Safe-n-Legal: Christin Gilbert

Christin Gilbert, a 19-year-old developmentally disabled woman, was brought from Texas to George Tiller's Wichita abortion facility for a late abortion. Christin had Down Syndrome and was legally incompetant, unable to give her consent.

Christin had been raised by her family in a small Texas town, according to Operation Rescue West. She was mainstreamed into her local high school, where she served as a bat girl for the softball team. She graduated in 2004.

During the abortion, something went wrong. Tiller employee Marguerite Reed called 911. From the ambulance dispatch sheet, obtained by Operation Rescue West:

• CP VERY EVASIVE; PUT ON HOLD
• CP REFUSED TO GIVE ANY INFORMATION, JUST SAYING NEED EMS
• The caller is with the patient. She does not have chest pain. She is completely awake (alert). She has not fainted. She has pain above the belly button (navel).

Remember, these quotes are from the dispatch sheet. It was the caller, Marguerite Reed, who reported that Christin had no chest pain, abdominal pain above the navel, that Christin was alert and had not fainted. The investigation revealed that Christin was in fact in cardiac arrest when the call was made. LeRoy Carhart was performing CPR on a clinically dead patient, and the EMS services are being misled, told that she's alert.

Giving false information about a patient's condition to 911 can jeopardize the patient's life, because it can lead to inadequate help being sent. In a life-threatening situation, the patient needs the care of a medic. If the caller leads 911 staff to believe that the call is a routine transfer, only EMTs may be sent, meaning that there will be nobody on the ambulance crew qualified to perform intubations or to use a defibrillator.

Operation Rescue West documented Christin's transport by ambulance from Tiller's facility to Wesley Medical Center on January 13, 2005, and verified that she died of abortion complications later that day. Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline also confirmed this.

The Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, launched an investigation into the circumstances in Texas leading to the fatal trip to Wichita, and subpoenaed Tiller as a "material witness". No Texas criminal charges were pending against Tiller. Wesley Medical Center was also subpoenaed. Christin's medical records were being requested for a Grand Jury investigation into possible felony sexual assault.

The court order, signed by Elizabeth Berry, Presiding Judge of the Criminal District Court #3 of Tarrant County, Texas, requested the following records from Wesley Medical Center:

Any and all records and/or documents pertaining to [Christin], W/F, DOB 5/30/85, who was pronounced dead at Wesley Medical Center on January 13, 2005, including but not limited to medical and patient billing records, and the name of the physician who treated [Christin] and/or pronounced her dead.

Tiller's attorney, Daniel Monat, issued a statement that Tiller "received a routine subpoena from the state of Texas for the examination of medical records and items related to an investigation in Texas which is not directed at [Tiller]."

On February 2, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius sent a memo to Larry Buening, Executive Director of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts (BOHA) asking the board to investigate Christin's death.

Tiller is a member of the National Abortion Federation. Tiller allegedly justified performing an abortion on Christin on the grounds that it was necessary to preserve her health or life. I find this claim to be highly dubious. Had the pregnancy posed a threat to Christin's life or health, it could have been terminated within an hour by performing an emergency c-section in any properly-equipped obstetric ward. How it was supposed to preserve Christin's life or health to instead drive her past any number of hospitals into another state, and to perform a three-day procedure with the patient spending the bulk of her time in a motel room under the supervision of only her parents is a mystery.



Operation Rescue West has confirmed that Tiller has an arrangement with erstwhile abortionist Kristin Neuhaus, who is no longer permitted to perpetrate abortion in Kansas due to gross irregularities in her practice. Tiller provides a space in his facility for Neuhaus to meet with the patients, who pay her with a separate check. Neuhaus then rubber-stamps their "need" for an abortion.

Christin'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.
• 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.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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