Columbus, Ohio – Pleading for leniency to preserve his hospital privileges, Walter T. Bowers II, 65, an associate of late-term abortionist Martin Haskell, appeared before a hearing of the State Medical Board of Ohio recently and made excuses for a Kentucky disciplinary order that banned him from the practice of obstetrics in that state. On October 12, 2011, the Board issued their ruling granting Bowers leniency by issuing a simple reprimand and placing him on probation for two years without other restrictions to his Ohio medical license.
Bowers was recently named in a variance by the Ohio Department of Health that exempts Haskell and his employed abortionists from maintaining hospital privileges as required by law, as long as Bowers and another physician agree to handle any patients of Haskell’s abortion business that require emergency hospitalization.
If the Medical Board of Ohio had reciprocated the Kentucky discipline in kind and restricted his license, it may have caused Bowers to lose his hospital privileges at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati. That action would have nullified Haskell’s ODH variance and without which his late-term abortion clinic in Sharonville could not continue to operate.
Notes from the Ohio disciplinary hearing reflected desperation in Bowers’ desire to keep his hospital privileges.
“It would be devastating if he State of Ohio would place restrictions on my license,” Bowers told the Board. “To continue teaching and enjoying full hospital privileges, my license can not be encumbered. My continued participation is predicated on a favorable response to this hearing. My faculty status, the ability to teach residents, medical students, [and] hospital indemnification would be compromised.”
“Conspiracy theorists out there may think that the Board of Medicine worked with the Department of Health to purposely give Bowers a slap on the wrist in order to keep Haskell’s abortion mill open, and frankly, they couldn’t be blamed for thinking that,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “It seems an odd coincidence that on October 6, we revealed that Bowers’ medical license had been restricted in Kentucky, then on the eleventh, the Board issues this order effectively sending the message to pro-life supporters that abortionists remain above the law in Ohio.”
In January, 2011, the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure placed Bowers on probation for five years and ordered him to cease the practice of obstetrics after the gross mismanagement of a wanted pregnancy resulted in a dead child. Bowers settled a claim with the parents for $250,000. A further review of five other medical charts from his Kentucky practice indicated that Bowers failed to meet the standard of care for each of those five patients.
“The Kentucky investigation of Bowers showed violations in each of the patient files inspected in their investigation. If he was violating the standard of care in Kentucky, you can bet he’s doing it in Ohio, too,” said Newman.
“Placing the care of women who have already suffered life-threatening injuries during an abortion in the hands of a man whose practice has been found to be substandard in two states is like forcing women to jump from the frying pan into the fire.”
Operation Rescue urges the public to express their concerns to the Ohio Board of Medicine and the Ohio Department of Health.

Read the OMB Order
Contact the ODH and ask them to repeal Haskell’s variance:

Dr. Theodore Wymyslo, Ohio Department of Health
E-mail: Director@odh.ohio.gov
Phone: 614-466-2253

Contact the Ohio Medical Board and respectfully express concern for their lenient discipline of Bowers.

Richard A Whitehouse, Executive Director
Voice: 614-466-3934
Post to the OMB’s facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/State-Medical-Board-of-Ohio/121726147864932