Senator seeks ‘immediate’ criminal probe of abortion clinics.

Sen. Joanne Rodríguez Veve

By THE STAR STAFF

Sen. Joanne Rodríguez Veve on Wednesday asked the island Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into abortion providers, arguing clinics may be performing procedures outside the narrow exception allowed under Puerto Rico’s penal code.

Rodríguez Veve, who left the conservative Dignity Project (Proyecto Dignidad) party and is now an independent senator, said she filed a formal complaint seeking an “immediate” investigation and cited what she described as shortcomings in the Department of Health’s oversight records provided in response to Senate Information Request No. 2026-0026.

She pointed to Article 98 of the Puerto Rico Penal Code, which treats abortion as a crime except in limited circumstances. Rodríguez Veve said the exception applies only when there is a prior therapeutic indication issued by a physician licensed in Puerto Rico and the procedure is performed to preserve the pregnant patient’s health or life.

In her filing, the senator said Health Department auditors did not document whether the reviewed cases included the required therapeutic indication and that the agency acknowledged it could not certify how many procedures met the legal exception. She said the records also showed what she called “serious deficiencies” in medical documentation at three of the four clinics that were reviewed.

Rodríguez Veve said audit records from Women’s Medical Pavilion described all 10 sampled medical files as illegible, which she argued effectively prevents regulators from confirming whether procedures complied with Article 98.

At Darlington Medical Associates and the Family Planning Clinic, she said auditors found records missing the name and license number of the professional who performed the procedure -- details she said are needed to verify whether a physician authorized to practice in Puerto Rico was involved.

“Compliance with the requirements of Article 98 cannot, and never has been able to, rest on a priori presumptions, anecdotal allegations, retrospective assertions, or corrections; it must be tangibly, traceably, and verifiably documented in the medical record,” Rodríguez Veve said.

The senator’s complaint also cites testimony she said Darlington Medical Associates’ medical director, Dr. Yarí Vale Moreno, gave at a public Senate hearing. Rodríguez Veve said Vale Moreno testified that she generally does not ask adult patients why they are seeking an abortion. The senator also claimed the clinic’s abortion numbers increased beginning in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and said the growth coincided with advertising promoting Puerto Rico as an abortion destination for women from Florida, Texas and Louisiana.

Based on the records she reviewed, Rodríguez Veve said there is “clear evidence” clinics may be performing abortions under circumstances that could violate Article 98 and that the Health Department could not verify key elements of the legal exception.

“Given this scenario, the Department of Justice has a duty to act,” Rodríguez Veve said. “When the official documentation produced by the State itself does not allow for action, the duty of the Department of Justice is not to wait: it is to investigate.”

The referral was addressed to Justice Secretary Lourdes Lynnette Gómez Torres and included Health Department documents, clinic promotional materials and a transcript of Vale Moreno’s Senate testimony, Rodríguez Veve said.

In the United States, abortion law now varies widely by state after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which ended the federal constitutional right to abortion and returned regulation to state governments. As of last month, independent stateside health policy organization KFF reports, abortion was banned in 13 states, while other states enforce limits as early as six weeks of pregnancy and a smaller group has no gestational limits under state law.