SPARTANBURG, S.C. — An abortionist arrested in South Carolina last week for running a mobile abortion business is believed to be notorious Florida abortionist James Pendergraft, according to reports.
As previously reported, the arrest occurred during a week-long drug bust that included 578 traffic stops. Police didn’t expect to find an abortionist on wheels in the process.
“We got a guy and a girl early in the week that was a traveling abortionist,” Sheriff Chuck Wright told local television station WYFF. “He traveled around the state of South Carolina without a medical license, with drugs and with medical tools, performing in-home abortions.”
“So basically we got an illegal baby killer,” he added.
Wright said that blood and remnants of bodily tissue were found on the instruments inside of the vehicle.
“It’s bad enough that somebody would use abortion as a means of birth control, but it’s worse when you do it illegal,” he stated. “The moms are already making, I think, a bad decision. Of course I don’t know everyone’s situation, [but] we’ve just got to pray about it.”
The abortionist’s identity had not been made public, but now, the pro-life organization Operation Rescue reports that the man arrested was Florida abortionist James Pendergraft, who has a long history of run-ins with the law.
“Pendergraft, 58, was charged with four drug-related offenses, but remains under criminal investigation for practicing medicine without a license,” Operation Rescue’s Cheryl Sullenger wrote in a post on Friday.
“Pendergraft has no medical license in South Carolina,” she continued. “His Florida medical license remains under suspension, meaning he is not allowed to practice medicine at this time.”
His accomplice, who was mistakenly reported by Sheriff Wright as Pendergraft’s wife, was Angela Jackson, 55, of Cary, North Carolina. She was arrested and charged with intent to sell marijuana out of Pendergraft’s vehicle.
Pendergraft owns five abortion facilities in Florida, but his license is currently under suspension in the state. He has been suspended four times, with the most recent suspension being for allowing a staff member to administer drugs without a license and for proscribing steroids without cause to another employee that was known to have a drug addiction.
In 2007, his license was suspended for performing illegal late-term abortions, and in 2012, it was discovered that Pendergraft was sending mothers to a secret location in Maryland to obtain late-term abortions as a way to skirt Florida law.
In addition to multiple suspensions, Pendergraft has reportedly paid tens of thousands of dollars in fines, as well as hundreds of thousands in administrative costs.