First, authorities discovered a spine-chilling 2,246 fetal remains in the Illinois garage of an abortion doctor after his death. Then, investigators found “thousands” of abandoned medical records across his abortion clinics in Indiana, the Indiana attorney general announced on Friday.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill called Dr. Ulrich Klopfer one “of the more notorious abortionists in the history of Indiana.”
The doctor had “a record of deplorable conditions and violations of regulatory controls that are placed on these clinics,” Hill said. “He certainly was problematic in life and as it turns out continues to present problems in his death.”
The remains found in his home date back to abortions he performed between 2000 and 2002, when he operated clinics in Indiana, authorities said. They were inside small, sealed plastic bags that contained a chemical used to preserve biological material, Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley had said.
Klopfer operated three abortion clinics in South Bend, Indiana, before his license was suspended in 2015.
The state attorney general office’s investigation will try to answer many questions, Hill said on Friday, including whether there were any other licensed professionals who had a hand in the transfer and delivery of these fetal remains across state lines — from Indiana to Illinois, where they were found in the doctor’s garage.
The investigation would also look into the abandoned records, he said.
“Folks who use these clinics have a high degree of expectations of privacy and confidentiality and these records have been abandoned,” Hill said.
Authorities have recovered and secured those records, he added.
‘We are going to bring our babies home’
Many legislators have already begun reaching out to the attorney general’s office, Hill said, to determine if the fetal remains found in the doctor’s home are all connected to Indiana.
Preliminary findings, he said, indicate they are.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions concerning the how, the why, the what,” he said. Hill added authorities were able to identify the location and time the abortions took place from records that were attached to the fetal remains.
He said they’ve began receiving calls from mothers of children who were aborted between 2000 and 2002 who want to inquire about the remains.
Authorities are working on procedures to contact people and address their questions.
Now, Hill says his office is working to help bring the remains back to the state.
“We are going to bring our babies home and make sure that they’re treated with the proper dignity and respect,” he said.
