News

Wednesday April 7, 2010


Disgraced California Abortionist Preyed on Recent Immigrants: Report

By John Jalsevac

SANTA ANA, California, April 7, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — A former reporter for the LA Times and Orange County Register has penned a six-part investigative series that reveals the alarming business practices of embattled abortionist Andrew Rutland and several of his associates.

In “The Shadow Practice,” journalist William Heisel argues that Rutland sought to overcome years of bad press, brought on by his involvement in the deaths of two babies and resulting in a five-year suspension of his medical license, by offering his abortion “services” to recent immigrants who were unaware of his past.

“It’s an ignoble tradition,” writes Heisel in the first installment of the series, “where the patients can’t read about their doctors’ misdeeds because they don’t know the language or the customs for finding that information. And the doctors who can’t treat anyone else turn to treat some of the most vulnerable members of society.”

Rutland recently made headlines yet again for his involvement in the abortion death of Ying Chen, and for operating in solo practice in violation of restrictions on his medical license.

Rutland had committed a second trimester abortion on Chen in July 2009, at an unlicensed office in San Gabriel, CA, during which he administered an overdose of lidocaine. He was accused of failing to recognize the symptoms of the overdose before the patient went into cardiac arrest. After a “significant delay” in contacting 911, Chen was transported to a local hospital where she died.

While the Medical Board sought emergency suspension of Rutland’s license, a judge allowed him to continue operating as long as he refrains from performing surgeries.

In his six-part series, Heisel observes that Rutland’s clinic where the ill-fated abortion took place is called “Clinica Para La Mujer,” and has a sign in Spanish and Chinese, but not in English – an indication of the immigrant clientele that he targeted.

Heisel also exposes the fact that in 2007, when the five year suspension of his license gave out, Rutland went in search of a clinic where he could perform abortions along with another doctor – since one condition of the reinstatement of his license was that he could not practice solo medicine. The clinic that Rutland ultimately settled on had been owned by Bertha Bugarin, who is currently serving a 3-year prison term for performing abortions without a medical degree.

Also, according to Heisel, when Rutland sought to set up an abortion practice in Chula Vista in 1977, he borrowed $50,000 from another abortionist friend of his, Dr. W. Constantine Mitchell. Heisel reveals that Dr. Mitchell has had his own troubles – he had his license suspended for 30 days, and was put on probation for 2 years, after he was caught running an unlicensed clinic.

Much like Rutland, Mitchell also targeted low-income immigrants with his abortion practice. Heisel reports that “Mitchell was one of a small group of doctors who agreed to act as ‘practice partners’ with Rutland so that Rutland would not be caught working alone, a key restriction placed on his license when the medical board allowed him to return to medicine in 2007.”

The pro-life organization Operation Rescue has lauded Heisel’s series, saying that, “For those who wish to understand the true nature of the crisis that exists at America’s abortion mills, this series is a must read!”

“Heisel’s report exposes the links between Rutland and a group of shoddy abortionists and other troubled doctors who are able to continue practicing by slipping out of the mainstream and into the shadows by working at cash only clinics in primarily immigrant neighborhoods,” stated the group.

“That is so they can operate under the radar with little chance that a patient who does not understand English and may be in the country illegally will report their abuses to the authorities.”

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

California Abortionist Faces Revocation in Wake Of Abortion Death

https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jan/10010707.html