News
Featured Image
 Shutterstock.com

JACKSON, Mississippi, July 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure temporarily suspended the medical license of OB-GYN Walter Ray Wolfe amid allegations that he not only seduced female patients into sexual affairs but tried to give one of them abortion-inducing pills without her knowledge.

The Jackson Clarion Ledger reported that the charges stem from a 2016 lawsuit from the ex-husband of one of Wolfe’s patients, and 2018 board interviews with health workers who had worked with Wolfe.

The 2016 suit alleges that Wolfe “encouraged her to enter into a sexual affair with him,” then during sex “attempted without the patient's knowledge or consent to insert four Misoprostol (Cytotec) tablets into the patient's vagina in an attempt to induce an abortion.” The pills failed and she gave birth to his child later that year.

Two years later, a healthcare worker in Jackson informed the board of “general concerns of alleged professional sexual misconduct” between Wolfe and “several unknown patients,” and a physician assistant student told them she had witnessed Wolfe “kiss a pregnant patient on the lips just prior to an ultrasound being performed on this patient,” and that Wolfe was the father of her baby (a claim later confirmed by a copy of the birth certificate).

In response, the board issued an order explaining that it was suspending Wolfe’s license without a hearing on the determination that his “continued practice of medicine or unrestricted medicine would constitute an immediate danger to the public.”

A future hearing will determine the ultimate fate of Wolfe’s license, but the board considers him guilty of “violating professional boundaries with patients,” “failing to maintain patient records of controlled substances prescribed,” “committing a physical assault on a patient with the unwanted insertion of medication into her vagina,” “dishonorable or unethical conduct likely to deceive, defraud of harm the public,” and “prescribing drugs that have addition-forming or addiction-sustaining liability other than in the course of legitimate professional practice.”

In response, Wolfe’s attorneys have filed a motion denying any wrongdoing and insisting that “many of the charges utter on the preposterous.” The motion doesn’t address the abortion allegation but says that the pregnant patient he was seen kissing was actually his then-fiancé, now wife. They also claim the months between the board first hearing the claims and acting upon them undercuts their case.

“If there had been a danger as alleged, the board would have acted long ago,” the motion says.

Board executive director Dr. Kenneth Cleveland made a surprise visit to Wolfe’s Magnolia Woman's Clinic last week and observed him caring for a patient who went into labor; Wolfe’s attorneys claim that Cleveland allowing him to do so also undermines the assessment that he was a threat to patients.

Cleveland explained that the board had decided they would let Wolfe “continue to care for a patient” if she was in active labor at the time of the visit, and stressed that “we are always taking in the best interest of the patient,” that “temporary suspension is used rarely,” and “we only take action when we feel like we've developed the evidence to a point where we feel like we can prove the action we are taking is justified.”

Beyond that, however, Cleveland said the board “would prefer not to answer any questions directly related to the investigation” for the time being, WLBT reported.

A hearing in the case has been slated for July 24. In the meantime, Magnolia Woman's Clinic remains open, with the facility’s other OB-GYN seeing patients.