus’ referrals for late-term abortions were made to George Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services in Wichita on mental health grounds between 1999 and 2007.
Neuhaus’ disciplinary charges were based on eleven 2003 patient files of girls aged 10-18. While Tiller was the abortionist of record in all eleven cases, Neuhaus provided referrals to all abortionists in Tiller’s employment, including Shelley Sella and Susan Robinson who were employed by Tiller in Kansas during that time and now conduct late-term abortions in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Neuhaus’ referrals allowed both Robinson and Sella to do post-viability abortions based on her faulty mental health assessments.
On February 21, 2012, The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts ordered the revocation of the medical license of abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus, stating that Neuhaus’ practice of providing late-term abortion referrals to George Tiller was “professionally incompetent” and constituted “unprofessional conduct.”
Neuhaus was found to have violated the standard of care in that she never conducted proper mental health evaluations, keep adequate records, nor did she record any basis for her diagnoses other than a printout from a dubious computer program that calculated diagnoses for her. Her bogus diagnoses were nothing more than rubber stamps that enabled Tiller and his associates to improperly conduct late-term abortions. There was no evidence that Neuhaus ever saw many of the patients she referred for post-viability abortions, and some of the referrals were dated days or weeks after the abortions occurred, making them blatantly illegal.
The same week that the KSBHA notified Operation Rescue that the eleven-count disciplinary petition had been filed against Neuhaus, Shelley Sella cancelled her Kansas medical license in order to place herself outside the jurisdiction of the KSBHA. According to Cheryl Sullenger, Susan C. Robinson voluntarily put her Kansas license on “Inactive” status a month after WHCS closed. At the time of the closure, Tiller also faced an eleven-count disciplinary petition filed by the KSBHA for illegal late-term abortions referred to him by Neuhaus.
Sella and Robinson currently work at Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) in Albuquerque two weeks per month doing late-term abortions for owner Curtis Boyd, an admitted back-alley abortionist prior to Roe v. Wade.
In July, 2010, both Project Defending Life and Operation Rescue filed Medical Board complaints asking for an investigation into 11 botched abortions at SWO. These grisly abortions have resulted in 11 women being rushed from the abortion clinic to the emergency room with serious complications including ruptured uteri, perforated uteri, and uncontrolled bleeding. As of yet, it appears that nothing has been done to protect the safety of unassuming women who seek abortions at SWO.
Tiller, Neuhaus, Sella and Robinson believed they were above the law in Kansas and conducted their illegal activities at the expense of others. Fortunately the women of Kansas are now protected from late-term abortion abuses. However, the women of New Mexico continue to be prey for Tiller’s former associates, who profit handsomely from the expensive procedures. As a result, women are injured by abortion at the rate of one every ten weeks. Frighteningly, in New Mexico there are no laws protecting pregnant women who need proper help from this kind of exploitation.
“We are once again asking individuals to contact the NMMB and ask for a thorough investigation of the recent documented botched abortions in Albuquerque in light of this new information of wrongdoing by Sella and Robinson,” said Fr. Stephen Imbarrato, Director of Project Defending Life. “If the abortion laws of Kansas couldn’t protect young girls from abortion abuses, how can we expect a state with virtually no abortion laws to protect those coming to New Mexico from across the country for late-term abortions? I am calling on the leadership of the state of NM to use all the powers at their disposal to protect women going into these abortion facilities. Someone has to take responsibility for these women being injured before one of them dies from a botched abortion.”
Contact Information for the New Mexico Medical Board:
Lynn Hart
Executive Director, New Mexico Medical Board
505-476-7221
lynns.hart@state.nm.us
