Authorities raid Florida abortion center

Florida authorities raided the main facility of late-term abortionist James Scott Pendergraft IV on Thursday, hauling away beds, televisions, and medical equipment, according to pro-life sidewalk counselors and local media. Footage of the scene shows a long moving truck parked on the front lawn of Orlando Women’s Center, where movers wearing red shirts said they had been instructed to seize everything except patient records.

Standing outside, Pendergraft told local news station WFTV that the raid was due to a civil malpractice judgment he had not fully paid. In 2011. a court held Pendergraft liable for $37 million in damages for a botched 20-week abortion that left the child physically handicapped. He claims to have paid only $100,000 so far.

Pendergraft, in his mid-50s, is one of the few abortionists in the country who openly perform late-term abortions, and was the subject of a WORLD feature earlier this year. Florida has suspended Pendergraft’s medical license five times. The most recent suspension came in April after he failed to pay more than $120,000 in fines for a 2006 botched abortion. He has also been in trouble with authorities in Maryland, where he once ran an abortion business despite having no medical license in the state.

Pendergraft runs the website LateTermAbortion.net, advertising his ability to perform terminations after 24 weeks of gestation. He appears to maintain a late-term facility in the Washington, D.C., area but keeps the location secret. He told WORLD earlier this year: “Regarding our referral offices in the D.C. area, we do not disclose their locations due to harassment and intimidation from pro-life groups and a host of others.”

According to Operation Rescue, sidewalk counselors who saw Pendergraft standing on the street outside the facility raid Thursday “began to witness to him of his need for repentance and forgiveness,” but were rebuffed.