Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Hodari clinic charged for improper disposal of medical records
Hodari clinic charged for improper disposal of medical records
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 29, 2008
Detroit — The Lathrup Village abortion clinic where the remains of 23 babies were found discarded in trash receptacles earlier this year has been charged with 12 counts of improper disposal of medical records.
WomanCare of Southfield P.C., the clinic owned by Dr. Alberto Hodari, faces arraignment Sept. 3 in 46th District Court in Southfield.
The charges are 90-day misdemeanors, but also carry the potential of a fine of $100.
While a corporation is considered a "person" for most legal purposes, it cannot be put in jail, so WomanCare faces a maximum potential fine of $1,200 if convicted on all charges, explained Ed Cibor, chief of the Oakland County Sheriff's Department's Warrants Division.
Lesser penalties could include probation or some combination of fines and probation, he said.
The medical records were found, along with the remains of 23 aborted babies and bloody medical waste, in the trash receptacle outside the clinic in February by members of the group Citizens for a Pro-Life Society. The improper disposal of the remains and medical waste fell under the purview of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which issued a reprimand to the clinic.
A funeral Mass was celebrated in early May for the aborted babies at St. Gerald Church in Farmington Hills. Monica Migliorino Miller, president of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and a Madonna University professor, expressed both delight that Hodari's clinic was being charged with something and disappointment at the small scale of the potential fines if convicted.
"Boy, that law needs to be changed," she said last Friday.
But Miller added that the negative publicity might deter some women from seeking an abortion at the clinic. "Possibly, some babies will be saved," she said.
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