Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette in late March joined the Michigan Department of Community Health in filing the suit, which cites Michigan law in stating that Womancare needs to be licensed as a freestanding surgical outpatient facility if the clinic provides abortions to more than 50 percent of its clientele. The clinic’s owner, Dr. Alberto Hodari, failed to obtain such a license, the lawsuit claims.
“After finding aborted babies in the dumpster behind that abortion clinic, and records of 200-plus patients… this is very, very, very encouraging,” said Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society. “I give a lot of credit to Bill Schuette for finally implementing this little known law in the state of Michigan known as the ‘50 percent rule.’”
Miller says it’s her hope that this lawsuit is a first step in addressing the same violation by multiple abortion clinics in the state.
She says her own organization has gathered evidence from at least one other abortion clinic to indicate that the vast majority of clients who enter receive abortions.
“The state has to be proactive…in investigating these abortion clinics,” she said.
The attorney general’s suit against Womancare of Southfield — the name of the clinic that’s actually situated in Lathrup Villiage — stemmed from a 2009 investigation by the Michigan Department of Community Health that uncovered state fire code regulations that would apply to a freestanding surgical outpatient facility, according to a press release from Schuette’s office. Instead of bringing the clinic into compliance with the fire code for a surgical facility, Hodari said he would instead operate the clinic as a gynecological clinic, the statement said.
But the Michigan Department of Community Health obtained information indicating that more than 50 percent of the clinic’s patients received abortions, the release said.
Earlier this week, Schuette had planned to request the closure of the Lathrup Village abortion clinic while the lawsuit was ongoing.
For information on Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, visit www.prolifesociety.com
