There was only one doctor in South Dakota who would perform abortions before Roe v Wade. He was a kind, generous,caring doctor who put himself at risk to help women in need because he knew it was the right thing to do: his name was Dr. Benjamin Munson. He was tried for murder because a women who had to travel in secret to western SD/Rapid City for an abortion was afraid she would be prosecuted so she returned in secret to the eastern part of the state where she lived. She bled to death because it was illegal in those days to check into a clinic or hospital for the procedure and stay until you were sure that nothing was going to go wrong afterwards—she would have been prosecuted even for going to an emergency room for help after her abortion! This is a famous case in South Dakota.
Just before reading this post, I had learned that South Dakota's abortionist-in-residence, Benjamin Munson, had been arrested in 1969 on abortion charges. I thought that perhaps that this post meant that the charges stemmed from the death of a patient. However, upon researching Munson, I learned that the abortion charges were just that -- charges for performing an illegal abortion on a 19-year-old. The girl didn't die and Munson wasn't charged with murder.
But the person who wrote this post didn't just make something up out of thin air. Munson was prosecuted for the death of an abortion patient. It's just that our stalwart defender of "choice" didn't get his facts straight.
There was only one doctor in South Dakota who would perform abortions before Roe v Wade.... his name was Dr. Benjamin Munson.
This much is correct, but incomplete. Yes, Munson was the only confirmed abortionist in South Dakota before Roe. But he was also the only abortionist after Roe as well, until his retirement in 1986. So this person gives the false impression that what follows is a tale of the dark, dismal, wretched pre-Roe days.
He was tried for murder because a women who had to travel in secret to western SD/Rapid City for an abortion was afraid she would be prosecuted so she returned in secret to the eastern part of the state where she lived.
I can understand the person getting confused about what Munson was charged with. It was manslaughter, not murder, but close enough for pulling facts out of your head. I'll cut him some slack on that part. But why in the world would the woman fear she'd be prosecuted when abortion was legal? If she had the contacts to find Munson, she was enough on the ball to know that abortion was legal now, that Roe vs. Wade had struck down the abortion law.
She bled to death because it was illegal in those days to check into a clinic or hospital for the procedure and stay until you were sure that nothing was going to go wrong afterwards—she would have been prosecuted even for going to an emergency room for help after her abortion!
First of all, she didn't bleed to death. She died of sepsis. And she didn't die because it was illegal to check into a clinic or hospital. This took place after Roe. Munson could have performed her abortion in a hospital. He did perform it in a clinic. She died because Munson sent her home with a mutilated five-month fetus rotting in her body.
As for the claim that "she would have been prosecuted for even going to an emergency room for help after her abortion", that's patently false on three levels:
1. Women weren't prosecuted for undergoing illegal abortions before Roe in the first place. She'd have been pestered for the name of who it was that had so grievously injured her (Fancy that! The gall of wanting to know who it was who had injured a woman and put her in the hospital!) But she wouldn't have been prosecuted.
2. This happened after Roe anyway. She had nothing to fear whatsoever from going to a hospital. She'd not even have been pestered by the cops to turn in the man who'd harmed her.
3. She did go to a hospital, where doctors tried in vain to save her life.
This is a famous case in South Dakota.
How many other Clueless Clydes are there in South Dakota still insisting that Linda Padfield's death was from a clandestine, "back-alley abortion"?
By the way, this "hero" doctor also sent 18-year-old Yvonne Mesteth home to die of sepsis.
Why is it that even the rumor of an illegal death is an unacceptable tragedy, but there's no "safe and legal" death so horrible that it can't be shrugged off?
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
3 comments:
People should be able to choose to use birth control,
so as to avoid having to make another choice.
Abortion is the MOTHER of all holocausts...
ausblog
I find it fascinating that in your obviously unbiased linked article on Linda Padfield's death, the abortion was performed on June 15, yet she died of sepsis on June 13. Did he use a time machine as part of his sinister plan to avoid responsibility for killing his patient? If you're going to complain about someone not getting the facts straight, at least link people to an article that has the facts straight within it.
Thank you for pointing out the typo! She died on the 18th. I'll go fix that.
Post a Comment