Buttigieg Breaks Silence on 2,000 Fetuses Found in Home of South Bend Abortionist

Mairead McArdle

Democratic 2020 presidential hopeful and South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday broke his silence on the politically fraught revelation that a South Bend abortionist kept thousands of fetal remains in his home.

Law-enforcement officials announced Friday that they had found 2,246 “medically preserved” aborted fetuses in the Illinois home of the late abortionist Ulrich “George” Klopfer, who ran a number of abortion clinics in Indiana and Illinois and died September 3.

“Like everyone, I find that news out of Illinois extremely disturbing, and I think it’s important that that be fully investigated,” Buttigieg said after several days of silence on the matter. “I also hope it doesn’t get caught up in politics at a time when women need access to health care. There’s no question that what happened is disturbing. It’s unacceptable. And it needs to be looked into fully.”

Buttigieg has said he will not support restrictions on third-trimester abortions, calling such cases “hypotheticals” which are “set up to provoke a strong emotional reaction.” He has also referenced the Bible to defend late-term abortions, saying, “There’s a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath.”

For decades, Klopfer operated primarily out of the Women’s Pavilion clinic in South Ben, though he worked at abortion clinics in Fort Wayne and Gary as well. Indiana stripped his medical license in 2016 for failing to exercise reasonable care and violating documentation requirements. In one instance, he performed an abortion on a ten-year-old girl who had been raped by her uncle but did not notify authorities about the child abuse, instead letting her go home with her parents, who were aware but refused to involve police.

The attorneys general of Indiana and Illinois will investigate how the fetal remains got from Klopfer’s clinics in Indiana to his garage in Illinois.

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