Hillcrest Closes, Potomac to Open
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Promoting the Culture of Life and Fighting the Culture of Death since 1987 CATHOLIC • PRO-LIFE • PRO-FAMILY Mar. - Apr. 2016, Vol. 27 No. 2 Circ. 4865 www.DefendLife.org • [email protected] Voice Mail: (410) 296-LIVE • Pro-Life Action News: (410) 296-BORN Changing of the guard: Hillcrest closes, Potomac to open The prayer vigilers at the 40 Days for Life campaign at Hillcrest abortion clinic in Catonsville were only in their third day of prayer when they saw a large dumpster delivered to the premises. The next day, they watched as workers moved office furniture and equipment out of the building hous- ing the abortion mill on Baltimore National Pike. The pro-lifers’ curiosity was piqued: which of the many offices in the seven-story building was moving out furniture? Could it be Hillcrest—and might it possibly be closing? Four days later, on February 18, “A worker from another office in the building came out and talked to us,” Young pro-lifers paint a message asking workers to stop remodeling said 40 Days Baltimore Campaign the old Hillcrest abortion facility in Catonsville: (in foreground) Mary Director Kim Frazer. Updike (left) and Faith Molino. “She told us that Hillcrest was closed and was being demolished!” Changing the focus signs. One read, “Workers & con- But any hopes that the 43-year- tractors: Stop working on the 6th old abortion facility might finally be The pro-lifers had begun their 40 floor renovation! It is an abortion closing for good were dashed when Days vigil with printed signs direct- clinic! It is not a healthcare office.” one of the vigilers called Hillcrest the ed toward abortion-minded women. The second sign gave the same next day. One read, “We’re praying for message in Spanish. “They told her that it was tem- YOU—AND your baby.” On the morning of March 11, porarily closed for remodeling and Another offered women help in a car pulled up near the sidewalk would reopen in March under Po- keeping their baby, giving the phone where five grown-ups were already tomac Family Planning,” said Frazer. numbers of a nearby pregnancy cen- praying, and six smiling, energetic In a second call to the clinic, on ter (“Only 4 blocks away! Free ultra- kids piled out, each brandishing a jar March 14, the woman answering the sounds!”). of neon sidewalk paint. phone said there was “no set date” Now, with the game changed, The young pro-lifers proceeded for the reopening. the vigilers added two hand-printed to the front sidewalk of the building, 2 DEFEND LIFE • March – April 2016 where they went to work, painting in ning Center, 966 Hungerford Drive, Barry G. Hallner, Jr., (who filed the giant letters that could be read eas- Rockville, MD 20850. lawsuit) gives a glimpse into her ily by anyone looking out of a sixth- McLeod opened Potomac Fam- tragic death: floor window, “Workers: Please do ily Planning in 1992. He was the At about 11:00 a.m. a nurse sum- not redo the 6th floor abortion mill.” owner and medical director of the moned Barry Hallner, who had been clinic when he and the clinic were upstairs in a waiting room, and took Mystery clinic owner defendants in a wrongful death law- him downstairs. She seated him in a suit in 2000. chair and told him the doctor would The Maryland Court of Appeals, The lawsuit followed disciplin- be with him soon. in a February 22 decision, declared ary action taken against McLeod by When no one came, he opened that the public has no right to know Maryland’s State Board of Physician a door and walked down a hallway, the names of the owners, administra- Quality Assurance after the 1997 where he confronted Dr. McLeod. To tors, or medical directors of any sur- death of a Potomac clinic client. his anxious inquiries, the doctor re- gical abortion facility in the state. McLeod had performed an abor- plied, “Your wife never woke up.” However, the likely owner of tion on Jennifer Hallner, a 27-year- Mr. Hallner walked down the Potomac Family Planning Center in old schoolteacher from Rockville hallway and into the recovery room, Rockville, Md., appears to be Earl who was 6 weeks pregnant. where he saw paramedics perform- McLeod. After the procedure, Hallner’s ing CPR on his wife. On his Maryland Board of Phy- heart stopped. Efforts to revive her Her eyes were wide open. He sicians medical license file, McLeod failed, and she died the next day. heard someone say she was in asys- lists his current “Primary Practice A brief narrative taken from the tole. From his Army training as a Setting” as Potomac Family Plan- deposition given by her husband, combat medical specialist, he knew that meant she had “flat-lined”—she had no pulse. He fell to his knees, crying out that he didn’t understand what had happened—that this was supposed to be a simple procedure. A nurse grabbed him, took him out in the hallway and sat him in a chair. But he wanted to see Jennifer. He walked back down the hall in time to see the rescue team taking her out to a waiting ambulance. In McLeod’s own deposition in the case, he estimated that he had performed 150,000 to 200,000 abor- tions since 1974. The abortionist has had connec- tions with Hillcrest in the past. As the owner and medical direc- tor of a Hillcrest clinic in Harrisburg, Pa., McLeod was sued in the 1996 40 Days prayer vigilers stand outside the building housing the death of Kelly Morris, who died after temporarily closed Hillcrest abortion clinic: (from left) Kelly Updike, 8-year-old Mary Updike, Kim Williams, Adele Kootz, Kim Frazer and Pat Barron. See HILLCREST, page 14 DEFEND LIFE IS PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY DEFEND LIFE, INC., 136 STEVENSON LANE, BALTIMORE, MD 21212 DEFEND LIFE • March – April 2016 3 Editorial Abortion providers: The new ‘protected class’ in Md. Maryland Court of Appeals members hear arguments and pose questions in Glenn v. DHMH. The Maryland Court of Ap- applications, but with the names of of abortion clinics may sneak in and peals, in its recent decision in Glenn the individuals applying for the li- out of Maryland with impunity. v. DHMH, has, in effect, created a censes redacted. They may have a sorry history new and very special protected class Glenn appealed. The case of medical license revocations in of people in Maryland: abortion wound its way through Baltimore other states, botched abortions caus- providers. City Circuit Court, Maryland’s ing serious injury or even death to On February 22 the Court of Court of Special Appeals, and final- women, and tax evasion or other Appeals ruled that the Maryland ly, the Maryland Court of Appeals, criminal convictions. Department of Health and Men- the highest court in the state. But the public has no right to tal Hygiene could keep secret the The case cannot be further ap- know. They are now “special” peo- names of the administrators, offi- pealed to the federal courts because ple, who can ply their disgusting cers, owners, and medical directors it doesn’t involve any issues over trade in anonymity. on applications for surgical abortion which the federal courts have juris- Glenn made his Public Infor- facility licenses. diction. mation Act request, in large part, This ruling was the end of the “It is a case about a state law due to just such an abortion pro- road for appellant Andrew Glenn, and the state’s interpretation of that vider: the notorious abortionist Ste- executive director for the Maryland law. The federal courts are courts ven Brigham, who was operating Coalition for Life. of limited jurisdiction, and this case a secret abortion facility in Elkton, In March 2013 Glenn made a does not fall within those limits,” Maryland, at which a woman suf- records request to DHMH under explains attorney Francis J. Manion fered life-threatening injuries dur- Maryland’s Public Information Act of the American Center for Law and ing a late-term abortion in 2010. for copies of applications for sur- Justice, which represented Glenn in We believe that the Court of gical abortion facility licenses in his appeals. Appeals, which ruled 7-0 against Maryland. So now the administrators, offi- Glenn, was biased in favor of the DHMH sent Glenn copies of the cers, owners, and medical directors abortion industry. 4 DEFEND LIFE • March – April 2016 Maryland’s Public Information The Maryland Court of Ap- abortion clinic in Elkton. Act, which provides the public “the peals then leaps from the horror Maryland pro-life watchdogs right to inspect the records of the of the “extreme hostility” created like Glenn have learned through State government,” is to be “liberal- by peaceful clinic protesters and bitter experience not to accept the ly construed in favor of allowing in- elected representatives peacefully State’s assurances that “we’ve got it spection of public records,” the law enacting laws regulating abortion to under control, just trust us.” states—unless disclosure “would noting the “numerous out-of-state They’ve seen too much chum- cause substantial injury to the pub- cases” of violence towards abortion miness between the State and the lic interest.” providers. abortion industry. In the matter of abortion facili- “Thankfully, there is nothing in In 2013, for example, NARAL ties, “[T]he threat to the public in- this record of this sort of extreme Pro-Choice Maryland presented terest is more than speculative,” conduct in Maryland,” the Court ac- its Leadership Award to Maryland opines the Court, adding, “it is well- knowledges in a footnote.