Safe and Legal Anniversary: Joyce Ortenzio

The survivors of 32-year-old Joyce Ortenzio filed suit against Edward Allred, his Family Planning Associates Medical Group (FPA), the San Vicente Hospital FPA facility, and abortionist Ruben Marmet.

Joyce went to San Vicente for laminaria insertion by Marmet on June 7, 1988. Later, Marmet performed an abortion, but did not remove all of the fetal parts from Joyce's uterus.

The next day, June 8, Joyce was found dead in her home.

The cause of death was an overdose of the drug amitriptyline, infection from fetal parts that were not removed during the abortion, and septic shock.

Joyce left three children motherless.

Joyce is one of many women to die at this NAF facility after the National Abortion Federation was founded. Others known to have died after abortion at Allred's facilities include:

• Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970
  
• Patricia Chacon, age 16, 1984
  
• Mary Pena, age 43, 1984
  
• Josefina Garcia, age 37, 1985
  
• Lanice Dorsey, age 17, 1986
  
• Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988
  
• Susan Levy, age 30, 1992
  
• Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992
  
• Christina Mora, age 18, 1994
  
• Kimberly Neil, 2000
  
• Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004

I suspect that the reason the deaths appear in clusters is because those are years that researchers checked for lawsuits, rather than that these are all the women and girls who died at Allred facilities. Anybody with the time and resources to do so could probably uncover other deaths Allred and his staff have managed to sweep under the carpet.



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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A whole lot of people were looking for 13 week fetus photos

This is a popular search.

First, we can look developmentally. The Visible Embryo doesn't show a 13-weeker, but does show 12 weeks and 14 weeks.

At 12 weeks, "Sucking muscles of mouth fill out cheeks, tooth buds continue to develop and salivary glands begin to function. Scalp (hair) pattern is discernible." The fetus is breathing in and out the amniotic fluid, which helps the lungs to develop. The heart is pumping about 25 quarts of blood every day. The external sex organs are well-enough developed for an observer to determine the sex. "Arms have almost reached final proportion and length, though legs are still quite short relative to fetus' body. Hands, particularly the thumbs, become more functional." Sweat glands have appeared, and the fetus starts growing body hair.

Twelve weeks marks the transition from embryo to fetus, in that now all the structures of the body are in place. They only need to mature.

Over at About.com is a collection of links to ultrasounds of 13-week fetuses. Here is an image of a sound, entact 13-week fetus. Here is a detail of the foot. Here is another entact 13-week fetus, with details labeled.

Now, for those with strong stomachs, we can look at what an abortion does to that fetus. I couldn't find any 13-week fetuses, but I did find this medical illustration of how an abortion is performed at 14 weeks. I'm having a terrible time trying to find clearly labeled 13-week aborted fetuses. For some reason, there's a gap in proper labeling between 11 weeks and about 18 weeks among people posting this sort of picture. You can see the results of an 11-week abortion (VERY GRAPHIC!) here.

Now let's look at the mothers. Here are women who suffered fatal abortions at 13 weeks:

Gail Roe, Brenda Banks, and Suzanne Logan.

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Somebody was looking for abortion clinics in Kentucky

When the ACLU "Helps" Women

Abortionist Ronachai Banchongmanie (a multi-part piece; Bunchamoney was a bad, bad boy!)

Abortionist Ralph Robinson was botching abortions in Tennessee while his Kentucky office was a National Abortion Federation member facility.

About those NAF clinics in Kentucky

Yesterday's anniversaries

I had a long day at work yesterday and didn't get my blogging done. So here are yesterday's abortion anniversaries:

Nicey Washington was 26 years old when she underwent a safe and legal abortion at Ambulatory Surgery Center in Brooklyn, New York, on June 6, 2000.

Her heart stopped after the abortion. She was rushed to Lutheran Hospital at about 11 a.m. Attempts to revive her failed, and she was declared dead at around noon.

A chronic ashtma patient, 27-year-old Sheila Hebert went to Delta Women's Clinic in Baton Rouge for an abortion on June 6, 1984. Shortly after the abortion, Sheila complained of chest pains and difficulty breathing. She lost consciousness, and staff injected her with adrenaline, but were unable to revive her. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died.

The coroner attributed the death to "cardiorespiratory arrest due to acute ashtmatic bronchitis" after "surgical termination of pregnancy."

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Stand Up, Stand Up for Wicca - Christianity Today Magazine

Not Just the Unborn - Stand Up, Stand Up for Wicca - Christianity Today Magazine
A self-identified Wiccan dies in the line of duty, and the Department of Veterans Affairs refuses to allow his widow to put the Wiccan symbol on his grave marker. That's just wrong.

Somebody was looking for Dr. Arnold Bickham

Here's what I already have posted on him:

After her abortion, 18-year-old Sylvia Moore was bleeding, weak, and unable to walk. Bickham (pictured) called her "lazy," put her in a wheelchair, and physically ejected her from his Chicago clinic that New Years Eve of 1986. Not surprisingly, Sylvia died, and the coroner determined the manner of death to be homicide. But no charges were ever filed against Bickham.

Bickham's cost-cutting measures at his Water Tower Reproductive Center cost Sherry Emry her life over the 1977-78 holiday season.

And here's something kinda creepy. I was searching online for up-to-date information on Bickham, and there is an elementary school in Chicago with a principal named Dr. Arnold Bickham. And the photo looks familiar. Could Bickham have become an elementary school principal after losing his medical license? (It was revoked in 1989.) I'm going to call tomorrow and find out if their Dr. Arnold Bickham is the Dr. Arnold Bickham who killed Sylvia Moore.

Here's a question: If it is the same Dr. Arnold Bickham, should I say anything about his past? Or should I let him go about his business, since a high school principal isn't in a position to let anybody die due to poor judgment? And what do you think the odds are that the two Dr. Arnold Bickhams are the same Dr. Arnold Bickham?

I'll be posting more on Bickham here shortly.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Anniversary: The death of Sandra Lynn Chmiel

Sandra Lynn Chmiel was a pretty young mother of four when she went to Biogenetics Ltd. in Chicago for an abortion on June 3, 1975. (NOTE: The current Biogenetics company in Chicago is not affiliated with any abortion facility and was in no way associated with Sandra's death.) Even though 35-year-old Sandra was more than 12 weeks pregnant, the Biogenetics doctor chose to ignore the Illinois law that required abortions aftr 12 weeks to be performed in hospitals.

Within hours of her abortion, Sandra had bled to death from a punctured uterus. Biogenetics (which had been the target of at least 30 malpractice suits) claimed that their doctor was only repairing damage Sandra had done to herself in an attempted self-induced abortion. However, Biogenetics settled the case with Sandra's survivors for $75,000.

Brenda Benton and Synthia Dennard also died after abortions at Biogenetics.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



Biogenetics's owner Kenneth Yellin was gunned down outside his facility in an apparent gangland slaying in 1979.

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