Two University of Louisville medical professors have stopped working at the EMW Women’s Surgical Center, Kentucky’s only full-time abortion clinic, after questions were raised by anti-abortion lawmakers.
The action follows a legislative hearing last month when lawmakers Dr. Toni Ganzel, dean of the medical school, about the arrangement being made to help medical residents educate about abortion procedures.
“If college money is being used for abortion,” said R-Louisville Rep. Jason Nemes, “the taxpayers should know, and the legislature should take that into account when we talk about college funding and other things.”
On Monday, U of L spokesman John Karman said in a brief statement that the university “has paused our residency training at EMW until we can determine the future of the relationship.”
He gave no further details, other than that U of L is “exploring several options” to ensure it meets residents’ medical education requirements to maintain academic accreditation for its obstetrics and gynecology program.
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Ganzel said medical school doctors are not paid by U or L to perform abortions, and he testified before a July 7 meeting of the House-Senate Judiciary Committee.
Instead, U of L has an agreement with EMW as a training place for residents in obstetrics and gynecology, and in turn, EMW provides “salary support” at the university for the doctors who train them, she said.
Ganzel told lawmakers that if U or L can’t provide training, the program could lose its accreditation.
Jessica Loving, former president of the U of L and abortion rights advocate, said she is concerned about the appearance that anti-abortion lawmakers are using state funding to pressure U of L.
“I think it’s very inappropriate for lawmakers to try to take an academic institution hostage, especially when it comes to medical care,” she said.
During the hearing, Nemes said he only wants clarification on U or L’s role, focusing on U of L physician Dr. Ashlee Bergin, who testified at a recent court hearing about her work at EMW.
“Is she being paid by U or L to perform abortions?” he asked.
“She is not paid by U or L to do abortions,” Ganzel replied.
U or L’s decision leaves EMW with only one doctor, Dr. Ernest Marshall, the clinic’s founder and co-owner.
But for now, the clinic is not offering abortions after an appeals court order Monday indefinitely halts nearly all abortions in Kentucky.
EMW declined to comment, a spokesperson said.
The order comes amid an ongoing legal battle in state court over the constitutionality of two state laws that would prohibit abortions except to save a patient’s life or prevent a patient from irreparable harm.
Lawyers for EMW and Planned Parenthood are appealing the order in hopes of resuming abortion services while their legal process is pending.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, an anti-abortion Republican, is trying to enforce laws that prohibit almost all abortion except to save the patient’s life or prevent the patient from being irreparably injured.
Other lawmakers are also demanding answers about the role of U of L doctors in EMW.
“I think we need to get to the bottom of that,” Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during the hearing. “We don’t have consistent answers and that needs to be reconciled.”
Nemes asked whether the doctors’ work at EMW amounted to taxpayer-funded abortions.
Lawmakers abruptly summoned Ganzel, the medical dean, to appear the day after Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry held a one-day hearing on the abortion providers’ lawsuit arguing that abortion is allowed by the state constitution.
Nemes, who is against abortion, attended the July 6 hearing and said he was alarmed by testimony suggesting U of L doctors could perform abortions as government officials.
“We need the facts here,” he told Ganzel.
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During the trial, Bergin, an assistant medical professor at the U of L, testified about abortion procedures as part of the training for obstetrics and gynecology students and her work at EMW.
She is one of two U of L doctors performing abortions at EMW. The other is Dr. Tanya Franklin.
Bergin, under questioning by attorney Victor Maddox, Cameron’s deputy attorney general, said she is not an EMW employee and spends about two to three days a week at the clinic providing abortions and other services such as birth control.
She said she accepted her position at U of L in 2015 with the understanding that she would train medical students in abortion procedures to be performed at EMW. The U of L Hospital, as a public body, is not allowed to perform elective abortions under state law.
Some of her abortion work is with students, but not all, Bergin said.
Although Bergin said she is not an EMW employee, she clarified that comment to explain that she is paid separately by EMW when she sees patients at the clinic or calls at night and on weekends for services that are not part of the service. training of residents.
State senator Karen Berg, a Louisville Democrat, physician and member of the judiciary, said during the hearing that there is nothing unusual about university doctors working in private practice.
Residency training programs are also an essential part of medical education, she said.
“I teach the residents every day,” she says. “If there’s a non-resident in the room, it’s still my job to do the job.”
But Nemes said he wants to know if Bergin’s time as a U or L employee is being used to perform abortions that don’t involve training residents.
“We’re not talking about the training program,” he said. “I believe the overwhelming number of taxpayers in Kentucky don’t want their institutions and their government — which is the University of Louisville — to start performing abortions.”
Ganzel told lawmakers that U of L’s agreement with EMW dates back to March 2016.
“No college money is spent on abortion,” she said. “We have and will continue to comply with all applicable Commonwealth and federal laws.”
It is not the first time that U or L’s agreement with EMW has been criticized.
In 2020, the conservative Family Foundation of Kentucky held a press conference in Frankfort to demand an investigation into whether U of L was using improper government funds for abortion services at the clinic.
At the time, former U of L president Neeli Bendapudi firmly rejected such allegations.
She said all training for residents was conducted in accordance with state and federal law to provide “the highest education, training and medical care.”