Exposé: Tax Funded Abortion Training and the Betrayal of True Medicine at UNM

By Tara Shaver, Project Defending Life
(Tara and her husband, Bud, formerly interned with Operation Rescue.)

Albuquerque, NM- A recent investigation conducted by Project Defending Life with the help of Operation Rescue has revealed that tax money received by the University of New Mexico (UNM) flows freely to the university-run UNM Center for Reproductive Health (UNMCRH) abortion clinic in Albuquerque.
This money is used for the following purposes:

Finance the UNMCRH abortion clinic.

Train UNM medical residents in abortions techniques, particularly late-term abortions.

Conduct experimental research on patients with regard to abortion, contraception and sterilization.

The University of New Mexico prides itself on being a public research university. It is the largest post-secondary institution in the state as well as one of the state’s largest employers. The University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) is a teaching hospital located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, north of the University of New Mexico’s main campus. It is the only Level I Trauma Center in the State of New Mexico.
Nearly $91 million poured in from state coffers in 2011
In 2008, the University of New Mexico received $344.8 million from the New Mexico state legislature, making the state contribution 17% of UNM’s total operating budget. According to the Bernalillo County Treasurer’s office The University of New Mexico Hospital receives a percentage of all property taxes paid in the county. They receive a minimum of 6.4% a year from both residential and non-residential properties in Bernalillo County. However, the percentage can go even higher than that. In 2011 UNMH received 15.51% which amounted to $90,919,020. UNMH received the 4th highest amount of property tax funds in 2011.
UNM’s dirty little secret
Since UNM receives so much tax payer money, the public should know about the programs this entity is running.

UNM’s dirty little secret is their free standing abortion clinic in Albuquerque, the UNM Center for Reproductive Health. Abortions are performed up to 22 weeks gestation and research with regard to abortion, contraception and sterilization is conducted. For these reasons this “prestigious” institution falls short in its lifesaving efforts, because not all lives are being saved. In fact, 911 emergency records recently revealed that three women have been seriously injured as the result of abortion complications at the UNMCRH.
“I call upon Governor Martinez, who has been a consistent advocate for the unborn and opponent of abortion, to investigate this misuse of NM tax dollars. It is certain that the people of NM do not want their tax dollars used to prop up the abortion industry through their state university,” said Fr. Stephen Imbarrato, Director of Project Defending Life.
Abortion business administrators

The Health Sciences Center Department of OB-GYN, and the Department of Family and Community Medicine collaborate together for patient care and educational opportunities. Their collaboration runs and oversees the UNM Center for Reproductive Health abortion clinic. The Health Sciences Center has a newly formed Board of Directors that answer to UNM’s Board of Regents. The members of the Health Sciences Center Board of Directors were announced in April of this year and include:

Carolyn J. Abeita, Chair

Don L. Chalmers, Vice Chair and also Vice Chair of the UNM Board of Regents

Ann Rhoades

Jerry D. Geist

John (Mel) Eaves

Lt. Gen. Bradley C. Hosmer, USAF (Ret.)

Ronald (Ron) James Solimon

Training grant helps keep the abortion clinic doors open
The UNM Center for Reproductive Health is funded in part by a Ryan Residency Training grant. The Kenneth J. Ryan residency training program is a national, privately funded initiative based at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco. The Ryan program was founded in 1999 with the goal of improving training in abortion and contraception for ob-gyn residents in the United States and Canada. The following quote is on the programs website, “Access to experience with induced abortion must be part of residency education.” This quote is directly from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and reveals an agenda bent on expanding abortion services. It best sums up the mission of the program. Training medical residents to kill is the worst betrayal of true medicine.

Trainers participating in the Ryan program are late-term abortionist Curtis Boyd and his wife, Glenna. Boyd has stated that he trains at UNM and other universities across the country. Documents obtained through open records requests show that Boyd’s own abortion clinic in Albuquerque has been recently responsible for eleven abortion-related medical emergencies, with life-threatening injuries occurring at the rate of one every ten weeks.
Experimental abortion, birth control, and sterilization
Apart from the Ryan Program, UNM is also offering a post graduate Fellowship in Family Planning (FFP). The FFP is also based at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health UCSF. The Fellowship in Family Planning is the only fellowship in the nation that provides the opportunity to develop high-level research and clinical skills in contraception and abortion.
According to their website the clinical training is as follows:

“Fellows are trained in abortion and contraception care, using evidence-based medical and surgical methods. The UNM Center for Reproductive Health is an off-site clinic about 6 miles from the hospital. This clinic serves the family planning and STI needs of women in the University system. Training will also be accomplished at Planned Parenthood. Later second trimester abortion will occur at UNM and with Dr. Curtis Boyd in his clinic either in New Mexico or in Dallas.
Uterine evacuations up to 22 weeks gestation are performed in the clinic with participation of medical students and residents. The medically complex and later gestational cases are performed in the main operating rooms at UNM. The UNM Family Planning Section of the Gynecology Division performs medical abortion, surgical abortions to 24 weeks, and labor induction.
Additional abortion training up to 19 weeks is available at Planned Parenthood of New Mexico in Albuquerque as well as supplemental training in 20-24 week abortion with Dr. Curtis Boyd. Dr. Boyd has a high volume clinic in Dallas, Texas and we anticipate that Fellows in their second year will complete one to three 2-week sessions in Dallas to train to competence in later abortions.
After orientation and training, the UNM Fellow will supervise residents and medical students at the UNM Center for Reproductive Health including complex contraception, miscarriage management as well as diagnosis/treatment of first trimester pregnancy complications, in-office hysteroscopy, Essure and endometrial ablation…The UNM Fellow will become expert at the range of family planning and abortion care while maintaining and promoting generalist skills.”

“Most people would be shocked to learn that women are being used as human guinea pigs at UNMCRH for the development of new ways to kill babies and sterilize women – all at taxpayer expense,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
“The number of abortion clinics has dramatically decreased by over 66% since 1991, partly because young doctors do not want to dirty themselves with the abortion business. Abortionists who quit, retire, or are stripped of their licenses are not being replaced. It is clear that, with the help of tax funding, UNM is in bed with Planned Parenthood and late-term abortionist Boyd to crank out new abortionists in order to stabilize and expand abortion services nationwide. This radical agenda must be exposed.”

Back alley abortionist embraced by UNM
It is alarming that UNM is collaborating with Curtis Boyd who openly admits to being an illegal abortionist before Roe vs. Wade. Part and parcel of the pro-abortion rhetoric is that women need open access to abortion to protect them from having to resort to seeking out “back alley abortionists.” The University uses New Mexico tax dollars to bring a confessed “back alley abortionist” to the University and thrusts unsuspecting students and vulnerable women into his hands. Boyd admits to having conducted “pain management” experiments on his patients as well as having used them to experiment new abortion methods. As previously mentioned, over the past two years alone, there have been eleven documented life-threatening injuries at Curtis Boyd’s late-term abortion mill, demanding these women be rushed to the UNMH emergency room.
UNM abortionists use tax dollars fund radical agenda
While the medical community is supposed to heal and save lives, doctors at UNM are training up the next generation of physicians to do just the opposite. Instead of serving people through the practice of medicine, these doctors are learning how to take the lives of the most defenseless of our society.
UNM physicians are determined to use tax dollars to further their pro-abortion agenda.

Eve Espey serves as the Medical Director for the Center for Reproductive Health abortion clinic. She is also Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and holds the position of Associate Dean for Student Affairs. Her main interests include family planning and medical student education. Espey is on the faculty of the Health Sciences Global Health Program (GHP). The Global Health Program has been designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a collaborating center on education, service and research. Espey’s focus with the GHP is family planning and abortion in Mexico and Central America. While Eve Espey deceptively claims to be helping the people of Mexico and Central America, in reality by promoting abortion Espey is really advancing a population control agenda. This begs the question: “Why is Eve Espey targeting this population for extinction?”

Larry Leeman directs the Family Medicine Maternal and Child Health service and is co-medical director of the UNM Hospital Mother-Baby Unit. Leeman is also actively studying ways to expand contraceptive availability, including studies that have been completed on oral contraceptives and breastfeeding, immediate postpartum IUD insertion, and attitudes and practices of abortion care among New Mexico Family Physicians and Ob/Gyns. He is very active at the UNM Center for Reproductive Health and performs abortions on the days he is not delivering babies at UNMH. Leeman was on the Board of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, the leading physician’s group advocating for women’s reproductive rights until June 2011 when he was appointed to the Institute of Medicines’ Standing Committee on Family Planning.

Tony Ogburn is the UNM School of Medicine OB/GYN Residency Program Associate Director, Professor. The Residency Program includes rotations in Family Planning and abortion at the Center for Reproductive Health. Ogburn is also the UNM contact for breastfeeding and emergency contraception.

Rameet Singh and Eve Espey serve as the Family Planning Fellowship Directors. Singh is also an assistant professor in the OB/GYN department at UNM.

“The residents of the state of New Mexico should not be footing the bill for UNM to train abortionists to kill babies. It is vital that the people of New Mexico be informed about where their money is going and how it is being used. Until UNM closes down their abortion clinic they should not receive any more tax funding,” stated Bud Shaver, spokesperson for Project Defending Life.
Fr. Stephen Imbarrato, Director of Project Defending Life issued the following plea, “We are calling all people of conscience in New Mexico to contact UNM President David Schmidly and the UNM Board of Regents President Jack Fortner to let them know that you want UNM and UNMH to preserve and protect all life and not destroy it by abortion.”
Read Part Two of the two-part series.
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