Mafia, Unlicensed Doctors Linked To
Abortion Facilities
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From: The Pro-Life Infonet <infonet@prolifeinfo.org>
Reply-To: Steven Ertelt <infonet@prolifeinfo.org>
Subject: Mafia, Unlicensed Doctors Linked To Abortion
Facilities
Source: Cybercast News Service; March 5, 2001
Chicago, IL -- A federal racketeering probe in Chicago alleges that a
mafia don owns and operates a prominent local abortion facility and
actively tries to bribe friendly politicians on the premises. But
pro-life
advocates say the case, entitled "The People v. Anthony Centracchio,"
is
only one example of the questionable activities at abortion facilities
here and possibly elsewhere.
"What type of doctors work in these clinics? Many have lost
legitimate
practices and find the abortion industry welcomes them. Medical boards
are
reluctant to deal harshly with abortionists because of the political
nature of abortion," said Joan Maloof, a program manager at the
Post-Abortion Counseling and Education Crisis Pregnancy Centers.
According to Maloof, women who aren't actually pregnant are sometimes
conned into thinking they are by staff members, then billed $500 for
abortions. In cases involving women who die after undergoing botched
abortion procedures, their cause of death is sometimes falsely linked to
"pregnancy complications," Maloof said.
"Abortion clinics and providers are not held to the same standards
as are
other medical professionals," Maloof said, adding that the abortion
facilities get away with it because the federal government does not
regulate abortion facilities.
Maloof's concerns were echoed by Carol Everett, a former abortion
facility
manager who turned to Christianity and became the president of the
pro-life Heidi Group, Inc. Everett said the unregulated, cash-payment
nature of the abortion industry lets abortion facilities hire abortion
practitioners who've lost their practices, even for illegal drug abuse
and
other serious indiscretions.
Everett noted that abortion practitioners are often hired as independent
contractors and information about their earnings is not readily
available
to the Internal Revenue Service. "There are no 1099s.
Nothing," she said.
"Everyone's paid in cash."
A first trimester abortion costs around $300, but later term abortions
can
cost from $500 to $4,000, Everett said. "The doctors do three
abortions an
hour."
Everett points out that abortion practitioners make money even if their
"patient" isn't pregnant. For example, if the pregnancy test
is negative,
the doctors commonly tell the women that the test itself "wasn't
sensitive
enough to pick up early pregnancies," she said.
"So then they would take them in and give them a sonogram. They
would find
some kind of tissue in the uterus and convince them they were pregnant.
They would perform a procedure and scrape their uterus, and document it
as
a six-to-eight-week old pregnancy."
Although there are no reliable statistics on how many of these
lucrative,
cash-based abortion facilities are run by gangsters, the ongoing
prosecution here in Chicago opens a new view to the world that exists at
the intersection of abortion and organized crime.
A hidden camera, planted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at
Centracchio's abortion facility on the city's West Side, captured him on
tape allegedly plotting bribes to local politicians.
The FBI tapes, gathered via closed circuit television, reveal other
interesting facts as well.
"The CCTV equipment recorded Centracchio engaging in sexual
activity with
a woman who was part of the clinic's administrative staff,"
according to a
defense document filed in Centracchio's racketeering case.
When asked if the pro-abortion National Organization for Women was aware
of the federal racketeering probe of Centracchio's abortion abortion
facility, NOW spokeswoman Sarah Fox said "no," and refused
further comment
on the issue, deferring other questions to another source at NOW who did
not return phone calls.
Telephone calls seeking response from the National Abortion and
Reproductive Rights Action League also went unanswered, as did calls
seeking comment from abortion facilities in the area.
Maloof charged that the abortion facilities are placing profits above
patients, saying that "abortion doctors are doing from 25-40
procedures a
day, not taking the time to consult with their patients and most often
referring women to other medical professionals for treatment of
complications. Does this sound like good medicine, or maybe just a fast
buck?"
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