Fetal Remains Found On Abortion Doctor's Property Can't Be IDed

CRETE, IL — Four months after the discovery of thousands of medically preserved fetal remains on the Will County property of a deceased Indiana abortion doctor, authorities are saying it's not possible to identify the remains. In September — just days after Dr. Ulrich Klopfer's death — the remains were discovered by an attorney on property owned by Klopfer in Crete.

Thousands Of Fetal Remains Found At Abortion Doctor's Property

On Sept. 12, a search of the property turned up 2,246 medically preserved fetal remains.

"Additional searches of Dr. Klopfer's properties and clinics led to the discovery of an additional 165 medically preserved fetal remains in the trunk of one of his vehicles and thousands more health records," according to a report from the Indiana attorney general's office.

All 2,411 remains and records were transferred from Will County to secure facilities in Indiana, the report said. An investigation determined the remains found on the Crete property were from 2000 to 2002 and came from Klopfer's Indiana abortion clinics.

"Based on the poor condition of the fetal remains and unreliable nature of the accompanying records, it is not possible to make an independent verification of the identities of the individual fetal remains," the report said. "... The attorney general intends to have the fetal remains interred in a respectful and dignified manner in accordance with state law."

Klopfer, who was licensed in Indiana in 1979, practiced at clinics in South Bend, Fort Wayne and Gary. His medical license suspended indefinitely in 2016 for failing to exercise reasonable care and violating notice and documentation requirements. He was found guilty of five charges but was told he could apply for reinstatement in six months.

According to the South Bend Tribune, Klopfer "spoke of a 10-year-old girl raped by her uncle who he performed an abortion on in an Illinois hospital but didn't notify police about the child abuse," and let go home with her parents, who had chosen not to report the abuse. The paper called him "likely Indiana's most prolific abortion doctor in history," performing tens of thousands of procedures.

Klopfer, 79, died Sept. 3, 2019, of natural causes.