Kansas Continuing Investigation of Tiller Clinic Despite Closing

The Tiller abortion clinic may be closed but an investigation by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts is still open.

WICHITA, Kansas (Christian Newswire) - A statement has been released by attorneys for the Tiller family stating that Women's Health Care Services will permanently close.

"We are thankful that Tiller's clinic will not reopen and thankful that Wichita is now abortion-free. It is our sincere prayer that threats to open another third-trimester abortion clinic in Kansas will not come to fruition so that the healing process for this state and community can begin," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

"This is a bittersweet moment for us at Operation Rescue. We have worked very hard for this day, but we wish it would have come through the peaceful, legal channels that we were pursuing. We believe we were very close to seeing disciplinary action taken against Tiller's license that would have closed this clinic through due process," said Newman.

An Operation Rescue staff person received two letters last week from the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts dated June 1, 2009, informing her that her complaints against the late George R. Tiller and his employee, abortionist Shelley Sella were still open and the investigations still pending. The letters were automatically generated prior to Tiller's death.

Operation Rescue later confirmed with the Board that the Sella investigation will continue, while the Tiller portion of the investigation will now be closed. In addition, the eleven-count petition recently made public by the KSBHA against Tiller for allegedly violating the requirement that there be a second unaffiliated physician referral for post-viability abortions will also be closed.

"At the time of his death, the KSBHA had already taken the first steps to revoke Tiller's medical license. Notice that these additional cases were proceeding is another indication that we were very close to seeing some kind of disciplinary action," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "The legal channels we were employing were working and are continuing to work in the case of Shelley Sella."

The complaints referred to in the KSBHA letters centered on an abortion patient who suffered substantial complications from a late-term abortion she received at Tiller's Women's Health Care Services in September, 2008. Both Tiller and Sella participated in her abortion. The victim's name is being withheld to protect her privacy. [Read more.]

"Since the woman involved suffered life-threatening injuries, issues involving Sella's participation in this botched abortion must still be addressed by the Board," said Newman.

Sella, who resides in California and worked for Tiller one week out of three, could still face the revocation of her Kansas medical license. View Sella Letter

"Operation Rescue will continue to press forward with it national campaign to show the truth about abortion with our fleet of Truth Trucks. We will continue to work to stop tax-funded abortions, and expose abortion industry wrongdoing around the nation," said Newman. "There is more than enough work for us to do. The truth about abortion must continue to be told until the entire country is abortion-free."