Texas Begins Crackdown On Unsafe Abortion Clinics

Texas Begins Crackdown On Unsafe Abortion Clinics

Late last week, in a move indicating an approaching crackdown on abortionists across the state, the Texas Medical Board suspended the medical license of Dr. Theodore Herring after discovering he had continued performing illegal abortions under new law.  Texas’ new abortion safety law – aimed at improving women’s healthcare – requires that doctors have hospital admitting privileges within thirty miles in the case of procedural complications.

The disciplinary panel of the Texas Medical Board temporarily and without notice suspended the Texas medical license of a Houston physician, Dr. Theodore M. Herring, Jr. – after determining “his continuation in the practice of medicine poses a continuing threat to public welfare.”  The suspension was effective immediately.

The Texas Medical Board report states:

“The board found between November 6, 2013 and February 7, 2014, Dr. Herring unlawfully performed 268 abortion procedures without holding active admitting privileges at a hospital that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services located no further than 30 miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced in violation of Texas health and safety code 171.0031(a)(1).  The temporary suspension remains in place until the board takes further action.”

Despite Texas’ new law which went into effect on October 31st, 2013, Dr. Herring was back at work in less than one week conducting illegal abortions on 268 in utero.

LifeNews reports on what appears to be an even more dangerous situation where Dr. Lester Minto, a Harlingen physician, has begun the practice of encouraging women to carry out self-induced abortions using misoprostol – a drug that can only be obtained for such off-label usage in Mexico.

TheInvestigativeFund.org confirms:

Dr. Lester Minto of Harlingen, Texas estimated in January that he’d evaluated about 200 pregnant patients since Texas’s new abortion barred him from providing abortions this fall after over 30 years in practice. Of these women, about 100 returned to have Minto resolve incomplete miscarriages, which were almost certainly induced by misoprostol they procured on their own. This kind of miscarriage management is still legal in Texas.

“A staffer at an abortion clinic in nearby McAllen said her clinic saw about one failed misoprostol self-induction a day, before the clinic was forced to stop providing abortions this fall. Minto said he saw about one admitted failed self-induction per month before the law.”

LifeNews concludes their coverage stating:

“Texas Right to Life applauds the Texas Medical Board for investigating Herring’s compliance with HB2, passed to prevent tragedies like those committed by Drs. Herring and Minto.  Women have been spared the detrimental effects of abortion, and children have been saved due to other abortion mills closing due to non-compliance with HB2.  Until every Herring and Minto has been barred from committing abortion, and the provisions of HB2 have been safeguarded in their entirety by the final verdict of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Pro-Life Texans will have their work cut out for them.”



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