In February, March and April 2008 members of CPLS (Citizens for a Pro-life Society) conducted searches of the trash dumpsters used by these clinics. The clinics repeatedly dumped whole patient records, including intake forms, abortion appointment schedule sheets, recovery room reports, lab reports, insurance forms, photo-copied driver's licenses, applications for financial aid to off-set the cost of the abortion and other documents that revealed personal health care information.
Hundreds of patient records were recovered, the largest share from the Woman Care clinic, located in Lathrup Village, MI, and owned by Alberto Hodari. In addition to the patient records, extensive bio-hazard waste and the remains of aborted unborn children were also discovered at the clinic dumpsters. Sharpes Family Planning is located in Detroit with its sister clinic, Women's Advisory, located in Livonia, MI. The latter clinics are operated by Reginald Sharpe. Miller filed the HIPAA complaints in September 2008 and OCR (Office for Civil Rights) notified the clinics of its federal investigation in December of that year. A fourth investigation is still pending regarding Eastpointe Gynecology, owned by Jacob Kalo--another Detroit abortion clinic.
Miller states: I'm glad that the OCR took these complaints seriously, but I have to say, the clinics are getting off with just another slap on the hand. Where are the real penalties for the flagrant violations they committed? Where's the justice for the women whose rights and dignity they violated? The OCR should have made these abortionists pay heavy fines and retribution. These are serious violations of HIPAA law and after two years of waiting, the outcome is rather disappointing. The OCR could have sent a real message to other abortion providers and that opportunity was missed."
FULL STORY
