But at a time when Romney is attempting to sell South Carolina voters on his pro-life record -- running values-themed radio ads and defending himself from attacks that say he governed as pro-abortion lawmaker -- the link between Stericycle and Bain could still cause him problems.  WASHINGTON -- One of the highest performing companies in which the private equity firm founded by Mitt Romney invested is now a top target of the most vehement anti-abortion groups in the nation. An official with the firm told The Huffington Post that such deals are usually planned three or four months before the announcement date, which means it was likely conceived of after February 1999, when Romney left for the Olympics. In November 1999, Bain Capital and Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, filed with the SEC a Schedule 13D, which lists owners of publicly traded companies, noting that they had jointly purchased $75 million worth of shares in Stericycle, a fast-growing player in the medical-waste industry. The waste and recycling behemoth Allied Waste Industries had spent $10 billion to acquire Browning-Ferris Industries in 1999 and was looking to sell its medical waste department in order to pay off the debt from that acquisition. According to an investment prospectus from December 2003, the return rate that Bain received on its investment in Stericycle was approximately 66 percent, or 49.5 million dollars. The company had entered the medical-waste business a decade earlier, when it took over a food irradiation plant in Arkansas and began zapping medical waste, rather than strawberries, with radiation. By consuming its number one competitor, Stericycle became the largest company in the industry. But it has also helped dispose of medical waste from Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics -- waste that included aborted fetuses -- and that has attracted the ire of the pro-life community and establishment Republicans. Stericycle's work with abortion clinics constitutes a "small" portion of its overall operations, an official with the company told The Huffington Post (the official declined to confirm whether or not Planned Parenthood specifically is still a client). He has had no involvement in the management or investment activities of Bain Capital, or with any of its portfolio companies since that time.” (The Romney presidential campaign did not respond to requests for comment.) But the document Romney signed related to the Stericycle deal did identify him as a participant in that particular deal and the person in charge of several Bain entities. He maintained ownership in Bain and kept holdings in its private equity funds, which included Stericycle stock, but he had no say in the managerial or strategic decisions at the firm, according to Bain officials.
– Another Bain Capital controversy for Mitt Romney: He may have still been involved with the private-equity firm when it invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal company that disposes of aborted fetuses, thus making it a target of anti-abortion activists. The Huffington Post first revealed the Romney-Stericycle connection, but Bain kept it from blowing up into a controversy by claiming that Romney left the firm in February 1999, before the deal was made. But SEC documents obtained by Mother Jones list Romney as "sole shareholder, Chairman, CEO, and President" of Bain and as a definite participant in the deal—a deal that made him and his partners millions; one document even includes his signature. The documents are relevant not only because of the abortion controversy, but because of Romney's departure from Bain. He has used the official account of the timing of his exit to defend himself—not just with regard to the Stericycle deal, but also with regard to the recent article about Bain's connections to major job outsourcing. In that case, the Romney campaign noted that his February 1999 exit came at least a month before Bain acquired two of the companies that outsourced jobs. But these documents indicate Romney was still playing a role at the company until the end of that year. Mother Jones has a detailed look at the documents—as well as Stericycle's troubled safety record.