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Stick It to the Poor

Another "Quality Care" Abortionist

By Maggie Garcia

Dr. Nolan Jones is an abortionist who practices in the largely Latino area that abuts the campus of the University of Southern California. His clinic, La Rose Medical Group, caters to mostly poor Latina women who find themselves in desperate situations.

Earlier this year, in June, pro-life advocates contacted me citing the impending eviction of a Latino doctor, Dr. John Ruiz, to make way for Jones' clinic. I was unable to contact Dr. Ruiz, despite numerous attempts to speak with him. His wife Lupe did speak with me on a couple of occasions earlier this year, but it was clear that she did not want to contribute to the story. Subsequent research showed that, at press time, Jones was at the storefront clinic he operates near the University of Southern California campus.

Further research into California's public records shows that Jones has a string of operations dating back to 1984. On July 11, 1984, Jones set up La Clinica Feminia on South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles -- an area that had a high Latino concentration. Jones created other such businesses: Mobile Diagnostic Sonography, in Compton, in 1984; the Women's Medical Center of California III, in February 1986; the Self Image Center, in June 1986; and the Office Fetal Monitoring Service in September 1986. All these clinics are located in an area with a large concentration of poor, minority women. The Self Image Center, the Office Fetal Monitoring Service, and another business Jones set up in 1987, the Women's Health Center, had the same address. The year 1987 saw the creation of another Jones business, the Family Health Care Group in Compton.

Staking out new territory outside Los Angeles, Jones opened the Women's Center Medical Group in Laguna Beach in 1989. A call to directory assistance shows the clinic does not list a phone number in Laguna Beach. In 1993, Jones created a company called Nolan Jones & Associates, providing "Miscellaneous Business Services," located in the city of Redlands. Again, a call to directory assistance showed that the company is not listed. Finally, in January 1998, Jones created his last business to date -- the Women's Center of Los Angeles Medical Clinic. True to pattern, directory assistance does not list the clinic.

In November 1998, the Medical Board of California filed an accusation against Jones for the negligent care of his care of patients. The accusation led to Jones' being put on probation, November 13, 1998. The accusation says that on December 4, 1996, Heide F. "was admitted to San Bernardino Community Hospital to have an elective dilation and curettage (D&C) because of persistent vaginal bleeding." At the time Jones' proctor told Jones to do a pap smear on the patient before he performed the D&C. Contrary to this suggestion, Jones performed the procedure without first doing a pap smear on the patient. The fact that Jones required a proctor to perform surgery is curious. Usually the only time a licensed doctor requires a proctor is when his license is on probation with the medical board. The medical board's accusation states that the hospital was the one that required Jones to have a proctor.

The same accusation describes 29 year-old Ana T. "who was admitted to San Bernardino Community Hospital to have her baby delivered." Ana T. came into the hospital at 12:30 p.m. complaining of not having felt her baby move in the past two days, in spite of the fact that she was 37 weeks pregnant. The hospital staff paged Jones and told him that "Ana T. had an abnormal physical profile (4/8) and poor variability on the fetal heart monitor." Jones told the staff that he would come to the hospital to evaluate Ana T. In spite of repeated pages and phone calls, Jones did not come into the hospital until 2:25 p.m. The baby was delivered via cesarean section at 3:10 p.m.

Another patient, Blanca C., was 40 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to the San Bernardino County Hospital on October 3, 1996 at 8:15 a.m. to have her baby delivered. "By 3 p.m.," according to the accusation, "she had progressed to dilation of 6-7 cm and respondent was paged and came to rupture her membrane." Immediately after Jones ruptured Blanca C.'s bag, the fetal heart monitor showed "a fetal heart rate deceleration which lasted about two minutes. By 3:12 there were recurrent decelerations with each contraction." In spite of this, Jones left the hospital. Jones was told of the baby's deteriorating condition at 3:45 p.m. and then again at 4 p.m. He told the hospital staff that he would come back to deliver the baby by cesarean section. Jones finally arrived at the hospital at 6:10 p.m. and performed the cesarean section at 6:54 p.m. While performing the surgery, he noticed that Blanca C. had experienced "a complete rupture of the uterus ... both the baby and the placenta were found in the abdominal cavity. The baby ultimately expired."

Maria M. also suffered because of Jones' reported negligence. On October 17, 1996, Maria M. was admitted to the San Bernardino Community Hospital to have her baby delivered. Maria M. was 38 weeks pregnant and said that she had not felt her baby for two days. Tests revealed that her blood pressure was weakening and the fetal heart rate was abnormal. Jones failed to give Maria M. a urine test to see if there was protein in the urine. After performing an ultrasound, he released Maria M. In a prenatal examination by Jones, prior to being admitted on October 17, Maria M. had tested positive for protein in her urine. Only after another doctor demanded that Jones re-admit Maria M. did he admit her; it was 7 days since he first admitted her. By that time, according to the accusation, Maria M. "had severe pre-eclampsia with a blood pressure of 173/119 and 4+ proteinuria."

Angelica R. came in to the San Bernardino Community Hospital on November 28, 1996 to have her baby delivered. At the time she was already in labor and her baby was in the breech position, with one foot sticking outside. The hospital staff called Jones at 2:09 p.m., but he did not return the call until 2:15 p.m. After being told by the staff of Angelica R.'s condition, he hung up. Jones called the hospital again at 2:25 p.m. "to say he was 30 to 40 minutes away." By this time, both of the baby's feet were out and another doctor was called in to deliver the baby via a cesarean section. The medical board chastised Jones for not having had "a back up arrangement in place to cover for him although he was more than an hour away while on call." On February 2, 1997, the Community Hospital of San Bernardino terminated Jones' staff privileges at their facility.

Ironically, Jones created the Office Fetal Monitoring Service in spite of being reprimanded by the medical board for failing to detect fetal distress in several patients. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue West said that this was a desperate attempt by Jones to obtain more business. "The medical board ordered him to take some classes because of all of his problems, then he turns around and offers himself as an expert in the field!"

Because Jones did not comply with the terms of his probation, on May 30 of this year, the medical board filed a Petition to Revoke Probation, citing, among other things that Jones did not submit reports from his monitor from August to December, 1999, and that he did not have "a properly certified supervisor for the operation of an on-site X-ray machine." The County of Los Angeles department of health services in January of this year also cited Jones. He also violated the terms of his probation when his staff continued to bill Medi-Cal while he was on suspension. Another violation of his probation was lying in a quarterly report to the medical board -- Jones said that he was not required to be supervised, when, in fact, he was. The medical board is seeking to have Jones' license revoked or suspended.

Perhaps most revealing is a remark made by Jones' male receptionist at La Rose Medical clinic. When I asked the receptionist about the price of a second trimester abortion, he said that it would cost $750. When I remarked that this was a large amount of money, he replied, "The baby is big already."

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