We heard about this a couple of weeks ago, but the folks at Louisiana Right To Life were doing the legwork on it and we wanted to let them weigh in first on a story which ought to scare the daylights out of anybody who cares about the pro-life cause (and lots of others as well). Which they’ve done this morning. Here’s a press release…

Yesterday, Louisiana Right to Life sent a letter of concern for public safety to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners about Dr. Kevin Govan Work (Certificate No. MD.025394), a current abortionist at Delta Women’s Clinic in Baton Rouge and at Women’s Healthcare Center in New Orleans.

Records show Dr. Work has a history of unprofessional conduct and illegitimate practice, often occurring in the scope of work in outpatient abortion facilities:

• Allowing for his electronic signature to be used for treatment of patients he did not see;
• Failing to document at least two surgical operations, including termination of pregnancy;
• Allowing other medical personnel to treat patients without his supervision;
• Allowing unlicensed personnel to evaluate his patients and provide prenatal care;
• Failing to document prescriptions for controlled substances; and

He has also been accused by at least one of his own OBGYN patients of causing the unwanted death of her unborn child. According to allegations in a 2013 decision from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (Glenda Caceras et al vs. Kevin G. Work, M.D., et al), the patient visited Dr. Work’s office for a routine visit and ultrasound. Dr. Work’s office nurse instructed the patient to ingest three white pills that would cause her uterus to contract. After the patient told her she was there for an ultrasound, the nurse instructed the patient to regurgitate the pills. Dr. Work then performed a pelvic exam and prescribed medication for an infection. Later that evening, the patient was taken to the emergency room at Ochsner Medical Center – West Bank and her unborn baby, determined to be 16 weeks and six days along, died.

In a 2017 filing with the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, Dr. Work requested reinstatement of his license to practice medicine in Louisiana after a 2016 Interim Consent Order reinstated his status subject to specified terms, conditions, and restrictions. One condition was his successful passage of the Board Certification Examination in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Work told the board he was unable to satisfy this requirement and asked to be reinstated to work in the area of wound care. Following a review, the board reinstated his license effective June 20, 2017, and he was placed on probation for a period of two years, conditioned upon and subject to his acceptance and strict compliance with various terms, conditions, and restrictions. These conditions included a limitation of practice to a setting approved by the board in writing and that such practice setting not be one in which he worked as a solo practitioner.

Benjamin Clapper, Executive Director of Louisiana Right to Life, said the following after sending the letter: “Dr. Kevin Work, by practicing in these two OBGYN-focused abortion facilities as a solo practitioner without another doctor on site, appears from publicly-accessible documents to be in clear violation of his probation. Louisiana Right to Life has written to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners asking for clarity to be provided and swift action to be taken if Dr. Work is in violation. With his troubled history of threatening the health and safety of Louisiana citizens at outpatient abortion facilities, we would be shocked if the State Board of Medical Examiners authorized Dr. Work to practice abortion.”

See the letter LRTL sent to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners here.

We’ve consulted with some of the folks who do sidewalk counseling outside of Delta Women’s Clinic in Baton Rouge, in order to provide other potential options for women in crisis who might otherwise avail themselves of the barbarous services provided at that abortuary, and they’ve confirmed that Work is there all the time in a professional capacity. There is no real doubt he’s the abortion doctor at that clinic, so we’d be surprised if anyone were to deny his role there.

This story, shocking as it is, offers a few takeaways. First, let’s remember that the Louisiana Attorney General’s office is currently engaged in defending the state’s admitting-privileges law against a constitutional challenge, and it’s widely expected the Supreme Court will grant certiorari for the case to be heard. The pro-abort side is claiming that the law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges in local hospitals would shut down all but one of the state’s abortuaries, and this business of Kevin Work’s professional history and current licensing status illuminates why.

To put it bluntly, Louisiana’s abortion clinics are populated with what appear to be quack doctors whose professional reputations would preclude them from being given admitting privileges. What hospital would grant those to someone whose medical license has been suspended no less than four times? The amount of liability inherent in such a decision makes it a laughable prospect, so of course that wouldn’t happen.

Back in 2016 after the law was passed but before an injunction was granted per the constitutional challenge, Delta Women’s Clinic had stopped performing abortions because it wasn’t able to comply. This has been going on for a good while and nobody ought to be surprised we’re where we are.

And if the abortionists at Delta Women’s Clinic or similar entities around the state were to, say, puncture a patient’s uterus while chopping up a fetus inside a womb – something which is hardly unheard of – then what happens if they aren’t allowed admitting privileges at the hospital? Just drop the patient off at the ER and wish her luck as she hemorrhages?

But what we find shocking in the extreme is the lack of oversight that would make it possible for a defrocked physician like Work to gain employment as an abortionist at a “medical” facility supposedly regulated by the state. Where is the LSBME here?

And who’s responsible for this?

Well, six members of that board are 2018 appointments of Gov. John Bel Edwards – including Christy L. Valentine, a New Orleans physician with connections to the Landrieu family who serves as its president. The LSBME is John Bel Edwards’ baby now.

And for some reason the LSBME is letting doctors whose licenses they’ve pulled do abortions?

This isn’t the first time Edwards’ performance belies his claim to be pro-life. We noted two weeks ago that Edwards’ silence about the shocking statements by his fellow Democrat governor Ralph Northam supporting infanticide was a window into the priority he gives toward campaign cash over maintaining the credibility of his pro-life claims, and the fact his Louisiana Department of Health, run by a pro-abortion activist in Dr. Rebekah Gee, isn’t contributing a penny to the defense of the admitting privileges law.

And now we have a level of laxity in supervising the state’s abortion clinics which quite literally could kill a patient. Even if you’re on the fence about the abortion issue you’ve got to be appalled at the idea Louisiana is allowing doctors without licenses to operate on vulnerable women at the state’s abortuaries.

Edwards needs to answer for this incompetence. It isn’t acceptable to get results like these from a politician who claims to be pro-life.

UPDATE: Ralph Abraham, who is a doctor, just put out a statement on this situation…

Republican Ralph Abraham is demanding accountability from Gov. John Bel Edwards after news surfaced that his Department of Health and Hospitals is awarding medical licenses to disgraced doctors for the purposes of providing abortions.

Louisiana Right to Life highlighted in a letter today that the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners (LSBME) issued a “wound care” license to Kevin Work, who has used the license to perform abortions. The board, which falls under Edwards and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospital purview, awarded the license despite Work’s admission that he was unable to satisfy requirements to become an OBGYN.

“John Bel Edwards loves to talk about how he’s pro-life, but nothing within his administration shows that’s the case. As a doctor, I’m appalled by what he’s allowing to happen within his administration; though, we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, he did hire a Planned Parenthood organizer as his health secretary and attended a $100,000 fundraiser thrown in his honor by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat who supports infanticide legislation.

“Actions speak louder than words. If Gov. Edwards is truly pro-life, then he should take swift action by firing Gee and replacing her with a secretary who understands that no baby or mother should ever be subjected to the alleged heinous actions of Kevin Work,” Abraham said.

Abraham is a medical doctor and has practiced family medicine for more than 25 years. He is unabashedly pro-life and has received perfect ratings from pro-life organizations during his time in Congress.

Abraham also supports a Louisiana law that requires abortion clinic workers hold hospital admitting privileges in order to operate. Sec. Gee failed to successfully defend this law in court and ultimately turned the case over to Attorney General Jeff Landry to handle on appeal. The Supreme Court of the United States is considering the appeal.