Abortion Clinics

Tony Lambros letter concerning the Affordable Care Act ("Justices join assault on U.S. Constitution," July 4) is so full of distortions that it is nearly impossible to point out all of them. Despite charges in the letter to the contrary, recess appointments by President Barack Obama were legally made while Congress was, in fact, in recess, contrary to the assertion in the letter. Executive orders do not and never required Congressional oversight. The executive order on contraception never involved visiting abortion clinics.

Operators of abortion clinics in Maryland will have to apply for licenses and meet strict guidelines under new regulations being adopted by state health officials next month. The regulations, announced by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Friday, are meant to increase oversight of surgical abortion clinics, which have faced increased scrutiny since a botched abortion at an Elkton clinic made headlines two years ago. The new rules significantly strengthen current law, which requires abortions to be performed by a licensed physician, but pose few other restrictions.

Jessica Valenti's op-ed "A war on women" (March 5) would have been better titled "A war on Republicans. " Abortion is not for women, it is for men! Men who engage in sexual acts forced or consensual and take no responsibility for the intercourse that could result in pregnancy. Abortion is not a choice, it is a consequence. The slogan "A woman's right to choose" is erroneous. Many women do not show up at abortion clinics because they choose. Most women did not willingly plan an unwanted pregnancy, did they?

Two doctors who Maryland authorities say botched an abortion last year in Elkton have been indicted on murder charges - in what appears to be the first use of the state's fetal homicide law involving a medical professional performing surgery. "We're in uncharted territory," Cecil County State's Attorney Edward D.E. Rollins said Friday. He declined to comment further because the indictment remains sealed until the suspects are arraigned in Maryland. They were arrested Wednesday in New Jersey and in Utah.

Denise Crowe dropped her toddler off with a sitter in February 2006 and drove with a friend to an Anne Arundel County clinic to get an abortion. It cost about $800. "She thought that she'd just have it done and nobody would know," said Stephanie White, her mother. White told lawmakers Wednesday that her daughter walked into a clinic run by a man who had been the subject of complaints. The day of the procedure, White said, an unqualified staff member pumped her daughter full of drugs.

If the city of Baltimore and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake truly care about the health, safety and welfare of women, they will discontinue their appeal of the judgment regarding the constitutionality of the crisis pregnancy center regulation ( "Judge rules pregnancy center ordinance unconstitutional," Jan. 28) and instead strive to enact the thoughtful recommendations made by the Philadelphia grand jury in response to the case of the "Women's Medical Society" in Philadelphia, where Dr. Kermit Gosnell and nine others have been charged with murder after decades of performing illegal late-term abortions in squalid conditions.

Your Sept. 3 front page story, "Abortion doctors suspended after woman suffers injury," is a shocking reminder of a reality too often ignored: Legal abortion may be fiercely protected in Maryland, but it is a far cry from being safe or rare. The story, and a sincere concern for the safety of women, should prompt strict scrutiny of Maryland's permissive abortion laws and an honest effort to learn why these unscrupulous practitioners were attracted to our state in order to commit such atrocities.

GREENBELT -- A Prince George's County man who was so upset by the idea of terminating pregnancies that he plotted to blow up a Maryland abortion clinic and shoot people inside received a five-year prison sentence yesterday in federal court. The proceeding in U.S. District Court here marked the end of the case for Robert F. Weiler Jr., 26, of Forestville, whose erratic behavior so alarmed his parents that they tipped off authorities this summer. "We must continue to act quickly against anyone who plots to murder doctors or bomb abortion clinics," Rod J. Rosenstein, the Maryland U.S. attorney, said in a statement.

A would-be abortion clinic bomber admitted his guilt in a federal court in Greenbelt yesterday as part of an agreement that could send him to prison for five years. Robert F. Weiler Jr., 25, of Forestville pleaded guilty to possessing a pipe bomb, being a felon in possession of a firearm and attempting to destroy or damage an abortion clinic. Agents arrested Weiler at a rest stop in Western Maryland with a loaded Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun. He had been prohibited from possessing a gun after a 2003 conviction in Utah state court for obstructing police.

The Prince George's County man charged with trying to bomb a College Park abortion clinic is scheduled to plead guilty today in federal court in Greenbelt, court records show. Robert Francis Weiler Jr., 25, was arrested in June at a Western Maryland highway rest stop. This afternoon, he is expected to plead guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and illegally blocking the entrance to a clinic providing reproductive services. Authorities reported that they found a bomb in one of his friends' homes in Riverdale.