Tucson Medical Center (TMC) is one of Tucson’s most respected and prestigious hospitals. Unfortunately, TMC has a troubled, decades long association with abortion and Planned Parenthood, allowing PP to occupy an abortion clinic inside of their private medical plaza located due south of the hospital.

TMC performed abortions (and still might), but this was predominantly done without fanfare or heavy advertising; it is never beneficial for a hospital’s reputation to be known as a place of healing and simultaneously to offer possible abortion on demand services…the two obviously do not go together.

This fact, that TMC advertised itself as a caring and compassionate institution that not only performed abortions, but also allowed PP and Dr. Richardson to also perform them on their property across the street, has troubled me for years.

After Mayra Rodriguez’s stunning 3 million dollar judgment last year, a unique opportunity presented itself that I hoped might provide the needed impetus to finally convince TMC to finally cut ties with Richardson and possibly the abortion giant. If the allegations against Richardson were found to be true, it was inconceivable in my mind that TMC would continue to allow a criminal abortionist to have either hospital privileges at their facility or allow him to continue to harm women on their private property in their medical plaza; they would have to take decisive action to maintain their reputation by disassociating and severing all ties with him.

On March 2, 2020, I reached out in a phone call to Julia Strange at TMC, a member of their executive team. I was curious to know if TMC was aware of Rodriguez’s lawsuit and, if not, would offer to provide them with the necessary information to help bring them up to speed on this revelatory news. If TMC already knew, I was curious what they were planning on doing with the information as far as Richardson and PP were concerned.

Ms. Strange and I had two phone conversations; during the last one on March 9, 2020, I inquired if TMC knew about the lawsuit and the serious allegations against Richardson. She said that since Richardson was neither specifically named in the lawsuit (his identity was protected by being given the pseudonym “Dr. X”) nor a member of the TMC medical staff, she was uncertain whether or not TMC knew the facts of the case.

Encouragingly, as we continued our conversation, she assured me that, if I sent her the necessary information on Dr. Richardson and the lawsuit, she would forward it to the appropriate individuals in both TMC’s legal and medical departments. “If there is action to be taken,” she assured me, “we will take it.”

She mentioned a “peer review” process this inquiry would pass through. Though not an expert in this process, I spoke with a trusted and confidential source familiar who is—no doctor wishes to undergo such a procedure due, in part, to the thorough nature of these type of internal investigations. The light, so to speak, is shined in dark places that perhaps few doctors wish to have scrutinized.

Unfortunately, Ms. Strange informed me that the results of this peer review process would not be made known to me; it is a private, internal process. As a citizen journalist, this is naturally an unwelcome piece of news, because “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” There will be concerns about the objectivity and fair mindedness of any organization that polices itself, and my concerns is that such objectivity and fair mindedness will be understandably compromised as the medical community is known to protect its own.

In any event, I view this as an excellent start and thank Julia Strange for her proper response to this serious issue.