Newman: “You won’t read about his connections to Planned Parenthood in the Boston Globe!”
By Cheryl Sullenger
Boston, MA – A former Planned Parenthood abortionist has surrendered his Massachusetts medical license amid allegations that he sexually molested patients – many under anesthesia – during fertility treatments at Fertility Centers of New England.
However, yesterday’s story in the Boston Globe, which reported on Roger Ian Hardy’s legal woes, failed to mention that Hardy once worked for Planned Parenthood where he had similar access to women as he had at a fertility clinic where he molested and inappropriately touched women over a period of two decades.
“You won’t read about his connections to Planned Parenthood in the Boston Globe, but you should!” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “Sexual abuse of patients and staff is more common than people realize among those who work as abortionists. These men have access to women when they are extremely vulnerable. It’s an unspeakable betrayal. Adding to the scandal is the reticence of medical boards to take action when women bravely come forward to file complaints. Hardy’s situation is a case in point.”
In 1991, Hardy began moonlighting for Planned Parenthood in Santa Clara, California, then moved to Massachusetts in 1992 when he began providing abortions for Planned Parenthood of League of Massachusetts, Inc. In the late 1990’s, documents show he was accused of at least one case of medical malpractice as evidenced in a suit filed against him and Planned Parenthood related to an incomplete abortion. Why he left Planned Parenthood is unknown, but the Boston Globe article published on May 1, 2014, indicates that Hardy’s abhorrent behavior stretched back as far as 20 years, which would include his stint with Planned Parenthood in Massachusetts.
In 2004, a woman filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine alleging that Hardy took advantage of her while she was under anesthesia at a fertility clinic after discovering suspicious physical injuries the following day. The Board sent her complaint to Hardy, who wrote a long letter denying the charges and suggested that the woman’s injuries were self-inflicted. [Read the documents related to this complaint. Warning: sexually graphic content.]
The Board closed the complaint without action. The woman wrote a letter back complaining that the Board was not doing its job, but no further action was taken, until recently.
That 2004 complaint was revisited after 18 witnesses came forward to testify against him about his inappropriate sexual behavior not only with his patients, but also female members of his staff. The Board has since determined that Hardy had indeed sexually abused the women who had come forward in 2004.
In addition to surrendering his Massachusetts medical license, Hardy’s licenses have been suspended in Maine and New Hampshire.

Part two of the Boston Globe’s exposé on Hardy mentions the “code of silence” that protected him. One employee was upset when she saw Hardy fondling a patient’s breast but was told not to report it if she did not want to be known as a “disgruntled worker.”
“Ironically, the Boston Globe is part of that that ‘code of silence’ because not once in two articles did it warn former patients of Planned Parenthood that there is a possibility that they also may have been victims of Hardy’s perverted practices,” said Newman. “It appears that the paper is shielding Planned Parenthood’s abortion business from scrutiny when women have a right to know the truth.”
Operation Rescue has found that even when clinic workers do have the courage to report such abuses, often the medical boards turn a blind eye or just slap the offender on the wrist and send him back into the exam room, which only ensures that the abuse will continue.
“If the Board had taken the 2004 complaint against this man seriously, perhaps it would have spared countless women from being abused,” said Newman. “We’ve seen this kind of behavior with abortionists more times that we can stomach.”

• Oklahoma Nareshkumar Patel was charged with rape after several women came forward with horrific stories of his appalling sexual conduct with abortion patients and clinic workers. Unfortunately, Patel was inexplicably exonerated despite the overwhelming evidence against him.
• Maryland abortionist Harold O. Alexander was found to have “crossed sexual boundaries” with patients at his abortion business in Forestville. That and a slew of other violations earned him just a three-month suspension in 2012.
• Former Planned Parenthood abortionist Timothy Liveright was accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior with patients at a Delaware Planned Parenthood in 2013. He received only a public reprimand.
• Former California abortionist Laurence Reich was convicted of raping and molesting his female patients in the 1980s. With his license restored in the 1990’s Reich went to work at an abortion clinic where he had unrestricted access to vulnerable women. Once again, he was caught sexually abusing his abortion patients and surrendered his license in 2007, yet when his clinic was raided by police a year later, they found Reich still at work doing abortions.
• Maryland abortionist Mansour G. Panah’s long history of discipline started in 1988 when he was accused of fondling and attempting to kiss his patients on the mouth. He was disciplined once again for unwanted sexual contact with patients in 1995. One woman received as many as three breast examinations in one visit for no medical reason. When asked why the need for repeated examinations, Panah simply expressed admiration for the woman’s breasts. His Maryland medical license remains active.
• Houston abortionist Douglas Karpen was said to have engaged in sexual harassment in accusations made by his former employees. They reported that he would also touch abortion patients he found attractive in inappropriate ways. Their complaints were dismissed by the Texas Board of Medicine.
• In 2012, a filed suit alleging patient molestation and employee sexual harassment at Lovejoy Surgicenter in Portland, Oregon. The surgical nurse accused of the molestations was fired and the clinic continues to operate without further action.
• In one of the few cases where an abortionist was actually prosecuted, Arizona abortionist Brian Finkel was sentenced to 35 years in prison for raping and otherwise sexually abusing over 100 of his abortion patients.

“Our list of abusers could go on and on, but the point is that authorities often look the other way when receiving complaints that women have suffered from sexual abuse and harassment at the hands of abortionists,” said Newman. “Boards should show more respect for the clinic workers and patients who have the courage to come forward, and take their allegations more seriously. That could help prevent dozens, if not hundreds of women from being raped, molested, and otherwise abused.”
Because clinic workers and patients often fear reprisals if they report abusive behavior, Operation Rescue offers the Abortion Whistleblowers Program, which operates in a way similar to Crime Stoppers. Operation Rescue offers a $25,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of abortionists who are breaking the law.
“People like Hardy and his ilk should be criminally prosecuted for their crimes and we hope the authorities in Massachusetts are looking into doing just that. We hope that our reward offer will encourage both clinic workers and patients to come forward and blow the whistle on abortionists’ abusive or otherwise criminal activity,” said Newman. “We are constantly working to get abortionists like Hardy off the street and into jail where they belong so women have fewer predators to fear. Those who do come forward are heroes, in my opinion.”

Learn more about Operation Rescue’s Abortion Whistleblower Program