Will County Gazette

Will County board member Steve Balich (R-Homer Glen) said that the board’s earlier inaction on a proclamation condemning the killing of babies who survive abortions now haunts him with the discovery of more than 2,000 aborted remains in the county.

“Voting on the proclamation would not have stopped this inhumane person from doing the evil he did, but at least Will County would be on record against it," Balich told the Will County Gazette.

On September 13, the Will County Sheriff’s Office released a statement that the wife of abortion provider, Dr. Ulrich Klopfer, discovered 2,246 preserved remains in the family garage after his death on September 3. The sheriff’s office said that the house is an unincorporated part of Will County. One report placed it in the Village of Crete, which is 35 miles south of Chicago.

In June, Balich and board member Judy Ogala (R-Monee) drafted the proclamation in response to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, signing the Reproductive Health Act, which gave Illinois the most permissive abortion rights law in the country. At the time, Democrats told members of the GOP caucus that they would not bring the proclamation up for a vote because it wasn’t county business. Balich said it was the first time in six years a vote on a proclamation had been rejected.

But Ogala said that she and her Republican colleagues had been contacted by many of their constituents concerned about the expanse of the new abortion rights law. She read the proclamation at the end of the June 20 meeting. It includes this statement: “Whereas, per the Reproductive Health Act in Illinois, a baby after coming out of a woman’s womb may be left to die in the State of Illinois… .”

Balich said that without any updates from authorities in the county, he could only speculate that Klopfer saved the remains as trophies or was selling body parts.

“It’s absolutely appalling that this would happen in Will County,” he said.

Illinois Right to Life (IRL) released a statement saying that Klopfer was a disgraced physician whose license was suspended in 2016 after he was charged with failure to report abortions performed on at least two girls under the age of 14. Klopfer performed abortions at The Women’s Pavilion, a now-closed clinic at the center of a South Bend, Indiana controversy involving Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg during his time as mayor.

“If these fetuses are not members of our human family, why are we appalled?” IRL Executive Director Mary Kate Knorr said in the statement. “Abortion advocates would have us believe that abortion is a benign procedure. This news is a clear indication that abortion isn’t only damaging for the woman and the child – it also has an impact on the doctors performing the abortions, who know they’re taking human lives. Dr. Klopfer’s behavior isn’t consistent with that of an average physician. On the contrary, it’s consistent with the behavior of the handful of infamous serial killers who kept trophies of their victims.”

IRL said that it’s awaiting the guidance of Rest in His Arms, a pro-life nonprofit that provides dignified burials for aborted children and is asking all other interested pro-life groups in Illinois to do the same.