Abortion doc suit alters defendants
FORT WAYNE – The Allen County commissioners are now defendants in a lawsuit filed by an abortion provider challenging new regulations for doctors who don’t live in the area and who do not have privileges at area hospitals.
Filed in May by Fort Wayne Women’s Health, operated by Dr. George Klopfer, the lawsuit originally named the Fort Wayne-Allen County health commissioner and the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health.
But according to documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne, the Allen County commissioners should be the defendants. An amended complaint was filed Monday, naming the commissioners instead and removing health department officials.
County Attorney Bill Fishering said the change in the complaint does not change the defense team, which includes the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund.
The new ordinance requires out-of-town doctors to provide contact information to area emergency rooms and the local health department.
Klopfer and his attorneys have argued the ordinance would give health officials unlimited access to patient medical records, thus violating patients’ and physicians’ rights to privacy.
Allen County prosecutors added additional charges Friday to the criminal case against local lawyer Daniel E. Serban after investigators said he admitted misappropriating money from an estate account.