Sweet Home Alabama

Abortion clinic cited for violating 10 state laws
Yet another Alabama abortion clinic is in trouble.

Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives was cited for violations including:

Routing patient calls for aftercare to an administrator rather than to a doctor

Routinely failing to document gestational age

Patients sent home after less than 20 minutes in recovery ("You've had your juice and cookies -- now scram!")

Rick Harris of the Bureau of Health Provider Standards said the failure to keep mandatory records, "indicates a kind of sloppiness."

"It makes you wonder, what else are they failing to document?" Harris told reporters. "It's not a sign of bad care, but it's an indicator."

The clinic has submitted a plan of correction and hence will in all likelihood remain open for business.

The unannounced inspection, performed on October 5, was the clinic's first inspection since April of 2001.

Abortion supporters say the current system is working fine.

Yeah, they only killed Leigh Ann Alford and gave RU-486 to a woman with a full-term pregnancy. No problems!

HT: JJ

Safe and legal and a lingering death: Suzanne Logan

Suzanne Logan went to Maryland's Hillview abortion clinic for an abortion on September 9, 1989. Her abortion was performed by Gideon Kioko. She was 13 weeks pregnant.

There was no record of how much intravenous Brevital was administered to Suzanne, or who administered the drug. There was also no record of any examination to determine if this drug was appropriate for Suzanne.

She was already unconscious on the table when Kioko and his nurse entered the procedure room. Kioko was being assisted by an unlicensed nurse, who noted that Suzanne's lips were turning blue. She told Kioko, who continued with the abortion procedure. There is no record that anybody monitored her vital signs or administered oxygen during the procedure.

The nurse summoned Barbara Lofton, who came into the room with Dr. Raymond Taylor, a doctor Hillview used to provide aftercare. Taylor began to attend to Suzanne. Kioko's only contribution to the efforts to revive his patient was to attach an EKG line to one of her arms.

Eventually somebody summoned emergency medical services (EMS). The EMS personnel reported that the Hillview employees seemed "very confused and did not seem to know what they were doing." EMS staff also noted that Hillview staff had put an oxygen mask on Suzanne upside-down, so that she wasn't getting any oxygen.

Suzanne was cyanotic (she had turned blue from lack of oxygen), her pupils were dilated. She was limp, and had no pulse and was not breathing. EMS workers managed to perform CPR and get Suzanne's heart and lungs working again, and transported her to a hospital.

Suzanne remained comatose and was transferred to a nursing home. Four months after the abortion, she regained consciousness, but was paralyzed and unable to speak. She had no memory of the abortion, but was able eventually to recall having gone to the clinic.

Local prolifers visited Suzanne, and bought her a device that allowed her to communicate. She was interviewed by 60 Minutes, and asked what she wanted. She replied, "To go home."

Suzanne filed suit against Kioko and the clinic. In November of 1992, she finally won her suit, and was awarded $2.6 million and $10,000 a month for life, to cover her expenses. Sadly, Suzanne died on December 1, before she had a chance to fulfill her wish of seeing her father again.

Debra Gray also died after an abortion at Hillview. Hillview's owner, Barbara Lofton, had originally opened an abortion clinic in the District of Columbia, but had been closed down for operating without a license. So she'd moved two miles over the border into Maryland, where there were no impeding regulations keeping her from running the facility. A former employee interviewed by 60 Minutes thought that Lofton was a doctor because she dressed like a doctor, answered the phone "Dr. Lofton," and performed medical tasks.

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." ....

Ah, yes. The oft-touted abortion decision "between a woman and her doctor." Who doesn't even enter the room until she's in the stirrups and unconscious.

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. Indicentally, 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."

In other words, no self-respecting doctor would have worked in such a place. In fact, any self-respecting doctor probably ought to have reported the place to the appropriate authorities.

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."

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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"I'm not a saint, just a parent."

Times Online

The human imagination can do many extraordinary things. But we can't imagine love.

I remember my own perplexity at why people would like to work with folks with developmental disabilities. And it was because I couldn't imagine the love. And I can't convey it to anybody else. If you haven't lived it, you don't get it.

I couldn't imagine what it was like to live with a child who had Down's syndrome. I could imagine only the dramatic bits: the difficulties, the people in public places turning away in shock and distaste, the awfulness of a child who couldn't say his own name.

I could speculate on the horrors of living with a child who could not do a thousand things. I could create a dramatic picture of life with a monster. But I could not imagine what it was like to live with Eddie.

....

At the hospital, when they discovered on the scan that Down's syndrome was a possibility, they very kindly offered to kill him for us. They needn't have bothered. My wife is, unlike myself, an exceptional person in the field of loving and caring. .... The idea of not caring for something in your care is an abomination to her. The idea of not caring for her own child was impossible to contemplate.

....

Had life turned out differently, had I been married to another, had that woman preferred to go the way of amniocentesis and termination, I have no doubt that I would have gone along with that, too, and treated parents of Down's syndrome children with a lofty pity.

But, thank God, I did not marry someone else. And that left me with a straightforward choice. I could either say that Eddie wasn’t part of the deal and bugger off, or I could keep on keepin' on with the humdrum routines of life and hope that this would be enough for the arrival into our lives of this unimaginable creature we already knew as Edmund, or Eddie.

....

Is Eddie's slow but continuous education frustrating? Not at all. Progress of any kind is enthralling. It's not about a child passing an exam, it’s about a child growing into himself — and for every parent that is a great and glorious thing.

....

I don’t have a child with Down's syndrome: I am Eddie's father. There is a huge difference between the two things. The first is almost impossible to deal with, the second is the way I live from day to day. I don’t even think about it much.

....

You don't go into parenthood to make sure that the benefits outweigh the deficits: you go into it out of -- brace yourself but no other word will do -- love.

There it is again. The "L" word.

Would I want Eddie changed? It's a silly question but it gets to the heart of the matter. Of course you'd want certain physical things changed: the narrow tubes that lead to breathing problems, for example. But that's not the same as "changed", is it? If you are a parent, would you like the essential nature of your child changed? If you were told that pressing a button would turn him into an infant Mozart or Einstein or van Gogh, would you press it? Or would you refuse because you love the person who is there and real, not some hypothetical other?

I remember the mind-shattering epiphany, when it suddenly struck me that there was nothing, absolutely nothing "wrong" with M. He wasn't broken. He was a sound, whole, magnificent human being just as he was. Not just despite the "retardation." Take that out of the picture, and he wouldn't have been M. Who was fine just the way he was.

The never-disputed terribleness of Down's syndrome is used as one of the great justifications for abortion: abortion has to exist so that we don't people the world with monsters. I am not here to talk about abortion -- but I am here to tell you that Down's syndrome is not an insupportable horror .... I’ll go further: human beings are not better off without Down's syndrome.

A chance gathering in my kitchen: three people. My wife, who has some gypsy blood. Eddie. A friend who is Jewish. And the realisation that, under Hitler, all three would have been bound for the ovens. Down's syndrome, any more than Jewishness or gipsyhood, is not something that needs to be wiped out for the good of humanity. Down's syndrome is not the end of the world. In fact, for me it was the beginning of one.

I am not here to make judgments on those who have gone for termination, being unwilling to cope with something that they could not imagine. I am here to tell everybody that Eddie is my son and he’s great.

I have a life that a lot of people envy. .... I live in a nice house in the country, I keep five horses and as a family we are comfortably off. For all these things people envy me. But I have a child with Down's syndrome and for that, people pity me. And I am here to say: wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I am not to be pitied but to be envied.

HT: Mary Meets Dolly

Ironic concern du jour

Both sides unhappy on abortion clinic rules

Pro-choice advocates said some of the proposed changes in ... regulations may result in fewer abortion clinics and a return to dangerous back-alley abortions of a forgotten era.

1. As if what's been happening in Alabama lately is some sort of improvement over pre-legalization abortions.

2. Given their propensity for waving coathangers around, I think these guys have a hard time claiming that pre-legalization days are a "forgotten era." Au contraire. Prochoicers go on endlessly about the pre-legalization days the way old people lecture about "When I was your age!"

Call for information: Spring Adams

I'm writing a piece on Spring Adams, the 13-year-old Idaho girl who was shot dead by her abusive father while prochoice groups diddled around arranging a secret abortion rather than reporting the incestuous rape that had caused the pregnancy in the first place.

Articles use the following cites, which I can't access from Korea:

Miller, "Rocky Adams Stuns Court With New Plea," Idaho Statesman, August 23, 1989

Ensunsa, "Agencies Set Up Adams' Abortion," Idaho Statesman, August 30, 1989

Ensunsa, "Adams Charged With Murder," Idaho Statesman, August 23, 1989

Maggie Boule, "An American Tragedy," Sunday Oregonian, 27 Aug. 1989

NY Times gets it wrong. Again. In a big way.

New York Times Caught in Abortion-Promoting Whopper - Infanticide Portrayed as Abortion

Hitt described his visit to Carmen Climaco in prison. "I was there to see Carmen Climaco. She is now 26 years old, four years into her 30-year sentence," wrote Hitt. .... "She'd had a clandestine abortion at 18 weeks, not all that different from D.C.'s, something defined as absolutely legal in the United States. It's just that she'd had an abortion in El Salvador."

However, court records from the case ... indicate that the case was actually one of infanticide rather than illegal abortion. While it was investigated on the suspicion of an illegal abortion, authorities found the dead baby hidden in a box wrapped in bags under the bed of Mrs. Climaco.

Moreover, forensic examination showed that it was a full term (38-42 weeks gestation) normal delivery, and that the child was breathing at the time of birth. The legal opinion of the cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation.

Cardenal also points out that the main source of information for Hitt came from a pro-abortion group called IPAS. She notes that the group stands to profit financially from the legalization of abortion in El Salvador since it sells vacuum aspirators used for abortion and incomplete abortion.

Why doesn't the NY Times have the reputation it deserves? Weekly World News has more journalistic integrity!

Fatuity at its finest

Women are finding it more acceptable to have an abortion than to drift into an unplanned pregnancy, the head of Britain's leading abortion agency said yesterday.

Excuse me? If she's getting an abortion, she has already "drifted into an unplanned pregnancy." Women who aren't pregnant generally don't submit to abortions.

And I like the "drift into." It's not like she actually does anything to precipitate the pregnancy in question. She just "drifts into" it. You know, the way a rudderless sailboat drifts onto a sandbar. It's not like the women in question have any control of their lives and their choices. They're just blown hither and thither, hapless and helpless.

"Parenting is considered to be very important and is taken seriously these days," she said.

Yeah, and all the generations of women who came before saw motherhood as trivial and frivolous.

"[Y]ou could argue that among many groups of people in society abortion is seen as a more responsible response to being a victim of uncontrolled fertility," she said.

So women who get pregnant when they didn't intend to do are just "victims of uncontrolled fertility." Who, pray tell, failed to control the fertility in question? Maybe the women who didn't take their fertility seriously until they got pregnant. Who thought that this powerful force of nature could be controlled as easily as popping a pill every morning. Who thought that separating sex from procreation -- overriding possibly the most powerful biological force in the universe -- was a matter of course.

Watch out! "Uncontrolled fertility" is lurking in closets like the Bogeyman, leaping out and victimizing unsuspecting women!

And how can you square the whole "sexual empowerment" concept with the woman being a hapless victim of her own body's natural functions? "It's my evil ovaries! They're out to get me!"

This one wins the "Paging Captain Obvious" Award:

The BPAS says that the opportunity to get pregnant is greater as more women are sexually active for longer, with no intention of starting a family. Contraception could fail and couples would sometimes fail to use contraception.

Gosh, I'd never have made the connection between having sex when you don't want to get pregnant and getting pregnant when you don't want to be. Not. This ain't rocket science, lady.

Read it all here.

Remembering the 2003 death in Alabama

Leigh Ann Stephens Alford, age 34, underwent an abortion at the hands of Dr. Malachy DeHenre (pictured) at Summit Medical Center of Alabama, a National Abortion Federation member clinic, on November 25, 2003.

Leigh Ann was discharged from the clinic 20 minutes after her abortion, according to a lawsuit filed by her husband. Within six hours, he said, he called the facility to report that Leigh Ann was suffering pain and fever. She died about 18 hours after the clinic had sent her home. Death was attributed to hemorrhagic shock from an unrecognized uterine perforation.

DeHenre's medical license was suspended in Mississippi and Alabama after the death. DeHenre, age 53, also performed abortions at New Woman Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, as well as his own Jackson's Women's Health Organization.

Alabama suspended DeHenre's license as of July 28. The Mississippi suspension was expedited, rather than addressed in a board meeting that had been scheduled for September 16. An Associated Press article quotes Dr. W. Joseph Burnett, executive director of the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure: "We couldn‘t wait another day to take action. He won‘t be practicing in Mississippi."

The Alabama medical board concluded that DeHenre‘s practice was conducted in such a way as to "endanger the health of patients," and found that he had committed "repeated malpractice."

DeHenry was also investigated after an abortion he performed on March 20, 2003. That patient began to hemorrhage and was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she underwent a total hysterectomy.

For more about the wretched state of Alabama abortion facilities, read Another Alabama abortion clinic in trouble.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Safe and Legal Anniversary: "Monica"

"Monica" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by an abortion. Monica died during the pre-Roe days of legal abortion, which saw many maternal deaths documented, particularly in New York and California.

According to LDI, Monica was a 31-year-old mother of five. She requested an abortion when she was 8 weeks pregnant, but the abortion was delayed about a month in order to address "some health, personal and administrative problems."

Her doctor decided that it was best to simply remove Monica's uterus with the fetus still in it. The hysterectomy was done under general anesthesia with no apparent complications.

On the second day after surgery, Monica developed fever and nausea, and had no bowel sounds. The next day she felt unwell and had a distended abdomen. The next day, she felt better and resumed eating, but still had not had a bowel movement.

Six days after the surgery, November 26, 1971, Monica began to scream and vomit. She reported severe abdominal pain and couldn't see. Within an hour of the onset of these symptoms, Monica died.

The autopsy revealed grim findings. Monica had a severe infection that had interfered with her bowel function. As she continued to eat but not to have bowel movements, her bowels backed up, allowing gastric juices to enter her lungs and begin to digest them. She also had bacteria in her brain, which may have caused her blindness in the final hour of her life.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Help! DS/neural tube defect abortion stats needed

A journalist has asked for cites on the rates of abortion for babies with Down Syndrome and neural tube defects. I sent him what I could find quickly but I'm not satisfied with the quality of what I found in my search. Does anybody have good cites? Online is good but I'm sure he knows how to use a library if you just have a medical journal cite.

Why can you never find something when you need it?

That's not an elephant

It's undifferentiated nonviable intrauterine tissue. On a mammoth scale.

Thanksgiving tragedy: Michelle Madden

Eighteen year old Michelle Madden, a coed, sought an abortion from O.B. Evans at Family Planning Medical Center of Mobile, Alabama in November of 1986. Michelle had been taking medication for epilepsy, and a doctor had told her that her baby would have birth defects.

When Michelle's parents arrived at the college to take her home for Thanksgiving, the house mother had sad news for them. Three days after the abortion, Michelle had collapsed. She had been taken to the hospital, where doctors found a leg bone, two pieces of skull, and some placenta still in her uterus. The surgery to save her life was too late. Sepsis had already set in, and Michelle died three days after she was admitted.

Her parents sued Evans and the facility, and in 1991 a jury awarded them $10 million in damages.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Can you change your mind about a "need"?

Abortion advocates ensure us that women only have abortions they "need". How, then, can they explain why some women change their minds after a failed abortion attempt? If the birth of this baby is truly going to utterly ruin the woman's life, wouldn't she still "need" the abortion when she learned it had failed to kill the fetus?

"Liz" has an abortion at a Planned Parenthood on September 22, 1990. As it turned out, the pre abortion ultrasound had shown a twin pregnancy, but only one twin was aborted. Planned Parenthood was short staffed when it came time for Liz's 3-week follow-up appointment, so they canceled it. Liz repeatedly attempted to reschedule, but the phone would be busy when she called at 8 AM as instructed, and when she would call later in the morning they would tell her to call back again at 8 AM because that is their time for scheduling appointments. Liz later returned to Planned Parenthood for a counseling appointment in October, but she was not given an examination. During her annual physical in February of 1991, her doctor discovered that the surviving fetus was still gestating. Although Liz feared that the abortion attempt had harmed the surviving fetus, she continued the pregnancy. The surviving fetus was born on May 16, 1991.

"Glenda" had an abortion at a Family Planning Associates facility on August 20, 1981, and was assured that "the abortion ... had been successful and that she was no longer pregnant." The abortion had failed to kill the fetus, however, and Glenda had the baby.

"Emily" had a suction abortion by Basil Bisca on September 24, 1983. The lab report indicated that "only a few fetal tissue were seen which was a direct indication that it was very likely that the pregnancy was not interrupted during the abortion procedure." Emily's pregnancy continued, and she gave birth to a full term infant on April 29, 1984.

Sixteen-year-old "Tawnya" had an abortion done by Joseph Booker at New Woman Medical Center September 29, 1990. Booker did not send the tissues to the lab, and therefore did not realize that he'd removed a portion of the placenta but had left the fetus alive and entact. Four and a half months later Tawnya gave birth by C-section to premature infant boy who died from multiple birth defects about five hours later. Tawnya sued not only for the failed abortion, but for the premature birth and death of her baby, blaming the prematurity and death on damage done by the abortion attempt. She was given a $75,000 verdict by the jury.

"Lena" had an abortion by Dr. Gay Boyle at Birmingham Women's Medical Clinic November 21, 1982. Although staff there assured her that the abortion had been successful, she learned later that the fetus had survived and that she was in the second trimester of pregnancy. When she informed the facility, they advised her to have another abortion because the fetus might have been harmed by the abortion attempt. Nevertheless, Lena chose to continue to term despite considerable emotional distress caused by worry about the baby, who was born July 23, 1983.

"Latisha" had a positive pregnancy test on December 30, 1981. The staff at Her Medical Clinic recommended an abortion, which she had that day. When she returned to Her Medical Clinic on February 22, 1982, they told her she was still pregnant. Latisha "could not bear the emotional trauma of a repeat abortion at that stage in her pregnancy," so she had the baby.

"Kathleen" had an abortion at Women's Health Center of West County April 13, 1984. When she reported for Army Basic Training a few weeks later, she was found to be 13 weeks pregnant. Kathleen was discharged from the Army, and gave birth to her baby on October 19, 1984.

"Peg" had a D&C abortion at Dr. Burton Krafte's office when she was eight weeks pregnant. Upon returning for a follow up visit, Peg was discovered to be 18 weeks pregnant. She had the baby.

"Addie" had abortion done by Marvin K. Levin at Family Planning Centers on November 1, 1978. When she returned on December 20 for her follow-up appointment, she told them that she still felt pregnant, but they assured her that the abortion had been successful. Addie went to a clinic for a pregnancy test on January 9 of 1979, and was informed that she was indeed still pregnant. By then, Addie was 14 weeks pregnant and decided to carry to term.

If, as abortion advocates would have you believe, women seeking abortions are adamant that they "need" them, then wouldn't women always have a second "safe and legal" abortion to kill the fetus that survived a first abortion attempt? The fact that a cursory glance through my notes found these cases, and more, should give us pause. Is abortion something women are really so sure about? Or is it something they resort to in a moment of crisis, something that they're ambivalent enough about to change their minds even after undergoing an abortion procedure to get rid of the "unwanted" fetus?

It's addictive...

Sorry, can't resist. This is the cheesiest music video of all time. It's so bad it's good.

It just doesn't get any better than this!

Introducing FFL's college outreach spokeswoman

Choosing Life: A Birth Mother's Story, told by Julia Thornton, a speaker for the Feminists for Life College Outreach Program:

When I went to speak with my college counselor, I was not referred to a pregnancy resource organization such as Birthright. I didn’t have access to a resource center that provides information on the medical, legal and housing issues that I was facing. Get an abortion, I was told. What more information could you want?

If we as a nation don't try to lessen their burden, then more young women will feel as if they are left with no choice but to either terminate their pregnancy or drop out of school. This is a moral and social failure we can no longer ignore.

I got to experience a college pregnancy, too. Though I was married and the pregnancy was planned, there was still pressure from society to abort. Thank God my classmates and professors, and the other staff at the university, were supportive and understanding. Every woman deserves such support. It ought not to be a flukey thing.

Another Alabama clinic in trouble

New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, is best known as the facility were an off-duty police officer was killed, and a nurse critically injured, in a 1998 bombing ultimately tied to Eric Rudolph, the Olympic Park bomber. But now New Woman All Women is in the news for internal problems: their administrator, a registered nurse, was caught purchasing narcotics through the clinic and diverting them for her own use.

The drug violations were the most serious that health inspectors found in an inspection that concluded on September 21. Health officials found "the medications Tylenol with Codeine and Hydrocodone had been ordered and received by the facility," but there was no documentation indicating that the use of those medications for patients had been approved by the medical director.

The inspection report is not yet available on the health department web site. According to an Associated Press article, posted November 17 on the Ledger-Enquirer web site, other violations included "patients not being given preoperative medication on time, failure to verify whether pregnancy tests were given and failure to assure that ultrasounds were done."

The administrator, whose name I have been unable so far to determine, had her license revoked by the state due to the drug abuse. Clinic owner Diane Derzis told the AP that she was "fired on the spot" when inspectors uncovered the problem.

Rick Harris, Director of the Alabama Bureau of Health Provider Standards, stressed that the drug violation was the most serious problem uncovered in the inspection. He told the Associated Press, "Anybody could have a drug using employee, but the problem is the administrator's using the center's drugs to help her replenish her supply. That was the problem with the lack of proper management."

New Woman All Women's license will most likely be downgraded to probationary status. Clinic attorneys indicated that they planned to agree to the move. The clinic will be on probation for up to a year, and will be monitored closely during that time. Failure to correct all the problems within the year will result in license revocation.

New Woman All Women is not the only Alabama abortion clinic to attract attention in the past year.

Reproductive Health Services in Montgomery had been shut down in August after investigators found it had been operating for about a year without a backup physician. Such a physician would treat patients who had complications when the primary physician was unavailable. The clinic was also cited for lack of proper follow-up care for patients. In one case, an emergency room physician called to ask for guidance in treating a RHS patient who had come to him with complications; the RHS nurse infromed him that all of their doctors were out of town and thus unavailable. She told this physician "I guess it's your problem." Reproductive Health Services was permitted to re-open under probationary status. The inspection report is available here

Summit Medical Center in Birmingham was permanently closed in June after a woman, diagnosed by a nurse at Summit as being six weeks pregnant, was given abortion drugs without a doctor's prescription. Six days later the woman was rushed to a hospital, where she delivered a dead, near-term infant. The clinic had discharged the woman with the drugs, without referring her for proper care, even though she was suffering from dangerously high blood pressure. Summit is the clinic where Malachy DeHenre (pictured) performed the fatal abortion on Leigh Ann Alford in 2003. Summit's inspection reports are available here and here.

Beacon Women's Center, the Montgomery office of Summit Medical Center was put on probation last month. The inspection report citing deficiencies is available here. Among problems found were failure to properly log when patients were hospitalized for complications, and multiple medication-related violations.

All three of these providers are (or were, in the case of Summit) National Abortion Federation member facilities.

Harris told the Associated Press, "This will make three [abortion] clinics on probation and one that has lost its license. When four out of ten of the industry gets licensing action, that's a high number. That's a real high number."

The Temples of Choice - Sacked by "Fundamentalists"

The blog at MotherJones.com laments Abortion Clinics Resurrected as Fundamentalist Chapels: "The practice seems reminiscent of the Dark-Age sacking of mosques....."

Sorry, but this one is just to rich to resist. It's like a big old slice of cheesecake -- you just gotta take a bite. So here goes:

Hardcore abortion advocates -- at least the ones at MotherJones.com -- do indeed consider abortion to be the sacrament of their religion, and the mean old right-to-lifers are desecrating the temples of choice!

Three illegal anniversaries

On November 18, 1942, 26-year-old Madeline McGeehan died at Prospect Hospital in New York after an illegal abortion. Arrested were Dr. Joseph Nisonoff; his nurse, Camille Ewald; his receptionist, Pearl Tense; and Dr. Max J. Weinstein, who was thought to have referred Madeline to Nisonoff.

Nisonoff was out on bail after being charged with performing another abortion, which the woman survived. A man identified as Madeline's friend, Henry Elters, was held as a material witness. Nisonoff was sentenced to 5 years in state prison, and Weinstein was sentenced to the city penitentiary.

****

Joyce Chorney, age 25, died Wednesday, November 18, 1953. An autopsy was performed at Bellevue Hospital. It showed that she had died of an induced abortion. Fifty-four-year-old Dr. Alfred Joseph was charged with criminal abortion in her death.

****

Virginia Hopkins Watson had been on a record-setting relay swimming team with Esther Williams in 1939, and had herself set the world's fifty-meter record in 1938.

Virginia was 32 years old and pursuing a Hollywood career when she became pregnant in 1954. Deciding that a baby would hurt her career, Virginia arranged to have an abortion on November 18. Her husband learned of the pregnancy and the abortion a few hours before Virginia's death from peritonitis at General Hospital in Los Angeles, California.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Rape case underscores need for lotal attention to mills

Protesters' photos may be clue in rape case

Detective Jimmy Long, an investigator in Bryant, Ark., was building a case on a man suspected of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl. Long had a tip that the man got her pregnant and brought her to the Hope Clinic for Women here for an abortion.

That happens to be where Daniel and Angela Michael have camped out for years photographing just about every car that comes in the parking lot. As founders of Small Victories Ministries, they oppose abortion.

This week, Long stumbled across the couple while doing an Internet search on the clinic.

"When I called them, I thought my chances were slim to none," Long said in a telephone interview. "But I called anyway. And it turns out they had them."

What the couple had, police and Daniel Michael said, were three pictures that could prove to be critical.

If you're keeping tabs on your local abortion facility, when a crime happens law enforcement will be able to find you if you maintain a web site, if only a blog. Make note of anything suspicious or unusual. This was how prolifers in Florida solved a bomb scare, and now how these folks have helped a rape investigation.

There are plenty of national-level "Why abortion sucks" web sites and blogs. There are painfully few local ones that keep close tabs on local wrongdoing. Who knows? You might be the ones to help the cops put a child-rapist away next time. And if nothing else, a woman considering an abortion at some fly-by-night might re-think her decision if she's seeing what a cesspool the place is. Even if she still aborts, your efforts to publicize butchery may have saved her from injury or death.

You just never know.

UPDATE: Ministry's photograph gives evidence of forced abortion

"The detective asked, 'Do you have the car?' 'Yes.' 'Do you have the plate?' 'Yes.' And I read it to him."

"And in the background I heard the clicking of the handcuffs," Angela Michael said, along with the comment "We've got him."

How many rapists would be caught, how many girls spared further abuse, if clinics really did do the mandated reporting, instead of placing the responsibility on the girls?

OT: Police brutality incident

Got this email from Sarah at Abort73.com:

Major 'police' brutality. A student was in the UCLA library. Campus police asked him for an id card. He had forgotten his, so he was ordered to leave. He took a few minutes leaving, (maybe gathering up his things, or printing out information for his term paper) and they grabbed him and started roughly pulling him toward the door. They may have twisted his arm too. He yelled at them to let him go. He was also a Muslim student, incidentally. After he yelled at the officers to let him go and stop hurting him, they tasered him. As he screamed and writhed on the floor, they yelled at him to stand. (It's impossible to stand when you get tasered. Electicity courses through you and every muscle screams with pain. They also lock. He COULD NOT get up no matter how much he may have wanted to) he yelled at them about police brutality. He was in agony. For the next ten minutes, they repeatedly shocked him again and again as he lay on the floor, all the while demanding he get up. Students nearby were shocked and tried to tell them to stop- begged the campus police to stop. These were campus police rent-a-cops, not even certified to arrest people.
Well, one girl asked for the officers badge number, and witnesses say they threatened to tase her too if she didnt' mind her own business. It is shocking how such a thing could happen in the U.S. I am contacting UCLA to urge them to immediately fire the two thugs, and I hope the kid presses charges and jail them for assault. And I hope he sues them for every penny they have AND the school.


The video of the incident is at http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/11/16/ucla-student-tasered-in-library/

No hope for raped teen at Hope Clinic

Police Say Arkansas Man Raped Teen, Forced Her to Have Abortion
Arkansas police have arrested 41 year-old Jeffery Cheshier, and charged him with repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl. After Cheshier was arrested, the girl told police that he had taken her across state lines to Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, where he'd forced her to submit to an abortion.

Sidewalk counselor Angela Michael told LIfeNews that she wad contacted by police from the girl's home town, "to see if we had any information concerning this case and we informed them we had evidence confirming a crime had been committed." Michael was able to provide a photo of the suspect's car at the clinic, and indicated that she had also seen the victim there on the day in question.

Sally Burgess, Hope's director, told television station KSDK-TV that she knows nothing about the case. They quoted her as saying, "Anytime a teenager lets on to us that she's in any sort of jeopardy, we are going to do what's in her best interest and that's report it to the authorities."

I like the part where the girl has the responsibility to "let on to" them that "she's in any sort of jeopardy." The fact that a 15-year-old girl's been brought in from a state with parental involvement laws ought to have been a bit of a red flag, I'd think.

KSDK's coverage, Granite City Abortion Clinic Part Of Rape Investigation, says:

In Illinois, juveniles do not need parental consent for an abortion. When we asked the Madison County State's Attorney's Office if clinics are required to notify police when a juvenile has an abortion, we were referred to the Hope Clinic who told us such notification is not mandatory.

That's freaking amazing -- the TV station's reporters call the State's Attorney's Office for information about the law, and they get referred to the abortion facility! Doesn't the State's Attorney General's office know the law? Do they have to have Hope Clinic interpret it for them?

Hope Clinic for Women is the National Abortion Federation member clinic where Barbaralee Davis underwent her fatal abortion.

Interestingly enough, the Missouri Supreme Court is considering whether to uphold a law allowing parents to sue an abortion facility for complicity in just such occasions -- when an adult takes their child out of state to evade Missouri parental involvement laws. Hope Clinic in particular is criticized for advertising in Missouri to attract customers who are seeking to evade the law.

Tennessee "Choose Life" plates to be available December 1

Tennessee Choose Life License Plates Available Starting Next Month

On a gut level, I understand the fear and loathing hardcore abortion advocates have for "Choose Life" plates. How can you counter such a message without coming out as, well, against life? But where's the famous respect for free speech, and for the principle of choice? Ought motorists not to be permitted to choose to encourage the choice they favor? And if you're on the cusp about abortion to where the sight of a license plate's gonna change your mind, I'd not say you'd made a very firm decision.

Come up with an alternative plate, guys, if you want an "opposing viewpoint."

Does anybody have a link to that site where they're trying to come up with an alternative plate, one that counters the idea that choosing life is a good thing? And there's a snarky site someplace where prolifers have proposed abortion-advocacy speciality plates.

Conscience protection for health workers stands

Court Backs Abortion Law Protecting Pro-Life Medical Personnel, Facilities

Kicking around ideas

There seems to be room for some common ground in the idea that women ought to be afforded some sort of counseling, information, consultation, what-have-you, prior to an abortion, to ensure that she really does know the risks, that she isn't being pushed or coerced, that she really does know the resources that are available to her in her community.

Some folks lean toward the responsibility for this lying on the abortion facility. Others indicate that this isn't their job, that they're the providers of a surgical service that's already been chosen. But what other surgery allows self-referral?

So I'm gonna toss out a few ideas.

1. David Reardon proposed an idea I like: A designated entity -- maybe public health officials, which I believe was the people Reardon suggested, though I think a reference librarian could do the job -- would maintain date-stamped information about abortion risks, and fetal development, and what resources are available to the woman in her community. It would be up to each abortion practitioner which information to share with a patient, but if she was dissatisfied afterward, and the time-stamped information was not shared with her in the consult, the practitioner is open to a lawsuit for having fallen short on informed consent.

2. The fairly standard "informed consent," which has its problems because the information tends to be gathered by those who favor birth, and when clinic staff offer it to the women (I get this from NAF tapes), the woman is told something like, "I'm required by law to offer you this packet of lies and misinformation designed to try to frighten, intimidate, and shame you. If you want it, sign here. If you don't, sign here." But there could be ways around that.

3. Abortions being done by referral only, and the referring physician is responsible for the informed consent.

4. Abortions being done by referral, but the referral can be from any approved counseling entity, which can be a Planned Parenthood, social worker, physician, nurse-practitioner, or other professional.

5. Abortions can only be done if the clinic has some documentation that the woman has visited a doctor, social worker, PP, CPC, etc.

I'm just tossing up ideas here. I'm not particularly enamored of any of them, other than that I like Reardon's idea because it puts the enforcement in the women's hands. But the drawback is that the woman has to realize that she had that redress.

Anybody? The field is open.

The Weblog Awards open for 2006 nominations

Go here to see the categories, then click on a link to nominate. All you have to do is leave a message, with the name of the blog and the URL to the main page.

I've recommended The Dawn Patrol both for Best Blog and Best Individual Blog. I'm always getting food for thought there.

Twins, one with DS, need adoptive home

Avert thine eyes, Tlaloc, lest thou be scandalized by seeing the nasty right-to-lifers placing another kid with an adoptive family. The rest of you, let's get the word out.



This is Bryce.

Bryce is three months old and has just left the hospital to stay with a temporary family until he has a permanent home. Bryce was born prematurely and has had some surgery to repair intestinal problems.... There is a possibility that he may need a heart surgery when he has gained enough weight and become strong enough to handle. The tubes you see in the picture are temporarily supplying oxygen to keep his levels up.

Bryce has a twin sister and the birth mother would like an open adoption. They live in Colorado.

The agency handling this adoption is Loving Hands. They are hoping to find an already-licensed family in Colorado. There will be fees involved, but I always encourage families who would like to adopt but are prevented by fees to ask their church for help. Also there is a tax credit of $10,630 for adoption expenses - not a deduction, but an actual credit against taxes you owe).

If you may be able to provide a home for Bryce, please contact Crystal Gerlock of Loving Hands at cgerlock@yahoo.com.

Let me suggest that if you feel an urge to adopt Bryce but you are not licensed or close to completing the home study process, then this is probably not the baby for you. Getting licensed takes at least six months and Bryce needs a home now. The urge that you feel may be God nudging you towards adopting, yes - and that would mean that you should start taking steps to prepare yourself to receive the baby God has intended for you. I believe that God truly has a plan in these adoptions - how else to explain that when you hold your baby for the first time that leap in your heart that bonds you forever? But you have to do the legwork in advance to be ready when that child comes along.

Let's all be praying for Bryce to find his way to his family.

Amen.

I'll also be sending out emails. Bloggers, let's get moving!

PS: After Abortion gives this wonderful update of the results of our September 2004 blog-a-thon to find an adoptive home for a DS baby slated for abortion by a mom who was making a choice based on fear:

I've met with baby Kristy, and she is wonderful! She was born on January 5, and is cute as a button.

She has no heart problems, and no hearing problems. Mom is madly in love with her daugher, and grandma and aunt and uncles also adore her. Mom is so very glad that others showed the worth of her baby before she could even begin to love her.

I thank you all so very much for your outpouring of love for this family. God continue to bless you and yours.

Because I've received over 600 e-mails originally, pls do not respond to this e-mail. We have other clients to take care of, and I'd be swamped once again. Please do know that I truly appreciated your concern and your prayers for this mom and her baby.

Geri
Shield of Roses

See, Tlaloc? We're not monsters. These babies aren't suffering horrible fates because we're seeking homes for them.

Discovered this past February: "Adelle" Roe's death

I checked the searches that had brought people to my blog, and noted that somebody had been looking for Mi Yong Kim in Fairfax. All I had on Kim was a malpractice case from 1974.

Since this was an old case, I checked online to see what else I could find. My first stop was the Virginia medical board. I learned that Kim had lost her privileges at Fairfax Hospital in 1999, and voluntarily surrendered her license in the state of New York in 2000. But despite that, Kim is listed as practicing at NOVA Healthcare in Fairfax, Virginia.

The first disciplinary document revealed the Kim had accidentally started an abortion on a 26.5-weeks-pregnant woman in her office on May 17, 1997, when she'd originally thought the patient was only 8 weeks pregnant.

The second document revealed a sad, shocking surprise.

A woman identified as "Patient A" (I'll call her "Adelle"), was 26 years old and had a history of anemia and sickle cell disease. Kim did not order proper lab studies, document an appropriate history, or perform a proper exam on Adelle before performing an abortion on her on November 16, 2002. Kim administered 25 mg of Versed to Adelle, in response to her reports of pain, over a 10-minute period, without giving the medicine time to take effect.

Kim told the medical board that she didn't give Adelle any analgesia for pain because she gives enough Versed to cause amnesia so that the patient can't remember the pain. The board noted that Kim lacked judgment and knowledge of intravenous conscious sedation and that she was not fit to supervise a CRNA.

At the end of the abortion, Kim noted that Adelle's pulse oximeter reading was only 70%, an alarming finding. Kim thought she found a pulse, didn't assess whether or not Adelle was breathing, and simply ordered her staff to give Adelle oxygen by mask and call 911.

Kim administered Romazicon to reverse the effects of the Versed, but did not notice that Adelle had gone into cardiac arrest. As such, Kim made no effort to resuscitate her. The ambulance crew arrived and transported Adelle to the hospital, where she was declared dead from possible air embolism.

The medical board noted that Kim was not certified in Advanced Cardiopulmonary Life Support, nor was she or anybody else on her staff qualified to perform an intubation or use crash cart equipment. Kim did not document the operative report for Adelle. Kim told the board that the police had told her not to make any further notes in her file.

The board did not suspend or yank Kim's license, instead noting that she was making improvements in her quality of care. She was instead placed under stipulations regarding her use of anesthesia in her office and her record-keeping.

Kim called her office "Landmark Women's Center", falsely giving the impression that it was a clinic.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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"You never know who is reading"

This blog post, while not aimed at me, gave me a nice kick in the pants about getting nasty. Bad Chrissie! (Smacks self on back of hands. Both hands, since I type with both of them.)

A Cry for Justice

For those who can't make it the whole way to San Francisco for West Coast Walk for Life, or to DC for March for Life -- or for those who want more than just a rally and march -- there will be A Cry for Justice in Wichita, hosted by Operation Rescue West:

Friday, January 19, 2007: Operation Rescue will kick off the event with street activism at the gate of Tiller’s infamous late-term abortion mill. Operation Rescue will call upon the new Attorney General Paul Morrison to enforce Kansas laws and prosecute Tiller for illegal late-term abortions and concealment of child rape. There are plans for a special meeting at a local church in the evening.

Saturday, January 20: Since the abortion clinic is scheduled to be closed, Operation Rescue will hold A Cry for Justice Conference featuring nationally known speakers. Attendees will be encouraged and equipped to stop abortion and save innocent lives in their hometowns.

Sunday, January 21: There will be a Worship Service at the now closed Central Women’s Services abortion mill that was purchased earlier this year by Operation Rescue. At that time, there will be a Christian dedication of that building to God’s work on behalf of Life. The afternoon will be filled with outreach in keeping with Ephesians 5:11. There are also plans for a Candlelight Prayer Vigil at Tiller’s abortion mill on the eve of the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Monday, January 22: The 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade will be capped with a rescue outreach and a memorial service and Tiller’s mill. Other activities are to be announced.

The three events are different in tone as well as location. Those of a more liberal political bent, such as prolife atheists, gays and lesbians, Unitarians, etc., might be more comfortable at West Coast Walk for Life. But I've only ever experienced March for Life in person myself. Seek out the Feminists for Life or PLAGAL (Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians) at March for Life if you tend to lean left. You can spot their banners pretty easily, outnumbered as they are. West Coast Walk for Life tends to get some pretty aggressive counter-protesters, whereas March for Life doesn't draw much opposition. I think the attitude is, "Let's not pay any more attention to them than we have to." Or maybe they just hate being so outnumbered. But each time I've attended there have been fewer and fewer counter-protesters. God only knows what the atmosphere will be like in Wichita.

Maslow was wrong

Climbing Maslow's Pyramid

Dr. Maslow identified the universal needs of every human being and classified them going from most basic to highest. His claim was that a person would not be able to realize his true potential and attend to his higher needs unless his lower needs were met. For example someone who is on the brink of starvation will not worry about getting his doctorate (unless trying to get his doctorate is the cause of his starvation).

....

On the surface, Maslow's argument makes sense. One occupied with basic survival will not have the time or energy to worry about making the social register, being published or receiving the Nobel prize. The ephemeral would be eclipsed by the basic physiological requirements of existence.

Although Dr. Maslow's model is one of the few things that I remember from psychology 101, it is easy to disprove. Firstly, much of the world's art and literature has come from people starving in garrets and living hand to mouth under leaky roofs. Need proof? Just go have a look at a Van Gogh or listen to Mozart. We wouldn't have much of our art and music if it weren't for starving writers and musicians living in angst and poverty.

....

But the main thing wrong with Maslow's premise is that it goes counter to the basic premise of Judaism. The greatest self-actualization according to Judaism is achieving closeness to G-d. And the way to achieve closeness to G-d is to perform mitzvahs, the 613 commandments. Mitzvahs have no prerequisite preconditions. You do not need to be rich or even have a roof over your head to do a mitzvah. A person who doesn't have a lot to eat but makes a blessing on the food and shares it with others has sanctified both the food and himself before G-d. A person who doesn't earn much money but tithes it to share with those less well off than himself has performed an act of selflessness that defies his lower nature.

Maslow's premise, that we can only reach the higher parts of ourselves when our lowest needs are met doesn't take into account, our divine soul. It reduces our soul to the level of an animal. People have the tremendous capacity to overcome their circumstances and act in noble and G-dly ways even when they don't have all the resources at their disposal.

Believers of all stripes would do well to read the entire thing. Unbelievers are welcome, but I don't know that you'll come away with anything useful to you.

Call for information: Christelle Morrison

I've found Christelle Morrison mentioned on several sites as an abortion survivor. All the stories indicate the same thing: That on a winter night (some specify November 14, 1979), somebody found an abandoned 28-week, 2-pound baby girl in a field in rural Nevada, and that the baby was adopted by one of the NICU nurses that had cared for her.

But I've not been able to track down the information that led Susan to believe that Christelle had been aborted, rather than just born prematurely. Was she saline-scarred? Marks of instrumentation? Does anybody know how to contact either Susan or Christelle? Or any source materials?

I'd intended to blog on Christelle today as an abortion survivor but I can't verify that she was one.

Safe-n-Legal: Twila Coulter

On November 13, 1972, 21-year-old Twila Coulter traveled from her home in Colorado to California for a saline abortion.

Twila was injected with the saline on November 13, then expelled the dead fetus and the placenta the following day. Twila had no blood pressure and was bleeding from IV sites. She was given oxygen and three units of blood and transferred to a fully-equipped hospital.

Upon arrival, Twila was comatose and bleeding heavily. Doctors removed some retained pregnancy tissue and sutured numerous uterine injuries, but were unable to address her clotting problems. Twila died of cerebral hemorrhage.

Other victims of saline abortion include (but are by no means limited to):

Jackie Bailey

Linda Boom

Marla Cardamone

Angel Dardie

Christella Forte

Lynn McNair

Natalie Meyers

Katherine Morse

"Alice" Roe

"Eleanor" Roe

"Erica" Roe

"Malorie" Roe

"Melissa" Roe

"Nancy" Roe

"Wendy" Roe

Elizabeth Tsuji

Cheryl Tubbs

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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"Prolifers do nothing to discourage violence"

Feminists for Life offer reward for clinic bomber

Priests for Life Offers $50,000 Reward

An Open Letter to the Killer of Barnett Slepian

Violence? Or a Protective Ring?

Articles and Statements Regarding the Use of Violence

Stop the Violence!

Pro-Lifers Speak Out Against Violence

Anti-abortion violence negates pro-life goals

Abortion cartoon was ironic

Rightgrrl Condemns the Shooting of Barnett Slepian

Many of the new Dems are pro-life

Pro-Life Democrats Critical in Retaking the House

New Democratic prolifers in Congress:

Senate: Bob Casey, Pennsylvania. But this was replacing a pro-life Republican with a pro-life Democrat (whose credentials on that score are questionable), so that's not a pro-life gain.

House: Heath Shuler, North Carolina; Joe Donnelly, Indiana; Brad Ellsworth, Indiana; Charlie Wilson, Ohio; Chris Carney, Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania. I'm not sure how many of them were replacing prolifers.

The Democratic party has come a long way since the 1992 Convention, where delegates in favor of Casey's dad got beaten up by the pro-choice delegates while Walter Mondale sat silently by.

History: William Waddill and the killing of Baby W

One commenter was horribly shocked by nurse Brenda Pratt Shafer's testimony on The Procedure Formerly Known as Prince. But I'd lost my ability to be shocked by what abortionists do to babies long before "PBA" or "D&X" came down the pike. What William Baxter Waddill did to "Baby W" in 1977 is one of the things that left me pretty thoroughly jaded.

Mary W., a high school student, was examined by an ob/gyn on February 22, 1977, and found to be 28 weeks pregnant. This ob/gyn counseled that Mary's pregnancy was too advanced for an abortion, and advised Mary to consider an adoption plan. Somehow, Mary learned that Waddill would be willing to do an abortion, which he initiated by saline injection on March 2 at Westminster Community Hospital in California.

Mary's baby, a 2 lb, 8 oz infant girl, was expelled that evening and discovered by a nurse who was attending Mary.

The nurse clamped the cord and was about to put the baby in a bucket for transport to the pathology lab, when she noticed that the baby was moving and crying. Another nurse suggested putting the baby in the bucket anyway. Yet another nurse testified that she had seen the infant move but said nothing about this to avoid distressing Mary. The first nurse summoned the nursing supervisor, who noted that the baby was pink and making sucking motions. She sent the baby to the nursery and summoned Waddill.

A nurse at the nursery cleared the infant's throat, placed her in an isolette, and charted a heartrate of 88. A neonatal ICU nurse began providing respiratory assistance on the little girl, and asked for help performing an intubation, which is routine NICU care.

Waddill arrived and dismissed all the others from room. Several witnesses heard Waddill instruct staff "not to do a goddam thing for the baby." An ER doctor saw Waddill squeeze the umbilical cord, whereupon the "child jerked its body and gasped for air."

A tape was entered into evidence of a call from Waddill to a pediatrician, Dr. Ronald Cornelsen. The tape had Waddill telling Dr. Cornelsen to come to the hospital, because the law required a pediatrician to assist when a newborn was in distress. Waddill said, "If we all tell the same story, there will be no trouble. ... So long as we stand together, no one anywhere can make any accusations anywhere. ... Do not get squirrely. Just tell them exactly as we've discussed. Just say you went in, there was no heartbeat and you left."

Dr. Cornelsen testified that when he arrived at the hospital the infant, a baby of about 31 weeks gestation, was breathing and had a heart rate of 60-70. There were bruises on her neck. Dr. Cornelson said that Waddill told him, "Sorry to get you in this mess. We had a baby that came out live from a saline abortion, and it can't live!" Dr. Cornelsen testified that he saw Waddill press on the infant's neck, saying, "I can't find the goddam trachea," and "This baby won't stop breathing." Dr. Cornelsen testified, "I said, 'Why not just leave the baby alone?' He said, 'This baby can't live or it will be a big mess.'" Waddill requested potssium choloride, for an injection to stop the baby's heart, but Dr. Cornelsen wouldn't let the nurse get it. Dr. Cornelsen said Waddill also asked for a bucket to drown the baby in.

Waddill claimed that he hadn't strangled the baby, that she had died of natural causes before he even arrived at the hospital to deal with the delivery. He also said that all of his actions were done in the best interests of the mother and the baby.

A pathologist examined the baby's lungs and concluded that she'd been alive for at least 30 minutes. The neck trauma was "consistent with manual pressure, and inconsistent with saline." This pathologist also testified that only the infant's placenta and small bowel seemed to have been "significantly affected by the saline," meaning that the baby had not suffered fatal injury from exposure to the saline in-utero. The autopsy found the cause of the baby's death to have been "manual strangulation." The baby's gestational age was determined to have been 29 to 31 weeks at autopsy.

All told, over 13 weeks of testimony, the witnesses described three unsuccessful attempts by Waddill to strangle Mary's baby, and the fourth, successful, attempt. But during deliberations, the jury asked for clarification of a procedural point. A few phone calls to clarify the point led to the discovery by the attorneys and judge that there was a definition of "death" in the California health and safety code that the jury had not been informed of. Because the testimony hadn't directly addressed this particular definition of "death," the jurors became hopelessly deadlocked over whether Waddill's actions, though clearly causing what laymen would consider the "death" of the baby, had caused what the law would call the "death" of the baby. The judge had to delcare a mistrial. A second jury was also deadlocked, and the charges against Waddill were eventually dismissed.

Mary later sued Waddill, saying that he'd never told her that her baby might been born alive, and that she never would have consented to the abortion had she known this was possible. She said that Waddill "willfully and unlawfully used force and violence upon the person of the baby [W.] ... causing the decedent baby [W.] to die."

Waddill continued to perform abortions in California, and as of 2000 was working for National Abortion Federation member Family Planning Associates Medical Group, a chain where the following women and girls suffered fatal abortions: Deanna Bell, Chanelle Bryant, Patricia Chacon, Laniece Dorsey, Josefina Garcia, Denise Holmes, Susan Levy, Christine Mora, Kimberly Neil, Joyce Ortenzio, Mary Pena, and Tami Suematsu.

In a society where a jury can't even convict a man who strolls into a NICU and strangles a baby in front of half a dozen witnesses, The Procedure Formerly Known as Prince barely registers on the outrage scale.

What should Waddil have done with Baby W? 1. What "Baby" W? It was a fetus, and Waddill had an obligation to finish the abortion by stopping the life process of the fetal tissues. 2. He should have told the mother that her fetus was alive and asked her what she wanted him to do. 3. This baby was born alive, and he should have allowed the NICU staff to care for her. 4. He shouldn't have performed the abortion in the first place; 29 or 30 weeks is way too late. 5. He shouldn't have performed the abortion in the first place; abortion kills babies.    Free polls from Pollhost.com

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The three-day conversion

With the Procedure Formerly Known as Prince back in the hands of SCOTUS, Birth Story brings back the testimony of Brenda Pratt Schafer, who had been a staunch prochoicer until three days of working in an abortion clinic turned her around. The following is from the transcript:

I am a registered nurse.... In 1993, I was employed by Kimberly Quality Care, a nursing agency in Dayton, Ohio. In September, 1993, Kimberly Quality Care asked me to accept assignment at the Women's Medical Center, which is operated by Dr. Martin Haskell. I readily accepted the assignment because I was at that time very pro-choice. I had even told my teenager daughters that if one of them ever got pregnant at a young age, I would make them get an abortion. ....

So, because of the strong pro-choice views that I held at that time, I thought this assignment would be no problem for me.

But I was wrong. I stood at a doctor's side as he performed the partial-birth abortion procedure -- and what I saw is branded forever on my mind.

I worked as an assistant nurse at Dr. Haskell's clinic for three days -- September 28, 29 and 30, 1993.

On the first day, we assisted in some first-trimester abortions, which is all I'd expected to be involved in. (I remember that one of the patients was a 15-year-old girl who was having her third abortion.)

....

Also on the first two days, we inserted laminaria to dilate the cervixes of women who were being prepared for the partial-birth abortions -- those who were past the 20 weeks point, or 4 1/2 months. .... There were six or seven of these women.

On the third day, Dr. Haskell asked me to observe as he performed several of the procedures that are the subject of this hearing. ....

I was present for three of these partial-birth procedures. It is the first one that I will describe to you in detail.

The mother was six months pregnant (26 1/2weeks). A doctor told her that the baby had Down syndrome and she decided to have an abortion. She came in the first two days to have the laminaria inserted and changed, and she cried the whole time. On the third day she came in to receive the partial-birth procedure.

Dr. Haskell brought the ultrasound in and hooked it up so that he could see the baby. On the ultrasound screen, I could see the heart beating. ....

Dr. Haskell went in with forceps and grabbed the baby's legs and pulled them down into the birth canal. Then he delivered the baby's body and the arms -- everything but the head. The doctor kept the baby's head just inside the uterus.

The baby's little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors through the back of his head, and the baby's arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall.

The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening and sucked the baby's brains out. Now the baby was completely limp.

I was really completely unprepared for what I was seeing. I almost threw up as I watched the doctor do these things.

....

I have been a nurse for a long time and I have seen a lot of death-- people maimed in auto accidents, gunshot wounds, you name it. I have seen surgical procedures of every sort. But in all my professional years, I had never witnessed anything like this.

The woman wanted to see her baby, so they cleaned up the baby and put it in a blanket and handed the baby to her. She cried the whole time, and she kept saying, 'I'm so sorry, please forgive me!' I was crying too. I couldn't take it. That baby boy had the most perfect angelic face I have ever seen.

I was present in the room during two more such procedures that day, but I was really in shock. I tried to pretend that I was somewhere else, to not think about what was happening. I just couldn't wait to get out of there. After I left that day, I never went back. These last two procedures, by the way, involved healthy mothers with healthy babies.

I was very much affected by what I had seen. For a long time, sometimes still, I had nightmares about what I saw in that clinic that day.

That was the experience. Now we get into the politics:

Mr. Chairman, since I wrote that letter to Congressman Tony Hall, I have been subjected to some strange attacks on my credibility, and I would like to address these briefly.

Last July 12, I sat in the audience as the full Judiciary Committee debated this legislation, and I heard Congresswoman Schroeder read a letter from Dr. Haskell to the Judiciary Committee (also dated July 12) in which he said, "I have examined our records and found no evidence of a Brenda Shafer working for us during 1993."

Fortunately, I had previously provided the Constitution Subcommittee with the pertinent payroll records from Kimberly Quality Care, including their invoice to Dr. Haskell's clinic. After these documents were circulated, Congresswoman Schroeder withdrew that particular allegation, explaining it away as resulting from confusion over my married name. But it seemed peculiar to me at the time that neither she nor her staff had contacted me, or the subcommittee staff, to request documentation, before she basically called me a liar in front of everybody. But there was much more of that sort of thing to come.

In his July 12 letter, Dr. Haskell said also said that my account was "inaccurate," because "she describes procedures at 26 1/2 weeks and 25 weeks... This is contrary to my own self-imposed and established limit of 24 weeks." But .... in Dr. Haskell's 1992 paper describing the partial-birth procedure, "Dilation and Extraction for Late Second Trimester Abortion," which you have all seen, he wrote, "This author routinely performs this procedure on all patients 20 through 24 weeks LMP [i.e., from last menstrual period] with certain exceptions. The author performs the procedure on selected patients 25 through 26 weeks LMP." Keep in mind that this 26 1/2 week little boy had Down syndrome, so this was a "selected patients" case.

....

Most recently, I got a copy of a letter sent to a constituent by Congresswoman Lynn Rivers of Michigan, written in longhand, in which this distinguished member of Congress claimed that I "was unwilling to testify under oath or submit herself to crossexamination in front of Congress- even though she was sitting in the hearing room while testimony was being taken."

Of course, Mr. Chairman, that is all pure fiction. By the time I heard of your bill and wrote my letter to Congressman Hall, on July 9, you had already concluded the hearing on your legislation. I was present for the July 12 markup, and spoke with various members of the committee and the press informally, but of course there was no opportunity for me to formally testify on that occasion, although I certainly would have welcomed the opportunity.

In November, when Senator Hatch invited me to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I accepted immediately and without qualification. During the question period, Senator Kyl asked me if I would be willing to testify to these things under oath and I replied, "Yes, sir, I would. Or under a lie detector or anything else I need to do." [Senate hearing record, p. 63] And I tell you the same thing.

....

It is still amazing to me that certain individuals who hold high elective offices ... have been so willing to publicly spread this kind of blatant misinformation about me, without making the slightest effort to investigate or look at any of the documentation.

Mr. Chairman, these people who say I didn't see what I saw-- I wish they were right. I wish I hadn't seen it. But I did see it, and I will never be able to forget it. That baby boy was only inches, seconds away from being entirely born, when he was killed. What I saw done to that little boy, and to those other babies, should not be allowed in this country.

Who will speak for them?

Make photo slide shows at onetruemedia.com

Let's have a teachable moment here

I've been criticized for being too strident and accusatory in this post, in which I lambasted the San Francisco radicals for chanting "you don't care if women die" when it was the San Francisco radicals who set up a legal defense fund for an abortionist who killed a patient.

Okay, folks, tell me: How could I have said it better? How to juxtapose the two facts:

1. The San Francisco radicals came out in defense of an abortionist who killed a woman.
2. The San Francisco radicals stand around chanting that it's the people who wanted Sharon's killer prosecuted who "don't care if women die."

Go to town. Anybody. How would you have addressed it?

Warning: Some reassembly required

In case you can't read it, the baby's wrist tag reads: "WARNING: Some re-assembly of priorities and beliefs may be required."

I love it! As the Johnson & Johnson ad campaign said, "Having a baby changes everything."

It's part of a controversial ad campaign in Canada, at WonderCafe.ca.

I love the whole thing, bobble-head Jesus and all.

The chant that infuriates me most

Zombietime video of the counter-protesters at the West Coast Walk for Life

They're chanting the chant that most makes me want to scream:
"March for Life? That's a lie!
You don't care if women die!"

This coming from the people who are so staggering, appallingly, callously, consistently, and relentlessly indifferent to the deaths of these women:

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com

Where were these chanters when Sharon Hamplton was bleeding to death from a treatable injury in the back seat of her mother's car, her arms around her three-year-old son? They weren't warning women like Sharon that her doctor was a known quack, that's for sure. Where were they when the butcher who killed her was being prosecuted? They were raising funds for his legal defense. They not only didn't care that Sharon died, they were outraged that the man who killed her was being held accountable. Then they dare to hide behind the fascade of concern for women's lives. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Do they know about Sharon? Well, duh. They started a defense fund for her killer. Of course they know about Sharon. And where does their sympathy lie? With the man who killed her. Then they have the unmitigated gall to pretend that it's the people who wanted Sharon's killer prosecuted who don't care.

Two safe-n-legal anniversaries

Demetrice Andrews, age 22, underwent an abortion on October 17, 1988. She became progressively ill, and was finally admitted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta Demetrice suffered multiple organ failure. She died on November 9, 1988.

It is sadly ironic that Demetrice was admitted to Grady to be treated for abortion complications. Another woman, Jacqueline Reynolds, died just two years earlier, from complications of anesthesia administered for an abortion performed at Grady.

****

"Yvonne" is one of the women Life Dynamics notes on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legalized abortion. Yvonne was a 19-year-old student who died from sepsis on November 9, 1999 in Marrero, Louisiana, after undergoing a safe and legal abortion. She had been an All-American cheerleader and a member of the National Honor Society.

Life Dynamics cites the Clarion Ledger, November 11, 1999, and indicates that though they have information giving Yvonne's real name, they can not release it due to a confidentiality agreement.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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