Sara Franki Lint, a 22-year-old coed, submitted to an abortion at San Vicente Hospital in Los Angeles, California, on August 11, 1970. Adolpho Zlotolow, who operated San Vicente (an abortion facility) said that Sara went into ventricular fibrillation soon after the abortion was initiated by either Albert Kapstrom or Milton Gotlib.
The technique being used on Sara, hysterotomy, was one with a known high maternal mortality rate. San Vicente staff treated Sara for an hour before transferring her to Midway Hospital down the street, where she died at 4:57am on August 12. The autopsy found yellow fluid in Sara's heart, frothy tan fluid in her lungs, and a seven-inch male fetus in Sara's uterus.
San Vicente was where Oriane Shevin, Natalie Meyers, Joyce Ortenzio, Laniece Dorsey, and Mary Pena underwent their fatal abortions.
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Donna Heim, age 20, went to Her Medical Clinic on August 12, 1986, accompanied by her sister. Donna told staff that she had asthma, and she noted this on her forms when she filled them out. Despite this pre-existing condition, a nurse anesthetist administered general anesthesia for the abortion. Donna started to have difficulty breathing, but Mahlon Cannon continued with the procedure for five more minutes before helping the nurse anesthetist to try to restore Donna's breathing.
Donna's sister, who was in the waiting room, became alarmed at the intense staff activity she noticed, and questioned a staffer about her sister. She was reassured that Donna was fine. The sister saw an ambulance pull up to the building and stepped outside, where she observed her sister being transferred into the emergency vehicle. Donna's sister followed the ambulance to a nearby hospital, which summoned the comatose young woman's parents.
Donna died the next day without regaining consciousness. An investigation was sparked, and an administrative law judge ruled that Cannon was negligent in continuing with the abortion despite the patient's respiratory distress. The judge also found that Cannon often failed to do medical exams, take medical histories, or administer standard tests prior to abortions.
Liliana Cortez also died after an abortion at Her Medical Clinic that year. Michelle Thames died there in 1987. Maria Soto had died there in 1985 after being injected with drugs and left unattended.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Anniversary: Abortion turns miracle to double tragedy
Allegra Roseberry, age 41, had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Allegra was admitted to Emory Hospital for assessment and surgery in anticipation of admission to an experimental cancer treatment program. There, a sonogram during surgery revealed a 23-week pregnancy, much to everyone's surprise since Allegra had undergone fertility drug treatment in order to conceive her son Matthew 20 years earlier. Her liver specialist, family doctor, and gynecologist all failed to detect her pregnancy despite amenorrhea, breast tenderness, distended abdomen, and nausea because these symptoms were attributed to the cancer and other ailments.
Allegra's doctors offered abortion as her only alternative, saying that the fetus was "doomed" due to Allegra's ailments, that the pregnancy would render her ineligible for the experimental treatment, and that the pregnancy was damaging her fragile health and would greatly hasten her death. No one arranged for a consult with a perinatologist or a high-risk obstetrician. The options of continuing the pregnancy and/or premature delivery of the infant were not offered or discussed.
Allegra was transferred to Emory's Crawford Long Hospital for the abortion. Young W. Ahn initiated the abortion by prostaglandin suppository on August 8, 1988. On August 9, Allegra expelled the dead baby, whom she and her husband named Amy Ann.
Allegra developed sepsis from the abortion, and died on August 13. An autopsy revealed that Amy had been normal. The liver specialist contended that Allegra would have aborted Amy even if she had known the child was healthy in order to be eligible for the experimental program. Allegra's gynecologist claimed that the reason for the abortion was damage to the fetus due to radiation therapy and also mentioned chemotherapy, neither of which Allegra had undergone. All defendants held that Allegra could not have survived long enough to deliver Amy alive anyway. The jury rendered a verdict against the liver specialist for the wrongful death of baby Amy, but returned no verdict for the wrongful death of Allegra due to their assumption that the cancer would have killed her soon anyway. Evidently they did not consider the time she could have spent being a mother to her baby daughter to be of any value.
Allegra's was not the only tragic death I know of caused by doctors who recommended (or excused) abortion as a life-saving or health-preserving option for the mother:
Allegra's doctors offered abortion as her only alternative, saying that the fetus was "doomed" due to Allegra's ailments, that the pregnancy would render her ineligible for the experimental treatment, and that the pregnancy was damaging her fragile health and would greatly hasten her death. No one arranged for a consult with a perinatologist or a high-risk obstetrician. The options of continuing the pregnancy and/or premature delivery of the infant were not offered or discussed.
Allegra was transferred to Emory's Crawford Long Hospital for the abortion. Young W. Ahn initiated the abortion by prostaglandin suppository on August 8, 1988. On August 9, Allegra expelled the dead baby, whom she and her husband named Amy Ann.
Allegra developed sepsis from the abortion, and died on August 13. An autopsy revealed that Amy had been normal. The liver specialist contended that Allegra would have aborted Amy even if she had known the child was healthy in order to be eligible for the experimental program. Allegra's gynecologist claimed that the reason for the abortion was damage to the fetus due to radiation therapy and also mentioned chemotherapy, neither of which Allegra had undergone. All defendants held that Allegra could not have survived long enough to deliver Amy alive anyway. The jury rendered a verdict against the liver specialist for the wrongful death of baby Amy, but returned no verdict for the wrongful death of Allegra due to their assumption that the cancer would have killed her soon anyway. Evidently they did not consider the time she could have spent being a mother to her baby daughter to be of any value.
Allegra's was not the only tragic death I know of caused by doctors who recommended (or excused) abortion as a life-saving or health-preserving option for the mother:
- Anjelica Duarte sought an abortion on the advice of her physician, and ended up dying under the care of a quack.
- Barbara Hoppert died after an abortion recommended due to a congenital heart problem.
- Christin Gilbert died after an abortion George Tiller holds was justified on grounds of maternal health.
- Erika Peterson died in 1961 when her doctors obtained her husband's permission to perform a "therapeutic" abortion.
- "Molly" Roe died in 1975 when her doctors made the dubious decision to perform a saline abortion to improve her chances of surviving a lupus crisis.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Safe, legal, and highly professional: CRASH and the death of K.B.
Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health ("CRASH") was the model abortion clinic -- a published review of their earliest patient records, published by Bernard Nathanson, played a key role in "proving" the safety of legal outpatient abortion.
On August 10, 1988, 19-year-old K.B. (due to confidentiality, the public record documents do not give the patient's name) was given anesthesia for a 14-week abortion. Shortly after the procedure, she showed signs of distress, but emergency measures were not instituted for almost an hour. K.B. was transported to Cabrini Medical Center where she was pronounced dead from complications of anesthesia.
After K.B.'s death, the health department investigated and found a mystery: K.B.'s chart listed her post-operative condition as "pink, responsive, alert," even though she had gone into full cardio-respiratory arrest by the time indicated on the assessment. They learned that the note had been entered into the chart before the abortion was even performed.
The inspectors noted that CRASH "did not employ proper monitoring equipment or procedures," "had no working EKG machine," and didn't have a cardiac defibrillator. They noted that no one on staff was qualified to perform CPR. No one on staff was qualified to administer anesthesia, and they did not use proper procedures or equipment. Anesthesia was administered "by eye," with no means of accurately measuring the dose. Dosage was estimated to be twice that recommended in the procedure manual.
The operating rooms were found to be ill-lit, and there was no soap or paper towels at the scrub sink. The scrub sinks were stained, the walls and floors dirty, trash was stored in the scrub room. There were red make-up stains on the oxygen masks and nitrous oxide masks, dusty tubing on the suction machines, and blood on the wheels of the operating table.
CRASH had no documentation verifying the credentials or qualifications of medical director David Gluck. Gluck had been previously convicted of felony charges related to the sale of 48,000 Diluadid tabets to pay off gambling debts. His license had actually been revoked two months before K.B.'s death, but had been restored by judicial stay.
There was no evidence at the investigation two weeks after K.B.'s death that Gluck had reviewed her chart, or the charts of 18 other patients identified as having suffered complications. Gluck went on to perform the fatal abortion on Alerte Desanges.
The state closed CRASH for 60 days, but it never re-opened.
On August 10, 1988, 19-year-old K.B. (due to confidentiality, the public record documents do not give the patient's name) was given anesthesia for a 14-week abortion. Shortly after the procedure, she showed signs of distress, but emergency measures were not instituted for almost an hour. K.B. was transported to Cabrini Medical Center where she was pronounced dead from complications of anesthesia.
After K.B.'s death, the health department investigated and found a mystery: K.B.'s chart listed her post-operative condition as "pink, responsive, alert," even though she had gone into full cardio-respiratory arrest by the time indicated on the assessment. They learned that the note had been entered into the chart before the abortion was even performed.
The inspectors noted that CRASH "did not employ proper monitoring equipment or procedures," "had no working EKG machine," and didn't have a cardiac defibrillator. They noted that no one on staff was qualified to perform CPR. No one on staff was qualified to administer anesthesia, and they did not use proper procedures or equipment. Anesthesia was administered "by eye," with no means of accurately measuring the dose. Dosage was estimated to be twice that recommended in the procedure manual.
The operating rooms were found to be ill-lit, and there was no soap or paper towels at the scrub sink. The scrub sinks were stained, the walls and floors dirty, trash was stored in the scrub room. There were red make-up stains on the oxygen masks and nitrous oxide masks, dusty tubing on the suction machines, and blood on the wheels of the operating table.
CRASH had no documentation verifying the credentials or qualifications of medical director David Gluck. Gluck had been previously convicted of felony charges related to the sale of 48,000 Diluadid tabets to pay off gambling debts. His license had actually been revoked two months before K.B.'s death, but had been restored by judicial stay.
There was no evidence at the investigation two weeks after K.B.'s death that Gluck had reviewed her chart, or the charts of 18 other patients identified as having suffered complications. Gluck went on to perform the fatal abortion on Alerte Desanges.
The state closed CRASH for 60 days, but it never re-opened.
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Safe-n-lethal: Cheryl Tubbs
On August 6, 1975, 29-year-old Cheryl Tubbs underwent a saline abortion at Pacific Glen Hospital in Los Angeles County. She experienced heavy vaginal bleeding after the abortion, so she was transferred to White Hospital on the evening of August 7.
Cheryl continued to bleed profusely, and twice went into cardiac arrest. Staff performed a paracentesis on her to remove blood and fluids from her abdomen. About an hour after midnight, staff could no longer detect any blood pressure. For an hour they tried heart massage, to no avail. Cheryl was pronounced dead at 2:30AM on August 8.
An autopsy revealed that Cheryl's uterus had ruptured during the abortion, spilling blood and uterine material into her abdomen.
Cheryl continued to bleed profusely, and twice went into cardiac arrest. Staff performed a paracentesis on her to remove blood and fluids from her abdomen. About an hour after midnight, staff could no longer detect any blood pressure. For an hour they tried heart massage, to no avail. Cheryl was pronounced dead at 2:30AM on August 8.
An autopsy revealed that Cheryl's uterus had ruptured during the abortion, spilling blood and uterine material into her abdomen.
Monday, August 7, 2006
"A Barbaric Kind of Beauty"
From the Daily Mail. Rich western women indulge in stem-cell tourism, in many cases involving stem cells taken from aborted fetuses women were paid about $200 US to carry to the optimal harvesting age.
Safe and lethal: Teresa Smith
Teresa Smith is one of the women Life Dynamics notes on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legalized abortion.
Teresa was 31 years of age when she submitted to a D&C abortion. She went into cardio-respiratory arrest from a pulmonary embolism and was pronounced dead at a local hospital on August 7, 1988.
Teresa was 31 years of age when she submitted to a D&C abortion. She went into cardio-respiratory arrest from a pulmonary embolism and was pronounced dead at a local hospital on August 7, 1988.
Sunday, August 6, 2006
Safe and lethal: Ruth Montero and Mary Ives
Ruth Montero, age 23, underwent a vacuum abortion of her 8-week pregnancy, under general anesthesia, August 1979, at Women's Care Center in Miami. Ruth awoke from anesthesia in the recovery room, and went into convulsions and cardiopulmonary arrest. She died from hemorrhage, and a prolapsed mitral valve, August 7.
Ruth, Myrta Baptiste, Maura Morales, and Shirley Payne all died in a clinic owned by Hipolito Barreiro, trained in Argentina and West Africa, but not licensed in U.S. Barreiro was accused of practicing without a license and tampering with witness.
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Mary Ives was 28 when she had an abortion 19 weeks into her pregnancy. She was admitted to W.W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut, for treatment of complications of the abortion, but her heart and lungs failed due to amniotic fluid embolism. Mary was pronounced dead on August 7, 1983.
Ruth, Myrta Baptiste, Maura Morales, and Shirley Payne all died in a clinic owned by Hipolito Barreiro, trained in Argentina and West Africa, but not licensed in U.S. Barreiro was accused of practicing without a license and tampering with witness.
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Mary Ives was 28 when she had an abortion 19 weeks into her pregnancy. She was admitted to W.W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut, for treatment of complications of the abortion, but her heart and lungs failed due to amniotic fluid embolism. Mary was pronounced dead on August 7, 1983.
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Two safe, lethal anniversaries: Angel Dardie and Dawn Mack
Angel Dardie, age 22, left two children motherless when she died on August 3, 1982, of disseminated intravascular coagulopathy after a saline abortion performed by Youl Choie at Plymouth General Hospital.
Angel's mother sued, saying that the abortion was performed negligently. Although she sued for $5 million, she was awarded a settlement of $6000 from Choi and $2500 from the hospital. $1744 of this went to the attorney, plus an additional $667 given to him from the settlement for his expenses. $1528 of the settlement was ordered to be used to reimburse for funeral expenses. This left Angel's mother and orphans with $4561. No settlement was awarded for pain and suffering, nor was there any settlement for Angel's surviving children.
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The following information is from a suit filed by the survivors of 21-year-old Dawn Marie Mack.
Dawn had an abortion performed at National Abortion Federation member facility Eastern Women's Center August 2, 1991. She was attended at Eastern by Orrin Moore, Aurel Calalb, Elena Raftopol, Adel Abadir, Linda Wissbrun and/or Reena Rang. While at Eastern, Dawn went into cardiorespiratory arrest.
The suit said that Easterns staff failed to adequately respond to "the precipitous drop in Plaintiff's blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia leading to cardiac arrest and cessation of respiration."
Dawn was transported to a hospital by ambulance, where staff tried to resuscitate Dawn to no avail. She died August 3.
The suit contended that the following shortcomings at Eastern caused Dawn's death:
The suit further contended that "no reasonable person would have undergone the procedures which were performed upon the decedent plaintiff if the level of skills and ability of staff and other medical personnel, together with the amount, kind and condition of equipment on the premises had been disclosed to decedent plaintiff."
Dawn Ravenelle and Venus Ortiz also suffered fatal injuries in abortions at Eastern.
Angel's mother sued, saying that the abortion was performed negligently. Although she sued for $5 million, she was awarded a settlement of $6000 from Choi and $2500 from the hospital. $1744 of this went to the attorney, plus an additional $667 given to him from the settlement for his expenses. $1528 of the settlement was ordered to be used to reimburse for funeral expenses. This left Angel's mother and orphans with $4561. No settlement was awarded for pain and suffering, nor was there any settlement for Angel's surviving children.
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The following information is from a suit filed by the survivors of 21-year-old Dawn Marie Mack.
Dawn had an abortion performed at National Abortion Federation member facility Eastern Women's Center August 2, 1991. She was attended at Eastern by Orrin Moore, Aurel Calalb, Elena Raftopol, Adel Abadir, Linda Wissbrun and/or Reena Rang. While at Eastern, Dawn went into cardiorespiratory arrest.
The suit said that Easterns staff failed to adequately respond to "the precipitous drop in Plaintiff's blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia leading to cardiac arrest and cessation of respiration."
Dawn was transported to a hospital by ambulance, where staff tried to resuscitate Dawn to no avail. She died August 3.
The suit contended that the following shortcomings at Eastern caused Dawn's death:
- carelessness in hiring staff
- negligent supervising of staff
- lack of emergency protocol and staff skilled in treating emergencies
- lack of adequate equipment
- failure to maintain equipment appropriately
- failure to administer timely and properly dosed medications
- failure to convey to Dawn the risks of anesthesia
- failure to adequately evaluate Dawn's condition via exam and medical history prior to anesthesia
- failure to allow sufficient time to administer anesthesia and perform the abortion in a safe and careful manner
- inadequate staff training
- failure to adequately monitor anesthesia
- failure to accurately chart and record observations and responses
- failure to anticipate potential complications
The suit further contended that "no reasonable person would have undergone the procedures which were performed upon the decedent plaintiff if the level of skills and ability of staff and other medical personnel, together with the amount, kind and condition of equipment on the premises had been disclosed to decedent plaintiff."
Dawn Ravenelle and Venus Ortiz also suffered fatal injuries in abortions at Eastern.
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Safe and Lethal: The Death of Robin Wells
Twenty-seven-year-old Robin Wells, mother of three children ages 6, 4, and 2, went for an abortion under general anesthesia by Max Gaujean at Akron Center for Reproductive Health on July 15, 1981.
Robin went into cardiac arrest in the recovery room, and was transferred by ambulance to a hospital. She remained in a coma until her death on August 2, 1981.
Both Gaujean and the anesthesiologist were independent contractors and did not maintain private practices. The suit filed by Robin's survivors alleged that she was overdosed on anesthesia and not properly monitored. It also alleged that staff at Akron Center for Reproductive Health failed to resuscitate her after her condition had been discovered. The case was settled out of court.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
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Robin went into cardiac arrest in the recovery room, and was transferred by ambulance to a hospital. She remained in a coma until her death on August 2, 1981.
Both Gaujean and the anesthesiologist were independent contractors and did not maintain private practices. The suit filed by Robin's survivors alleged that she was overdosed on anesthesia and not properly monitored. It also alleged that staff at Akron Center for Reproductive Health failed to resuscitate her after her condition had been discovered. The case was settled out of court.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
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Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Tiller gets away with murder
Grand Jury Fails to Indict Kansas Practitioner for Girl's Abortion Death
Tiller just killed some retardate. It's not like he did anything bad, like he got pulled over for DUI and went on a drunken tirade against Jews or anything.
Mel Gibson's in more trouble for shooting off his mouth than Tiller is for freaking killing somebody. I guess it's not a matter of how rich you are, but who your friends are and who precisely you piss off.
Should this be a surprise? The politically connected have always gotten away with murder. Just ask Mary Jo Kopechne.
Tiller just killed some retardate. It's not like he did anything bad, like he got pulled over for DUI and went on a drunken tirade against Jews or anything.
Mel Gibson's in more trouble for shooting off his mouth than Tiller is for freaking killing somebody. I guess it's not a matter of how rich you are, but who your friends are and who precisely you piss off.
Should this be a surprise? The politically connected have always gotten away with murder. Just ask Mary Jo Kopechne.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
On this day: Reagan orders the Koop Report
On July 30, 1987, then-President Ronald Reagan directed his Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, to prepare a report on the effects of abortion on women. Prolife and prochoice groups disagree about what the results of that request were. Prolife activists say that Koop never wrote a report, but instead sent a letter to Reagan saying that there were no "unassailable" studies. Prochoice activists say that there was a Koop report that said abortion is perfectly safe. Which side is telling the truth? Both are -- if you know the inside story.
How can that be? The story is complex, and getting to the bottom of it took many hours in Library of Congress, digging through Congressional record. Follow this carefully.
Koop didn't want to write the report, for an assortment of personal and professional reasons. He tried repeatedly to beg off, but Reagan kept pestering him. Koop foisted the task off on his staff. The research and preparations for the planned report evidently became largely the task of one George Walter.
Walter listed a lot of folks he "consulted" about research into the effects of abortion women. Superficially, it looks as though Walter had a crew of mostly prochoice researchers, with token prolife researchers, bring forth their evidence. But what really happened is that Walter contacted the prochoice researchers at the Centers for Disease Control, and they forwarded a list of 250 research articles to him. These articles were selected by people who had a history of enthusiastic support of abortion, and the articles were not representative of research on abortion. The articles in question tended to make sweeping generalizations of abortion's safety, ignoring unfavorable data. In short, they were the articles that painted abortion in the rosiest possible light.
After the meetings and the literature review, Koop felt satisfied that his staff had gone through sufficient motions to satisfy Reagan. Koop then drafted and sent a letter to the President, concluding that there had been no unassailable studies of the long-term impact of abortion.
Koop directed his staff to drop the project on January 10, 1989, hoping Reagan would be content with the letter and would drop the subject. Nevertheless, George Walter proceeded to re-write the report, submitting it to Koop on January 17. Walter's cover letter said, "This document was reviewed and concurred with by our unofficial consulting group. It represents a balanced, well-written document which is directed to the general public. Its underpinning is scientifically sound and presents a solid, common sense approach to this important public health problem."
However, the report was not concurred with by many scientists studying abortion, such as Thomas Hilgers, Wanda Franz, Matthew Bulfin, Leonard Aaro, and Thomas McDonald. How then could it be a balanced report? It would seem so only to those who already had a strong pro-abortion bias. For example, the report says that problems such as infertility, miscarriage, and ectopic pregnancy "are no more frequent among women who experienced abortion than they are among the general population of women." This is clearly false on its surface, since there are a plethora of studies linking abortion to a litany of reproductive problems.
Koop instructed Walter to shelve the draft, and not to release any report about abortion from his office. Instead, Walter released the draft under Koop's name.
Koop didn't even read the final report until he was brought before a Congressional committee. During his testimony, he repeatedly tried to distance himself from the report with vague statements about not having read it.
Walter said that the bulk of the consulting was with Carol Hogue at the CDC and with Jackie Forrest of the Alan Guttmacher Institute. (To give you some perspective, Carol Hogue tries to claim that abortion enhances fertility by pre-stretching the uterus, like you'd stretch a balloon before you blow it up.) Walter admits that he elected to not study the impact of abortion on rape or incest victims, or those aborting for fetal abnormalities. In other words, he deliberately excluded from their study the women already known to be at highest risk for both physical and emotional sequelae.
Jackie Forrest told Congress, "I met with Dr. Koop and his staff members twice during the course of his review of research on the health effects of abortion. The first meeting was the initial group meeting held by Dr. Koop, in fall of 1987. The second was with other representatives of the Alan Guttmacher Institute in the summer of 1988. In addition, I was asked to meet and consult with Dr. Koop's staff to provide more detailed information about pertinent research by AGI and to present findings from studies that were in process in 1987 and 1988." She said that she wished "that Dr. Koop and his staff had issued a full report on their research review," and that she wanted "to commend them for undertaking the project in a very professional manner." This is akin to getting a glowing review of a report of the health effects of smoking from R.J. Reynolds. Notice also that Ms. Forrest said lamented that Koop and his staff had not issued "a full report." In speaking to Congress, Ms. Forrest recognized that there was no officially released Koop report, merely the draft she had helped to prepare.
When noted abortionist/abortion promoter Jaroslav Hulka was "asked to present the complications of legal abortion to the Surgeon General," he instead "organized a literature review around the following question: Why did the United States legalize abortions?" Hulka evidently never presented to Koop any evidence of legal abortion complications, despite the existence of such evidence in research performed by abortion advocates such as William Brenner and Philip Stubblefield. Clearly, Hulka treated the proposed report as an opportunity to propagandize in favor of legalized abortion rather than as an opportunity to have existing research reviewed by the Surgeon General.
Touting his "over 9 years" in the Abortion Surveillance Branch of the CDC, abortionist David Grimes claimed, "The medical evidence concerning the safety of induced abortion in the United States is clear and incontrovertible." As proof of legal abortion's safety, he points to the Joint Programs for the Study of Abortion (JPSA, pronounced "GYP-sah"), which got all of its information from abortionists' records -- including the records of a clinic that was later caught charting a dead patient as "pink, alert, responsive." Grimes had met with Koop to convince him that the data was indeed conclusive -- that abortion is quite safe. He claimed that the risk of death from legal abortion is "less than the risk of death from an injection of penicillin," and cites as his source the 1982-83 CDC Abortion Surveillance Summary, which never mentions penicillin. He also asserted, "Legal abortion has not been found to impair a woman's ability to have children in the future," citing Willard Cates, Carol Hogue, and Christopher Tietze.
First, this constitutes incestuous citing, basing his conclusions on the biased research of some of the most avid proponents of abortion. Second, this assertion is patently false, since many acknowledged abortion complications impede future childbearing capability. Third, even Hogue, et al., admit the effects of multiple abortions are not even remotely known -- and nearly half of all abortions are repeat abortions.(Family Planning Perpsectives J/A 1996, p. 143) Fourth, second-trimester abortions have been shown to at least potentially affect future childbearing unfavorably even if no complications are noted at the time. So Grimes is lying on at least 4 counts with this single statement.
Grimes also makes the obviously false blanket statement that "the risk from pregnancy and childbirth is about seven times higher than that from induced abortion." At that time, it was known that by 16 weeks, abortion was at least as dangerous as childbirth, and that the risks increased exponentially after 16 weeks. No blanket statements can be made comparing the risks of abortion to the risks of childbirth, even if one assumes that current data are reliable, because there is no single "abortion" risk to compare to a single "childbirth" risk. Abortion risks vary widely depending upon the woman's health, the stage of pregnancy, the skill of the practitioner, and the method chosen. Childbirth risks vary according to many factors as well, including how much prenatal care is provided.
Others that Koop met with included the American Public Health Association, the American College of Obestetricians and Gynecologists, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- notoriously pro-abortion groups. (This is akin to asking tobacco growers and cigarette companies to prepare a report on the health effects of smoking.) Koop and Walter met with no pro-life medical groups, despite the number of respected and notable professionals in these groups. The few pro-life professionals consulted were treated as individuals speaking for themselves rather than as representative of a large number of their colleagues. His input from those opposed to abortion was almost exclusively limited to religious groups. Is it any wonder his data were skewed?
Koop made the ridiculous statement that "...obstetricians and gynecologists have long since concluded that the physical sequelae of abortion were no different than those found in women who carried pregnancy to term or who had never been pregnant." First of all, only a few obstetricians and gynecologists have concluded any such thing -- most notably Jaroslav Hulka and David Grimes. Second of all, it is absurd on its face. Is Koop claiming that a woman who has never been pregnant -- some nun in a convent -- is going to develop a utero-colonic fistula (a hole between her uterus and colon) spontaneously? That her cervix will just spontaneously drop off? That her empty uterus will rupture all by itself? This assertion is straight from George Walter's unauthorized report, which we have already established was written and approved by people who make absurdly broad and insupportable statements about abortion's safety. Clearly, Koop's mind had been muddled by his contact with these people, both on his staff and in consultation.
The "Surgeon General's Report" or "Koop Report" on abortion is non-existent. There exist only the Koop letter and the unauthorized report prepared by George Walter in consultation with some of the most avid and enthusiastic promoters of legal abortion. Many scientists and physicians would vehemently disagree with the tone and content of the report. Therefore, any presentations of the report as reflecting Koop's independent conclusions, or accepted scientific knowledge, are at best based on colossal ignorance, and at worst are a deliberate attempt to deceive. Any statements by Koop on the safety of abortion are based on what appear to be a concerted effort by abortion advocates to turn the Surgeon General into an abortion industry spokesman.
How can that be? The story is complex, and getting to the bottom of it took many hours in Library of Congress, digging through Congressional record. Follow this carefully.
Koop didn't want to write the report, for an assortment of personal and professional reasons. He tried repeatedly to beg off, but Reagan kept pestering him. Koop foisted the task off on his staff. The research and preparations for the planned report evidently became largely the task of one George Walter.
Walter listed a lot of folks he "consulted" about research into the effects of abortion women. Superficially, it looks as though Walter had a crew of mostly prochoice researchers, with token prolife researchers, bring forth their evidence. But what really happened is that Walter contacted the prochoice researchers at the Centers for Disease Control, and they forwarded a list of 250 research articles to him. These articles were selected by people who had a history of enthusiastic support of abortion, and the articles were not representative of research on abortion. The articles in question tended to make sweeping generalizations of abortion's safety, ignoring unfavorable data. In short, they were the articles that painted abortion in the rosiest possible light.
After the meetings and the literature review, Koop felt satisfied that his staff had gone through sufficient motions to satisfy Reagan. Koop then drafted and sent a letter to the President, concluding that there had been no unassailable studies of the long-term impact of abortion.
Koop directed his staff to drop the project on January 10, 1989, hoping Reagan would be content with the letter and would drop the subject. Nevertheless, George Walter proceeded to re-write the report, submitting it to Koop on January 17. Walter's cover letter said, "This document was reviewed and concurred with by our unofficial consulting group. It represents a balanced, well-written document which is directed to the general public. Its underpinning is scientifically sound and presents a solid, common sense approach to this important public health problem."
However, the report was not concurred with by many scientists studying abortion, such as Thomas Hilgers, Wanda Franz, Matthew Bulfin, Leonard Aaro, and Thomas McDonald. How then could it be a balanced report? It would seem so only to those who already had a strong pro-abortion bias. For example, the report says that problems such as infertility, miscarriage, and ectopic pregnancy "are no more frequent among women who experienced abortion than they are among the general population of women." This is clearly false on its surface, since there are a plethora of studies linking abortion to a litany of reproductive problems.
Koop instructed Walter to shelve the draft, and not to release any report about abortion from his office. Instead, Walter released the draft under Koop's name.
Koop didn't even read the final report until he was brought before a Congressional committee. During his testimony, he repeatedly tried to distance himself from the report with vague statements about not having read it.
Walter said that the bulk of the consulting was with Carol Hogue at the CDC and with Jackie Forrest of the Alan Guttmacher Institute. (To give you some perspective, Carol Hogue tries to claim that abortion enhances fertility by pre-stretching the uterus, like you'd stretch a balloon before you blow it up.) Walter admits that he elected to not study the impact of abortion on rape or incest victims, or those aborting for fetal abnormalities. In other words, he deliberately excluded from their study the women already known to be at highest risk for both physical and emotional sequelae.
Jackie Forrest told Congress, "I met with Dr. Koop and his staff members twice during the course of his review of research on the health effects of abortion. The first meeting was the initial group meeting held by Dr. Koop, in fall of 1987. The second was with other representatives of the Alan Guttmacher Institute in the summer of 1988. In addition, I was asked to meet and consult with Dr. Koop's staff to provide more detailed information about pertinent research by AGI and to present findings from studies that were in process in 1987 and 1988." She said that she wished "that Dr. Koop and his staff had issued a full report on their research review," and that she wanted "to commend them for undertaking the project in a very professional manner." This is akin to getting a glowing review of a report of the health effects of smoking from R.J. Reynolds. Notice also that Ms. Forrest said lamented that Koop and his staff had not issued "a full report." In speaking to Congress, Ms. Forrest recognized that there was no officially released Koop report, merely the draft she had helped to prepare.
When noted abortionist/abortion promoter Jaroslav Hulka was "asked to present the complications of legal abortion to the Surgeon General," he instead "organized a literature review around the following question: Why did the United States legalize abortions?" Hulka evidently never presented to Koop any evidence of legal abortion complications, despite the existence of such evidence in research performed by abortion advocates such as William Brenner and Philip Stubblefield. Clearly, Hulka treated the proposed report as an opportunity to propagandize in favor of legalized abortion rather than as an opportunity to have existing research reviewed by the Surgeon General.
Touting his "over 9 years" in the Abortion Surveillance Branch of the CDC, abortionist David Grimes claimed, "The medical evidence concerning the safety of induced abortion in the United States is clear and incontrovertible." As proof of legal abortion's safety, he points to the Joint Programs for the Study of Abortion (JPSA, pronounced "GYP-sah"), which got all of its information from abortionists' records -- including the records of a clinic that was later caught charting a dead patient as "pink, alert, responsive." Grimes had met with Koop to convince him that the data was indeed conclusive -- that abortion is quite safe. He claimed that the risk of death from legal abortion is "less than the risk of death from an injection of penicillin," and cites as his source the 1982-83 CDC Abortion Surveillance Summary, which never mentions penicillin. He also asserted, "Legal abortion has not been found to impair a woman's ability to have children in the future," citing Willard Cates, Carol Hogue, and Christopher Tietze.
First, this constitutes incestuous citing, basing his conclusions on the biased research of some of the most avid proponents of abortion. Second, this assertion is patently false, since many acknowledged abortion complications impede future childbearing capability. Third, even Hogue, et al., admit the effects of multiple abortions are not even remotely known -- and nearly half of all abortions are repeat abortions.(Family Planning Perpsectives J/A 1996, p. 143) Fourth, second-trimester abortions have been shown to at least potentially affect future childbearing unfavorably even if no complications are noted at the time. So Grimes is lying on at least 4 counts with this single statement.
Grimes also makes the obviously false blanket statement that "the risk from pregnancy and childbirth is about seven times higher than that from induced abortion." At that time, it was known that by 16 weeks, abortion was at least as dangerous as childbirth, and that the risks increased exponentially after 16 weeks. No blanket statements can be made comparing the risks of abortion to the risks of childbirth, even if one assumes that current data are reliable, because there is no single "abortion" risk to compare to a single "childbirth" risk. Abortion risks vary widely depending upon the woman's health, the stage of pregnancy, the skill of the practitioner, and the method chosen. Childbirth risks vary according to many factors as well, including how much prenatal care is provided.
Others that Koop met with included the American Public Health Association, the American College of Obestetricians and Gynecologists, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- notoriously pro-abortion groups. (This is akin to asking tobacco growers and cigarette companies to prepare a report on the health effects of smoking.) Koop and Walter met with no pro-life medical groups, despite the number of respected and notable professionals in these groups. The few pro-life professionals consulted were treated as individuals speaking for themselves rather than as representative of a large number of their colleagues. His input from those opposed to abortion was almost exclusively limited to religious groups. Is it any wonder his data were skewed?
Koop made the ridiculous statement that "...obstetricians and gynecologists have long since concluded that the physical sequelae of abortion were no different than those found in women who carried pregnancy to term or who had never been pregnant." First of all, only a few obstetricians and gynecologists have concluded any such thing -- most notably Jaroslav Hulka and David Grimes. Second of all, it is absurd on its face. Is Koop claiming that a woman who has never been pregnant -- some nun in a convent -- is going to develop a utero-colonic fistula (a hole between her uterus and colon) spontaneously? That her cervix will just spontaneously drop off? That her empty uterus will rupture all by itself? This assertion is straight from George Walter's unauthorized report, which we have already established was written and approved by people who make absurdly broad and insupportable statements about abortion's safety. Clearly, Koop's mind had been muddled by his contact with these people, both on his staff and in consultation.
The "Surgeon General's Report" or "Koop Report" on abortion is non-existent. There exist only the Koop letter and the unauthorized report prepared by George Walter in consultation with some of the most avid and enthusiastic promoters of legal abortion. Many scientists and physicians would vehemently disagree with the tone and content of the report. Therefore, any presentations of the report as reflecting Koop's independent conclusions, or accepted scientific knowledge, are at best based on colossal ignorance, and at worst are a deliberate attempt to deceive. Any statements by Koop on the safety of abortion are based on what appear to be a concerted effort by abortion advocates to turn the Surgeon General into an abortion industry spokesman.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Dead baby at abortion clinic
Dead Baby Found In Aborting Clinic, Clinic Closed
This isn't quite the "Cows found on farm" headline that it appears to be at first glance. (The whole business of abortion clinics is the production of dead babies; they're full of them and routinely ship them off to the pathology lab.) But this one weighted between 2 and 3 pounds and the police are involved. Early reports are that the mother was believed to be 22 weeks pregnant, which is not consistent with a 2 to 3 pound baby.
Crime blogger Steve Huff fears that this discovery may hurt the prochoice movement. I'd like to know how. Even if this does turn out to be the murder of a baby born live during an abortion, it would be far from the first. If all the cases that came before didn't do any lasting damage, there's no reason to believe that this one will cause abortion advocates more than a momentary annoyance. Can anybody say, "Kenneth Edelin"?
This isn't quite the "Cows found on farm" headline that it appears to be at first glance. (The whole business of abortion clinics is the production of dead babies; they're full of them and routinely ship them off to the pathology lab.) But this one weighted between 2 and 3 pounds and the police are involved. Early reports are that the mother was believed to be 22 weeks pregnant, which is not consistent with a 2 to 3 pound baby.
Crime blogger Steve Huff fears that this discovery may hurt the prochoice movement. I'd like to know how. Even if this does turn out to be the murder of a baby born live during an abortion, it would be far from the first. If all the cases that came before didn't do any lasting damage, there's no reason to believe that this one will cause abortion advocates more than a momentary annoyance. Can anybody say, "Kenneth Edelin"?
Illegal abortion death anniversary: Dorothy Martin
On July 29, 1949, on the basis of a third-party referral, Dorothy Martin went to the home of P.D. Beigun for an abortion. Beigun was not a physician or qualified to practice medicine. Dorothy, with the assistance of a man named Virgil Echols, had vistied Beigun a few days earlier to make the arrangements.
Beigun took Dorothy into a bedroom while Echols waited in the living room. About 15 or 20 minutes later, Echols heard a sound described as a "slump," and Beigun called for him to come and help. Beigun went into the other room and found Beigun supporting an unconscious Dorothy by the waist. Dorothy made a gurgling sound.
Echols helped Beigun lay Dorothy on the bed, and the men picked up her panties off the floor and put them back on her.
Echols tried to revive Dorothy, and asked Beigun what happened. Beigun indicated that he'd packed Dorothy's uterus with gauze. The men summoned police and an ambulance. While they waited, Beigun instructed Echols on what story they were to tell. They were to say that they'd been sitting in the living room with Dorothy when she'd felt faint and asked for a glass of water. Then, they'd say, Dorothy fainted and they moved her to the bed. Beigun warned Echols that he'd be in just as much trouble as Beigun himself unless he stuck with the story.
When the police arrived, Dorothy was dead. A toxicologist, who later participated in the autopsy, said that when he arrived at Beigun's home to remove Dorothy's body, he'd found her with her slip bloody and rolled up around her waist, but that there'd been no blood on the panties.
The next day the toxicologist and a physician performed an autopsy. They found that Dorothy's cervix had been dialated, discolored, and abraded, and that her injury must have been very painful. They believed that gauze had been forced into Dorothy's uterus, even though no gauze was present at autopsy, because her injuries were consistent with this scenario. They also concluded that Dorothy had gone into shock and died within a few minutes of her injury. Dorothy had been in good health, with no abnormalities of her heart, lungs, or kidneys and no history of fainting.
The fetus appeared to be about three to four months of gestation. It was removed at autopsy, along with Dorothy's damaged uterus, and placed in a glass jar to be presented as evidence of Dorothy's pregnancy, gestational state, and injuries.
Three days after Dorothy's death, medical supplies and broken packages of gauze bandages were found in Beigun's home and collected as evidence.
In trial, it came out that Echols had previously brought his own wife to Beigun for an abortion. That abortion took place in June, 1948. Echols paid Beigun $65. Echols had dropped his wife off for the abortion and picked her up later to take her home. She became sick with nausea and pain, and Echols pulled a 6-inch rubber tube and about 60 feet of gauze out of his wife's uterus. Her pain became so great that Echols called a doctor, who had the sick woman brought to a hospital. Her temperature was 104 degrees. She was provided with penicillin and a blood transfusion. Beigun visited her at the hospital, asking why she'd not returned to him for treatment rather than going to somebody else.
Documents don't reveal why Echols, whose own wife had very nearly died under Beigun's care, brought another woman to the same man for his dubious services.
Beigun took Dorothy into a bedroom while Echols waited in the living room. About 15 or 20 minutes later, Echols heard a sound described as a "slump," and Beigun called for him to come and help. Beigun went into the other room and found Beigun supporting an unconscious Dorothy by the waist. Dorothy made a gurgling sound.
Echols helped Beigun lay Dorothy on the bed, and the men picked up her panties off the floor and put them back on her.
Echols tried to revive Dorothy, and asked Beigun what happened. Beigun indicated that he'd packed Dorothy's uterus with gauze. The men summoned police and an ambulance. While they waited, Beigun instructed Echols on what story they were to tell. They were to say that they'd been sitting in the living room with Dorothy when she'd felt faint and asked for a glass of water. Then, they'd say, Dorothy fainted and they moved her to the bed. Beigun warned Echols that he'd be in just as much trouble as Beigun himself unless he stuck with the story.
When the police arrived, Dorothy was dead. A toxicologist, who later participated in the autopsy, said that when he arrived at Beigun's home to remove Dorothy's body, he'd found her with her slip bloody and rolled up around her waist, but that there'd been no blood on the panties.
The next day the toxicologist and a physician performed an autopsy. They found that Dorothy's cervix had been dialated, discolored, and abraded, and that her injury must have been very painful. They believed that gauze had been forced into Dorothy's uterus, even though no gauze was present at autopsy, because her injuries were consistent with this scenario. They also concluded that Dorothy had gone into shock and died within a few minutes of her injury. Dorothy had been in good health, with no abnormalities of her heart, lungs, or kidneys and no history of fainting.
The fetus appeared to be about three to four months of gestation. It was removed at autopsy, along with Dorothy's damaged uterus, and placed in a glass jar to be presented as evidence of Dorothy's pregnancy, gestational state, and injuries.
Three days after Dorothy's death, medical supplies and broken packages of gauze bandages were found in Beigun's home and collected as evidence.
In trial, it came out that Echols had previously brought his own wife to Beigun for an abortion. That abortion took place in June, 1948. Echols paid Beigun $65. Echols had dropped his wife off for the abortion and picked her up later to take her home. She became sick with nausea and pain, and Echols pulled a 6-inch rubber tube and about 60 feet of gauze out of his wife's uterus. Her pain became so great that Echols called a doctor, who had the sick woman brought to a hospital. Her temperature was 104 degrees. She was provided with penicillin and a blood transfusion. Beigun visited her at the hospital, asking why she'd not returned to him for treatment rather than going to somebody else.
Documents don't reveal why Echols, whose own wife had very nearly died under Beigun's care, brought another woman to the same man for his dubious services.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Safe-n-lethal: Yvette Poteat
Twenty-six-year-old Yvette Poteat had an abortion performed by Dr. Marion D. Dorn Jr. at The Ladies Clinic in Charleston, South Carolina on July 16, 1985.
A lawsuit filed by her surviving mother and sister says that Dorn did not examine the tissue he removed from Yvette's uterus, and did not notify Yvette that the lab report showed no fetal or placental tissue in the specimen.
On July 27, Yvette experienced "sudden, sharp, constant lower abdominal pains," and was taken to a hospital by her fiancee.
Yvette was admitted to the emergency room, where she informed the doctors about the abortion. She was mistakenly diagnosed as having Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, was given medication, and was discharged after several hours with instructions to seek follow-up care in two days.
Throughout July 28, Yvette experienced continued pain. She called the hospital but "was instructed not to return but to give the medication a chance to work."
Early in the morning of July 29, Yvette collapsed at home. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital. She went into cardiac arrest due to a ruptured ectopic pregnancy that both Dorn and the hospital staff had failed to diagnose, and was pronounced dead 6:15 a.m.
The lawsuit noted that Yvette's mother "suffered the loss of the financial support of her daughter, extreme mental shock and suffering, wounded feelings, extreme grief and sorrow, has lost the love and affection and companionship of a loving and wonderful daughter, has been deprived of the use and comfort of her society."
The suit against Dorn, the clinic, the hospital and hospital doctors won a small $23,000 plaintiff verdict in 1987.
A lawsuit filed by her surviving mother and sister says that Dorn did not examine the tissue he removed from Yvette's uterus, and did not notify Yvette that the lab report showed no fetal or placental tissue in the specimen.
On July 27, Yvette experienced "sudden, sharp, constant lower abdominal pains," and was taken to a hospital by her fiancee.
Yvette was admitted to the emergency room, where she informed the doctors about the abortion. She was mistakenly diagnosed as having Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, was given medication, and was discharged after several hours with instructions to seek follow-up care in two days.
Throughout July 28, Yvette experienced continued pain. She called the hospital but "was instructed not to return but to give the medication a chance to work."
Early in the morning of July 29, Yvette collapsed at home. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital. She went into cardiac arrest due to a ruptured ectopic pregnancy that both Dorn and the hospital staff had failed to diagnose, and was pronounced dead 6:15 a.m.
The lawsuit noted that Yvette's mother "suffered the loss of the financial support of her daughter, extreme mental shock and suffering, wounded feelings, extreme grief and sorrow, has lost the love and affection and companionship of a loving and wonderful daughter, has been deprived of the use and comfort of her society."
The suit against Dorn, the clinic, the hospital and hospital doctors won a small $23,000 plaintiff verdict in 1987.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Safe-n-lethal: Yvonne Mesteth
Eighteen-year-old Yvonne Corrie Mesteth was the second of two patients to die of infection after abortions by South Dakota abortionist Benjamin Munson. (The other was Linda Padfield.)
Yvonne was in the second trimester of her pregnancy. The abortion ws performed in Munson's office in Rapid City. Yvonne developed an infection, kidney failure, and adult respiratory distress syndrome. She died on July 27, 1985.
Yvonne was in the second trimester of her pregnancy. The abortion ws performed in Munson's office in Rapid City. Yvonne developed an infection, kidney failure, and adult respiratory distress syndrome. She died on July 27, 1985.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Safe-n-legal anniversary: Mary Ann Dancy
Thirty-two-year-old Mary Ann Dancy was a mother of five when she went to Fleming Center in North Carolina for an abortion in 1990.
The abortion was performed by Clarence J. Washington. After Mary Ann went home, she bled and was taken to Halifax Memorial Hospital. She died that night during emergency surgery from hemorrage due to a lacerated cervix.
The abortion was performed by Clarence J. Washington. After Mary Ann went home, she bled and was taken to Halifax Memorial Hospital. She died that night during emergency surgery from hemorrage due to a lacerated cervix.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Anniversary: The earliest legal abortion death I've found
Erika Peterson, age 28, died July 23, 1961 during an abortion at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California. At this time, abortion was only legal in California if it was done to save the life of the mother.
Erika had entered the hospital on July 11, 1961 during the first trimester of pregnancy, because of problems breathing. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and placed in a tank respirator (iron lung). Her physicians made the decision to abort her child as soon as she was well enough to undergo the abortion.
On July 21st, Erika's condition was improved, and her husband signed the consent form for the abortion, which was scheduled to take place two days later.
Erika went into cardiac arrest during the abortion and was unable to be resuscitated. The abortion that was intended to save her life ended her life instead.
After autopsy, it was believed that Erika's original illness was caused by a hereditary disease that was exacerbated by the medications she was taking for her schizophrenia.
Erika's was not the only tragic death caused by doctors who recommended (or excused) abortion as a life-saving or health-preserving option for the mother:
Why Erika's doctors couldn't leave well enough alone -- after all, her condition was improving -- remains a mystery.
Erika had entered the hospital on July 11, 1961 during the first trimester of pregnancy, because of problems breathing. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and placed in a tank respirator (iron lung). Her physicians made the decision to abort her child as soon as she was well enough to undergo the abortion.
On July 21st, Erika's condition was improved, and her husband signed the consent form for the abortion, which was scheduled to take place two days later.
Erika went into cardiac arrest during the abortion and was unable to be resuscitated. The abortion that was intended to save her life ended her life instead.
After autopsy, it was believed that Erika's original illness was caused by a hereditary disease that was exacerbated by the medications she was taking for her schizophrenia.
Erika's was not the only tragic death caused by doctors who recommended (or excused) abortion as a life-saving or health-preserving option for the mother:
- Allegra Roseberry was pushed into an abortion in order to obtain experimental cancer treatment.
- Anjelica Duarte sought an abortion on the advice of her physician, and ended up dying under the care of a quack.
- Barbara Hoppert died after an abortion recommended due to a congenital heart problem.
- Christin Gilbert died after an abortion George Tiller holds was justified on grounds of maternal health.
- "Molly" Roe died in 1975 when her doctors made the dubious decision to perform a saline abortion to improve her chances of surviving a lupus crisis.
Why Erika's doctors couldn't leave well enough alone -- after all, her condition was improving -- remains a mystery.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Not Just the Unborn: Wicked stepmother in Wichita
Evil stepmother not just a fairy-tale staple
Two little girls, ages 4 and 7, were found starving in a Wichita basement, while their stepsiblings were well-fed and healthy.
Two little girls, ages 4 and 7, were found starving in a Wichita basement, while their stepsiblings were well-fed and healthy.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Safe-n-Legal Anniversary: The Death of Carole Wingo
On July 22, 1974, twenty-two-year-old Carole Wingo died of a Demerol over dose during an abortion at Mercy General Hospital in Detroit.
Despite the name, Mercy was not a general hospital. It was an abortion hospital. It was also a hospital in big trouble even before Carole's death.
The Michigan Public Department of Health had cited Mercy for 43 violations of nursing standards and 12 violations of physical plant standards in October of 1973, and had withheld their license. Among the violations were that the operating room lacked a cardiac monitor, a resuscitator, and a defibrillator.
Carole's mother filed suit against the facility and doctors David Northcross, Chuk Nwokedi, and Robert Wolf.
Despite the name, Mercy was not a general hospital. It was an abortion hospital. It was also a hospital in big trouble even before Carole's death.
The Michigan Public Department of Health had cited Mercy for 43 violations of nursing standards and 12 violations of physical plant standards in October of 1973, and had withheld their license. Among the violations were that the operating room lacked a cardiac monitor, a resuscitator, and a defibrillator.
Carole's mother filed suit against the facility and doctors David Northcross, Chuk Nwokedi, and Robert Wolf.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Potential common ground. Would you come aboard?
HT: Birth Story
Amnesty International Getting Cold Feet over Abortion Support, New Zealand Branch Clarifies:
Aside from just improving women's health overall, it was improved treatment of abortion complications that was behind the massive fall in maternal mortality during the middle of the 20th Century. Though I'd of course want to see increased access to treatment for all health issues, especially obstetric issues.
In the US, one area we could potentially find common ground on is alerting women (not just women who've recently had abortions) to the risk of ectopic pregnancy. A PSA on the risks, symptoms, and need to seek immediate medical care would help many women, not just those who've had abortions. And the PSAs would raise awareness so that the women who are most at risk for undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy -- women who have just undergone abortion procedures -- will have internalized the idea that these symptoms are an emergency.
So here's the trial balloon. Is that something that the people here in this blog could get behind? PSAs to alert women to the risks of undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy, including a warning that women who've just undergone induced abortion are at highest risk (Just as women who are using tampons are at highest risk of Toxic Shock Syndrome), and telling women to seek care immediately, even if the abortion facility is reassuring them that all is well? Because it's that last bit that's the killer. Women who have been alarmed by their symptoms have called the clinic and have been reassured that their symptoms were normal, and have died as a result.
Please post what your stand is on abortion, and where you stand on the idea of a common ground ectopic pregnancy awareness campaign.
Amnesty International Getting Cold Feet over Abortion Support, New Zealand Branch Clarifies:
"A small majority thought AI should take a position calling for legal, safe and accessible abortion...." Another vote showed that "A large majority thought AI should take a position calling for access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortion."
Aside from just improving women's health overall, it was improved treatment of abortion complications that was behind the massive fall in maternal mortality during the middle of the 20th Century. Though I'd of course want to see increased access to treatment for all health issues, especially obstetric issues.
In the US, one area we could potentially find common ground on is alerting women (not just women who've recently had abortions) to the risk of ectopic pregnancy. A PSA on the risks, symptoms, and need to seek immediate medical care would help many women, not just those who've had abortions. And the PSAs would raise awareness so that the women who are most at risk for undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy -- women who have just undergone abortion procedures -- will have internalized the idea that these symptoms are an emergency.
So here's the trial balloon. Is that something that the people here in this blog could get behind? PSAs to alert women to the risks of undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy, including a warning that women who've just undergone induced abortion are at highest risk (Just as women who are using tampons are at highest risk of Toxic Shock Syndrome), and telling women to seek care immediately, even if the abortion facility is reassuring them that all is well? Because it's that last bit that's the killer. Women who have been alarmed by their symptoms have called the clinic and have been reassured that their symptoms were normal, and have died as a result.
Please post what your stand is on abortion, and where you stand on the idea of a common ground ectopic pregnancy awareness campaign.
Rejected and Honest Hymn Titles
I lifted these from a forum I frequent. The Christians will get most of them them. Others will get a few. You can say, "Huh?" about particular ones if you're curious enough to want the joke explained.
Rejected Hymns:
Honest Hymn Titles
Rejected Hymns:
- God, You Can Be Such a Jerk Sometimes
- Even Cripples Praise Your Name
- Faith of My In-Laws
- Cleanse My Scalp of Dandruff, Lord
- Another Rainy Day. Great. Thanks a Lot.
- Just One More Hour, and Then We Go Home
- O Saints Who Died in Gruesome Ways
- Jesus is More Than Alright with Me
- You Have to Admit, This Sounds Pretty Farfetched
- I Thank Thee, God, for Buttocks Firm
- O Lord, We Really Prefer Not to Know
- Alleluia, Schmalleluia
Honest Hymn Titles
- I Surrender, Some
- There Shall Be Sprinkles of Blessings
- Fill My Spoon, Lord
- Oh, How I Like Jesus
- He's Quite a Bit to Me
- I Love to Talk About Telling the Story
- Take My Life and Let Me Be
- It Is My Secret What God Can Do
- There Is Scattered Cloudiness in My Soul Today
- Where He Leads Me, I Will Consider Following
- Just As I Pretend to Be
- When the Saints Go Sneaking In
- Sit Up, Sit Up for Jesus
- A Comfy Mattress Is Our God
- Self-Esteem to the World, The Lord Is Come
- Oh, for a Couple of Tongues to Sing
- Amazing Grace, How Interesting the Sound
- Go Tell It on the Speed Bump
- Special, Special, Special
- Lord, Keep Us Loosely Connected to Your Word
- Praise God From Whom All Affirmations Flow
- My Hope Is Built on Nothing Much
- O, God, Our Enabler in Ages Past
- I Lay My Inappropriate Behavior on Jesus
- Pillow of Ages, Fluffed for Me
- All Hail the Influence of Jesus' Name!
- When Peace, Like a Trickle
- I'm Fairly Certain that My Redeemer Lives
- We Give Thee but Still Think We Own
- What an Acquaintance We Have in Jesus
- My Faith Looks Around for Thee
- Joyful, Joyful We Think Thee Pretty Good
- Blessed Hunch
- Above Average Is Thy Faithfulness
- We Are Milling Around in the Light of God
- Spirit of the Living God, Fall Somewhere Near Me
- Blest Be the Tie that Doesn't Cramp My Style
- Sweet Five Minutes of Prayer
Unable to see: Beverly McMillan's story
I was laying in bed last night, thinking about Ashli and the women like her, thinking about how many prochoicers can't even begin go grasp the anguish of losing a child to abortion because they simply can't see the child.
How, I wondered, can people care about women like Ashli if they can't see the babies these women are mourning? How can their eyes be opened?
Then I remembered Dr. Beverly McMillan. Dr. McMillan operated the first abortion clinic in Mississippi. In Jackson, Mississippi, to be specific, where the last abortion clinic in Mississippi still stands. And Dr. McMillan's story is a classic case of somebody who simply couldn't see the baby.
I'll let Dr. McMillan tell the story in her own words:
So here was a woman who literally had the babies right in front of her, day after day, week after week, year after year. She could look at them, count the arms and legs, identify the spine, the pelvis, the skull. And she still was unable to actually see them.
What was it that opened Dr. McMillan's eyes? The same thing that opened the eyes of many a blind man: the hand of God.
Dissatisfied with her life, but unable to identify what was wrong, she bought a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking. And though she fought against doing it, she finally did Task #7 at the end of the first chapter. She affirmed aloud, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." She felt a change. She read the rest of the book. It instructed her to read the Bible and to find Christian fellowship.
Dr. McMillan didn't own a Bible. She had to go out and buy one.
Dr. McMillan's story reminds me of the story of Carol Everett. She ran a string of abortion clinics in the Dallas area. A patient's death shocked her, but wasn't enough to move her. But the atmosphere in the clinics was deteriorating. Staff were at each other's throats. Carol hired a business consultant. He turned out to be a preacher. He told Carol that he'd been praying, and that God had told him to go to her clinic, that somebody in that clinic was going to leave within 30 days. Carol thought at first that the man was insane. But within 30 days, she had indeed left.
When the scales fell from Dr. McMillan's eyes, she was able to see the babies for the first time. When the scales fell from Carol's eyes, she was able to see -- the women:
The point, I guess, is that talking does nothing. The blindness isn't an intellectual blindness. Beverly McMillan was able to do her job, to identify all the body parts of each baby she suctioned out. It was a spiritual blindness that kept her from seeing the reality of what was right in front of her.
With Dr. McMillan, as with Carol, it was the power of prayer, of faith, and, ultimately, of God.
How, I wondered, can people care about women like Ashli if they can't see the babies these women are mourning? How can their eyes be opened?
Then I remembered Dr. Beverly McMillan. Dr. McMillan operated the first abortion clinic in Mississippi. In Jackson, Mississippi, to be specific, where the last abortion clinic in Mississippi still stands. And Dr. McMillan's story is a classic case of somebody who simply couldn't see the baby.
I'll let Dr. McMillan tell the story in her own words:
After it was all over, I would leave my patient on the table and I would go over to the suction bottle and I would take the little stockinette out and go outside the room to a sink where I would open the stockinette up, and I personally would pick through it with a forceps and I would have to identify four extremities, and a spine and a skull and the placenta. If I didn't find that, I would have to go back in that room and scrape and suction some more, or else my patients would be showing up in 48 or 72 hours, just like those women at Cook County with an infected incomplete abortion.
Standing at that sink, I guess I just started seeing these bodies for the first time. I don't know what I did before that. I think I just counted.
....
I remember one afternoon in particular, a very attractive young woman who was the day-to-day manager of the clinic came up to the sink one day while I was getting ready to go through my little procedure, and she said, would you let me see? I've never really seen what you look at at the sink. I said, sure, and I started showing her. And this happened to be about a 12-week abortion, and that was about the farthest along we went. That day as I was showing her, I remember very clearly seeing an arm and seeing the deltoid muscle, and it just really struck me that day how beautiful that was. The thought just flashed through my mind: What are you doing? Here is this beautiful piece of human flesh here, what are you doing? That was one of the very last ones that I did.
So here was a woman who literally had the babies right in front of her, day after day, week after week, year after year. She could look at them, count the arms and legs, identify the spine, the pelvis, the skull. And she still was unable to actually see them.
What was it that opened Dr. McMillan's eyes? The same thing that opened the eyes of many a blind man: the hand of God.
Dissatisfied with her life, but unable to identify what was wrong, she bought a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking. And though she fought against doing it, she finally did Task #7 at the end of the first chapter. She affirmed aloud, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." She felt a change. She read the rest of the book. It instructed her to read the Bible and to find Christian fellowship.
Dr. McMillan didn't own a Bible. She had to go out and buy one.
Christian fellowship was difficult, too. I thought back over my friends and acquaintances and realized there was only one person that I knew who was a Christian, a very important person, however. I had met this woman the summer before I had opened up the abortion clinic at a Childbirth Education Association tea. I was going anywhere, everywhere to meet people to build-up my practice, even Childbirth Education teas. When I met Barbara, within five minutes of talking to each other, she realized I was a heathen and I realized she was a Christian, and we decided we'd be friends anyway.
So I decided to spend more time with my friend Barbara. What I didn't know until about four or five years later was that she had been so horrified after meeting me and hearing that I was getting ready to open up an abortuary, she had gone home and called a friend of hers and they had made a covenant to pray for me, and within six months I was in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Dr. McMillan's story reminds me of the story of Carol Everett. She ran a string of abortion clinics in the Dallas area. A patient's death shocked her, but wasn't enough to move her. But the atmosphere in the clinics was deteriorating. Staff were at each other's throats. Carol hired a business consultant. He turned out to be a preacher. He told Carol that he'd been praying, and that God had told him to go to her clinic, that somebody in that clinic was going to leave within 30 days. Carol thought at first that the man was insane. But within 30 days, she had indeed left.
When the scales fell from Dr. McMillan's eyes, she was able to see the babies for the first time. When the scales fell from Carol's eyes, she was able to see -- the women:
I noticed something was different. From my point of view, women had been dancing in through the front door, singing, 'I'm pregnant...Do my abortion...' But when I got back, I saw that all the women coming in the front door were crying. I'd never noticed that before.
The point, I guess, is that talking does nothing. The blindness isn't an intellectual blindness. Beverly McMillan was able to do her job, to identify all the body parts of each baby she suctioned out. It was a spiritual blindness that kept her from seeing the reality of what was right in front of her.
With Dr. McMillan, as with Carol, it was the power of prayer, of faith, and, ultimately, of God.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Ureter damage by abortionists, during abortions and other surgery
Someone was searching for cut ureter lawsuit cases. I checked my web site for cases in which the woman suffered a damaged ureter. (For those of you who don't know, the ureter is the tube in the body that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder.)
The damage Virginia Wolfe suffered to her ureters during an abortion by Dr. Lillian Jones were only a footnote to her tragic case. Virginia suffered such massive blood loss due to numerous lacerations of her internal organs that she suffered fatal brain damage. (Bexar County Forensic Science Center Autopsy Report, Case # 98-1003)
Stacey W. alleged that she underwent an abortion by Dr. Ralph Robinson at Summit Medical Center in April of 1992. She suffered a perforated uterus, and her right ureter was suctioned from her body. Yikes! Stacey was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery to remove the fetus and her damaged kidney. (The Birmingham News 10-15-92)
L.G., alleged that in 1974 she suffered an accidental suture of her left ureter during a hysterectomy being performed by abortionist Kenneth Wright. The patient subsequently required cystouethroscopy, left retrograde pyelogram, and left uretero-neocystotomy, with reimplantation of the left ureter to the bladder, also endured continuing pain and suffering and need for medical care. (LA County Superior Court Case No. C 109353)
Patient "Anne" suffered many injuries, including damage to both ureters, during a third-trimester abortion performed by Steve Brigham.
"Jolene" suffered injuries during an abortion performed by Charles L. Johnson. In his attempts to repair the damage, Johnson managed to put a kink into Jolene's ureter that had to be corrected by other surgeons.
The following cases are not on my site, but are from my notes:
The medical board disciplined abortionist David Benjamin for multiple instances of malpractice. One of those cases was that of Patient D, age 43, who was treated by Benjamin for a benign tumor in January of 1991. Benjamin injured her ureter during a hysterectomy that he performed during other scheduled surgery. Benjamin had not informed Patient D that he might perform a hysterectomy, and he failed to inform her of the injury he'd done to her ureter. Benjamin was also disciplined regarding his treatment of Patient E, age 41. Benjamin performed exploratory surgery on November 2, 1990, due to masses in her abdomen. During the surgery he did damage to her ureter. The board also noted Benjamin's inaccurate and incomplete operative report; the patient was under anesthesia nearly 10 hours, but, "Many hours in the operating room are unaccounted for in the operative report." (Medical Board Order No. BPMC-93-79) Benjamin subsequently performed the fatal abortion on Guadalupe Negron.
Mabel s. alleged that abortionist Nabil Ghali obstructed her ureter with a suture and failed to tie-off a blood vessel during a 1978 hysterectomy. (Cuyahoga County Court Case No. 215554; Campbell KY Circuit Court Case No. 79-CI-899) Ghali was one of the doctors that sent Ellen Williams home to die of peritonitis after her abortion.
Faye W alleged that in March of 1972, abortionist Harold Hoke informed her that lab work from a prior routine pelvic exam revealed that she had cancer; he recommended surgery as soon as Faye could enter the hospital. "Shortly afterward" Hoke told Faye he would be away for several weeks and would contact her when he returned to his office. Faye returned for an office visit in April, and asked about the nature and location of the cancer. Hoke denied that he had diagnosed cancer. On May 1 Faye returned, and Hoke arranged for her to enter the hospital on May 23 for a hysterectomy to treat the cancer. Hoke never explained to Faye "the seriousness or location of the cancer." during the hysterectomy Hoke cut one ureter and sutured both of them shut inadvertently; it was immediately apparent that Faye's ureters had been blocked because of cessation of urine output. Hoke would not examine Faye although she and her husband insisted that he should diagnose the cause of her symptoms. Finally, after over a day, Hoke sought a consult with a urologist at the insistence of Faye's husband. Faye required surgery to repair her ureters. (Mecklenburg County Superior Court Case No. 73CVS3081)
Jaquieta G alleged that her ureter was sutured shut during a hysterectomy performed by abortionist James G. Morris at West Texas Hospital March 30, 1980, causing permanent kidney damage. (Lubbock County District Court Case No. 104503)
Phyllis S., age 35, mother of three, alleged that she underwent a second trimester abortion in Orange County, California in February of 1989, performed by Dr. Nathan Scott. Scott admitted that he did not inform Phyllis of the risks of the procedure because he assumed that she already understood the risks. Scott extracted what he thought was umbilical cord, but this proved to be a portion of Phyllis' sigmoid colon. A general surgeon was summoned to the operating room. He performed a temporary colostomy and a hysterectomy. Phyllis was dismissed from the hospital, and developed flank pain. A tube insertion in her right kidney was necessated due to injury discovered in her right ureter. Repair surgery was performed in July of 1989, during which her colostomy was taken down and doctors discovered an avulsion injury to her right ureter. Phyllis required a remedial procedure. [Orange County Circuit Court Case No. 601087]
I found such a horrible botch job by Dr. Rebecca Stanley, including ureter damage, that I'll do a separate page about it at RealChoice.
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The damage Virginia Wolfe suffered to her ureters during an abortion by Dr. Lillian Jones were only a footnote to her tragic case. Virginia suffered such massive blood loss due to numerous lacerations of her internal organs that she suffered fatal brain damage. (Bexar County Forensic Science Center Autopsy Report, Case # 98-1003)
Stacey W. alleged that she underwent an abortion by Dr. Ralph Robinson at Summit Medical Center in April of 1992. She suffered a perforated uterus, and her right ureter was suctioned from her body. Yikes! Stacey was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery to remove the fetus and her damaged kidney. (The Birmingham News 10-15-92)
L.G., alleged that in 1974 she suffered an accidental suture of her left ureter during a hysterectomy being performed by abortionist Kenneth Wright. The patient subsequently required cystouethroscopy, left retrograde pyelogram, and left uretero-neocystotomy, with reimplantation of the left ureter to the bladder, also endured continuing pain and suffering and need for medical care. (LA County Superior Court Case No. C 109353)
Patient "Anne" suffered many injuries, including damage to both ureters, during a third-trimester abortion performed by Steve Brigham.
"Jolene" suffered injuries during an abortion performed by Charles L. Johnson. In his attempts to repair the damage, Johnson managed to put a kink into Jolene's ureter that had to be corrected by other surgeons.
The following cases are not on my site, but are from my notes:
The medical board disciplined abortionist David Benjamin for multiple instances of malpractice. One of those cases was that of Patient D, age 43, who was treated by Benjamin for a benign tumor in January of 1991. Benjamin injured her ureter during a hysterectomy that he performed during other scheduled surgery. Benjamin had not informed Patient D that he might perform a hysterectomy, and he failed to inform her of the injury he'd done to her ureter. Benjamin was also disciplined regarding his treatment of Patient E, age 41. Benjamin performed exploratory surgery on November 2, 1990, due to masses in her abdomen. During the surgery he did damage to her ureter. The board also noted Benjamin's inaccurate and incomplete operative report; the patient was under anesthesia nearly 10 hours, but, "Many hours in the operating room are unaccounted for in the operative report." (Medical Board Order No. BPMC-93-79) Benjamin subsequently performed the fatal abortion on Guadalupe Negron.
Mabel s. alleged that abortionist Nabil Ghali obstructed her ureter with a suture and failed to tie-off a blood vessel during a 1978 hysterectomy. (Cuyahoga County Court Case No. 215554; Campbell KY Circuit Court Case No. 79-CI-899) Ghali was one of the doctors that sent Ellen Williams home to die of peritonitis after her abortion.
Faye W alleged that in March of 1972, abortionist Harold Hoke informed her that lab work from a prior routine pelvic exam revealed that she had cancer; he recommended surgery as soon as Faye could enter the hospital. "Shortly afterward" Hoke told Faye he would be away for several weeks and would contact her when he returned to his office. Faye returned for an office visit in April, and asked about the nature and location of the cancer. Hoke denied that he had diagnosed cancer. On May 1 Faye returned, and Hoke arranged for her to enter the hospital on May 23 for a hysterectomy to treat the cancer. Hoke never explained to Faye "the seriousness or location of the cancer." during the hysterectomy Hoke cut one ureter and sutured both of them shut inadvertently; it was immediately apparent that Faye's ureters had been blocked because of cessation of urine output. Hoke would not examine Faye although she and her husband insisted that he should diagnose the cause of her symptoms. Finally, after over a day, Hoke sought a consult with a urologist at the insistence of Faye's husband. Faye required surgery to repair her ureters. (Mecklenburg County Superior Court Case No. 73CVS3081)
Jaquieta G alleged that her ureter was sutured shut during a hysterectomy performed by abortionist James G. Morris at West Texas Hospital March 30, 1980, causing permanent kidney damage. (Lubbock County District Court Case No. 104503)
Phyllis S., age 35, mother of three, alleged that she underwent a second trimester abortion in Orange County, California in February of 1989, performed by Dr. Nathan Scott. Scott admitted that he did not inform Phyllis of the risks of the procedure because he assumed that she already understood the risks. Scott extracted what he thought was umbilical cord, but this proved to be a portion of Phyllis' sigmoid colon. A general surgeon was summoned to the operating room. He performed a temporary colostomy and a hysterectomy. Phyllis was dismissed from the hospital, and developed flank pain. A tube insertion in her right kidney was necessated due to injury discovered in her right ureter. Repair surgery was performed in July of 1989, during which her colostomy was taken down and doctors discovered an avulsion injury to her right ureter. Phyllis required a remedial procedure. [Orange County Circuit Court Case No. 601087]
I found such a horrible botch job by Dr. Rebecca Stanley, including ureter damage, that I'll do a separate page about it at RealChoice.
To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
It never ends: The survivors
My focus is usually on the women who die as a result of their abortions. Today I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to show you how surviving the abortion doesn't mean that the woman is home free.
Ashli submitted to a 14-week abortion due to debilitating maternal illness. Until she recently went on sabbatical, she blogged at The S.I.C.L.E. Cell (Self-Imposed Child-Loss Experience).
Reading Ashli's entries, seeing that her pain didn't abate as time passed, brings home the suffering of a grieving mother in a way hearing a two-minute "testimony" or reading a single-page summary just can't.
I went through Ashli's blog yesterday, pulling out the entries where she was most eloquent. Here they are:
And there's her poetry: Too Much.
One woman suffering the way Ashli is suffering is one too many. Multiply that by the women of Silent No More, Women Exploited by Abortion, American Victims of Abortion, Rachel's Vineyard....
It's not just about the babies for the activists. It's about mothers, women sometimes weeping until they vomit, women who sometimes can't stand the anguish any more and take their own lives. It's about women learning too late that for them, it really was about the baby after all.
Ashli submitted to a 14-week abortion due to debilitating maternal illness. Until she recently went on sabbatical, she blogged at The S.I.C.L.E. Cell (Self-Imposed Child-Loss Experience).
Reading Ashli's entries, seeing that her pain didn't abate as time passed, brings home the suffering of a grieving mother in a way hearing a two-minute "testimony" or reading a single-page summary just can't.
I went through Ashli's blog yesterday, pulling out the entries where she was most eloquent. Here they are:
- Angels and Teacups
- Anniversary
- Black Friday
- Burning
- Eight Years
- February
- Five After Midnight
- Funeral Ceremony
- Garbage
- It Still Kills Me
- Missing
- My Dark Corner
- Oranges
- Socks
- Tomorrow
And there's her poetry: Too Much.
One woman suffering the way Ashli is suffering is one too many. Multiply that by the women of Silent No More, Women Exploited by Abortion, American Victims of Abortion, Rachel's Vineyard....
It's not just about the babies for the activists. It's about mothers, women sometimes weeping until they vomit, women who sometimes can't stand the anguish any more and take their own lives. It's about women learning too late that for them, it really was about the baby after all.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
The death of "Sheryl" Roe - and a question
"Sheryl" was 23 years old when she chose abortion. She had a history of sickle cell anemia and three live births. She was in her first trimester of pregnancy when she underwent the abortion on July 11, 1970. Nine days later, July 20, she died from sickle cell crisis.
It is only today, blogging about Sheryl, that I noticed something strange. The three abortion-precipitated sickle cell deaths I know of all took place almost exactly a year apart: Sheryl on July 20 of 1970, Betty Hines on July 19 of 1971, and Margaret Davis on July 15 of 1972.
I wonder -- Why are all three women with this cause of death clustered like this? Why are there no abortion-precipitated sickle-cell deaths in my files that took place after Roe vs. Wade?
There are some theories that can be put forth:
1. These three deaths were a lesson, and abortion doctors learned from them, and they were careful and alert to signs of sickle cell crisis, and they henceforth aborted all at-risk patients in properly equipped hospitals, and correctly diagnosed and treated any sickle cell crisis, preventing any more sickle-cell deaths triggered by abortion.
2. The three deaths were total flukes, and it's just a total coincidence that they took place almost on the same date three years in a row then never again thereafter.
3. Abortion techniques changed with Roe, and the new techniques no longer triggered sickle-cell crises.
4. The rise of outpatient abortion facilities after Roe meant that the doctor treating the woman for the sickle-cell crisis was unlikely to be the same doctor who'd done the abortion. The treating physician was focused on trying to save the woman's life, not trying to figure out what triggered the crisis, and was thus not likely to connect the fatal crisis to the precipitating abortion.
5. Careful research revealed that abortion can't trigger sickle-cell crisis after all; these three deaths were mistakenly connected with abortion by ill-informed physicians.
6. My data-collection system has holes in it, and there are other deaths like Margaret's, Betty's, and Sheryl's that I'm just not aware of.
It is only today, blogging about Sheryl, that I noticed something strange. The three abortion-precipitated sickle cell deaths I know of all took place almost exactly a year apart: Sheryl on July 20 of 1970, Betty Hines on July 19 of 1971, and Margaret Davis on July 15 of 1972.
I wonder -- Why are all three women with this cause of death clustered like this? Why are there no abortion-precipitated sickle-cell deaths in my files that took place after Roe vs. Wade?
There are some theories that can be put forth:
1. These three deaths were a lesson, and abortion doctors learned from them, and they were careful and alert to signs of sickle cell crisis, and they henceforth aborted all at-risk patients in properly equipped hospitals, and correctly diagnosed and treated any sickle cell crisis, preventing any more sickle-cell deaths triggered by abortion.
2. The three deaths were total flukes, and it's just a total coincidence that they took place almost on the same date three years in a row then never again thereafter.
3. Abortion techniques changed with Roe, and the new techniques no longer triggered sickle-cell crises.
4. The rise of outpatient abortion facilities after Roe meant that the doctor treating the woman for the sickle-cell crisis was unlikely to be the same doctor who'd done the abortion. The treating physician was focused on trying to save the woman's life, not trying to figure out what triggered the crisis, and was thus not likely to connect the fatal crisis to the precipitating abortion.
5. Careful research revealed that abortion can't trigger sickle-cell crisis after all; these three deaths were mistakenly connected with abortion by ill-informed physicians.
6. My data-collection system has holes in it, and there are other deaths like Margaret's, Betty's, and Sheryl's that I'm just not aware of.
Roundup: Baby gasped for air, media bias, death threats, etc.
News from Oz: Premature baby 'gasped for air' after surviving an attempted abortion. The child was given no medical intervention and died after transfer to a hospital.
***
Remember how I mentioned three former abortion clinics that I knew of that had been converted to prolife premises? Remember how one of those former abortion facilities, Central Women's Services, had been evicted after prolifers bought the building? Well, that's evidently a new trend: New Tactic in Abortion-Foe Fight: Evicting Clinics.
But this is turning out to be a media bias story:
1. Notice that it wasn't "New Tactic in Abortion Fight." It was "New Tactic in Abortion-Foe Fight." They had to get a negative spin into the headline.
2. Despite the alarming tone -- "Oh! Those horrible antiabortionists are just buying up buildings and evicting the clinics! Oh whatever are we to do!" -- the writer bent over backward subsequently to downplay Operation Rescue's role in the closing of the facility. "They were gonna close anyway because nobody wanted to work there." Prolifers: Smart and dangerous, but completely ineffectual. Make up your minds! Which are we?
3. The next example of those horrible antiabortionists evicting a hapless provider was the attempt to evict LeRoy Carhart, who managed to sue and buy the building himself. We're not seeing much of a trend here, are we? The article indicates vaguely that them abortion-foes are trying to buy out the buildings and evict the clinics, but them savvy abortion providers have outflanked them and formed an organization to buy buildings themselves. No data on what, if any, buildings prolifers attempted to buy, only to be thwarted. I'd guess it's because Carhart's building is the only one.
4. Mention gets made of the National Memorial for the Unborn in Chattanooga, and of a CPC that moved into a building that an abortion clinic had already vacated on its own. Again, where's this alarming new trend of evicting abortion facilities?
****
And yes, it seems things are escalating: South Dakota Abortion-Ban Backers Harassed. Specifically, they're getting phone and e-mail death threats.
****
The CPC attackers are out in force. I'm not going to link to any of them because they don't deserve the publicity. Why do people get so hateful about offering women a chance to opt out of abortion? Why is it the single thing that just starts the spittle flying, the veins popping, the vocal chords cracking? I'd guess it's because every woman who changes her mind is, at some level, proof that one's own abortion may not have been necessary after all. And that's just an intolerable thought.
And the claims that the CPCs are "lying" are so clearly bogus as to be laughable. The CPCs are just presenting research that abortion advocates wish with all their souls had never been done. Research that abortion advocates hate with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns because if it's true, they've been hurting people. And they don't want to admit that it's even remotely possible that they've been wrong. So instead they scream, "LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!" Projection, in a nutshell.
BTW, the CPC attacks are the thing that probably set me off the worst. It's so clearly a matter of wanting the only choice to be abortion, being angry that some women have children to love while the haters have only a memory of climbing on the abortion table. The attack on CPSs is the single most hateful thing that abortion advocates do, because they're pointing at every child alive today because the child's mother got help, and screaming how wrong it is that these children are alive. This is looking at BORN CHILDREN and wishing them dead. How much more hateful can you get, than to look at somebody else's beloved child and be screaming that the child should have been aborted? Children LIKE MY SON. Thanks for wishing my son dead, you hateful, spiteful, bitches! Because that's what you're wishing when you want to deny women help avoiding abortion. You're wishing MY SON DEAD.
At any rate, looking at all the, "How DARE those people have helped those women!!!!!" spittle has really stressed me. Prayers would be appreciated.
***
Remember how I mentioned three former abortion clinics that I knew of that had been converted to prolife premises? Remember how one of those former abortion facilities, Central Women's Services, had been evicted after prolifers bought the building? Well, that's evidently a new trend: New Tactic in Abortion-Foe Fight: Evicting Clinics.
But this is turning out to be a media bias story:
1. Notice that it wasn't "New Tactic in Abortion Fight." It was "New Tactic in Abortion-Foe Fight." They had to get a negative spin into the headline.
2. Despite the alarming tone -- "Oh! Those horrible antiabortionists are just buying up buildings and evicting the clinics! Oh whatever are we to do!" -- the writer bent over backward subsequently to downplay Operation Rescue's role in the closing of the facility. "They were gonna close anyway because nobody wanted to work there." Prolifers: Smart and dangerous, but completely ineffectual. Make up your minds! Which are we?
3. The next example of those horrible antiabortionists evicting a hapless provider was the attempt to evict LeRoy Carhart, who managed to sue and buy the building himself. We're not seeing much of a trend here, are we? The article indicates vaguely that them abortion-foes are trying to buy out the buildings and evict the clinics, but them savvy abortion providers have outflanked them and formed an organization to buy buildings themselves. No data on what, if any, buildings prolifers attempted to buy, only to be thwarted. I'd guess it's because Carhart's building is the only one.
4. Mention gets made of the National Memorial for the Unborn in Chattanooga, and of a CPC that moved into a building that an abortion clinic had already vacated on its own. Again, where's this alarming new trend of evicting abortion facilities?
****
And yes, it seems things are escalating: South Dakota Abortion-Ban Backers Harassed. Specifically, they're getting phone and e-mail death threats.
****
The CPC attackers are out in force. I'm not going to link to any of them because they don't deserve the publicity. Why do people get so hateful about offering women a chance to opt out of abortion? Why is it the single thing that just starts the spittle flying, the veins popping, the vocal chords cracking? I'd guess it's because every woman who changes her mind is, at some level, proof that one's own abortion may not have been necessary after all. And that's just an intolerable thought.
And the claims that the CPCs are "lying" are so clearly bogus as to be laughable. The CPCs are just presenting research that abortion advocates wish with all their souls had never been done. Research that abortion advocates hate with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns because if it's true, they've been hurting people. And they don't want to admit that it's even remotely possible that they've been wrong. So instead they scream, "LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!" Projection, in a nutshell.
BTW, the CPC attacks are the thing that probably set me off the worst. It's so clearly a matter of wanting the only choice to be abortion, being angry that some women have children to love while the haters have only a memory of climbing on the abortion table. The attack on CPSs is the single most hateful thing that abortion advocates do, because they're pointing at every child alive today because the child's mother got help, and screaming how wrong it is that these children are alive. This is looking at BORN CHILDREN and wishing them dead. How much more hateful can you get, than to look at somebody else's beloved child and be screaming that the child should have been aborted? Children LIKE MY SON. Thanks for wishing my son dead, you hateful, spiteful, bitches! Because that's what you're wishing when you want to deny women help avoiding abortion. You're wishing MY SON DEAD.
At any rate, looking at all the, "How DARE those people have helped those women!!!!!" spittle has really stressed me. Prayers would be appreciated.
Three tragic anniversaries: Betty Hines, Alice Roe, and Gertrude Wynants
Betty Hines was 21 years old when she was checked into Doctors Hospital in California for an abortion to be performed by Dr. A. Mitchell on July 19, 1971, who had been her physician for three or four years. Betty was eight weeks pregnant. There didn't seem to be anything wrong during the procedure. Betty was transferred to the recovery room, when she suddenly went into cardio-respiratory arrest.
Mitchell theorized that perhaps Betty had died because of a bad vial of Inovar, because the next patient who was injected from that vial also went into cardiac arrest but was successfully resuscitated. Betty's autopsy, however, found no trave of Inovar in her system. A toxicology check was also done on the vial of medication, and found nothing wrong with the Inovar. Betty's death was attributed to massive intravascular sickling due to underlying sickle cell disorder.
Other women who died of sickle cell crisis triggered by abortion include Margaret Davis and Sheryl Roe.
****
"Alice" Roe was 31 years old when she underwent a 14-week saline abortion in New York City.
She had a history of rheumatic heart disease and two previous live births. After the saline was injected, she developed acute pulmonary edema and died.
****
Very little is on record about the death of 17-year-old Gertrude Wynants. According to the New York Times, Gertrude died on July 19, 1925, of a criminal abortion. Mrs. Margaret Shott Higgens, age 23, was indicted for manslaughter in Gertrude's death.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
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Mitchell theorized that perhaps Betty had died because of a bad vial of Inovar, because the next patient who was injected from that vial also went into cardiac arrest but was successfully resuscitated. Betty's autopsy, however, found no trave of Inovar in her system. A toxicology check was also done on the vial of medication, and found nothing wrong with the Inovar. Betty's death was attributed to massive intravascular sickling due to underlying sickle cell disorder.
Other women who died of sickle cell crisis triggered by abortion include Margaret Davis and Sheryl Roe.
****
"Alice" Roe was 31 years old when she underwent a 14-week saline abortion in New York City.
She had a history of rheumatic heart disease and two previous live births. After the saline was injected, she developed acute pulmonary edema and died.
****
Very little is on record about the death of 17-year-old Gertrude Wynants. According to the New York Times, Gertrude died on July 19, 1925, of a criminal abortion. Mrs. Margaret Shott Higgens, age 23, was indicted for manslaughter in Gertrude's death.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
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Monday, July 17, 2006
RE: Flip and the empty building
I've noticed that prochoicers are blogging with great scorn about Flip Benham leading what they thought was a "protest" against an empty building.
Flip & company referred to "storming the gates of Hell" which meant that they were there to act against demons, not against people. Therefore the fact that the building had no people in it was irrelevant. They were launching a prayer attack against what's called a "stronghold," meaning a place (this can be a physical place like a building, or a metaphysical place such as an area of a person's life or an aspect of a culture) where a demon or demons has been given leave by people to operate. In this case, the "stronghold" was the physical plant of the abortion facility. Since the goal is to close the clinic, knocking out the "strongholds" would further that goal by keeping demons from operating within the clinic and allowing prayer within the building to be more efficacious because of lack of demonic interference.
It's a concept called "spiritual warfare."
FYI.
Flip & company referred to "storming the gates of Hell" which meant that they were there to act against demons, not against people. Therefore the fact that the building had no people in it was irrelevant. They were launching a prayer attack against what's called a "stronghold," meaning a place (this can be a physical place like a building, or a metaphysical place such as an area of a person's life or an aspect of a culture) where a demon or demons has been given leave by people to operate. In this case, the "stronghold" was the physical plant of the abortion facility. Since the goal is to close the clinic, knocking out the "strongholds" would further that goal by keeping demons from operating within the clinic and allowing prayer within the building to be more efficacious because of lack of demonic interference.
It's a concept called "spiritual warfare."
FYI.
When the dust settles... Who hit who
Reports are that a prolifer hit an abortion advocate with his car outside a Unitarian "church" in Jackson, Mississippi. Photos (with commentary) of the event are posted here:
Jackson Mississippi - Prolife or Anti-Christ.
The only thing the two sides probably agree upon is that the car ended up with a busted windshield. The prolife reports are that the prochoicers beat on the car until they broke the windshield.
Now, there are a whole range of possibilities of what happened here. Let's look at the extremes:
1. The abortion advocates were the sole victims, the right-to-lifers the sole culprits. The peaceful, if somewhat lively, activists were exercising their First-Amendment rights when a deranged right-to-lifer plowed into the group with his car, hitting one protester and breaking the windshield.
2. The prolifers were the sole victims, with the abortion advocates the sole culprits. The peaceful, if somewhat foolhardy, prolifer was innocently and unprovocatively driving past a bunch of abortion-advocacy hooligans who leaped on his car and began to batter it.
You can imagine any number of scenarios in the middle. My personal experience leads me to theorize the following, based on the reports and photos:
The abortion advocates knew the prolifers were coming. The prolifers knew they weren't welcome but came anyway. The abortion advocates were itching for a fight before the prolifers even got there. When the prolifers got there, things escalated, with the prolifers insisting that they had every right to be at an event being promoted as a "dialogue" even though they knew it was planned as a dialogue among prochoicers. The prolifer decided to park in the "church" parking lot since he intended to attend the event. The prochoicers blocked the car and screamed at the driver to go home and get back to oppressing his wife and molesting his children. The driver continued to try to inch forward. Whereupon the prochoicers started beating on the car.
Upon what do I base this anaylsis? Well, first of all the police said there were no injuries. Surely somebody would be injured if he'd been hit by a car. Plus, I have years of witnessing events, including encounters like these:
The march, 4-25-04, continued.
Things get ugly.
Jackson Mississippi - Prolife or Anti-Christ.
The only thing the two sides probably agree upon is that the car ended up with a busted windshield. The prolife reports are that the prochoicers beat on the car until they broke the windshield.
Now, there are a whole range of possibilities of what happened here. Let's look at the extremes:
1. The abortion advocates were the sole victims, the right-to-lifers the sole culprits. The peaceful, if somewhat lively, activists were exercising their First-Amendment rights when a deranged right-to-lifer plowed into the group with his car, hitting one protester and breaking the windshield.
2. The prolifers were the sole victims, with the abortion advocates the sole culprits. The peaceful, if somewhat foolhardy, prolifer was innocently and unprovocatively driving past a bunch of abortion-advocacy hooligans who leaped on his car and began to batter it.
You can imagine any number of scenarios in the middle. My personal experience leads me to theorize the following, based on the reports and photos:
The abortion advocates knew the prolifers were coming. The prolifers knew they weren't welcome but came anyway. The abortion advocates were itching for a fight before the prolifers even got there. When the prolifers got there, things escalated, with the prolifers insisting that they had every right to be at an event being promoted as a "dialogue" even though they knew it was planned as a dialogue among prochoicers. The prolifer decided to park in the "church" parking lot since he intended to attend the event. The prochoicers blocked the car and screamed at the driver to go home and get back to oppressing his wife and molesting his children. The driver continued to try to inch forward. Whereupon the prochoicers started beating on the car.
Upon what do I base this anaylsis? Well, first of all the police said there were no injuries. Surely somebody would be injured if he'd been hit by a car. Plus, I have years of witnessing events, including encounters like these:
The march, 4-25-04, continued.
Things get ugly.
Not Just the Unborn: Waste not, want not?
China: Gutting political prisoners for ograns?
Overwhelming evidence is that the Chinese are killing political prisoners and selling their organs for transplant.
Overwhelming evidence is that the Chinese are killing political prisoners and selling their organs for transplant.
20-year-old contracted for murder of 14-year-old he impregnated
Elgin Robinson, age 20, is facing capital murder charges after getting 49-year-old Theodore Burnette and 17-year-old Everett Gentry to help him murder 14-year-old Chelsea Brooks just weeks before she was due to give birth to his child, a little girl to be named Alexa Lynn. Robinson is also facing charges for kidnapping the girl and for the sexual abuse that led to the pregnancy. Chelsea was apparently only 12 years old when the abuse began.
The men strangled the girl and buried her near a wheat field outside Wichita. Gentry, who pleaded guilty, said that Robinson offered him $500 to help kill Chelsea. Robinson wanted her dead because she was carrying his baby. Gentry said that Robinson picked Chelsea up outside a skating rink. As the girl got into the front seat in the car, Burnette, who was in the back seat, strangled her.
Chelsea's mother had obtained a protective order to keep Robinson away from the girl after she learned of the abuse. Why he was not arrested and prosecuted at that time is unclear.
The men strangled the girl and buried her near a wheat field outside Wichita. Gentry, who pleaded guilty, said that Robinson offered him $500 to help kill Chelsea. Robinson wanted her dead because she was carrying his baby. Gentry said that Robinson picked Chelsea up outside a skating rink. As the girl got into the front seat in the car, Burnette, who was in the back seat, strangled her.
Chelsea's mother had obtained a protective order to keep Robinson away from the girl after she learned of the abuse. Why he was not arrested and prosecuted at that time is unclear.
- Two others charged in Brooks murder case
- More charged in Chelsea Brooks' murder
- Pair face charges of capital murder
- Who Killed Chelsea Brooks?
- Gentry Family Speaks Out
- Teen pleads guilty in Chelsea Brooks murder case
- Community turns out to support Chelsea Brooks’ family
- New Details On The Murder Of A Pregnant Teen
Safe-and-legal: The deaths of Gail Vroman and Geneva Calton
Twenty-year-old Gail Ann Vroman had an abortion performed on July 14, 1979, by New York abortionist Taskin Ratharathorn at Ft. Wayne Women's Health Organization. Within two hours, Gail was transferred to a nearby hospital.
Gail died of massive infection on July 18. The coroner ruled that the death was caused by clostridium perfringens, or "gas gangrene."
****
Geneva Calton, age 21, mother of two, underwent an abortion at Northside Family Planning Service in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 18, 1979. On the drive back home she was in pain, but she figured that this was just the cramping the clinic had told her to expect.
At 8:30 that evening, Geneva was admitted to a hospital, with no vital signs detected. Doctors attempted to resuscitate her, to no avail. She was pronounced dead. The autopsy found that Geneva's uterus had been perforated. She had bled to death.
Northside was eventually sued by their malpractice insurer because they'd allowed one of their abortionists to continue to perform surgery even though his manual dexterity had deteriorated due to multiple sclerosis. The suit by the insurer also alleged failure to meet state health standards, failure to have enough nurses on duty, failure to have proper on-call procedures, and lack of a professional director of medical services.
The clinic where Geneva's fatal abortion was performed seems to be the same clinic where Catherine Pierce underwent her fatal abortion in 1989.
Gail died of massive infection on July 18. The coroner ruled that the death was caused by clostridium perfringens, or "gas gangrene."
****
Geneva Calton, age 21, mother of two, underwent an abortion at Northside Family Planning Service in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 18, 1979. On the drive back home she was in pain, but she figured that this was just the cramping the clinic had told her to expect.
At 8:30 that evening, Geneva was admitted to a hospital, with no vital signs detected. Doctors attempted to resuscitate her, to no avail. She was pronounced dead. The autopsy found that Geneva's uterus had been perforated. She had bled to death.
Northside was eventually sued by their malpractice insurer because they'd allowed one of their abortionists to continue to perform surgery even though his manual dexterity had deteriorated due to multiple sclerosis. The suit by the insurer also alleged failure to meet state health standards, failure to have enough nurses on duty, failure to have proper on-call procedures, and lack of a professional director of medical services.
The clinic where Geneva's fatal abortion was performed seems to be the same clinic where Catherine Pierce underwent her fatal abortion in 1989.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Roundup: Glurge, The Suitcase Non-Bomb, Media Bias, etc.
Another reason to hate fetus-glurge: It gives ammo to the other side.
Lay off the glurge, already!
Prochoicers, I can assure you that this stuff probably gets a thousand times more on my nerves than it does yours, because nobody's assuming that you find this tripe appealing.
****
Abortion-rights activists are now abuzz about a "bomb threat" at an abortion-advocacy rally in Jackson, Mississippi. Seems somebody put a suitcase in a trash can, and somebody called it in to the police as a "suspicious package."
Is it a bomb threat every time somebody tosses an old suitcase? I thought a bomb threat meant that somebody actually said that there was a bomb, or somebody put something that seemed to be a bomb -- like a ticking box -- someplace. I didn't think a discarded suitcase qualified.
****
Diary of a Rat addresses bias in the Washington Post article I cited in a previous entry. Well done!
****
Unified View is trying to get an intelligent discussion going about abortion. (Good luck!) He started the ball rolling and so far nobody's playing. Zygote, achromic, L, and Tialoc, why don't you pop in?
****
It's lively at Philosophy etc., where there is a discussion about whether it's wrong to harm a fetus that will be brought to term. Richard postulates that though the fetus has no rights, the person he will become at birth does have rights, and that this future person's rights include the right not to be subjected to something prior to his existence that will mar his existence when it happens.
Seems like it's simply be a lot simpler to recognize that fetuses exist and that it's wrong to hurt them. Look at how complicated you make it, when you try to maintain the non-existence of fetuses while maintaining the existence of a prenatally-harmed person at birth.
When Abu Hayat ripped Ana Rosa Rodriguez's arm off, he ripped Ana Rosa's arm off. He didn't go into some sort of time warp and impose an injury on the Ana Rosa that would come into existence at her birth some hours later. What the hell was she when her arm was being ripped off? A theory? In which case, couldn't her mother have just theorized her arm back on?
Lay off the glurge, already!
Prochoicers, I can assure you that this stuff probably gets a thousand times more on my nerves than it does yours, because nobody's assuming that you find this tripe appealing.
****
Abortion-rights activists are now abuzz about a "bomb threat" at an abortion-advocacy rally in Jackson, Mississippi. Seems somebody put a suitcase in a trash can, and somebody called it in to the police as a "suspicious package."
Is it a bomb threat every time somebody tosses an old suitcase? I thought a bomb threat meant that somebody actually said that there was a bomb, or somebody put something that seemed to be a bomb -- like a ticking box -- someplace. I didn't think a discarded suitcase qualified.
****
Diary of a Rat addresses bias in the Washington Post article I cited in a previous entry. Well done!
****
Unified View is trying to get an intelligent discussion going about abortion. (Good luck!) He started the ball rolling and so far nobody's playing. Zygote, achromic, L, and Tialoc, why don't you pop in?
****
It's lively at Philosophy etc., where there is a discussion about whether it's wrong to harm a fetus that will be brought to term. Richard postulates that though the fetus has no rights, the person he will become at birth does have rights, and that this future person's rights include the right not to be subjected to something prior to his existence that will mar his existence when it happens.
Seems like it's simply be a lot simpler to recognize that fetuses exist and that it's wrong to hurt them. Look at how complicated you make it, when you try to maintain the non-existence of fetuses while maintaining the existence of a prenatally-harmed person at birth.
When Abu Hayat ripped Ana Rosa Rodriguez's arm off, he ripped Ana Rosa's arm off. He didn't go into some sort of time warp and impose an injury on the Ana Rosa that would come into existence at her birth some hours later. What the hell was she when her arm was being ripped off? A theory? In which case, couldn't her mother have just theorized her arm back on?
The need to separate health care providers
The Washington Post has published A Medical Crisis of Conscience, about health care providers exercising the right of conscience to refrain from doing things they find morally repugnant. And it's not just prolife professionals refusing to participate in abortion. Some professionals are refusing to provide life-sustaining support to terminally ill patients.
Clearly the time has come to have health care workers and facilities to divide into Hippocratic and Progressive. The Hippocratic practitioners, who refuse to participate in causing death, will be chosen by patients who want to avoid abortion and euthanasia. The Progressive practitioners, who support a patient's choice of death for herself or her fetus, will be chosen by patients with a quality-of-life ethic.
Clearly the time has come to have health care workers and facilities to divide into Hippocratic and Progressive. The Hippocratic practitioners, who refuse to participate in causing death, will be chosen by patients who want to avoid abortion and euthanasia. The Progressive practitioners, who support a patient's choice of death for herself or her fetus, will be chosen by patients with a quality-of-life ethic.
Another safe-n-legal anniversary
Little is known of 21-year-old Linda Lovelace of Tennessee. According to her death certificate, she underwent an abortion on June 14, 1980. The death certificate does not say where, or who performed the abortion.
It does say, though, that her uterus was perforated. As a result, Linda developed sepsis and went into shock. She died on July 16, 1980.
It does say, though, that her uterus was perforated. As a result, Linda developed sepsis and went into shock. She died on July 16, 1980.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Roundup du Jour
Former abortion clinic 'resurrected' as Catholic chapel: This in a suburb of Buffalo. As is typical in these cases, there's a memorial to the unborn on the premises. I know of Central Women's Services in Wichita, which is being turned into a memorial site/Operation Rescue office, and Chattanooga Women's Clinic, the Lime 5 clinic, which is now the National Memorial for the Unborn.
Does anybody know of any other former abortion facilities that have been taken over by prolifers?
HT: Birth Story
*****
Lean Left blogs on How Not to Debate Abortion. He takes the view that the prochoice stand is self-evidently true, but nevertheless chastizes KTK for painting prolifers with a broad brush and for being rude and condescending.
Ten of ten for calling for civility. But we're not prolife because we've just not heard the prochoice stand put forth coherently. We're prolife because abortion is as self-evidently wrong to us as it seems self-evidently acceptable to him.
****
Mirror of Justice looks at Abortion and Disability Rights. Are fetal indications abortions actually a winning focus for prolifers? I think so, since these abortions aren't about women deciding they don't want to be pregnant, but about looking at a particular fetus -- with all his arms, legs, organs, etc., -- and deciding that his life just isn't worth living. This is the kind of prejudice that the left deplores when it's aimed at born people, so it puts them in an untenable place when they're advocating it in-utero, especially since most of these abortions take place after the first trimester (and sometimes in the third trimester), when even many prochoicers recognize that abortion is killing a baby, not just removing tissue.
Does anybody know of any other former abortion facilities that have been taken over by prolifers?
HT: Birth Story
*****
Lean Left blogs on How Not to Debate Abortion. He takes the view that the prochoice stand is self-evidently true, but nevertheless chastizes KTK for painting prolifers with a broad brush and for being rude and condescending.
Ten of ten for calling for civility. But we're not prolife because we've just not heard the prochoice stand put forth coherently. We're prolife because abortion is as self-evidently wrong to us as it seems self-evidently acceptable to him.
****
Mirror of Justice looks at Abortion and Disability Rights. Are fetal indications abortions actually a winning focus for prolifers? I think so, since these abortions aren't about women deciding they don't want to be pregnant, but about looking at a particular fetus -- with all his arms, legs, organs, etc., -- and deciding that his life just isn't worth living. This is the kind of prejudice that the left deplores when it's aimed at born people, so it puts them in an untenable place when they're advocating it in-utero, especially since most of these abortions take place after the first trimester (and sometimes in the third trimester), when even many prochoicers recognize that abortion is killing a baby, not just removing tissue.
Hard to satirize
The blogosphere has been buzzing over a satirical piece in "The Onion" that a prolifer mistook for the genuine rantings of an abortion fanatic.
Now, the fact that the piece was in "The Onion" will indicate to the savvy reader that the piece is intended as satire. But it's hard to satire extreme prochoice thought. Here are some quotes from the piece, meant as satire but actually accurately reflecting extreme thought among the prochoice movment. I've encountered many of these in the years I've been active. I'll bring you examples of those I've linked to along the way. Please add other examples in the comments section, and I'll incorporate them.
(Please note, I'm not saying that these are the thoughts of rank-and-file prochoicers; I'm merely pointing out that the more time you spend reading prochoice writings and listening to prochoice people, the more likely you are to have encountered people writing and saying such outrageous things that satire is no longer satirical, because you've come across people asserting it in all seriousness.)
So, without further ado here are the quotes (in italics), with links (to be added as they're submitted) to examples of real prochoicers actually saying and evidently being serious about these things. Again, please submit actual examples so I can incorporate them:
I am totally psyched for this abortion!
Abortion is the best!
Patricial Baird-Windle: "I am now pro-abortion." "I now consider abortion to be a major blessing, and to be a sacrament in the hands of women."
Majikthise: "Abortion is good."
Petition Spot: "Abortion is great. It makes life, and sex, easier."
Abortion is wonderful!: "For me, abortion is not horrible, it's a godsend." (Thanks, JJ)
This abortion is going to be so amazing.
I'm definitely taking lots of pictures so I can remember every last detail of the whole experience for years to come and share my great memories with all of my friends, family and co-workers.
Dawn Eden blogged about the woman who took pictures of her embryo and posted them on her blog in an entry called "Meet the Interloper." She posted: Yes indeed, there was an intact embryo to be seen. Yes, I took pictures. No, it is not so I can moon over them and make colorbars with flowery script reading "My Precious Dead Angel Baby, Gabriel Damien Pretty-Boy Eckard." I'm probably just morbid--when I saw it, I was squealing like a school girl, going, "Holy crap, that's so cool!" and I didn't know what to think about it at first, but the more and closer I looked at it, the more I thought it had to be the single neatest thing I had ever seen. .... But I was looking at it and seeing the teeny face (it was at the point where it has the huge flat nose and looks kind of like a puppy) and the little webbed flipper feet and the huge black eyes, going "HOLY CRAP THIS THING IS FREAKING AWESOME." I called Austin up to see it, and he wasn't quite as giddy about it but he still wanted to see it. Apparently he didn't realize it would have fingers and toes and all of that so soon. I quoted her myself: I feel fabulous. I've been giddy and smiling all day...."
Then there the abortion jewelry that doesn't use real fetuses but nevertheless depicts a bloody embryo for wear as earrings or a necklace to commemorate the abortion.
What an easy decision this was!
Pinko Feminist Hellcat: "If I was pregnant today, I would make an appointment at the nearest clinic. I would have an abortion with no regrets, no guilt, and no shame." (Thanks, JJ)
See you at my post-abortion party, everybody!
Rosa Naperstek-Taft and her friends had a party the night before her abortion to celebrate that she'd be the first of her friends to have an abortion post-legalization.
Granted, there are some dead giveaways:
I've got an abortion to plan, and I just know it's going to be the best non-anesthetized invasive uterine surgery ever!
I seriously cannot wait for all the hemorrhaging and the uterine contractions.
So I'd still think the article was obvious satire, just poorly-done satire. But somebody who didn't know what "The Onion" is, and who had encountered a lot of extremists among the prochoice, might jump the gun and mistake it for something just a tad more extreme.
And I'll grant, by the same token, that somebody who read a lot of "Army of God" stuff and the babblings of Paul Hill would have a hard time spotting satirizing of extreme antiabortion rantings.
Now, the fact that the piece was in "The Onion" will indicate to the savvy reader that the piece is intended as satire. But it's hard to satire extreme prochoice thought. Here are some quotes from the piece, meant as satire but actually accurately reflecting extreme thought among the prochoice movment. I've encountered many of these in the years I've been active. I'll bring you examples of those I've linked to along the way. Please add other examples in the comments section, and I'll incorporate them.
(Please note, I'm not saying that these are the thoughts of rank-and-file prochoicers; I'm merely pointing out that the more time you spend reading prochoice writings and listening to prochoice people, the more likely you are to have encountered people writing and saying such outrageous things that satire is no longer satirical, because you've come across people asserting it in all seriousness.)
So, without further ado here are the quotes (in italics), with links (to be added as they're submitted) to examples of real prochoicers actually saying and evidently being serious about these things. Again, please submit actual examples so I can incorporate them:
I am totally psyched for this abortion!
Abortion is the best!
Patricial Baird-Windle: "I am now pro-abortion." "I now consider abortion to be a major blessing, and to be a sacrament in the hands of women."
Majikthise: "Abortion is good."
Petition Spot: "Abortion is great. It makes life, and sex, easier."
Abortion is wonderful!: "For me, abortion is not horrible, it's a godsend." (Thanks, JJ)
This abortion is going to be so amazing.
I'm definitely taking lots of pictures so I can remember every last detail of the whole experience for years to come and share my great memories with all of my friends, family and co-workers.
Dawn Eden blogged about the woman who took pictures of her embryo and posted them on her blog in an entry called "Meet the Interloper." She posted: Yes indeed, there was an intact embryo to be seen. Yes, I took pictures. No, it is not so I can moon over them and make colorbars with flowery script reading "My Precious Dead Angel Baby, Gabriel Damien Pretty-Boy Eckard." I'm probably just morbid--when I saw it, I was squealing like a school girl, going, "Holy crap, that's so cool!" and I didn't know what to think about it at first, but the more and closer I looked at it, the more I thought it had to be the single neatest thing I had ever seen. .... But I was looking at it and seeing the teeny face (it was at the point where it has the huge flat nose and looks kind of like a puppy) and the little webbed flipper feet and the huge black eyes, going "HOLY CRAP THIS THING IS FREAKING AWESOME." I called Austin up to see it, and he wasn't quite as giddy about it but he still wanted to see it. Apparently he didn't realize it would have fingers and toes and all of that so soon. I quoted her myself: I feel fabulous. I've been giddy and smiling all day...."
Then there the abortion jewelry that doesn't use real fetuses but nevertheless depicts a bloody embryo for wear as earrings or a necklace to commemorate the abortion.
What an easy decision this was!
Pinko Feminist Hellcat: "If I was pregnant today, I would make an appointment at the nearest clinic. I would have an abortion with no regrets, no guilt, and no shame." (Thanks, JJ)
See you at my post-abortion party, everybody!
Rosa Naperstek-Taft and her friends had a party the night before her abortion to celebrate that she'd be the first of her friends to have an abortion post-legalization.
Granted, there are some dead giveaways:
I've got an abortion to plan, and I just know it's going to be the best non-anesthetized invasive uterine surgery ever!
I seriously cannot wait for all the hemorrhaging and the uterine contractions.
So I'd still think the article was obvious satire, just poorly-done satire. But somebody who didn't know what "The Onion" is, and who had encountered a lot of extremists among the prochoice, might jump the gun and mistake it for something just a tad more extreme.
And I'll grant, by the same token, that somebody who read a lot of "Army of God" stuff and the babblings of Paul Hill would have a hard time spotting satirizing of extreme antiabortion rantings.
Two safe and legal anniversaries: Margaret Davis and Debra Gray
Margaret Davis was a 33-year-old homemaker who underwent an abortion at Windsor Hills Hospital in Los Angeles County. Christopher Dotson began the abortion at about noon on July 15, 1971.
Dotson said that Margaret started to have breathing and heart problems after the abortion, and that he was uable to revive her. He declared her dead at 3:30 PM of cardiopulmonary failure.
An autopsy revealed that Margaret had suffered acute sickle cell crisis triggered by the abortion.
At first blush this seems like something you can't blame the abortionist for, but there are other cases similar to Margaret's. Betty Hines and "Sheryl" Roe both died of sickle cell crisis triggered by abortions. So it might be that sickle cell crisis is a complication that abortionists can be aware of, alert for, and ready to treat. I don't know enough about sickle cell crisis to be sure.
****
The death of Debra Gray, on the other hand, was a clear case of malpractice, with the clinic and the doctor passing the buck.
Thirty-four-year-old Debra went to Hillview Women's Medical Center for an abortion on July 8, 1989. She went through their conseling procedure and underwent lab work. Debra returned for the actual procedure on July 12. An ultrasound was performed and she was estimated to be 16.5 weeks pregnant. Debra signed an undated consent form for the abortion and anesthesia.
The records don't indicate who initiated IV Brevitol for anesthesia, nor do they document the dosage or concentration, nor Debra's weight or the amount of fluid given. There was also no record of a physical exam or any exam to determine if Debra was an appropriate candidate for this type of anesthesia.
The abortionist, Gideon Kioko, indicated that the nurse and other staff expected the drug to induce "twilight sleep" rather than general anesthesia. There was no anesthesiologist on duty, and no physician supervising the administration of anesthesia medication.
Kioko initiated the abortion. There was no documentation of the effect of the medication, nor of Debra's vital signs. A hospital note indicated that Debra had "responded rather rapidly to the anesthesia" and that three minutes after Kioko had started the abortion, Debra's blood was noted to be "very dark" and she was having trouble breathing. Kioko spent five minutes completing the abortion.
When paramedics arrived, they estimated that Debra's brain had been deprived of oxygen for twelve minutes. Debra had a racing heart, then went into ventricular fibrillation. She was resuscitated, but never regained consciousness. She was pronounced dead on July 15.
The autopsy found traces of heroin in Debra's bloodstream. There was no evidence that the facility had screened Debra for possible drug use.
Hillview staff also allowed Suzanne Logan to suffer an eventually fatal lack of oxygen during an abortion that same year. Suzanne languished in a nursing home for three years before her death.
Kioko made the following excuses to the medical board regarding the fatal abortions:
The medical board noted that Kioko, as the physician performing the procedure, was still responsible for ensuring that the patient was being provided with appropriate care, regardless of how the clinic chose to assign tasks. The board also noted that nobody was monitoring either woman's vital signs while Kioko was operating on them.
The board noted that "In the above cases, [Kioko] performed surgical procedures under conditions that failed to meet appropriate standards for the delivery of quality medical and surgical care. .... In the event that [Kioko} was unable to correct these conditions, the appropriate standard of care required that [he] not perform these procedures at this facility until these conditions were so corrected."
The board also noted that "Kioko demonstrated a serious lack of judgment.... Kioko assumed that his role was limited to performing technical procedures upon anesthetized patients, leaving overall management of the patients to others. Dr. Kioko's gullibility in this regard proved fatal."
Hillview is the facility, and Debra Gray and Suzanne Logan the patients, that 60 Minutes was referring to when they asked Barbara Radford of the National Abortion Federation and Maryland State Senator Mary Boergers about problems with the provision of safe abortion. Radford admitted that she had known about conditions at Hillview but had not warned the public, because "We want to make sure that women have choices when it comes to abortion services, and if you regulate it too strictly, you then deny women access to the service." Boergers indicated that state legislators did nothing to address places like Hillview because "There's only so much of a willingness to try to push a group like the pro-choice movement to do what I think is the responsible thing to do because they then treat you as if you're the enemy."
Dotson said that Margaret started to have breathing and heart problems after the abortion, and that he was uable to revive her. He declared her dead at 3:30 PM of cardiopulmonary failure.
An autopsy revealed that Margaret had suffered acute sickle cell crisis triggered by the abortion.
At first blush this seems like something you can't blame the abortionist for, but there are other cases similar to Margaret's. Betty Hines and "Sheryl" Roe both died of sickle cell crisis triggered by abortions. So it might be that sickle cell crisis is a complication that abortionists can be aware of, alert for, and ready to treat. I don't know enough about sickle cell crisis to be sure.
****
The death of Debra Gray, on the other hand, was a clear case of malpractice, with the clinic and the doctor passing the buck.
Thirty-four-year-old Debra went to Hillview Women's Medical Center for an abortion on July 8, 1989. She went through their conseling procedure and underwent lab work. Debra returned for the actual procedure on July 12. An ultrasound was performed and she was estimated to be 16.5 weeks pregnant. Debra signed an undated consent form for the abortion and anesthesia.
The records don't indicate who initiated IV Brevitol for anesthesia, nor do they document the dosage or concentration, nor Debra's weight or the amount of fluid given. There was also no record of a physical exam or any exam to determine if Debra was an appropriate candidate for this type of anesthesia.
The abortionist, Gideon Kioko, indicated that the nurse and other staff expected the drug to induce "twilight sleep" rather than general anesthesia. There was no anesthesiologist on duty, and no physician supervising the administration of anesthesia medication.
Kioko initiated the abortion. There was no documentation of the effect of the medication, nor of Debra's vital signs. A hospital note indicated that Debra had "responded rather rapidly to the anesthesia" and that three minutes after Kioko had started the abortion, Debra's blood was noted to be "very dark" and she was having trouble breathing. Kioko spent five minutes completing the abortion.
When paramedics arrived, they estimated that Debra's brain had been deprived of oxygen for twelve minutes. Debra had a racing heart, then went into ventricular fibrillation. She was resuscitated, but never regained consciousness. She was pronounced dead on July 15.
The autopsy found traces of heroin in Debra's bloodstream. There was no evidence that the facility had screened Debra for possible drug use.
Hillview staff also allowed Suzanne Logan to suffer an eventually fatal lack of oxygen during an abortion that same year. Suzanne languished in a nursing home for three years before her death.
Kioko made the following excuses to the medical board regarding the fatal abortions:
In the first two cases where Brevital was given, I did not give it, nor did I consent to it. I was not consulted or asked about it. I did not even start intravenous fluids. The decision to administer Brevital was made by the patient and the clinic, and during those [sic] time, I would be called in. I would be notified that "the patient is now asleep, Doctor. You may start the procedure."
....
I, therefore, had nothing to do with the Brevital administered to these two patients. Other contract physicians were also working under similar terms, and, like me, they had nothing to do with the administration of Brevital. I suppose that I was just unlucky at that time and happened to be there when this incident happened.
....
[Regarding Debra Gray]. I understand that [the Brevital] was given by Dr. Barbara Lofton-Clinical Practitioner. My initial contact with the patient was the initial sizing evaulation and to determine the gestational age of the pregnancy. The next contact by me was when the patient was already asleep. As I was finishing the procedure, I called the attention to the administers [sic] of the anesthetic, that the patient's blood was getting unusually dark. At that time, in my view, adequate resuscitation efforts was [sic] immediately instituted with airway established and 911 was called. EKG and oxygen were available and were used. Dr. Taylor, a Cardiology fellow headed the resuscitation effort. It is just not true that adequate resuscitation was not done and that the equipment was not available. Indicenttally, this patient had recently used Opium [sic], though the patient had denied this in her medical history.
The case of [Suzanne Logan] is similar. The patient was put to sleep, with Brevital. I was not in the Operating Room at the time. Once again I was called in to do the procedure once the patient was deemed asleep. I was not consulted, nor did I participate in the decision to give the agent, but once again, I know there was immediate and adequate resuscitation effort. (Please refer to the letter from Dr. [sic] Barbara Lofton). The only case I directly had complete responsibility for is that of ... [Patient C].
The medical board noted that Kioko, as the physician performing the procedure, was still responsible for ensuring that the patient was being provided with appropriate care, regardless of how the clinic chose to assign tasks. The board also noted that nobody was monitoring either woman's vital signs while Kioko was operating on them.
The board noted that "In the above cases, [Kioko] performed surgical procedures under conditions that failed to meet appropriate standards for the delivery of quality medical and surgical care. .... In the event that [Kioko} was unable to correct these conditions, the appropriate standard of care required that [he] not perform these procedures at this facility until these conditions were so corrected."
The board also noted that "Kioko demonstrated a serious lack of judgment.... Kioko assumed that his role was limited to performing technical procedures upon anesthetized patients, leaving overall management of the patients to others. Dr. Kioko's gullibility in this regard proved fatal."
Hillview is the facility, and Debra Gray and Suzanne Logan the patients, that 60 Minutes was referring to when they asked Barbara Radford of the National Abortion Federation and Maryland State Senator Mary Boergers about problems with the provision of safe abortion. Radford admitted that she had known about conditions at Hillview but had not warned the public, because "We want to make sure that women have choices when it comes to abortion services, and if you regulate it too strictly, you then deny women access to the service." Boergers indicated that state legislators did nothing to address places like Hillview because "There's only so much of a willingness to try to push a group like the pro-choice movement to do what I think is the responsible thing to do because they then treat you as if you're the enemy."
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