George Klopfer — Reaping the Whirlwind

by:  David Wemhoff

On September 12, 2019 the story broke about hundreds of fetal remains stored on the premises of deceased Dr. Ulrich Georg Klopfer.  It was a moment that electrified the pro-life movement.  One of its leaders, Shawn Sullivan, a local attorney and Harvard graduate operating in South Bend, Indiana where Dr. Klopfer performed abortions for many years, made some remarks about how this incident was a defining moment for the pro-life movement and for society.[i]  Cathie Humbarger, the Executive Director of Allen County Right to Life in Fort Wayne, Indiana, dramatically started the piece she wrote for The Federalist with the words “My heart skipped a beat as I read the news.”[ii] She went on to minimize Dr. Klopfer’s life experiences and with it America’s role in creating him.  She wrote with icy coldness that “Klopfer’s story starts in Dresden, Germany, where he claims to have witnessed massive causalities [sic] following Allied bombing.  He said he and his family escaped from East Germany when he was a child and spent time in a refugee camp.  They immigrated to the United States, and after finishing college, he entered medical school….” (emphasis supplied) Her choice of words were meant to call into question anything that Dr. Klopfer may have said, and that may have made him human.  Humbarger’s choice of words was designed to make him a less sympathetic figure, to dehumanize him – much like the unborn are made less sympathetic, less human by the pro-choicers who Humbarger opposes.