WASHINGTON — A high-profile abortionist in Oklahoma with a checkered history was arrested after he allegedly gave abortion-inducing drugs to three undercover agents who were not pregnant, according to the state’s attorney general.
In addition, Dr. Naresh G. Patel had his home and office at Outpatient Services for Women in Warr Acres searched December 9, the state’s top enforcement official said in a press release. Agents from the Oklahoma Medical Licensure Board, Oklahoma City police, and Attorney General’s office allegedly set up appointments with Dr. Patel and after he performed a pregnancy test and ultrasound on the women, he prescribed an abortion-inducing drug and charged them for the medication.
“This type of fraudulent activity and blatant disregard for the health and well-being of Oklahoma women will not be tolerated,” state Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt. “Oklahoma women should be able to trust that the advice they receive from their physicians is truthful, accurate and does not jeopardize their health. This investigation is a textbook demonstration of inter-agency cooperation to protect Oklahomans and prosecute the worst offenders.”
A receptionist at the Aaron Womens’ Clinic in Oklahoma City gave to a reporter a cellphone number for Dr. Patel. An older man with a slight Indian accent answered the call. Asked if he was arrested December 9 for administering abortion drugs, the man replied “No comment, sir” and hung up.
Patel could face as many as three years in prison and a $15,000 fine if convicted. Patel has had run-ins with state medical authorities before. In 1990, the state Medical Licensure Board disciplined him after her performed a botched abortion in 1989. “The defendant did perform surgical procedure on patient E.S.B. and said procedure was performed in an unprofessional manner and in a unprofessional setting,” a reprimand from the Ohio Medical Board said in 1992.
Also, in 1993 Patel was arrested for sodomizing and orally copulating with abortion patients. He was acquitted narrowly on both charges.
Talking Points Memo, a progressive-leaning news organization, mused that Patel was similar to Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor who was convicted in 2013 of murdering three babies.
The extra media scrutiny of abortionists has caught the notice of the physicians. Recently, late-term abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart blamed anti-abortion protesters for driving journeymen physicians out of the industry. “They have made it so the good physicians don’t really want to get involved,” Carhart told The New Yorker in its February 3 issue. “Now you have two types of doctors doing abortions—the doctors who are totally committed to women’s health and are going to do them even if they never get another dime, and the people that just want to take advantage of the situation and milk everything they can out of it.”
An email to the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice, a non-profit that supports the Sooner State’s abortion industry, was unreturned Monday.
Mark Stricherz covers Washington for Aleteia. He is author of Why the Democrats are Blue.
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