Lawmakers seek probe of ex-abortion doctor’s clinics
More than 2,000 medically preserved fetal remains discovered
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s attorney general said Monday that he will work with his Illinois counterpart to investigate what he called the “grisly discovery” of more than 2,000 medically preserved fetal remains at the Illinois home of a late doctor who performed abortions in Indiana.
Republican Attorney General Curtis Hill said he and Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul have “agreed to work together” as Hill’s office coordinates an investigation of the remains found at the home of Dr. Ulrich Klopfer, who died Sept. 3.
“The grisly discovery of these fetal remains at the Illinois home of a deceased abortion doctor shocks the conscience. Further, we have reason to believe there is an Indiana connection to these remains,” he said in a statement.
Hill’s statement did not elaborate on what specifically would be investigated, and Raoul’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Will County Sheriff’s Office in northeastern Illinois announced late Friday that Klopfer’s relatives had discovered 2,246 preserved fetal remains while sorting through his property. The county coroner’s office has taken possession of those remains, and it, the sheriff’s department and local prosecutors were already investigating.
Hill’s announcement came after several Indiana lawmakers called for his office to investigate whether the remains were illegally transported across state lines. Lawmakers are also seeking a probe of the shuttered clinics in Allen, Lake and St. Joseph’s counties where Klopfer had performed abortions to make sure no fetal remains are being stored at the former clinics in Fort Wayne, Gary and South Bend.
Several Indiana lawmakers held a news conference Monday outside Klopfer’s former clinic in Fort Wayne, the county seat of northeastern Indiana’s Allen County, calling for multiple state investigations.
Klopfer was believed to be Indiana’s most prolific abortion doctor, performing thousands of procedures over several decades.