What South Bend and Its Mayor Say About Abortion Clinic Safety

How many abortion businesses would be allowed to operate beyond the law if his long-shot bid for the White House is successful?

Buttigieg has no say in the state licensing process, but he did vote against a zoning change that would have allowed a pregnancy resource center to open next door.

“I don’t think it would be responsible to situate two groups, literally right next to each other, in a neighborhood, that have diametrically opposed views on the most divisive social issue of our time,” Buttigieg told the South Bend Tribune when the zoning change was denied.

But this plays right into the hands of those who do not want mothers to have meaningful choices, but rather just want to sell them abortions.

And apparently the mayor wants to play right into the hands of those who don’t care whether or not abortions occur in a licensed and regulated facility.

Whole Woman’s Health is an abortion chain with killing centers in multiple states. In 2016, in the case Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated parts of a Texas law that called on abortion businesses to be regulated as every other ambulatory surgery center and for abortionists to have admitting privileges.

Buoyed by the decision, Amy Hagstrom Miller set about opening a killing center in South Bend but was stymied when the state health department denied her license application in 2017, stating that the business failed to meet the “reputable and responsible character” requirement.

She went to court, asking the U.S. District Court for Southern District of Indiana to issue an order allowing the business to begin selling abortion pills until its legal challenge is argued in court in August 2020. Judge Sarah Evans Baker complied, and the deadly drugs are now being sold to mothers who are up to 10 weeks pregnant.

Chemical abortions, like the one dramatized in the film “Unplanned,” are neither quick nor painless, and they turn homes and dorm rooms into killing centers. The National Catholic Register recently reported on research that shows the complications following a chemical abortion to be much higher than surgical abortions. As pastoral director of the world’s largest ministry for healing after abortion (Rachel’s Vineyard), I have seen many times that this is the case.

Is Mayor Pete not sufficiently aware of how this threatens the well-being of the women who reside in or travel to his city for abortion?

His national press secretary, Chris Meagher, told the Chicago Tribune that, “He believes that the truly radical idea in this debate and around abortion care is one of banning abortion outright.”

No, Mayor Pete, the radical idea is that you have an unlicensed killing center in your city — a city whose claim to fame is its proximity to Notre Dame University.

South Bend was abortion free for two years, after the state revoked the license of abortionist Ulrich “George” Klopfer and he gave up his appeals. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported in 2016 that Klopfer was the state’s most prolific abortionist, killing tens of thousands of babies.

At his licensing hearing, Klopfer told a story about a 10-year-old girl who was pregnant after being raped by her uncle. He did not report the crime, as mandated by law, and let her return home to her parents, who refused to prosecute the rapist.

This is the true face of “abortion care” – bending or breaking every rule to ensure that abortion money keeps flowing.

Hagstrom Miller told pro-abortion news outlet Vox earlier this year that, “What happens in South Bend is a microcosm for what’s happening statewide and what’s happening nationally.”

It’s not often that I agree with an abortion profiteer but in this case I do. Mothers and their children will increasingly be put at risk if abortionists are allowed to sidestep rules that apply to legitimate healthcare practitioners all over the country.

Speaking to the South Bend Tribune and other reporters following his veto of the zoning change for the pregnancy help center, Buttigieg echoed another Democrat when he said, “Issues on the legality or morality of abortion are dramatically beyond my paygrade as a mayor.”

But the truth is plain to see. If this is the way Mayor Pete safeguards the health of women in his city, he certainly can’t be trusted with the health of an entire nation.

Fr. Frank Pavone is one of the most prominent pro-life leaders in the world. He became a Catholic priest in 1988 under Cardinal John O’Connor in New York. In 1993 he became National Director of Priests for Life. He is also the President of the National Pro-life Religious Council, and the National Pastoral Director of the Silent No More Campaign and of Rachel’s Vineyard, the world’s largest ministry of healing after abortion. He travels to about four states every week, preaching and teaching against abortion. He broadcasts regularly on television, radio, and internet. He was asked by Mother Teresa to speak in India on abortion, and was asked by then-candidate Donald Trump to serve on his Pro-life and Catholic advisory councils. He has served at the Vatican as an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family, which coordinates the pro-life activities of the Catholic Church. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.