YPSILANTI, MI, February 20, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – LifeSiteNews has evidence that the former medical board chairman accused of corruption for blocking an investigation into botched abortions at a filthy Muskegon abortion facility in 2009 also covered for the same abortionist when a complaint was filed against his Ypsilanti facility in 2006.
Dr. George Shade, formerly chairman of the Michigan Board of Medicine, is the subject of investigation by a state senator due to his dismissal of a complaint against abortionist Robert Alexander in 2010 alleging botched abortions. Shade had previously served as Alexander’s advocate and mentor after Alexander lost his medical license and served time in federal prison for selling illegal prescriptions out of a weight loss clinic.
Upon his release, Shade wrote letters to the licensing board recommending Alexander's reinstatement and took him under his wing as his supervisor in a training program at a Detroit hospital. Their close relationship and Shade’s subsequent refusal to investigate a number of serious allegations against Alexander in 2009 has raised serious questions in Michigan about corruption on the Board of Medicine.
Now, LifeSiteNews.com has uncovered evidence that Shade may have been sheltering Alexander from investigations since at least 2006.
In June of that year, Monica Miller of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society filed a complaint against Alexander alleging unsafe and unsanitary conditions at his Ypsilanti abortion center and disregard for the safety of the women who sought his services. The complaint included more than 18 affidavits, extensive photos, video and tape recordings showing the much same thing that authorities uncovered leading them to shut down Alexander’s Muskegon clinic last year: bloodstained floors, filthy medical equipment, and a generally unsafe state of disrepair.
The complaint alleged that Alexander routinely released post-abortive women while they were still under the effects of sedation, leaving them to navigate a dangerous parking lot in an impaired state. The complaint further asserted that abortions made up more than 50 percent of Alexander’s practice, yet his facility was unlicensed as an outpatient surgical center, as Michigan law requires of such practices.
Alexander’s Ypsilanti abortion center was called AA Abortion Advice & Aid Clinic, also known as AA Women's Choice. It opened in 2004, but closed about two years ago for unknown reasons.
Former neighbors told local news station Target 8 that the facility was a neighborhood eyesore. “It was kind of dirty,” said Jacobie Phelps, who ran a barbershop next door to the former clinic. “Real dirty.”
Phelps said he entered Alexander's clinic on at least two occasions, and was disgusted. “He had kind of like blood on the carpet, like in the reception area,” Phelps said. “He never did clean up.”
Miller filed her complaint against the facility on June 18, 2006. Unlike Dr. Michael Engel, the doctor who filed complaint against Alexander for botched abortions in 2009 and waited ten months for follow-up by the board before being notified that they would not investigate, Miller didn’t have to wait long for a response. Dr. Shade responded to her on June 21, just three days later, unilaterally dismissing her complaint, apparently because she was pro-life.
“Abortion is legal in the state of Michigan,” Shade wrote. “Whether or not any given individuals agree with this is a personal matter between that person and his or her conscience…This file [Miller’s complaint] reflects an active campaign to discredit and prevent a physician from practicing because he chooses to follow his own conscience and the law and perform medical abortions.”
Miller doubts Shade could have reviewed the entire complaint before sending his response.
“There is no way that our file received a real review,” Miller told LifeSiteNews. “We sent in our evidence on June 18, 2006, and quickly received a rejection by June 21, 2006. We had 18 affidavits, photos, video and tape recordings. There is no way that the Michigan Bureau of Health Professions and its board member Dr. George Shade reviewed what we provided.”
State Senator Tonya Schuitmaker has demanded an investigation into why Shade was allowed to dismiss Dr. Engel’s complaint about the botched abortions, considering their past relationship. Derek Sova, a spokesman for the senator, told LifeSiteNews by phone that his office only learned of Miller’s complaint this morning and will be looking into the situation further. “We’re still gathering all the information,” Sova said.