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Final decision: Abortionist fined over $10,000 for committing abortion on wrong woman

abortionist, abortion, legal abortion

The Florida Board of Medicine issued a final order in July for an abortionist who committed a surgical abortion on the wrong woman in December 2017. In the settlement agreement, Harvey Craig Roth of A Women’s Center of Hollywood in Hollywood, Florida will pay a fine of $10,000 in addition to other stipulations. Roth admitted that he didn’t verify that he was committing the abortion on the correct woman because he didn’t think it mattered.

Roth proceeded with a surgical abortion on a woman who was at A Woman’s Center to obtain a medical abortion. He claims he called her by what turned out to be the wrong name multiple times but she never corrected him. However, he admitted that he failed to follow what is known as the “pause” or “time out” rule in which doctors must check to make sure they are performing the correct surgery on the correct patient in the right body location.  They must recheck these details when they exit and then reenter the room at any time during the surgery. Roth failed to take these steps and told the board that he didn’t think that skipping the pause rule would matter while committing abortions.

Roth’s attitude that he didn’t think he needed to follow a simple surgical rule while committing abortions is indicative of how abortionists feel about abortion and their abortion patients. It’s discriminating and demeaning that a doctor would act as if all patients are the same — and yet, this is just another confirmation that abortion isn’t real health care — the doctors treat women as if they’re on an assembly line. In addition, because there is a shortage of doctors willing to commit abortion, it is difficult to find doctors who would give quality care to abortion patients. Women, no matter what, should be treated with enough respect that abortionists don’t skip safety rules. After all, the abortion industry has built itself up as a caring and compassionate friend to women. The inexcusable acts of abortionists — including being rude, racist, and even forcing women to abort — prove this isn’t true.

READ: Abortionists mistreated women, but workers were too afraid to complain

 

In addition to committing this abortion on the wrong woman, Roth has had multiple malpractice lawsuits filed against him. He told the board he has changed the way he speaks to his patients and has them introduce themselves and tell him what abortion they are supposed to undergo, but that wasn’t enough to convince the board’s Vice Chairman Hector Vila that Roth actually cares about his patients.

“I think he’s lacking any sense of responsibility for the true care of the patient in the facility,” said Vila. “Whether you just work in the facility or whatever, the conduct of the care of the patient is your responsibility.”

$10,000 is more than triple the $3,000 fine that had been recommended to the board by the state health attorneys and seems to have been decided based on the choice that Roth made to ignore protocol that day. Obtained by pro-life watchdog group Operation Rescue, the order also specifies that Roth must pay over $3,500 in expenses, as well as attend risk management education and give a lecture on risk management and how to avoid situations like the one he has found himself in.

Abortion is a tragedy, and one that 73 percent of women have said they were pressured into. Women deserve better than abortion and the abortionists who mistreat them.

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