by Robin Marty
Illinois Dr. Ulrich Klopfer has long been targeted by the Indiana anti-abortion community, who appear especially bothered by a provider who comes across the state border in order to provide pregnancy terminations. The latest tactic to try to get his license revoked? He is being accused of not reporting to the Department of Health that he provided an abortion to a 13-year-old pregnant girl within three days, as mandated by state law.
According to the Journal Gazette, Dr. Klopfer did not report the abortion in February as he should have, but instead waited until July, months after the termination had taken place. The lapse was discovered by a “a pro-life sidewalk counselor who was protesting outside Klopfer’s Fort Wayne abortion facility on February 7th, the day the abortion on the underage girl was performed,” according to a previously released but now pulled article at CNS News. The advocate, as well as Cathie Humbarger, the executive director of Allen County Right to Life, filed complaints against the provider after going through induced termination reports provided to the state.
“It’s heartbreaking to learn that a 13-year-old became pregnant and now must live with the pain of an abortion for the rest of her life, but it’s doubly-heartbreaking that Dr. Klopfer’s failure to report the abortion may have allowed the girl’s molester to walk free,” said Humbarger in a press statement. Less heartbreaking and painful, apparently, is violating the young girl’s medical privacy to the Indiana media and beyond — even with her name withheld — for the sake of trying to pull the license of an abortion provider.
The Indiana Right to Life community isn’t the only group to see extremely young, pregnant teens as a tool for ending abortion access for everyone. Life Dynamics, Inc., a Texas-based anti-abortion group, has spent copious amounts of money and manpower in a self-described sting where they say they have compiled masses of evidence that clinics are offering abortions to very young teens. The group then mass mailed the fruits of their “investigations” off to lawyers to try to cajole them into considering initiating lawsuits. Also, anti-choice activist Lila Rose cut her teeth on such “undercover” video activities, which were just the initial offering in her growing campaign to bring down Planned Parenthood.
What’s most disturbing about the use of young pregnant teens as political pawns in the battle to end abortion is the callousness with which the girls’ own lives are regarded. In the Indiana case, the teen must have been accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, since the state has a parental consent law. Yet the activists filing the complaint argued that both she and her parent must have come to the wrong decision about the pregnancy, alluding to the “pain” she will have “for the rest of her life.” They have no compassion for the pain that the girl may also experience should she remain pregnant and give birth, her only other option and no doubt one that was weighed as well.
We’ve seen similar reactions from anti-abortion advocates who filed complaints against Kansas Dr. Ann Neuhaus, who provided consultations for Dr. George Tiller. In an attempt to accuse Dr. Tiller of doing illegal late term abortions by claiming they were done for the sake of the pregnant person’s health, the state attorney general pulled a number of patient files regarding abortions done on minors. The state then had its own expert testify that in the case of these under age girls, one of whom was only 10-years-old, Dr. Neuhaus did not properly prove that the abortions were in the young girls’ best interest.
As a result, Dr. Neuhaus lost her license and is now about to lose her home as well.
For a movement so focused on defending “children,” abortion opponents see little problem in using children themselves as a wedge to make gains in shutting clinics. Sadly, their end goal — ensuring every pregnant 13-year-old has no option but to give birth — is getting dangerously closer every day.
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