For Immediate Release
January 28, 2010

Contact: Peggy Hamill, State Director, (262) 796-1111, cell (414) 416-0489
Virginia Zignego, Communications Director, (262) 796-1111, cell (262) 370-3993

University of Wisconsin documents reveal research on aborted baby parts, secrecy surrounding MSC plan

On January 6, 2009, the Alliance Defense Fund and Pro-Life Wisconsin exposed the secret plans of the Madison Surgery Center to provide late-term abortions at its 1 S. Park St. location. The Madison Surgery Center is a joint venture between UW Hospital and Clinics (UWHC), Meriter Hospital and the UW Medical Foundation (UWMF).

In the year since then, the MSC has not started to perform abortions. Recently obtained documents, requested under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal abortionists Caryn Dutton and Laurel Rice have been working towards this plan for years and purposely kept it secret from the MSC staff. Dutton and Rice are employed by the UW School of Medicine and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and are affiliated with Meriter Hospital.

The documents confirm UW is already involved in research using aborted baby parts. It is likely the babies aborted at the Madison Surgery Center will become an in-house source of fresh, economical fetal body parts for UW research activities.

The documents also show:
- In a November 2008 email from Cheryl Wilson, Administrative Director at the MSC, to Peter Christman of the UWMF, planning for the MSC to offer late-term abortions, "We preferred to meet at 20 S. Park St. instead of 1 S. Park St. so MSC staff did not see us meeting and inquire about the reason for the meeting."
- Caryn Dutton wrote that a start date of February 1, 2009, "would be disappointing." Dutton also stated, "I would love for the [abortion] services to be immediately available."
- In a letter sent on UW-Madison School of Medicine letterhead to the Planned Parenthood Consortium of Abortion Providors, Laurel Rice (who signed the letter as Chair, Ob/Gyn Dept, UW-Madison School of Medicine): "The provision of abortion care is so central to my commitment to health care and leadership in the department, I will personally start to provide abortion care at PPWI's comprehensive center one day a month beginning November 1, 2008. And I am excited to do so."
- Questioning whether Rice's letter could be on UW letterhead, Elizabeth Bolt, Associate Dean for Administrative Affairs UW School of Medicine, said in a July 2008 email, "The issue is whether this crosses the line of violating the state statute of university resources being used to support abortion services. I don't think it does but sometimes politically, the perception is as important as the reality. I don't want this letter to cause the legislature to scrutinize this area more closely or even worse, expand the statute. Right now, I think we've found a way to provide this training within the boundaries of the statute and I don't want to jeopardize that."
- The MSC paid for Dutton and two others to take a December 2008 trip to the University of North Carolina to observe how late-term abortions are performed there.
- A research document includes a description of a study done at UW-Madison, transplanting fetal pancreatic tissue to diabetic patients. The document states, "The pancreas fragments are obtained from medical facilities where legal abortions are carried out."

Wisconsin law prohibits taxpayer funding from being involved in abortions. Currently, UW School of Medicine Ob/Gyn students have a rotation at Planned Parenthood, where they participate in abortions.

"We will not remain silent while the University of Wisconsin and Meriter Hospital leaders publicly sanction the senseless killing of the most vulnerable members of the human family," said Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin. "Until the blood stops flowing, these institutions can be assured pro-lifers will stand up for innocent preborn babies."

"Pro-Life Wisconsin remains committed to opposing the MSC's late-term abortion plan, through peaceful prayer rallies, TV commercials, education and raising public awareness," said Virginia Zignego, Pro-Life Wisconsin communications director and a UW-Madison graduate.

Pro-Life Wisconsin's NoUWabortions.com Web site is a comprehensive tool, providing information for those who wish to help us stop the killing.