New Board Hearing on Physician’s License Urged : Medicine: Executive director questions an earlier ruling against revocation. The doctor is accused of negligence in the deaths of two women.

In an unusual move, the state medical board’s executive director has asked board members to reconsider their decision not to revoke the license of a Los Angeles doctor accused of incompetence and negligence in the deaths of two young women who underwent abortions at his clinics.

The Medical Board of California last month suspended Dr. Leo F. Kenneally’s license for one year and placed him on 10 years’ probation, noting that his family planning clinics in Pacoima and Central Los Angeles are among the few places where low-income women can get affordable abortions.

But the disciplinary action fell far short of the license cancellation sought by medical board Executive Director Dixon Arnett, who wants another hearing on Kenneally.

The medical board in 1990 charged Kenneally with failing to quickly call paramedics when an 18-year-old woman stopped breathing and suffered a cardiac arrest while undergoing an abortion in 1987. The woman was admitted to a hospital, where she died about two months later.

Board investigators also said Kenneally did not properly care for a 22-year-old asthmatic woman who suffered a seizure during a 1986 abortion. Kenneally continued to perform the abortion rather than deal with the seizure, the board said. The woman later was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The board also accused Kenneally of mishandling five other abortions that resulted in injuries between 1988 and 1993. All five women suffered extensive hemorrhaging, and two had to undergo hysterectomies following the abortions.

In a May 27 ruling, Administrative Law Judge Milford A. Maron agreed Kenneally was negligent in the two deaths. But the judge wrote that Kenneally is an “unselfish and committed provider” of abortions in poor neighborhoods where few other doctors will perform them--a factor which mitigated against canceling his license.

Kenneally operates Her Medical Clinics at 13309 Van Nuys Blvd. and 2700 Figueroa St., and performed about 100,000 abortions in the past 10 years, according to the medical board.

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In an Aug. 26 petition filed on Arnett’s behalf, state Deputy Atty. Gen. Adrian K. Panton asked six members of the medical board to reconsider whether to revoke Kenneally’s license, saying their decision failed to consider “significant deficiencies” in Kenneally’s practice of medicine.

Panton said that in four of the five hemorrhage cases, Kenneally delayed in sending the women to local hospitals for emergency treatment. In the fifth case, the woman was in so much pain when released from a clinic that she fainted and collapsed an hour later in a fast-food restaurant.

“Given the fact that most of the hemorrhage cases occurred fairly recently, the decision’s failure to address these deficiencies is striking since the protection of the public is the highest priority of (the medical board),” Panton said.

Panton also said the terms of Kenneally’s probation were too lenient, urging that the physician be monitored by another doctor and required to undergo an intensive clinical training program and pass an exam.

In a petition opposing Panton, Kenneally’s attorney, Jay N. Hartz, said it was unnecessary and unfair to force Kenneally to undergo another license hearing.

Hartz also charged that the medical board had bowed to pressure from anti-abortion activists to discipline Kenneally, whose clinics and Canyon Country home have been picketed by members of Operation Rescue in the past.

Hartz said the chief board investigator in the Kenneally case had received about 50 phone calls from one anti-abortion activist and that various politicians opposed to abortion also wrote letters urging the board to punish Kenneally.

The board, Hartz said, was “being used by anti-abortion zealots as a tool of harassment against physicians who perform abortions.” In a separate letter to board President Bruce Hasenkamp, Hartz urged that Arnett be removed from his job.

Board spokeswoman Candis Cohen acknowledged that “the board has heard” from anti-abortion workers but that “their input had no influence” on its decision.

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Arnett said board members have 10 days to reply to his petition. He said he was confident that reconsideration would be granted.

He said board members did not have all the records on Kenneally’s case before them when they reached their decision, although they did have the administrative law judge’s opinion. If another hearing is convened, board members will be supplied with 38 boxes of materials, Arnett said.

Times staff writer Virginia Ellis contributed to this report.