COMPLAINTS AGAINST ABORTION CLINIC BOSS ARE SET FOR HEARING

A state administrative hearing is scheduled for October in the 16-month-old case of a St. Louis doctor accused of misconduct and negligence regarding abortions he performed in Cape Girardeau and St. Louis.

An eight-count complaint filed by the State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts charges that the doctor, Bolivar Escobedo, negligently performed abortions; misused controlled drugs; operated an abortion clinic without a license; performed surgical procedures without a registered nurse, blood bank or adequate equipment on hand; and performed abortions without having surgical privileges at any Missouri hospital.

The complaint was filed in February 1990 following an approximately yearlong investigation by the board of healing arts.

The three-day hearing before a member of the Administrative Hearing Commission is scheduled for Oct. 7-9 at Jefferson City, said Sara Trower of the Missouri attorney general's office.

Trower, an assistant attorney general handling the case, said Tuesday that the hearing will be similar procedurally to a civil trial.

Following the hearing, both sides will be given time to file briefs on the case.

"Usually, there is a substantial timeframe following completion of the hearing before there is a decision," said Trower.

The hearing commissioner will determine if there is cause to discipline the doctor.

The actual punishment, said Trower, rests with the State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts, which regulates Missouri doctors. The punishment could range from a reprimand to revocation of Escobedo's medical license.

Escobedo is one of two doctors who have performed abortions in Cape Girardeau and are facing allegations of negligence.

The other is Dr. Scott R. Barrett Jr. of St. Louis, who performs abortions at the Central Health Center for Women in Springfield, Mo.

A spokeswoman at Escobedo's Women's Health Center in Cape Girardeau said last year that Barrett had performed abortions at the Cape Girardeau clinic in the past and was working at Escobedo's clinic in Manchester, a St. Louis suburb.

An administrative hearing for Barrett is scheduled for Dec. 3-6 in Jefferson City.

The healing arts board has accused Barrett of "gross negligence" in performing several abortions in Springfield and of acting in violation of several provisions of the Missouri abortion law.

An eighth count, added earlier this month, accuses Barrett of tearing a woman's uterus so badly during a 1990 abortion that she had to have a hysterectomy.

As with the Escobedo case, the healing arts board could chose to reprimand Barrett or revoke his medical license if the hearing commissioner finds probable cause for disciplining the doctor.

Escobedo said Tuesday that he was not concerned about the complaint filed against him. "It doesn't bother me at all," he said.

He called the accusations against him "just politics" and said, "It doesn't affect me at all."

Escobedo maintained he is no longer in the abortion business. "I haven't done abortions for six years. I don't do abortions at all. My practice has been limited to plastic surgery for many years," he said.

Asked if abortions are performed at his Manchester clinic by other doctors, Escobedo said: "I can only speak about myself."

A spokeswoman at Escobedo's Cape Girardeau clinic said Tuesday that abortions have not been performed here since late 1989.

Anti-abortion activist Marjie Eftink of Marble Hill said that while abortions are no longer performed at the Cape Girardeau clinic, abortions continue to be performed at the Manchester clinic.

"That's strictly an abortion mill in Manchester," said Eftink, who is president of the Southeast Missouri region of Missouri Right to Life, formerly Missouri Citizens for Life.

She said the Cape Girardeau clinic staff now consists of one secretary, who handles inquiries and refers women to the Manchester clinic.

She said Escobedo was still personally performing abortions less than six years ago. She said anti-abortion activists routinely picket the Manchester clinic.

Eftink said she has picketed the clinic herself. "No plastic surgery is done at the Manchester clinic," she said. "I really don't think anybody would go to him for plastic surgery."

Eftink said Escobedo is not on the staff of any hospital in Missouri.

She said Escobedo "acts like he is immune to everything. He lies better than anybody I know."

She said she's frustrated that the case against Escobedo has been pending for more than a year. "I would like to see his license removed. Any other doctor who did what he did would have had his license removed a long time ago."

A hearing on the complaint originally had been scheduled for last August but was delayed over a procedural matter.

Trower said the parties in the case jointly asked the Administrative Hearing Commission to close the case records as to the names of the patients mentioned in the complaint.

The commission then requested a ruling from a Cole County Circuit Court judge. The judge ruled earlier this year that the records could be closed as to the identity of the patients, Trower said.

"Given the magnitude of the allegations and the severity of the allegations, this case has not been pending all that long," the assistant attorney general said.

Two of the counts against Escobedo involved unsuccessful abortions, one in Cape Girardeau and the other in St. Louis. The healing arts board said Escobedo was "grossly negligent" and that the abortion attempts constituted misconduct.

One count alleges that a woman went to the Cape Girardeau clinic for an abortion in October 1983. The woman was reportedly in the 10th week of pregnancy and the procedure was performed, it alleges.

But about six weeks later, the woman was told by another doctor that she was still pregnant, and she returned to the clinic for another abortion procedure, the count claims.

In the second case, Escobedo allegedly tried to abort a fetus four times from Nov. 8 through Dec. 6, 1986. Three days later, the patient went to a hospital emergency room suffering from severe lower abdominal pain, bleeding and shortness of breath, it is alleged.

It further alleges that doctors determined that the fetus and the woman's uterus were infected by the previous abortion attempts, and an emergency abortion was performed.