Thursday, June 16, 2005

After being provided information about the horrific conditions of a Kansas abortion clinic nearly two years ago, the Kansas state board in charge of regulating such facilities took months to investigate it and even longer to shut it down.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Krishna Rajanna's clinic was closed in March, but only after the testimony of law enforcement agents who investigated the grisly charges – including one employee's contention the abortionist once microwaved a fetus and stirred it into his lunch.

Rajanna first came to the attention of police in September 2003 when he called the cops to investigate alleged employee theft.

Detective William Howard of the Kansas City Police Department responded.

"I thought I had heard and seen every vile, disgusting crime scene, but was in for a new shock when I started this investigation," he would say later. Howard turned the matter over to the local district attorney and three state agencies.

Topping the list of horrors was an employee's account that she and others witnessed Rajanna "microwave one of the aborted fetuses and stir it into his lunch," as Howard recalled earlier this year when testifying before a Kansas House committee on an abortion clinic regulation bill.

Rajanna denied the accusation. But he did keep fetuses in Styrofoam cups in the refrigerator along with food and drink.

Kansans for Life, or KFL, says it alerted the Kansas Board of Healing Arts about allegations against Rajanna in August 2003. Previously, in 2000 and 2001, he was disciplined for not properly testing his patients for their blood types and for improperly labeling medications.

When the group was preparing testimony before a legislative committee in February 2004, it was "shocked to find out that the Board had not been investigating Rajanna and had even ignored requests from law enforcement and the county district attorney to help close Rajanna down," Kansans for Life states on its website.

Kathy Ostrowski, legislative research director for the group had escorted an informant to the Board office to share data and photographs of the clinic and had chosen not to go public so the regulatory agency could investigate and take action without outside pressure – but it did not.

"Four months after damning whistleblower photos of the clinic had been submitted, the Board renewed his license," Kansans for Life reports.

In February 2005, the Board declared Rajanna's clinic was deficient, but argued he should be allowed to stay open to make enough money to pay for improvements, KFL stated.

On March 25, the Board revoked Rajanna's license, admitting his clinic was found to be filthy with a dead rodent in the hallway in plain view of staff.

Rajanna can legally appeal the ruling. If he does not, after two years he can petition the Board for review and reinstatement of his license.

While Rajanna's case was pending, abortion opponents won legislative approval of a bill requiring abortion clinics to obtain an annual license from the Department of Health and Environment, hire surgeons as their medical directors and report patient deaths to the state within a day. The measure also mandated that the department set standards for equipment, medical screenings, ventilation and lighting.

But Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, an abortion-rights advocate, vetoed the measure, saying medical professionals – not legislators – should set standards.

Kansans for Life hopes Rajanna will stop practicing medicine for good:

"This Board permitted Rajanna to waltz back into active physician licensee status in Kansas after he had been managing real estate properties for 20 years, having had a failed clinic and other setbacks early in his career.

"Six months after regaining active Kansas license status in 1994, Rajanna enabled a man to die by prescribing 600 narcotic and psychotropic drugs to him within a few weeks and without taking a medical history! The decedent's family received an insurance settlement.

"Rajanna is a killer, 'a danger to the public' (the Board's own words). Let's hope he stays out of both abortion and 'medicine' in Kansas and other states."

Previous story:

Abortionist accused of eating fetuses

Related commentary with links to photos:

'Fetus eater' loses medical license

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