Abortionist Dr. Leah Torres — who previously made headlines for profoundly tone-deaf and grotesque pro-abortion statements such as “God performs way more abortions than I do” and for calling “not being pregnant anymore” a “medical indication” for abortion — once again has an active medical license in the state of Alabama. Yet interestingly, Torres’ account of the restoration of her current license does not match the account of the General Counsel of the Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners (ASBME).
Last year, Torres’ temporary license to practice medicine in Alabama was revoked for alleged fraud on her application three weeks after she started working in the state. Over $115,000 in legal fees and an ethics class later, according to a GoFundMe set up to cover her court costs, Torres was granted a medical license in March 2021 and has been committing abortions at the same unsanitary Alabama abortion facility that was found responsible for killing 29-year-old April Lowery due to botched abortion in May 2020.
Torres was hired to replace Louis Payne, the abortionist who retired from West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa after Lowery died. WAWC had faced likely closure earlier in 2020 for Payne’s planned retirement, but the facility was purchased by Yellowhammer Fund, whose communications director at the time, Robin Marty, is now the communications director for WAWC. Torres began working in early August 2020, only to learn on August 26 that her temporary license had been revoked and that she’d been ordered by the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners to “immediately CEASE and DESIST from the practice of medicine in the State of Alabama.”
The cease and desist letter read, “the Board presently has evidence in its possession that the continuance in practice of LEAH N. TORRES, M.D. may constitute an immediate danger to her patients and/or the public.”
The letter cited multiple instances of suspected fraud in Torres’ application for licensure, including responding ‘No’ to a question about whether her staff privileges at a hospital had ever previously been revoked or otherwise altered when in fact, “[her] staff privileges at a hospital or healthcare facility had been revoked, suspended, curtailed, limited, or placed under conditions restricting [her] practice.”
The letter also listed that Torres answered ‘No’ to a question about whether she had ever faced medical malpractice allegations, when in fact, “a medical malpractice action relating to [her] performance of professional service was settled on or about August 28, 2018.” The letter further suggested Torres committed fraud by answering ‘No’ to a question about past psychological or behavioral issues impacting her practice of medicine, when in fact, “on or about March 13th, 2019, [Torres], through counsel, raised the issue of a mental, emotional, nervous, or behavioral disorder or condition as a defense, mitigation, or explanation for your actions in the course of a judicial proceeding in the United States District Court for the District of Utah.”
The letter went on to contend that Torres provided “false, misleading, or untruthful information” regarding dates of employment, claiming that she was employed during a certain time period when she was not. The Board further noted that she had been found to have “…violate[d] the high standards of honesty, diligence, prudence, and ethical integrity demanded from physicians licensed to practice in Alabama…” A hearing was set for December of 2020. In the meantime, Dr. Torres continued to work at the facility in a non-medical role listed on the facility’s website as the “Clinical Services Administrator.”
According to a statement by the chairman of the Medical Licensure Commission of Alabama, the hearing on December 21, 2020, additionally addressed a statement on Torres’ application that she intended to work with COVID-19 patients, though in fact she was being hired to commit abortions at an abortion facility.
The chairman’s statement regarding the hearing summarized that “there were elements in some of Dr. Torres’s answers in her application which… were suggestive of deceptive answers and a lack of ethical integrity expected of practicing physicians in Alabama. Thus, the Commission directs that Dr. Torres must attend an ethics course.” Torres additionally had to pay an administrative fine of $4,000. In January, Torres completed the ethics class, and in March her Alabama medical license was approved.
A recent update to a local CBS affiliate suggests that Torres is still deceiving the public. While Torres claimed to have received a letter from the ASBME informing her that the actions against her “should never have been taken,” and the GoFundMe she used to raise funds for her legal fees reads similarly, a statement from the ASBME’s General Counsel contradicts these claims.
“Dr. Torres’ statement that she received a letter from the Board stating that ‘(this) action should never have been taken’ is indicative of the deceptive answers the Board charged her with providing in her license application,” wrote the ASBME. “No correspondence of this nature was ever sent to her by the Board. We suspect that Dr. Torres is referring to a computer generated letter sent to her by the National Practitioner Data Bank.”
Editor’s Note, 9/6/21: A date in this article has been corrected.
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