LV doctor suspicious

Dr. Vicki Mazzorana, whose abortion clinic was ordered Tuesday to cease operations, said Wednesday that she was afraid anti-abortion groups might have targeted her place of business.

That may sound somewhat conspiratorial, but a Las Vegas woman associated with Operation Save America, the nation's most aggressive anti-abortion group, told the Review-Journal on Wednesday that she had filed the complaint that led to action by state authorities.

"I did not think they had a license to do abortions there," Pam Caylor said of Clinica de Mujeres, the small facility at 3700 E. Charleston Blvd., near Pecos Road, which is owned by Mazzorana. "I had thought that for about a year-and-a-half. I finally called the health department in Carson City."

Also Wednesday, a well-known abortion foe who gained notoriety in Las Vegas in the late 1980s, claimed to have played a part in getting the clinic closed. Chet Gallagher, a former Las Vegas police officer and now a leader of a local arm of Operation Save America, said there was "a strategy" used in getting action taken against the clinic.

Public health investigators, acting on what they said was a tip from someone who was not a former patient, issued a cease operations letter Tuesday to Mazzorana for allegedly performing surgeries without a license and for "a gross breakdown in infection control practices."

"We did not get the complaint through usual channels," said Paul Shubert, a Las Vegas-based surveyor with the Nevada State Health Division's Bureau of Health Care Quality and Compliance. "It came from high up in the department (in Carson City). Usually we get the complaint from a former patient or former employee in Las Vegas."

Despite Tuesday's notice, Shubert said Wednesday that the clinic appears to have the legal right to perform abortions, as long as safe practices are followed.

Shubert said although investigators had the right to enter the facility to determine whether Clinica de Mujeres was operating as an unlicensed ambulatory surgery center, Nevada law would allow such procedures if they're performed in a doctor's office, which would carry different licensing requirements.

It appears in this case that procedures were performed in a doctor's office, he said.

Nevertheless, there are still infection control issues that warrant the closure notice, he said. These include breaches in providing sterile packaging and not having a policy for use of a machine that sterilizes equipment.

Shubert also noted that investigators believe the clinic was dispensing medication without a license. That information has been turned over to the state Board of Pharmacy.

"Once those issues are cleared up, she (Mazzorana) could once again perform abortions," he said.

Lyn Fulstone, Mazzorana's attorney, would not comment Wednesday on infection control practices or the prescription drug issues at her client's clinic.

Shubert added that he did not think that someone with anti-abortion views in state government was pushing to see this particular complaint get attention.

"We are much more aggressive now on complaints since the hepatitis C situation," he said, referring to the outbreak at Las Vegas clinics that officials linked to nine cases of hepatitis C.

Caylor said she "consults" with women with unplanned pregnancies at the Pregnancy Resource Center, 860 E. Sahara Ave. Operation Save America is scheduled to hold its "National Event" in Las Vegas next week.

Mazzorana expressed concern about the gathering.

"We had been notified recently by the National Abortion Federation that any doctor that performs termination services could expect trouble when this anti-abortion group comes to town next week," she said. "We were told that they could potentially harm staff and patients. I wonder myself if this (closure) was somehow stimulated by them."

Gallagher said Wednesday that local "associates" of Operation Save America, formerly known as Operation Rescue, had worked to close Clinica de Mujeres, which has also advertised itself as AAA Abortions.

"We became aware of the place when we were looking for an office," he said.

One of the locations considered, Gallagher said, happened to be in the same shopping center as Mazzorana's clinic. Gallagher said pastors later went inside the clinic and asked questions about what was going on there. He declined to say specifically what else the "strategy" might have entailed, but it culminated with Caylor's complaint.

Gallagher, who gained notoriety when he was thrown off the force in 1989 for his anti-abortion activities while on duty, promised that hundreds of abortion opponents will protest outside abortion clinics in Las Vegas after they arrive in town for a week-long gathering beginning July 15. The aim, he said, is to shut the clinics down.

Another abortion doctor in town, Dr. William Ramos, head of A-Z Women's Center on Flamingo Road, said he too worries about the presence of Operation Save America in Las Vegas.

"With their track record, you don't know what's going to happen," he said.

Protesters have often been arrested when they make it difficult for clinic staff or patients to enter a facility.

Gallagher wrote about the closure of Mazzarana's clinic on his organization's Web site. It reads in part: "Victory!!! Latest news. Shout this testimony from the rooftops! 'AAA Abortions' forced to close today as one of our local pro-life leaders takes action and as saints of God continued to pray and fast."

He wrote the event was providing "spiritual momentum and putting the devil on notice that (Operation Save America) will come to Las Vegas to do what God has called us to do."

Rev. Flip Benham, head of Operation Save America, said in a phone call from North Carolina that his organization does not use violence as a tactic.

"Every time there is a murder of an abortionist this comes up," Benham said.

On May 31, Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas physician who performed late term abortions, was slain at church. Police arrested Scott Roeder soon after.

"I did not know the man," Benham said.

Benham did say he and his organization demonstrated at Tiller's home, church and abortion clinic.

In June Benham told National Public Radio that it's not the protests that lead to the killing of abortion doctors, but rather laws that suppress the activities and the voices of those who oppose abortion.

"What happens (is) you've placed a lid on a boiling pot. It's going to blow somewhere and unfortunately it has, you know, four times in this country," Benham said.

Four abortion doctors have been slain since 1993.

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.