Friday, June 30, 2006

Anniversaries: Two needless deaths

Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Suddeth underwent an abortion by Frank Robinson on June 30, 1982.

On the drive home, Jennifer bled heavily, alarming her live-in boyfriend*, John Fredzess. Fredzess called the clinic repeatedly over the four hours after their return home, but staff would not put the call through to Robinson. One nurse admonished Fredzess to "be realistic" about how severely Jennifer was bleeding. By that time, Jennifer had bled through two pairs of sweat pants, two blankets, and a towel. At last the hysterical man was able to contact Robinson, who insisted that the bleeding was normal and instructed Fredzess to stop calling.

When Jennifer went into convulsions, Fredzess called an ambulance. Parmedics arrived at the home to find Jennifer already dead. Police interviewed the weeping and hysterical Fredzess, then pressed charges against Robinson for involuntary manslaughter in Jennifer's death. Although Robinson beat the rap, the state of California nevertheless counted Jennifer's death as due to illegal abortion.

*With appologies to Zygote, who was troubled by the over-legitimizing of Jennifer's relationship.

***

Kendra McLeod, mother of two, underwent an abortion at a clinic in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on June 12, 1998.

She bled heavily after the abortion. The day after her abortion, she sought help at an emergency room. She had fainted three times by the time she got into the ER.

Doctors at the hospital transfused Kendra with nine units of blood and performed surgery to try to save her life, to no avail. She died on June 30, at the age of 22.

Her family lost a lawsuit against the hospital. Documents do not note if the family sued the abortion provider.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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