NEWS RELEASE: Texas Medical Board Finds Houston Abortion Doctor Violated State Law

Austin, TX — In a rare action, the Texas Medical Board (TMB), the state agency charged with licensing and disciplining physicians, found that Dr. Bernard Rosenfeld, a well-known Houston abortion doctor, violated licensing law by performing large numbers of abortions in his office and has issued a “remedial plan.”

 

In April 2014, Texas Alliance for Life staff attorney Erin Groff filed a complaint with the TMB against Dr. Bernard Rosenfeld, who was performing abortions illegally out of his private medical office in Houston. The complaint alleged that Dr. Rosenfeld was performing about two abortions every other day in his office, well above the 50 per year threshold requiring abortion facility licensure according to state law. The TMB opened an investigation, and in October Ms. Groff provided testimony.

 

Tipped off by a local pro-life leader, Texas Alliance for Life discovered that Dr. Rosenfeld had an extensive website advertising his office-based abortion business in addition to the large Houston Women’s Clinic where he also performs abortions. Immediately after Texas Alliance for Life filed the complaint, the references to abortion on Dr. Rosenfeld’s office website disappeared.

Last month the TMB found that Dr. Rosenfeld violated the Texas abortion facility licensing law. While the TMB could have denied, suspended, or revoked his license, they chose to merely issue a remedial plan that has two requirements: eight additional hours of continuing medical education and a payment of $500 per year for administering the plan.

The Texas Medical Board is also currently investigating a complaint against Dr. Paul Fine, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, brought by former Planned Parenthood facility director Abby Johnson. Johnson alleges Fine pre-signed hundreds of prescription pads for controlled substances and fraudulently signed patient consent forms for patients he had never been in contact with.

“We are grateful that the Texas Medical Board penalized Dr. Rosenfeld for his flagrant violation of the law,” said Joe Pojman, Ph.D., executive director of Texas Alliance for Life. “We are hopeful that the investigation against Dr. Fine will be taken more seriously and that he will be appropriately penalized.”