Patient records found at Ind. abortion clinics

INDIANAPOLIS — Investigators found thousands of abandoned medical records at three shuttered Indiana abortion clinics that were operated by a late doctor who took home more than 2,200 sets of fetal remains, Indiana’s attorney general said Friday.

No fetal remains were found during Thursday’s searches of Dr. Ulrich Klopfer’s former clinics and other properties in Gary, South Bend and Fort Wayne, Attorney General Curtis Hill said at a news conference.

But he said thousands of patient medical records were discovered, though he didn’t give an exact number.

Women getting abortions have “a high degree of expectation of privacy and confidentiality,” but the medical records found at Klopfer’s clinics had simply been “abandoned” there, Hill said. The Fort Wayne clinic closed in 2014, and the Gary and South Bend clinics closed the following year.

Hill said his office hopes to determine why 2,246 sets of fetal remains from abortions performed in 2000, 2001 and 2002 in Indiana ended up in the garage of Klopfer’s home in Will County, Illinois. Klopfer died on Sept. 3 and his widow and her sister found the remains last week and alerted the authorities.

Will County officials said Thursday that the remains would be sent back to Indiana, and Hill said his office is coordinating their return.

He said preliminary findings indicate that all of the remains came from Klopfer’s three former Indiana clinics.

Although Klopfer is dead, Hill said part of his office’s investigation will seek to determine whether any other licensed professionals were aware that the remains were moved from Indiana to his Illinois property, and if they had a hand in moving them.

“This is a daunting task,” Hill said.