UNM keeps non-credentialed late-term abortionist on staff, pays his malpractice insurance

Infamous late-term abortionist Curtis Boyd’s position as Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico (UNM) is one he isn’t remotely qualified to hold—and New Mexico taxpayers are helping to pay for it.

The New Mexico Alliance for Life (NMAFL) obtained Boyd’s personnel files from UNM using the open records law, and says Boyd’s employment violates university and accreditation policies. The group also claims taxpayers are helping to foot the bill in subsidizing Boyd’s malpractice insurance. NMAFL is calling for the New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNMHSC) to “immediately terminate the faculty appointment of Curtis Boyd, along with all contracts with Curtis Boyd and Southwestern Women’s Options.”

Boyd’s appointment as an “Assistant Clinical Professor” in the OB-GYN Department is unusual since he doesn’t actually hold a board certification as an OB-GYN, which violates UNM policies, as well as accreditation requirements of the American Council of Graduate Medical Education, NMAFL says.

NMAFL asks:

Why is UNM is continuing to break its own policies to accommodate Boyd when he doesn’t even meet their policy guidelines or ACGME standards to teach in OB-GYN?  Why is Curtis Boyd still retained as an “[Assistant] Clinical Professor” if the resident rotation at his clinic has been disbanded? In fact, Curtis Boyd is not a board certified physician anywhere.  He is not a board certified OB-GYN, nor board certified in Family Medicine.

Is his faculty position a way to have access to a direct supply of aborted baby parts which is why UNMHSC consistently willing to break their own policies to protect/hire Boyd? Boyd is thanked in this study using 57 aborted baby heart vessels and in this study using aborted baby eyeballs (warning: graphic aborted baby eyes photographed in this study). …

The self-taught abortionist, a former ordained Baptist minister who has admitted he is killing, has made headlines for years, and is currently under investigation by the congressional Select Panel on Infant Lives. None of this seems to move UNM who continues to reappoint Boyd to his position. And while his position is a “volunteer” position, the university is covering benefits such as malpractice insurance.

Elisa Martinez, executive director of NMAFL, said last week:

UNM bypasses any third-party vendors or biotech companies to harvest aborted baby body parts, which puts a degree of separation between the abortionist and the harvesting; they instead place late-term abortionist Curtis Boyd directly on staff to ensure a steady supply of fresh, custom-ordered body parts for their self-titled ‘basic science’ studies.

UNMHSC expects us to believe that private late-term abortion business owner, Boyd, is going out of his way to harvest fresh, intact organs for UNM’s experimental studies, purely out of the goodness of his heart? Without any compensation or remuneration whatsoever? Yet other abortion businesses receive compensation upwards of $850 per body part or organ such as livers, heart vessels, lungs and eyeballs that UNM uses in their studies.

Despite UNM’s repeated denials that Boyd is not being compensated for harvesting aborted baby body parts and organs at his abortion business, New Mexico Alliance for Life found New Mexico taxpayers are funding, at minimum, his medical malpractice insurance  as an “assistant clinical professor” and that poses major ethical problems.

NMAFL adds:

Despite these facts UNM HSC Chancellor and Dean of the School of Medicine, Paul Roth approved the appointment of the non- Board Certified Family Medicine Doctor without formal OBGYN Training to be an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of OBGYN, under Dept. Chair, and UNM late-term abortion clinic (UNM Center for Reproductive Health) Director, Eve Espey.

NMAFL outlines the many troubling facts of Boyd’s employment at the university:

ITEM 1: Boyd is not a Board Certified OB-GYN Physician, In Violation of UNM’s Guidelines & National Accreditation Standards

The American Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accreditation requires:  “The physician faculty must have current certification in the specialty by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG), or possess qualifications judged acceptable to the Review Committee. 

… Boyd indicates several times that he is NOT board certified in the area of OB-GYN nor does he have specialty training in OB-GYN, he’s a family practice doctor only.  He is also NOT board certified in family practice.

This lack of certification presents a further problem since OB-GYNs are specialized branches of medicine that are qualified to do surgical procedures such as abortion, but family practice physicians are not. Boyd, who talks proudly of performing illegal abortions prior to Roe v. Wade, has never undergone gynecological training in a formal manner, and yet a continues to train medical students on the  Obstetrics and Gynecology rotation at a large public university. This should concern every medical student in the program, as well as medical facilities hiring these students.

ITEM 2: New Mexico Taxpayers are Subsidizing Boyd’s Medical Malpractice Insurance

While Boyd is working as a volunteer faculty member, he is still eligible to receive coverage for his malpractice insurance, which New Mexico taxpayers subsidize:

This “Volunteer Faculty Professional Liability Insurance” is covered because he indicates on his forms that he doesn’t carry malpractice insurance that would cover his duties at UNM.

NMAFL points out that the university says though “they have disbanded the UNM OB-GYN resident rotation at Boyd’s clinic, he still serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor. ” Additionally:

NMAFL searched the medical malpractice insurance database of private physicians in New Mexico and found neither Curtis Boyd, Southwestern Women’s Options nor any of his practicing physicians, nor his DBAs carry medical malpractice coverage under the NM Medical Malpractice Act.

This indicates Boyd and his physicians may have purchased insurance from a private insurer, however he is not protected from a cap on damages through the NM Medical Malpractice Act.

Is this why UNM continues this relationship with Curtis Boyd… UNM gets a supply of aborted late-term body parts and organs that go on the market for up to $850 per specimen.

NMAFL points out that there are unsigned contracts, missing documents in his personnel file, and questions as to whether these omissions are intentional and if Boyd’s faculty appointment is actually valid. The forms in Boyd’s faculty file were not signed by the appropriate parties:

Numerous documents where the Dean has not signed off, leaving a blank space on Voluntary Faculty Forms.

Also required to sign the volunteer faculty forms was Dr. Paul Roth, Dean of the School of Medicine, but those forms were unsigned.

There are six undated and unsigned copies of many documents located throughout the form.

Additionally, They do not even have an application for the last appointment.  There is no form for the 2015-2016 term.  The volunteer faculty application form is required to be signed by the Department Chair Eve Espey and Paul Roth, Dean of the School of Medicine. NMAFL has written the Custodian of Records and confirmed that there is no application form for 2015 and 2016 appointments.

This is where he himself indicates he is not board certified; the document also is not signed by the dean of the UNM school of medicine.

NMAFL also notes the highly problematic nature of the potential need for malpractice insurance for someone like Boyd who does risky late-term abortions:

… [H]ighly dangerous late-term abortions, according to his own consent form, (obtained by NMAFL attached) are more dangerous than continuing the pregnancy after 16 weeks.  Additionally, for every woman injured, his private insurance premiums would continue to go up.  It may even be the case, since late-term abortions are so dangerous… that no insurance provider would offer coverage.

NMAFL points out that, “according to the ACOG study, Bartlett et al, abortion after 21 weeks carries a 90 times greater risk of death than first trimester abortion.”

Despite these facts, UNM continues to affiliate, employ and enable a late-term abortionist currently under investigation by a House panel. And his latest controversy is just that, his latest. NMAFL has brought Boyd’s questionable ethics before the university before. The organization notes:

In November, New Mexico Alliance for Life brought to light that UNM School of Medicine OB-GYN chair Eve Espey (a 2014 Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award recipient) entered into an invalid contract with Boyd to train residents and fellows at Boyd’s late-term abortion facility Southwestern Women’s Options for “2nd trimester “abortion training.

The training program at Southwestern Women’s Options was then terminated after New Mexico Alliance for Life brought the invalid contracts to the attention of the Albuquerque Journal, which ran a story highlighting this on December 20th of last year.  While the abortion clinical rotation ended at Boyd’s abortion center, UNMHSC continues to receive aborted body parts from babies aborted up to 24 weeks gestation aborted at SWO.

The physician, who brags about his illegal abortions, which he said, “never ceased to feel rewarding and to feel that I’m doing something good and something important,” continues to skirt the law and medical ethics.

The question NMAFL has now is why Boyd’s employment is so important to the university that it would hire and retain a man not even qualified to train OB-GYN students–and charge taxpayers with helping to pay his risky malpractice insurance.