Attorney says it is evidence he wouldn't respect wishes of patient who changed her mind about the procedure.
The doctor accused in a Genesee County Circuit Court lawsuit of lying to a patient, then forcing an unwanted abortion is coming under fire for comments he made in 2007.
A Youtube.com clip shows Dr. Abraham Alberto Hodari, M.D. speaking to medical students during a Wayne State University Lecture.
During the lecture he says, “My wife says we doctors have a license to lie, and it is true. It’s absolutely true. Sometimes you need to lie to patients about things they want to do or not… much less now than in the past, because they’re more educated between CNN and the Internet. The patients are more educated about what we do.”
NBC25 asked Dr. Hodari about the comments. He said he was referring to life-threatening situations.
“Never tell a patient, especially a woman, you’re going to die,” he told NBC25. “And in that respect, yes, we lie.”
Caitlin Bruce, the patient who has filed suit against the doctor says his comments during the lecture don’t surprise her. She just hopes to send the message his actions are inappropriate, so it doesn’t happen to others.
“You’re not God. You don’t make other people’s decisions,” she says she wants to tell him. “What you do to women, it’s not right.”
Bruce went to Dr. Hodari’s Flint clinic, the Feminine Health Care Clinic on Saginaw Road for an abortion. He also owns several other southeastern Michigan clinics. She says she changed her mind as he started the procedure, but he wouldn’t stop.
Dr. Hodari says she asked too late.
Bruce’s attorney, Tom R. Pabst, says all patients have the right to back out of a medical procedure at any time, and this video is evidence the doctor doesn't respect their basic rights.
"Whether it's a sexual advance or a medical procedure, if she says, ‘No, stop,’ that's the end of it," says Pabst.
For more on what she and Dr. Hodari say then happened, click here.
