Wisconsin abortionist Dennis Christensen is in a bit of a bind. The Milwaukee-area physician, who, by one count, may be responsible for the killings of nearly 100,000 pre-born babies in his forty-year career, long ago said he wouldn’t retire until he could find a younger abortionist to take his place. But now that day is approaching and Christensen can’t locate anyone who wants to take the job, which he somehow views as a “calling.”
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel recently reported on the 71-year-old doctor’s efforts to hand off his lucrative abortion business at a Milwaukee clinic to a qualified physician. But a new Wisconsin law, requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital in case problems arise during an abortion procedure, is further reducing the already small candidate pool of qualified physicians who feel a similar “calling” to kill babies.
“I have always felt that this is a worthwhile endeavor and a necessary one,” Christensen told the Journal-Sentinel. “And there aren’t too many people who will do it.”
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Christensen has been in the abortion business since 1973, the same year the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling legalized the procedure. The abortionist told the Journal-Sentinel that he considers his occupation “as a calling, I guess,” but added that “I’ve served and now I’d like to call someone else.”
The hitch, however, reported Operation Rescue, is that Christensen and his associate Bernard Smith, who operate the abortion clinic Affiliated Medical Services (AMS) in Milwaukee, have both been denied admitting privileges at hospitals within thirty miles of the clinic. “Both Christensen and Smith were denied privileges by Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, Aurora Healthcare, and Froedtert Health Inc.,” reported the pro-life watchdog. “The hospitals noted that Christensen and Smith ‘do not qualify for admitting privileges’ because they and AMS ‘are not subject to review by a professional board to make sure their practices meet hospital standards.’”
Christensen has had problems in the past with inspectors who have visited his various abortion clinics in Wisconsin and adjoining states. For example, in September 2011, inspectors calling on his clinic in Rockford, Illinois, found that all three abortion chambers “failed to ensure a sanitary environment.” Surgical instruments were left un-sanitized, and “brown substances” were discovered on surgical equipment and gloves.
According to Operation Rescue, inspectors “also discovered that Christensen had no hospital privileges and failed to have a registered nurse present during invasive procedures as required in that state. The Illinois Department of Public Health issued a closure order five days later.”
Perhaps related to the source of his “calling,” at least one of Christensen’s abortion facilities “was known to display sacrilegious images, including a rubber chicken dangling from a cross, and signage mocking pro-lifers and Christianity,” reported Operation Rescue. “In 2009, pro-lifers filed suit against the clinic over a video-taped rant by an operative of the clinic that included racial slurs and attacks.”
Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, noted that both Christensen and Smith “have long histories of abortion abuses and are the kind of abortionists that the [admitting privileges] law was meant to weed out. If they are not fit to practice in a hospital setting, they aren’t fit to practice anywhere. When abortionists have such abominable track records when it comes to patient safety that hospitals do not want to be associated with them, they certainly shouldn’t be allowed to continue placing the lives and health of women at risk.”
If the abortionist duo cannot find a suitable physician to replace them, their clinic will likely close. Christensen and Smith have joined with Planned Parenthood in a lawsuit to try to stop the “admitting privileges” law, and thus far a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of the law has allowed the clinic to remain open. Assuming the law survives the lawsuit and is allowed to be enforced, two of Wisconsin’s four abortion clinics would likely close — the duo’s AMS clinic and a Planned Parenthood business in Appleton.
Among pro-life leaders expressing their satisfaction at Christensen’s inability to find a successor was Tanya Fields of the Right to Life chapter in neighboring Minnesota. “Abortionists kill children — there is no ‘nice’ way to put it,” she said. “Personally, the fact that Christensen cannot find someone to follow in his heinous footsteps is a very small, but very significant step in the right direction. This is huge for the pro-life community.”
