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Indiana Health Department Refuses To License Abortion Clinic Over Undisclosed Records

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The Indiana State Department of Health appeals panel issued a Tuesday order refusing to grant a license to a Whole Woman’s Health abortion clinic in South Bend, Indiana.

The department’s Tuesday order states that the clinic’s license is “properly denied” for application following its failure to provide record of its affiliates, the South Bend Tribune reported Wednesday.

Concluding that state law maintains “two entities are affiliated” if they are “under the common control of another person,” the appeals panel determined that WWH president Amy Hagstrom Miller is affiliated with for-profit clinics, according to the Tribune.

Miller’s power to “manage, superintend, restrict, regulate, direct, govern, administer, or oversee, as well as the power to restrain, check, or regulate” WWH’s operations points to the presence of for-profit organizations affiliated with the South Bend clinic, the panel determined, the Tribune reported.

Indiana’s state department previously demanded that the group provide records regarding the clinic’s affiliates, but WWH failed to do so.

Tuesday’s order follows the department’s January conclusion that it could not issue a license to the clinic for its failure to meet requirements of “reputable and responsible character,” the Tribune reported in November. The clinic also “failed to disclose, concealed, or omitted information related to additional clinics,” according to the health department.

Indianapolis administrative law judge Clare Deitchman dissented from the state health department’s conclusion, recommending in September that the clinic be granted a licensed.

The state’s health department appealed Deitchman’s decision, and Indiana’s appeals panel agreed with the state department’s conclusion that the clinic is unfit, according to the Tribune.

Eleven complaints were filed against Dr. Jeffrey Glazer for failing to report when girls younger than 16-years-old had abortions. Glazer is set to serve as the medical director of the South Bend clinic. The complaints include allegations that Glazer did not notify the the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) of an abortion on a 12-year-old girl.

Indiana law requires abortion clinics to report all abortions that doctors perform on girls younger than 16 so that authorities can investigate the cases and determine if the girls have been victims of rape or incest. Abortion clinics must report the abortions both to the Indiana State Department of Health and the DCS within three days of the abortion.

WWH has 30 days to appeal the panel’s decision, according to the Tribune.

The organization did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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