Following days of silence, 2020 Democrat Pete Buttigieg Wednesday addressed the discovery of thousands of fetal remains in the home of late abortionist Ulrich Klopfer, who worked in the mayor’s hometown of South Bend, Indiana, for decades.
"Like everyone, I find the news out of Illinois extremely disturbing, and I think it’s important that it be fully investigated," Buttigieg said on Wednesday. "I also hope it doesn’t get caught up in politics at a time when women need access to healthcare. There’s no question that what happened is disturbing. It’s unacceptable. And it needs to be looked into fully."
Law enforcement officials on Friday said that they found 2,246 medically preserved aborted fetuses in the Illinois home of Klopfer, who died on Sept. 3. He operated three Indiana clinics in South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Gary, the last of which closed in 2016 in the midst of a state licensing board trial on documentation and reasonable care violations.
Buttigieg's campaign previously ignored inquiries from the Washington Examiner about the Klopfer revelations and faced pressure to speak out about the fetal remains. Fox News host Tucker Carlson featured Buttigieg's lack of a public statement in a Tuesday evening segment.
Republican National Committee spokeswoman Liz Harrington highlighted Buttigieg's "extreme" views on abortion. “Buttigieg invokes the Bible to justify abortion up until a baby takes a breath. Will he use it to condemn the evil acts of an abortionist who operated unlicensed out of his home town?" Harrington said to the Washington Examiner, adding that for today’s Democrats, "nothing gets in the way of a radical, no-limits abortion agenda."
Buttigieg, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, declines to support any third-trimester abortion restrictions, saying, “These hypotheticals are set up to provoke a strong emotional reaction.” Earlier this month, he used the Bible to support abortion: “There's a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath,” Buttigieg said.
Republican Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski, who represents South Bend, said in a statement that Klopfer’s “careless treatment of human remains is an outrage” and called for state and federal authorities to conduct a full investigation.
The White House also called for an investigation to “determine whether crimes were committed and if anyone else was involved,” with White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere adding that the White House is “horrified by the news that thousands of fetal remains have been discovered” in Klopfer’s home.
Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, whose district encompasses Fort Wayne, told the Washington Examiner that he hoped Buttigieg would "explain why he chose to oppose alternative pregnancy care options for women just after we learned some of Dr. Klopfer's violations."
Indiana's health board suspended Klopfer’s medical license in 2016 after it found that he did not give pain medication to all patients and failed to timely report abortions on two girls under the age of 14 within the required three-day time period, among other issues. Testimony revealed that Klopfer used “the same abortion and sedation procedures from the 1970s and 1980s,” according to the South Bend Tribune.
Banks said that Buttigieg’s 2018 veto of a zoning change that would have allowed a pro-life pregnancy center to operate next to a new South Bend abortion clinic, Whole Woman’s Health, “deserves a lot more scrutiny” in light of the Klopfer revelations.
Buttigieg said at the time that “it is far from clear that a neighborhood benefits from co-locating facilities with such opposite views,” prompting some critics to say that the veto violated free speech. The pro-life clinic later found a new location close to the building it originally wanted.
“I’m sure Pete had presidential politics on his mind when the veto occurred,” Banks said. “I think that’s the larger issue here, is that Mayor Pete always tried to portray himself as more moderate.”
The Indiana health department rejected a license for Whole Woman’s Health, citing a failure to show “reputable and responsible character” and disclose information, but the clinic is operating under a federal injunction.
South Bend physician Laura McGuire in 2017 argued that Whole Woman’s Health has “the same kind of profile as Dr. Klopfer.” Original state license application paperwork showed that the administrator for Klopfer’s former clinic, Liam Morley, was listed as the administrator for the new abortion clinic. Whole Woman’s Health told the Washington Examiner that Morley is no longer an employee and no other former Klopfer employees are or have been employees of the new clinic.
Despite Whole Woman’s Health’s license issues, Buttigieg publicly supports the abortion clinic.
“The mayor is deeply concerned by what he views as a new and extreme assault on Roe v. Wade in legislatures across the country,” Buttigieg campaign national press secretary Chris Meagher told the Chicago Tribune in August. “The South Bend clinic would be the only one for a radius of several counties."
The new clinic on Tuesday addressed news of Klopfer keeping aborted fetuses in his home.
“All of us at Whole Woman’s Health Alliance are shocked by the news. We join the community seeking more information and awaiting the results of the investigation,” Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, said in a statement.
Kerry Picket and Kimberly Leonard contributed to this story.
