An aging abortionist who has seriously injured numerous women has officially surrendered his medical license. Donald Clyde Willis, 77, was working at FPA Health (previously Family Planning Associates) in Bakersfield, California, in 2017. However, his record was so poor the Medical Board of California was forced to investigate.
In the order surrendering his license, Willis is listed as having admitted “the truth of each and every charge and allegation” and “agrees that cause exists for discipline.” As previously reported by Live Action News, Willis has caused serious injury to seven known women and the allegations against him include gross negligence. According to a previous medical board case, Willis obtained his medical license in 1977 and worked as an OB/GYN in Oregon before attempting suicide in 1993 after a divorce. He underwent months of inpatient psychiatric care and the state of Oregon allowed him to resume practicing medicine in a supervised setting.
However, Willis moved to California, where he began committing abortions for Planned Parenthood. The California state medical board acknowledged Willis didn’t abide by requirements set for him, which included informing California medical officials about his suicidal history. But the case was dismissed, and Willis continued committing abortions. It was when he began working at FPA Health that he began to seriously injure women.
Pro-life watchdog group Operation Rescue filed a complaint with the Medical Board of California (MDC) after Willis had injured six women. It was nearly three years before the MDC finally took action. Willis was accused of gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, and failure to maintain adequate and accurate medical records based on three of the seven injuries.
The first emergency cited by the MDC was for a dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion committed on a woman who was 17 weeks pregnant. Willis originally thought the abortion was successful until the patient began bleeding. He then committed an ultrasound-guided aspiration abortion, in which he removed “a small amount of additional tissue,” yet even more bleeding — this time outside of the patient’s uterus — was detected. She was sent to the hospital, where she recovered. The woman wasn’t permanently injured, but Willis refused to give emergency room doctors the information needed to successfully treat her, and many of her medical records were left blank. This was proof of gross negligence, according to the MDC.
The next botched abortion cited by the MDC was in August of 2017. Willis said the patient began jerking during the abortion and he tore her cervix. Willis said he couldn’t treat her because she was “morbidly obese,” and sent her to the hospital. He also said he wasn’t sure if the baby’s head was in the woman’s uterus, or in her vagina. She underwent emergency surgery to have her baby’s body removed, and again, Willis did not provide proper documentation, preventing emergency room doctors from knowing the whole story.
The final case cited by the MDC took place in October of 2017, with an aspiration abortion on a woman who had undergone two previous cesarean sections. Though Willis couldn’t see the opening of the woman’s cervix, he continued with the abortion anyway. He didn’t see any tissue passing, but the patient began to lose blood, and her vital signs became unstable. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with hemorrhagic shock, and Willis failed to properly maintain her medical records. Her condition quickly became very serious, according to the MDC:
[I]maging revealed a right adnexal mass consistent with an intraperitoneal [abdomanal cavity] hematoma. Patient C received 4 units of blood and proceeded to surgery. In surgery, Patient C suffered a cardiac arrest, was successfully resuscitated. The surgeons conducted an exploratory laparotomy, total abdominal hysterectomy, right salpingo-oophorectomy [removal of ovary and fallopian tube] for a right sided uterine perforation and extensive damage to the right ovary and right fallopian tube. Patient C’s pregnancy was removed with the uterus, and she received 10 additional units of blood. Five days later, on October 8, 2017, Patient C was discharged from the hospital.
Had he not agreed to surrender his license, Willis could have faced expensive disciplinary action. However, he is not the only abortionist with a history of injuring women. Late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart has injured countless women and is responsible for the deaths of two. Yet he continues to operate his facilities and risk the lives of other women.
“Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!
