By Anne Reed

Operation Rescue Investigation Provides History

Amy Hagstrom Miller, President of Whole Woman’s Health (WWHA) in South Bend, Indiana, recently announced the abortion business would no longer have a “physical presence in South Bend.” Its doors are shuttering for good.  

The state of Indiana passed a near total abortion ban last summer, with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. Although the law is currently blocked, it specifies that an abortionist who performs an abortion, outside of those exceptions, faces licensure revocation and felony charges, punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.  

WWHA announced last August that it would be closing because of the abortion ban. However, the law was blocked by a court just one week after its September 15 effective date. 

WWHA continued to operate.

Operation Rescue’s annual survey conducted last September revealed the abortion business had already stopped performing surgical abortions and was solely administering chemical abortions. 

Legal Action Timeline

Indiana’s abortion ban was temporarily blocked on September 22, 2022, after multiple groups filed lawsuits alleging the law infringed on free exercise of religious freedom and privacy rights. 

A month later, the Indiana Supreme Court continued the temporary injunction but, in late January, refused to hear the case which argued the ban violates religious freedom. The state’s highest court has not yet decided concerning the other oral arguments heard. 

In an interesting, yet separate, turn of events, The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upheld an Indiana law last month requiring burial or cremation of aborted babies. The Court’s decision allows the state of Indiana to enforce the 2016 law, ensuring the “respectful disposition of human remains,” thereby requiring that abortionists in Indiana recognize the humanity of babies they kill – rather than treating them like medical waste. 

Last Thursday, SCOTUS refused to hear a challenge to the law wherein the plaintiffs argued abortionists are being unconstitutionally compelled to apply a message of personhood to preterm babies by requiring their remains be treated in the same manner as the remains of a deceased person.

History Speaks

Miller (pictured below) also operated Whole Woman’s Health in McAllen, Texas, but was forced to close after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Prior to that facility’s celebrated closure, it miserably failed health inspections. 

In 2011, Operation Rescue conducted a three-month undercover investigation into a number of Texas abortion facilities and the methods utilized for disposing of aborted baby remains. As a result, Miller’s Texas abortion mill was fined $17,430 by the Texas Commission on Environment Quality (TCEQ) after being caught red-handed disposing of aborted baby remains in an open, overflowing dumpster behind the run-down building.

For over a decade, Miller has also expressed opposition to safety standards that seek to protect women who ingest chemical abortion drugs, claiming that forcing abortionists to institute safety precautions would drive women to seek unsafe abortions elsewhere. 

The recent April 7 ruling by a Texas judge to suspend the FDA’s approval of the dangerous abortion-inducing drug, Mifepristone, put WWHA and abortion facilities around the country at risk of closing. But just two weeks later, SCOTUS froze the lower court ruling, essentially upholding the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone. SCOTUS also failed to reinstate safety precautions that were incrementally removed between 2016 and 2023.

At present, these recent federal court actions concerning chemical abortion have no effect on abortionists in Indiana who administer chemical abortion drugs, including those at WWHA. 

Suspect Motives

Because the state’s abortion ban is not in effect, and Indiana’s legislature has not directly addressed or restricted chemical abortion, the reason for WWHA’s closure is unclear.   

If there is any truth to Miller’s claim concerning “unnecessary abortion restrictions” causing the closure, then she can only be referring to the state law requiring cremation or burial of babies she kills by administering chemical abortion drugs.  

“Miller has proven she is a reprehensible woman who has no respect whatsoever for human life,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “I can only imagine how much it angered her when SCOTUS upheld a law that at least honors the remains of babies murdered through abortion. If she were to continue operating a killing center in Indiana, that means she would be required to do likewise.” 

“Operation Rescue has worked for years to expose Miller and the killing centers she has operated. We celebrate this closure and thank God for the innocent lives saved by the doors of this clinic being shut for good.” 

Join us on gab