Haskell, the PBA pioneer, is unlicensed, and NAF seems okay with that

Pro-Life Law Firm Works to Shut the Doors on Illegal Abortion Center in Ohio (italics mine)

On Friday, February 29, ... the Thomas More Society, will reveal in a press conference that the Ohio Department of Health has revoked the license of the Women's Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio on February 14, 2008. This abortion facility, the last in Dayton, is owned and operated by Dr. Martin Haskell, nationally known for his pioneering and promotion of the partial birth abortion method. Despite having its license revoked, the facility is still in operation illegally. The Thomas More Society is preparing a Citizens Action Lawsuit to ask the courts to close the center if it continues to operate in violation of state laws. ....

Haskell's abortion facility performs approximately 2,600 abortions annually and has not been able to comply with Ohio's requirement that clinics not within a hospital must have a hospital transfer agreement to properly care for patients who are injured during abortions. This legal requirement applies to all free-standing surgical facilities in Ohio, not just abortion facilities. Dr. Haskell tried unsuccessfully to obtain an agreement; however because he is not an OB-GYN and does not have admitting privileges at any Dayton-area hospitals he was denied.

....

Haskell has been fighting state officials since 1999, when it was first discovered by a routine records search that he was operating without a license. Dr. Haskell brought his case before state and federal trial and appeals courts as well as state agencies and has repeatedly lost his bid to evade licensing and compliance with Ohio law. ....

Note: Despite not being licensed by the state, despite not having admitting privileges at a hospital, this abortion mill still manages to be a member of the National Abortion Federation. Check their "provider" search page.



Elsewhere on NAF's web site, they guide you through how to find a high-quality abortionist. The number one question on their list is, "Is the provider licensed by the state?" In the case of at least this member, the answer is a resounding "NO!" And it has been "NO!" since at least 1999.

Further down the page, NAF assures visitors:

In order to become a member, a clinic must complete a rigorous application process. Member clinics have agreed to comply with our standards for quality and care, updated annually in our Clinical Policy Guidelines, which set the evidence-based standards for abortion care in North America. NAF periodically conducts site visits to confirm that our clinics are in compliance with our guidelines.

Here's where it gets really interesting: I went through the Clinical Policy Guidelines, and didn't find anyplace a requirement, or even a recommendation, that the facility be licensed the the state. Ditto for any requirement or recommendation that the physician have hospital admitting privileges. So I guess operating illegally, and just shipping her off to the emergency room and foisting off her care on whoever is on duty there, fit in with how NAF does things.

I also didn't notice -- though I didn't read through very thoroughly so I might have missed it -- any requirement that transfers be done by ambulance, or that the patient's condition be adequately relayed to the hospital staff.

Does anybody else find this creepy at best?

While we're on the topic of Haskell, here are summaries from my notes on him:

HASKELL, Dr. (William Mudd) Martin

A deposition regarding Marty Lynn R. has Haskell admitting that at his facility, pregnancy tests are performed "Most times, but not necessarily," prior to an abortion. Haskell admitted failure to perform differential diagnosis for a presenting problem of post-abortion tenderness, chills, and fever. In Marty Lynn's case, he said, he performed an exam, then administered antibiotics. (Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Case No. 92-2709; American Medical News 7-5-93)

Medical news story reports he says most of the abortions he does are done for reasons other than medical indications, and that his qualms about third-trimester abortions are "only for technical reasons, not for emotional reasons of fetal development." A news article indicated that a witness who allegedly observed 17 other procedures told police that one infant girl of 21 or 22 weeks gestation had emerged alive before the procedure had been completed, and survived approximately 20 minutes on September 21, 1989. The police did not prosecute because it was the student observer's word against Haskell's. Haskel claimed that her complaint was a personal attack because he does abortions. The student responded, "I don't want this to sound like I'm a freak antiabortionist. I don't want to sound like a radical," but said that she had gotten permission to observe abortions because she thought she would like to be nurse or doctor specializing in abortions. (Associated Press 12-11-89)

Pamela F. alleged that she underwent an abortion February 29, 1988, at The Women's Center, Cincinnati. She faulted Haskell with negligence resulting in missed or septic abortion requiring hospitalization and incursion of large medical bills. (Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Case No. A8901734)

Tena C. alleged that she underwent an abortion by Haskell at Women's Center, Cincinnati, October 7, 1977. She faulted Haskell with failure to take a proper medical history, failure to provide informed consent, failure to make a proper diagnosis, performing a negligent abortion procedure, and failure to advise her of proper post-operative instructions. These shortcomings, she said resulting in pain, emotional distress, and permanent injury. A deposition in this case indicates retained fetal parts, a tear in Tena's uterus and bladder, infection, sepsis, and medical bills in excess of $7000. Tena settled out of court. Haskell admitted in a deposition regarding that Tena's questions were answered by the receptionist, not by a doctor. Haskell described his receptionist as "a lay person that has had some experience in the methods we follow at the Women's Center."(Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Case No. A7802715)

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Planned Parenthood patient bleeds to death after abortion

Diana Lopez, age 25, was 19 weeks pregnant when she went to a Planned Parenthood for an abortion on February 28, 2002. She was 19 weeks pregnant. Before the day was over, Diana had bled to death. She left two sons, 4-year-old Frankie and 2-year-old Fabian, motherless. The taxpayers of California paid for the fatal abortion, courtesy of Medi-Cal.

After the abortion, Diana had been rushed by ambulance to County Women‘s Hospital, where a hysterectomy was performed and Diana was given five units of whole blood in a futile attempt to save her life. The autopsy noted that Diana had hemorrhaged from a perforation of her cervix. Diana‘s husband, David, filed suit, alleging that the abortionist‘s haste caused severe lacerations that killed his wife. The suit says that Diana‘s abortion was rushed through in ony six minutes, although Planned Parenthood‘s own web site says such a procedure should take 10 to 20 minutes. The lawsuit also blames Planned Parenthood for proceeding with an abortion even though her hemoglobin levels were abnormally low prior to the procedure.

The family‘s attorney also noted that in 2000, the same Planned Parenthood rushed another woman though a similar 6-minute abortion, lacerating the patient‘s cervix, rupturing her uterus, perforating her sigmoid colon and causing the loss of 2 liters of blood. Planned Parenthood also delayed three hours before transferring the patient to a hospital. Fortunately, this patient survived her ordeal. A review of Los Angeles County civil cases indicates that this patient was probably Kimberly Thomas, who sued on April 19, 2002, after her abortion by Joseph Marmet. Kimberly‘s suit was one of roughly 50 filed against the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood from 1983 to 2002. The medical board took no action against Marmet.

The medical board took no action against Diana‘s abortionist, Dr. Mark Maltzer, either. However, the California Department of Health Services investigated the facility and cited Planned Parenthood for (links are to cases with similar issues at Planned Parenthood):

• Failing to institute a necessary change in medical protocol relating to the use of laminaria (used to expand the cervix) in the dilation and evacuation procedure.
  
• Lacking the evidence to show a completed assessment of the competency and credentials of the physician who carried out the abortion.
  
• Inadequately advising against a potentially dangerous second-trimester D&E procedure based on low hemoglobin levels.
  
• Failing to follow proper surgical abortion policy and procedure by administering Cytotec to the patient on day one of the two-day abortion procedure, when policy requires it to be administered 90 minutes before the abortion procedure.
  
• Failing to inform Planned Parenthood‘s governing body of any adverse outcome related to patient care within the facility.
  
• Failing to notify the Health Department of a patient's death within 24 hours of the occurrence.
  
• Keeping incomplete records describing the services provided to Diana Lopez.

The fact that the Planned Parenthood has made "corrections" to satisfy the state does not satisfy Diana‘s family. "It was wrong. It was wrong," said Judy Lopez, Diana‘s older sister. "She was healthy. She was fine."

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Planned Parenthood referral proves fatal

Andrea Corey was 31 years old when she died of post-abortion infection on February 28, 1993. Se had been referred by nearby Planned Parenthood to Southern Tier Women's Services in New York for an abortion. Andrea had sent home after her abortion with retained tissue that caused the infection that took her life.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Woman killed by safe, legal aboriton in the US Virgin Islands

According to Priests for Life, Diane Adams died from a botched legal abortion on February 28, 1992. They cite a March 5, 1992 article in the Virgin Islands Daily News. They cite one other death, that of Rosael Rodriguez, from that article.

Human Life International mentions that abortionist Angel Acevado Montalvo was charged with manslaughter in two cases of maternal deaths from abortion, then also notes that after his conviction, Montalvo went right back to business doing abortions. Rosael Rodriguez and Diane Adams are most likely the two women referred to by HLI.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

RIP, WFB

Conservative Writer, Commentator William F. Buckley Jr. Dies at 82

Editor, columnist, novelist, debater, TV talk show star of "Firing Line," harpsichordist, trans-oceanic sailor and even a good-natured loser in a New York mayor's race, Buckley worked at a daunting pace, taking as little as 20 minutes to write a column for his magazine, the National Review.

Yet on the platform he was all handsome, reptilian languor, flexing his imposing vocabulary ever so slowly, accenting each point with an arched brow or rolling tongue and savoring an opponent's discomfort with wide-eyed glee.

....

"Mr. Buckley," one non-fan wrote in 1967, "you are the mouthpiece of that evil rabble that depends on fraud, perjury, dirty tricks, anything at all that suits their purposes. I would trust a snake before I would trust you or anybody you support."

Responded Buckley: "What would you do if I supported the snake?"

I'm confused

I got this from Lifenews.com:

Hotline Founded After Woman's Suicide Now Directs Callers to Abortions

A crisis hotline established after a woman committed suicide following an abortion was meant to help women like her. Now, the suicide prevention phone number is in the hands of a New York City agency that is using it to direct women in crisis pregnancy situations to abortion centers.

Reese Butler established the hotline after his wife Kristin, who suffered from bipolar and borderline personality disorders, committed suicide after she had an abortion.

Her physician presented abortion as the only decision in a complicated pregnancy. After tremendous grief following her death, Butler said he felt god leading him to establish the number for others in crisis.

But when I looked up Kristin Brooks Rossell, I found a bunch of pages saying she committed suicide after postpartum depression.

What's the story here?

Milwaukee teen pregnancies: 71% from statutory rape!

Extreme 'Shock Ads' Disgust Consumers to Make Their Point — and Consumers Are Disgusted

United Way ads showing a little girl's face atop a busty woman's body to fight teen pregnancy and statutory rape created an uproar online that got them yanked before they went to print.

....

The campaign was launched to battle the worrying 71 percent of teen pregnancies in Milwaukee that arise from statutory rape, according to the nonprofit powerhouse.

Yikes! And are these statutory rapes actually reported? Or is the number an estimate based on polls of PP customers?

See the ads here. (They mix the order of the ads in the slideshow; click through to find them.) Personally, I think they're right on-target.

Equally dead. Equally tragic?

On February 27, 1926, 36-year-old Anna Welger died in her home from complications of an abortion performed that day. Theresa Struhala was indicted for felony murder in Anna's death. Struhala's profession is not listed. John Welger, whose relationship to Anna was not disclosed, was booked as an accomplice, but was later released.

"Roseanne" Roe, age 37, died February 27, 1971, in a New York hospital where she had been admitted earlier in the month for a safe, legal saline abortion. Roseanne left four children motherless. She had begun having siezures and vomiting after the abortion was initiated, and had aspirated on the vomit and developed the pneumonia that ended her life.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Respect for bodily autonomy?

ABC News has published a Top Ten List of critters that give painful stings or bites or such. The stonefish packs quite a whallop:

"I got spiked on the finger by a stonefish in Australia … never mind a bee sting. … Imagine having each knuckle, then the wrist, elbow and shoulder being hit in turn with a sledgehammer over the course of about an hour. Then about an hour later imagine taking a real kicking to both kidneys for about 45 minutes so that you couldn't stand or straighten up. I was late 20s, pretty fit physically and this was the tiniest of nicks. Got sensation back in my finger after a few days but had recurrent kidney pains periodically for several years afterwards."

The report continues, "Other stories describe sting victims wanting to have their stung limb amputated from their body."

Now, here's the question: If a doctor is at hand, with the capacity to provide the requested amputation, should he:

A. Perform the requested amputation. The patient has a right to make decisions about his body. The patient is in such horrible pain, and it would be cruel and condescending for the doctor to refuse the request.

B. Inform that the pain is self-limiting, and that the desire for amputation will abate when the pain does.

Now, many of you would scoff, saying that patients would realize that the pain is self-limiting and will go away. But what if he didn't?

That's the situation of many women contemplating abortion. Panic and rejection are normal in early pregnancy, often accompanied by the idea that an abortion would be the best way to proceed. But these feelings are normal and typically self-limiting. They go away with time.

Ought not a responsible physician inform the woman requesting abortion that, like the stonefish-stung patient, she is in the throes of something that is self-limiting, that will pass?

Why aren't women told this? Why is the normal ambivalence and rejection of early pregnancy instead treated as some sort of "proof" that the woman is truly unready or unfit to welcome her baby?

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Consumer Culture: Hey, it's all about choice!

Accuracy of gender test kits in question

"I wouldn't have had an abortion, but there are women out there who experience really big disappointment," said Jolene Sodano, a stay-at-home mother in Nazareth, Pa., whose daughter was mistakenly identified as a boy. "They really want to give their husbands the little boy they want, or a little girl, and they will abort based on these results."

Children as a consumer good, redux.

HT: World Magazine Blog

A hard habit to break, I guess

Abortion Practitioner Laurence Reich Arrested for Practicing Without License

This guy was a real piece of work. He surrendered his license in order to halt an investigatio of his sexual abuse of patients. But evidently abortion is a hard habit to break, because he got caught practicing without a license at Bertha Bugarin's string of seedy abortion mills. Bugarin was arrested herself for performing abortions without a license, evidenly when her supply of quacks ran out.

Anniversary: Criminal abortion death in Massachusetts

On February 26, 1924, a woman not named in the Westlaw summary died of septicemia in a Massachusetts hospital. I'll refer to her as "Patsy" Roe. She had been hospitalized since February 11 from complications of an abortion performed on February 6 by Ida Cantor, whose profession I have been unable to determine. A jury found that Ida used improperly sterilized or non-sterile instruments in the abortion.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Baldness gene identified: Should we screen and abort?

Gene discovery may lead to new baldness drugs

Researchers have identified a gene linked to hair loss that could lead to new drugs to treat baldness.

The gene is responsible for a rare hereditary form of hair loss known as Hypotrichosis simplex, a condition affecting 1 in 200,000 people, in which people begin going bald in childhood, the researchers reported in the journal Nature Genetics.

Why is it that when they can spot a "bald gene", the talk is about developing a cure, but when they can spot Down syndrome, it's all a search-and-destroy mission?

Surely this premature hair loss is a social and psychological burden for those afflicted. "It's treatable," you may scoff. "Why, you can just wear a wig, if nothing else!"

Yeah, and cleft lip is treatable. It's still used as a justification for abortion. As is polydactyly (having extra fingers or toes). Anything that allows somebody to point at an unborn child and say, "Ew! This one is DIFFERENT!" is grounds for getting out the forceps. Why not a bald gene?

If doctors were pushing for prenatal screening so that the "condition" can be "caught early" and a "termination" scheduled, would we recognize the bigotry? If some university professor told his students that all mothers at risk of having a baby with the baldness gene should be tested as soon as possible, and the affected fetus promptly done away with, would we recognize the bigotry?

Is there any flaw too trivial to be worthy of a search-and-destroy mission to eliminate those who have it?

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Okay, what's up with the numbers here?

I was curious about survival records for babies with anenecphaly. I found First-year mortality and survival among infants with selected congenital anomalies in Texas, 1995 to 1997

Anomalies with the lowest survival were anencephaly (5.13%), trisomy 13 (7.41%), and trisomy 18 (10.29%).

Am I reading this right? Because this looks as if 5% of the babies with anencephaly lived at least one year! This, if it's true, it flies in the face of everything else I've seen.

I wish I had access to the full article, so I could find out more. Another bit of research found that 5% of anencephalic babies lived more than 5 days. So it seems a bit odd that another study would find that same percentage surviving a full year! A study in Singapore found the longest survival to be 16 days.

Prolonged survival of two anencephalic infants. -- "Two infants with anencephaly survived for 7 and 10 months without the need for prolonged assisted mechanical ventilation."

I've been also looking for updates on Marcela de Jesus Galante Ferreira, who survived at least five months and is considered a total miracle. I haven't been able to confirm that she's still alive or that she died.

But everything still points at a 0% 1-year survival rate. This site indicates a 5% one week survival rate, far from a 5% one-year survival rate.

A miracle is born

Fernando Parrado was one of the two young rugby players who made the impossible trip out of the heart of the Andes, to find rescue for their teammates left behind at the site where their plane had crashed ten weeks earlier. The story of the crash, the search, and the survivors has been told in book and film. Those of you who have read the book or seen the film will no doubt remember the moment when Nando stood atop the mountain, where he had expected to find a vista of a green valley, and saw nothing but more mountains.

I long wondered: How did he find any hope to go on? How did he not let despair crush him where he stood? What was it that goaded that half-starved, desperate young man off the mountain to save not only himself, but his friends?

In his new new book, excerpted here, Nando shares the answer. It's on the final page of the excerpt (emphasis mine):

In that moment, all my dreams, assumptions, and expectations evaporated into the thin Andean air. I had always thought life was the natural thing, and death was simply the end of living. Now, in this lifeless place, I saw with terrible clarity that death was the constant, and life was only a short, fragile dream. I felt a sharp and sudden longing for my mother and sister, and for my father, whom I was sure I would never see again. But despite the hopelessness of my situation, the memory of him filled me with joy. It staggered me—the mountains could not crush my ability to love. In that moment, I discovered a simple, astounding secret: Death has an opposite, but it is not mere living. It is not courage or faith or will. The opposite of death is love. How had I missed that? How does anyone miss that? My fears lifted, and I knew that I would not let death control me. I would walk through that godforsaken country with love and hope in my heart. I would walk until I'd walked all the life out of me, and when I fell, I would die that much closer to home.

And listen to an interview with Nando here.


To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: NAF abortion leaves young woman in fatal coma

On February 24, 1993, 23-year-old Venus Ortiz underwent an abortion of her approximately 15-week pregnancy, evidently performed by a Dr. Leiber, at National Abortion Federation member Eastern Women's Center.



A suit filed on Venus's behalf alleged that there was negligence in administering anesthesia to Venus, and failure to establish an airway. Brevital, fentanyl, and midazolam were administered in dosages and manners contrary to standards of practice, causing Venus to suffer a synergistic reaction.

Eastern's staff failed to promptly diagnose and attend to cardio-pulmonary arrest. Eastern's notes of 5:35 PM indicate "2:35 PM end of surgery ... we noticed patient's ashen color and the pulse oximeter tracing and digital readout were gone from the monitor." Emergency medical services were called. The reading of Venus' blood pressure at that time was 90/55; four minutes later it was recorded as being 146/62.

Venus was transported by ambulance to a hospital, accompanied by Dr. Cyrus, Dr. Goodman, and/or Dr. Jeffrey P. Moskowitz. However, the damage had already been done. Venus was left in permanent need of respirator, with profound brain damage. Venus remained in a coma/vegetative state. She was hospitalized a little over five months before being transferred to permanent nursing home care.

To further underscore Eastern's neglect of patients' needs, the suit also noted that although this was her 4th abortion, Venus had not been referred to a social worker.

Venus remained in a permanent vegetative state for the remainder of her life. She died in New York on December 16, 1998 at the age of 29.

Two other patients, Dawn Ravenelle and Dawn Mack, also died of complications of abortions done at Eastern Women's Center.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Yikes! OT - Fire video

This demonstration video illustrates "rollover" or "flashover". The room goes from having a fire in it to being an absolute inferno in a matter of seconds. And no, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you -- the smoke itself catches fire. Moral: Get out of a burning building quickly!


From Living Room To Inferno In Under 2 Minutes - The most amazing home videos are here

Before their time

Organs harvested before their time

Brain death is defined as "irreversible coma with absent brainstem reflexes (such as reactions of the pupils to light and other 'automatic' reflexes)."

Yet, "irreversible" implies that doctors can predict the future of a patient in coma; but medical science hasn't reached this degree of perfection. In newspapers as well as in medical books and journals, I've read about many patients who seemed to be in a permanent coma but who then woke up days, months, or even years after doctors incorrectly make the diagnosis of irreversible coma.

Likewise, "absent brainstem reflexes" simply means that the brainstem isn't working properly and generating electrical impulses. But this can be due to what I would call "sleeping" brain cells. Damage to the cells (for example, from lack of oxygen or nutrients) can make them temporarily too weak to generate nerve impulses or EEG signals. With reversal of the damaging condition, the brain cells often heal and resume normal function.

....

Other diagnostic factors such as "low body temperature (hypothermia), sedative or paralytic medicines, or the presence of severe metabolic disorders . . . might confuse the diagnosis of brain death." according to Doctors Steven Laureys and Joseph J. Fins....

....

In an internet report ... neurologist Lawrence Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D., editor-in-chief of the "Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons" writes, "In plain, straight talk, the survey indicates a high likelihood that some patients are being 'harvested' in some hospitals before they are dead! In hospitals with aggressive transplant programs (hospitals make a huge amount of money on transplant cases), making sure a patient is dead before going to the 'harvesting suite' may be viewed as a minor technicality" (http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/0010 "Top hospitals typically disregard brain-death guidelines").

....

It's a very good idea to designate an agent for healthcare, to make decisions on your behalf when you're unconscious or aren't able to do so yourself. The International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (ITF) http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/ has very lucid Advanced Health Care Directive language adapted the meet the requirements of different states.

No law or person should demand the life of an innocent person, under any pretext. Whether a person is unborn, disabled or extremely ill, I believe life is sacred and is our most fundamental right.

Searches: PP petition signer, abortion scars, and Rosie Jimenez

Leslie Geissinger was one of the people who signed the Planned Parenthood petition using a bogus story of a non-existent CPC in a scare campaign and attack on centers that offer women actual help instead of taking their money and scraping them out. Leslie added the comment, "Don't mix health care and political/moral agendas." Well, then you don't want to support Planned Parnthood, because they are a political/(a)moral agenda wrapped up in the illusion of health care.

Abortion scars

Rosie Jimenez is the young Texas woman who believed the abortion lobby and paid with her life.

Two criminal abortion anniversaries, including stupid crook trick

On February 23, 1944, Amelia Cardito, 34-year-old mother of 4, died in a New York hospital from complications of an illegal abortion that had been performed on Valentine's day in the office of Dr. Anthony Renda. Renda, author of three books on obstetrics, may have been a smart doctor, but he was a stupid crook. He implicated himself when he called police to complain that Amelia's widower was shaking him down for funeral expenses. Renda was sentenced to 7 years in Sing-Sing for Amelia's death. Amelia's abortion was typical of pre-legalization abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

On February 23, 1928, 26-year-old Miss Martha Washington died in Chicago from an illegal abortion. The person or persons responsible were never identified or prosecuted.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

One you'll not see the MSM covering

Once again, the prolifers are picking up on a story the MSM will ignore: Mexico legalized abortion because -- we can only presume -- the streets were littered with the bodies of coathanger-impaled women.

Well, true to form, some quack, now permitted to ply they abortion trade legally, has killed a teenage girl. He didn't bother verifying the gestational age of the fetus, or properly screening the girl medically. So he injured the girl in the process of performing an abortion a month over the legal limit, and the girl bled to death. IN A HOSPITAL! What kind of total clueless quack do you have to be, to have a patient bleed to death from an abortion in a hospital, with all the medications, blood products, and surgical resources readily available?

Not that we ever see cases like this in the United States!

Like Magdalena Rodriguez, who turned out to be 30 weeks pregnant when Suresh Gandotra started what was supposed to be a nice, legal second-trimester abortion. He left her bleeding out on the floor while he did other abortions.

Illinois law at the time of Sandra Chmiel's death required abortions after 12 weeks be performed in a hospital. Some quack at Biogenetics did an outpatient abortion anyway, even though Sandra was in the second trimester. Sandra bled to death from a punctured uterus.

John Biskind had his staff fudge ultrasounds in order to pretend that Lou Anne Herron, who was actually 26 weeks pregnant, was under the 24-week cut-off. He then left her with unqualified staff, and she bled to death.

Just as the MSM pretends these things don't happen here in America, they're not about to admit that they're happening in Mexico. After all, we can't have anybody challenging their oft-repeated assurance that legal abortion is automatically safe.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Support women and children: Back the Vitter Amendment

Senate Vote Next Week on Stopping Abortion Funding in Indian Health Care Bill

The Senate will take up a bill next week on health care coverage for Native Americans and, when it does, a pro-life senator plans an amendment to make sure none of the funds pay for abortions. The amendment from Sen. David Vitter would codify a longstanding policy against funding of abortions with federal Indian Health Service (IHS) funds.

Here is the letter I sent my senators:

Dear Senator ______:

I encourage you to support the Vitter Amendment to the Indian Health Services bill.

Banning the use of Federal funds for elective abortions should easily be an area of common ground for prolife and prochoice citizens and their elected representatives. Even those who do not object in any way to the use of Federal funds for the destruction of innocent unborn children would, if properly educated, object to the additional risk to mothers' health and well-being Federal abortion funding carries.

Research by the solidly pro-abortion Centers for Disease Control and publicized in their 1978 Abortion Surveillance Summary, showed that cutting Federal funding for abortion reduced the number of Medicaid-eligible women hospitalized for abortion complications. Other research shows that public-pay patients have a higher rate of abortion complications than private-pay patients.

Only an individual with a strong ideological devotion to abortion, stronger than his devotion to women's well-being, would wish to see more poor women suffering abortion complications that land them in the hospital.

Don't let the empty, shrill rhetoric of such extremists sway you from doing what is right for both unborn children and their mothers. Support the Vitter Amendment.

Of course, the hardcore extremists will bring up the isolated case of Rosie Jimenez, who bought into the alarmist publicity of the abortion lobby and as a result didn't realize that the illegal abortion she arranged was only $10 cheaper than an abortion arranged by Planned Parenthood. The abortion lobby wanted a body to hang around Henry Hyde's neck when he cut Federal funding for elective abortions, and they went into overdrive making sure that the idea "Illegal abortion is my only option" would be firmly planted in the minds of Medicaid-eligible women. They got the body they wanted. And responsibility for her death belongs as much on their doorstep as on the doorstep of the midwife who pocketed her cash instead of referring Rosie for either real help or a (presumably safer) abortion elsewhere in town.

They also ignore the 17 women who died of supposedly safe, legal abortions in 1977, along with the hundreds of women who have died before and after the Hyde Amendment went into effect.

Don't let the political banshees who goaded Rosie into a needless death win. Laws don't kill women; abortionists do.

Go here to contact your Senator.

Passive suicide? I wonder

Those of you who've been there, done that, and burned the t-shirt, or who have counselled women who have:

I blogged earlier today about Shirley Hollis, who ignored severe cardiac symptoms after an abortion and ended up dying as a result.

It isn't unusual for a woman to die because she failed to seek treatment when she was suffering alarming symptoms after an abortion. It's particularly problematic in women with undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies.

It's also been documented, by the CDC among other researchers, that women are more likely to die violent deaths -- homicide, suicide, or accident -- in the aftermath of an abortion than demographically matched age-mates who had not undergone abortions.

I once listened to a National Abortion Federation meeting in which nurses lamented how difficult it was to get patients to seek care for post-abortion symptoms. At the time I placed the blame entirely on the abortion lobby's success in getting people to internalized the idea that abortion is ludicrously safe -- that no harm can befall the woman as long as she goes to a legally operating abortion facility.

But maybe in some of these cases we're not seeing women who really think their symptoms aren't serious. Maybe in some of these cases the women are actually hoping that the symptoms are very serious indeed. If at some level some of these women are refusing to seek care because they're hoping that they'll die.

Has anybody seen any research on this, or is anybody able to comment on it from personal experience or from witnessing such behaviors in somebody else?

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Women fails to heed advice to seek care, dies

Shirley Hollis, a 30-year-old mother of two, had an abortion performed by Bruce Lucero on February 22, 1991. Shortly after she went home, she was short of breath, had pain in her arms, and was vomiting. Her boyfriend called the clinic and -- to the credit of whoever fielded the call -- was told to bring her to the emergency room. Shirley wanted to wait, thinking the symptoms were related to the abortion and would go away on their own. Shortly afterward, Shirley had a heart attack, and her boyfriend called 911 and started CPR. The ambulance took shirley to the hospital, where she died.

The autopsy found that Shirley had severe coronary artery disease, which had never been diagnosed. Shirley's mother faulted Lucero with Shirley's death because he failed to detect her heart problem when he examined her at the abortion facility.

Although the abortion did not directly cause Shirley's death, I list her as an abortion death because her belief that the abortion was causing her symptoms led her to delay seeking appropriate medical care.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Abortion recommended for "health" reasons kills teen

Barbara Hoppert was a sixteen-year-old high school sophomore when she checked into Loma Linda University Hospital for an abortion. Barbara was in the second trimester of her pregnancy. She was having the abortion on the recommendation of her physician, because of a congenital heart condition. The abortion was performed on February 22, 1983. During the procedure, Barbara's heart stopped. Physicians were unable to revive her, and she was pronounced dead on the operating table.

The following comment was posted on this blog:

It's been almost 24 years since I was at the Loma Linda Hospital and was roomed with Barbara Hoppert, but not year goes by when Feb 22nd rolls around and I don't think of her. She died that day during her abortion procedure. I just now put her name into google and found your article on her. It was barely 4 sentences and seemed as cold as her death. She was once alive and had such a sad end and dramatic story. It still brings me to tears today thinking about her last night alive... how she was treated by her own family and the staff at the hospital. We watched Square Pegs that night on tv. And she told me about the boy who had impregnated her... She left early the next morning and I wished her good luck... An hour later a woman came to the room, later I found out that was her "real" mother whom Barbara thought was her sister. She missed seeing Barbara that one last time.... Barbara's story is very tragic. I am so very sad that she was so alone her last night alive. I was her only comfort and I was a complete stranger. Don't know how comforting I was other than I cried with her and listened.... Knowing the pain she was in.... She remains in my prayers. Just thought you should know she was more than just part of your cause.

Thanks to the woman who came forward to share this memory of Barbara.

Barbara'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.
  
• Christin Gilbert (pictured) died after an abortion George Tiller holds was justified on grounds of maternal health.
  
• 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:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Condescending?

Abortion debate heats up

A Kansas bill proposes requiring that abortionists offer women the opportunity to view an ultrasound and hear the fetal heartbeat before proceeding with killing the fetus in question.

Julie Burkhart, chief executive officer of the abortion-rights group ProKanDo, said the current law is sufficient.

"This bill shows just one thing," she said. "A lack of trust in women to be able to make the best possible decision for themselves and their families."

Let's try that attitude on in other circumstances. How about a bill requiring that before buying a used car, the customer be offered a chance to review the vehicle's repair history:

Bob Lemon, chief executive officer of the used-car salesman group NoKanGo, said the current law is sufficient.

"This bill shows just one thing," he said. "A lack of trust in drivers to be able to make the best possible decision for themselves and their families."

How about a law requiring that prior to signing a contract for cable TV, a consumer be offered an opportunity to review what his actual bills will be during the contract period, after the expiration of the elaborately-worded Special Offer:

Bill Higherlater, chief executive officer of the cable sales group NoKanSho, said the current law is sufficient.

"This bill shows just one thing," he said. "A lack of trust in viewers to be able to make the best possible decision for themselves and their families."

Or maybe a bill that would require weight-loss clinics to offer customers the chance to review data on actual weight lost by other clients during the previous year:

Lucy Pounds, chief executive officer of the diet-aid sales group LoKanGo, said the current law is sufficient.

"This bill shows just one thing," she said. "A lack of trust in dieters to be able to make the best possible decision for themselves and their families."

If you took such a "Don't worry your pretty little head, just sign here" in any other consumer situation, you'd be recognized right away as having some agenda other than protecting the consumer. And unlike most other consumer choices, an abortion can't be returned if the customer is unhappy. This is buyer's remorse that can last a lifetime -- or even kill.

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Illegal abortion by doctor turns fatal

On February 21, 1929, Virginia Clark died of complications of a botched, illegal abortion. G. W. Wilbanks and W. A. N. Jones were charged with murder in her death. Wilbanks was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and the following information comes from the Westlaw commentary on his appeal.

Virginia was treated prior to her death by a Dr. McArthur, who testified as to her dying declaration. He said that Virginia told him that when she learned that she was pregnant, she told the man responsible that "something would have to done about it." He made arrarrangements for an abortion to be performed by a doctor. The paramor brought the doctor to Virginia, and he used medicine and instruments on her. The procedure was so painful that Virginia asked him to stop, so the doctor administered chloroform. According to Dr. McArthur, Virginia told him that this abortion "was what had butchered her up and was killing her."

Virginia didn't tell her mother, Mrs. Goodwyne, about the abortion. Mrs. Goodwyne testified, "She (Virginia Clark) said that she went to the theatre or something, and it seemed like there was something broke, and she said she thought she wouldn't be able to get back to the hotel, but she did."

Wilbanks tried to get his conviction overturned on the grounds of the difference between what Virginia told her mother, and what she told Dr. McArthur as she lay dying.

Virginia's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

News from Laura Smith's mom

Laura Hope Smith, age 22, died September 13, 2007 on a Hyannis, Massachusetts abortion table. Her mother learned of Laura's death when she answered the phone, seeing Laura's number on the caller ID and expecting a happy chat. Instead she got Laura's hysterical friend, weeping and crying out incoherently something about "Laura" and "hospital" and "not breathing" and "abortion". Then a doctor took the phone and told Eileen, "Laura's gone."

For the five months since then, Eileen has been trying to get to the bottom of how a healthy young woman can end up quickly dead from what is supposed to be safe and simple surgery.

Well, the Medical Examiner has verified that Laura did indeed die from cardiac arrest during the anesthesia for an abortion. Not much to show for nine months of work, since he still isn't addressing what caused the cardiac arrest.

However, the good news is this: Dr. Rapin Osathanondh, who was performing the abortion and responsible for Laura's well-being, has gotten his medical license yanked. It's a temporary measure, pending a full hearing, because the board felt Osathanondh posed a threat to public safety.

Let's pray that this measure prompts Osathanondh to reassess what he's been doing with his life. Carol Everett, who used to run a string of abortion mills in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, sent a woman home to bleed to death of a treatable injury in 1982. She's now running The Heidi Group, providing care and hope to women she had once seen as nothing but dollar signs. If Carol can change, Osathonondh can, too.

Let's storm Heaven with prayers for this guy, that the truth will set him free, permanently ending his career as an abortionist. The greatest good that can come from Laura's senseless death is for Osathonondh to become a true friend to women in need.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Abortion in popular music videos

Flipsyde: Happy Birthday


Nick Cannon: Can I Live


Ben Folds Five: Brick (Sorry - embedding disabled)

Any others? (Can't find a YouTube copy of the original music video to Red Ragtop)

Lots more abortion-related music videos here.

Anniversary: Doc's shortcut kills young woman

When 23-year-old Stacy Ruckman went to Scott Barrett for an abortion on February 20, 1988, she didn't know how he anesthetized his patients.

According to Barrett's staff, Barrett would not have general anesthesia administered to his abortion patients. Instead, he would inject them with excessive amounts of the local anesthetic Lidocaine. The overdose would cause the woman to lose consciousness.

Sometimes, staff reported, a woman would stop breathing, and Barrett would resuscitate her. But when Stacy stopped breathing, Barrett and his staff were unable to revive her.

An autopsy found toxic concentrations of Lidocaine in Stacy's blood. Her parents sued, and a jury awarded them $25.3 million for the wrongful death of their daughter.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Two unusual criminal abortions led to deaths

On February 20, 1919, W. G. Waters and M. T. Summerlin performed an abortion on Viola Parr with instruments of some sort, causing her death. I have been unable to determine what professions Waters and Summerlin pursued when they weren't acting as abortionists. Viola's abortion was unusual in that it was apparently performed by an amateur, rather than by a doctor, as was the case with perhaps 90% of criminal abortions.

A less unusual, but still rare, type of abortion was that performed by a non-physician with medical training. On February 20, 1927, 23-year-old Angerita Hargarten died in her home from an abortion performed there that day. Midwives Anna Trezek and Frances Raz were held by the coroner, Trezek as the principal and Raz as her accomplice.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

A breather for women in Asheville, North Carolina

North Carolina Abortion Center Closed for One Month After Non-Arson Fire

A fire that appears to have been accidental will keep the Asheville, North Carolina Planned Parenthood closed for about a month. Of course, PP will refer calling women to other abortion facilities in nearby communities. However, God willing only those women who are gung-ho about killing their ZEFs will make the trip. Those who want to avoid abortions can go to Asheville Pregnancy Support Services, which offers free of charge:

• Abortion Recovery Support Groups
  
• Pregnancy Tests
  
• Ultrasounds
  
• Guidance and Support
  
• Maternity Clothes
  
• Infant Clothes
  
• Diapers, Wipes, Linens and Baby Furniture
  
• Formula and Baby Food
  
• Emergency Supplies
  
• Lending Library
  
• Referrals to Agencies

Searches: Fetuses of various ages, self-abortion, and pre-Roe, among others

20-week fetus: How they're aborted, why they're aborted, and some examples of 20-week abortions. Including the searched-for George Tiller and how he does it.

I don't have the requested pictures of the New Woman All Women abortion mill in Alabama, but I do have this write up about it. It's a pretty seedy place.

Self-induced abortion remains a popular search. I don't recommend it. Unless you want to end up like Laura France, Kris Humphrey, Penny Roe, or Daisy Roe.

Anesthesia abortion: fatal

Abortion-related deaths pre-legalization. About 90% of pre-legalization abortions were done by doctors, either illegally or through loopholes in the law. Of the remaining 10% of pre-legalization abortions, about 8 out of 10 were performed by a nurse, midwife, or other person with some medical training, often with physician back-up. People with no formal medical training were a smaller percentage. And then even more rare were the self induced abortions, which tended to be seen more often in women with mental health issues who were already prone to other forms of self-harm.

Manar Maged was the twin who had her physically dependent "parasitic" twin sister Islaam removed.

I have so many cases of perforated uterus. I suggest going to the main RealChoice site and doing a search. I have cases that were fatal as well as cases in which the woman survived.

18-week fetus

13-week fetus

EMW Louisville, Kentucky: Here is info on a lawsuit filed against them on behalf on an underage girl that they performed an abortion on against her mother's express wishes, against medical advice, and against a restraining order -- resulting in the girl being hospitalized for sepsis. Their security guard got caught raping women on the premises after hours. And of course, EMW is a member of the National Abortion Federation.

Anniversary: Abortionist's goof, woman's death

Magnolia Reed Thomas was a 35-year-old mother of two when she went to Hedd Surgi-Center in Chicago for an abortion. The abortion was performed by Rudolph Moragne on February 19, 1986.

Moragne failed to note that the fetus was growing in Magnolia's fallopian tube, rather than in her uterus. After Magnolia was discharged from the clinic, the undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy ruptured, and Magnolia was rushed to the hospital. There, doctors did everything they could to save her, but she died from blood loss and shock the same day she had the abortion.

This was Magnolia's third abortion. Multiple abortions are a known risk factor for ectopic pregnancy.

Another patient, Diane Watson, died of anesthesia compliations after she'd undergone a safe, legal abortion by Moragne at Hedd.

Even though, in theory, women who choose abortion should be less likely to die of ectopic pregnancy complications, experiences shows that they're actually more likely to die, due to sloppy practices by abortion practitioners.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Fight the bigotry!

The blogosphere is abuzz about the professor who told his class that every baby with Down syndrome should be aborted.

First of all, let's recognize this for the bigotry it is. Imagine if the screening wasn't for an extra 21st chromosome, but for a "gay gene", or for dark skin pigment.

So, it's appalling bigotry. Now what?

Fight the bigotry against kids with Down syndrome by supporting Band of Angels. They make beautiful calendars and greeting cards featuring kids with DS. They also have "Cenebrate Packages" that you can sponsor to help parents make the adjustment to a DS diagnosis. You can also buy Common Threads, a breathtaking coffee-table book featuring essays and pictures illustrating life with Down syndrome.

If there is a doll collecter on your gift list, consider one of the beautiful dolls by Downi Creations.

There are also some beautiful products available at Cafe Press:

Down syndrome isn't scary - it's just different.

We are all Different. We are all Beautiful.

Do not be afraid...

Gently Enhanced

My personal favorite: Love does not count chromosomes.

There is a war being waged on kids with Down syndrome. And even if you, personally, think that the world is better off without such "defective" people being permitted to wander about at large, what about the collateral damage -- the three genetically normal children who die for every "defective" Down syndrome baby that's weeded out? Is this an acceptable level of collateral damage? To kill three civilian bystanders for every one of the "enemy"?

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversaries: Three injuries. One would prove fatal.

Annette C., a minor child, had been refered by Delaware League for Planned Parenthood for an abortion, to be performed by Dr. John F. MacGuigan at Wilmington Medical Center. The abortion was performed February 18, 1977. Annette suffered sustained infection resulting in permanent and total blocking of her fallopian tubes. The suit filed on her behalf faulted McGuigan with failure to inform her of the damage. Annette later learned of the injury from her own doctor. (New Castle County Superior Court Case No. 84C-SE-74)

Mattie Stanley said that she underwent an abortion performed by Dr. Rohmat Pirnazar at Woman's Aid Clinic on February 18, 1982. Mattie faulted Rohmat and the clinic with failure to provide proper staff and standardsm and with failure to provide proper post-operative care and examination. Mattie suffered sepsis from retained fetal tissue, sepsis. She required hospital and nursing care. (Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 82L 19115)

February 18 is also the day 15-year-old Jammie Garcia underwent the abortion that would eventually take her life.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Woman bleeds to death from safe and legal abortion

Lisa Bardsley was 26 years old when she went to Dr. John Biskind in Phoenix, Arizona. She was at least 20 weeks pregnant when she underwent her abortion on February 16, 1995.

An hour after the abortion was completed, Lisa was discharged from the clinic. With a friend who had accompanied her, Lisa headed home to northern Arizona. Lisa took ill, so she and her friend stopped at a motel and called for medical help. Lisa was taken to a hospital in Cottonwood, where she died February 17. The autopsy showed that she'd bled to death from a large uterine laceration.

Biskind went on to get into further trouble for delivering a live, nearly term infant during an abortion performed on a teenager, and for the abortion death of Lou Ann Herron. Herron's death got far more press than Bardsley's, whose death for some reason did not capture public attention or generate outrage the way Herron's death did.

Biskind's license was finally revoked in 1998.

The clinic where Lisa died was owned by abortionist Moshe Hachamovitch, who was implicated in the abortion deaths of Christina Goesswein, Tanya Williamson, Luz Rodriguez, and Jammie Garcia.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Unusual abortion death

On February 17, 1929, 25-year-old Violet Diancalana died in the home of Katherine Bajda, of complications of a criminal abortion performed on her there that day. Mrs. Bajda, identified as a homemaker, was held by the coroner. On March 15, Bajda was indicted for felony murder by a grand jury.

Violet's abortion was unusual in that it was performed by an amateur, rather than by a doctor as the majority of illegal abortions were.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Two anniversaries: Criminal abortion deaths

On February 16, 1925, 28-year-old Agnes Crowe died in Chicago's West Side Hospital from a criminal abortion performed that day. The coroner indicated that a female midwife was responsible for Agnes' death, but did not name the guilty party.

On February 16, 1890, Mrs. Mary Keegan died from complications of an illegal abortion performed that day. Mary died at the location where the abortion was performed. Mrs. Annie Schneider was arrested and held by the Coroner's Jury. Mrs. Schneider is described as employed in an unidentified profession. The Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database shows no other illegal abortion deaths associated with Mrs. Schneider.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Dr. Hagenow claims another victim

On February 15, 1925, Nina H. Pierce, a 22-year-old white woman, died at the Chicago Lying-In Hospital from complications of a criminal abortion believed to have been performed that day by Dr. Lucy Hagenow. Hagenow was arrested the day Nina died, at the crime scene, as was Nina's husband, Logan Pierce.

Both of them were originally exonerated by the coroner on March 5, 1925. But on June 10, Hagenow was held to a Grand Jury on $25,000 bond, and Pierce released, by Judge Schulman.

There were a number of deaths in Chicago attributed to either a Lucy Hagenow or a Louise Hagenow. I believe these to be the same woman. The deaths include:

Lottie Lowy

Bridget Masterson

Mary Moorehead

Jean Cohen

Elizabeth Welter

Marie Hicht

Hagenow was typical of criminal abortionists in that she was a physician.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Back alley abortion proves fatal

On February 15, 1020, Mrs. Margaret Ann Marts died from complications of an illegal abortion. On May 28, Dr. E. Anderson was convicted of manslaughter in her death. He was a practicing physician in Kansas City, Missouri.

Mrs. Marts had given birth on August 19, 1919. She recovered well, bottle-fed the baby, and began menstruating again about four weeks after the birth. On January 19, 1920, the family physician, Dr. Davis, was called to examine Mrs. Marts. She'd stopped menstruating about six weeks earlier, had concluded that she was pregnant, and had attmepted to perform an abortion on herself with a catheter. She said that if Dr. Davis didn't do an abortion, she'd find somebody else who would because she'd rather die than give birth again.

Upon examining Mrs. Marts, Dr. Davis found some irritation caused by the catheter, and an enlarged uterus which he attributed to pregnancy. However, in order to divert Mrs. Marts away from the idea of trying to abort, he told her that she wasn't pregnant. He administered a douche and noted that his patient was in good health. Dr. Davis then told Mr. Marts that his wife was pregnant, and explained his efforts to turn her mind away from the idea of aborting.

That afternoon, Mrs. Marts turned to a Dr. Anderson, who she'd previously never seen. He did not examine her, but made arrangements to go to her home around noon the following day, January 20, to perform "an operation." According to Anderson, Mrs. Marts had given her name as "Mrs. Crooks," and said that she was about two months pregnant and that she had bought an instrument in a drug store, which she'd then used to try to induce an abortion.

On January 20, Mrs. Marts placed a call to the home of her friend, Mrs. Stella Blythe. Mrs. Blythe's sister, Mrs. Mattie Wallace, was visiting and took the call. Mrs. Marts asked Mrs. Wallace to send Mrs. Blythe to her house, because she was going to be chloroformed. Both sisters went to Mrs. Marts' home. Dr. Anderson was there, along with a Black woman named Ida Bush. Mrs. Marts was in bed, and Dr. Anderson was in the kitchen perparing his instruments.

Dr. Anderson sent Ida Bush to get some chloroform. Mrs. Blythe remained in the bedroom, but her sister, due to her "delicate condition," left the room. One of the women helped with administering the chloroform. Mrs. Blythe did not see all the details of what Dr. Anderson did, but noticed that he used two instruments. She took one to be a speculum, and described the other as about a foot long and similar to scissors. Dr. Anderson used water and cotton during the procedure, which took about fifteen minutes. Mrs. Blythe testified that she didn't know what Dr. Anderson was doing with the instruments.

Mrs. Blythe reported that some time between noon and 1:00, Mrs. Wallace asked Dr. Anderson, "Now what time will this pass?" And Dr. Anderson responded, "That will be all right about 4 or 5 o'clock." Neither party said specifically what would pass. Mrs. Marts also asked Mrs. Blythe to call Mr. Marts and tell him that she'd been operated on and was doing well.

Four days later, Dr. Davis, the family physician, was called in to examine Mrs. Marts, who had taken to her bed and was in serious condition. She was expelling a foul-smelling mix of blood and pus. Dr. Davis found damage to her uterus, clearly from an abortion, and treated her for her infection.

Mrs. Marts spoke to her husband of what had happened. The conversation took place shortly before she was taken to the hospital on January 24 or 25. She told him she was sure she was dying, and that she blamed Dr. Anderson. She said that Dr. Anderson had lied to her, telling her that the operation wouldn't be "very severe," and that she'd only be sick three or four days. She said she was sorry she'd gone to Anderson. She also gave her husband instructions regarding the care of their children.

Mrs. Martz was discharged from the hospital for reasons that aren't clear in Westlaw documents. She again conversed with her husband about what had happened, asserting that she knew she was dying, that it was Dr. Anderson's fault, and that she was sorry she'd ever gone to him. She gave her husband the details of the operation, but these details were not revealed in Westlaw documents.

Mrs. Marts died in her home on February 15, 1920, two or three days after her discharge from the hospital. Dr. J.S. Snider performed an autopsy that day, and concluded that she'd died of sepsis. She still had retained placenta in her uterus which could not have still been from her recent term pregnancy. He also indicated that she couldn't have become pregnant again after the birth if she had retained the placenta. Dr. Snider verified that some instrument larger than a catheter had been used to cause an abortion.

Anderson admitted that he had chloroformed and operated upon Mrs. Marts on the 20th of January, but insisted that he'd only been treating her for the infection and damage she'd done to herself with the catheter. He also said that Mr. Marts had assaulted him, choked him, and tried to shake him down for $500.

Ida Bush, who had been present at the home on the 20th, described the instruments, said that she'd boiled water for sterilizing them, but that she was sent out of the room and did not witness what Dr. Anderson did with them. She said she was told that she was too young and would not understand such things.

The jury found Dr. Anderson guilty, and he was fined $500.

Margaret's abortion was typical of pre-legalization abortions in that it was performed by a physician.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Medical professionals kept returning teen to abuser -- at least three time, from the look of it

HT: JJ

Fugitive in rape kept job teaching (Philadelphia Inquirer, February 14, 2008)

How did Honore keep his job after he was first arrested in 2006 and accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting and sodomizing the teenager from the summer of 2003 through April 2006, when she was 14 through 17?

....

According to records filed at the courthouse, the birth of the teenager's daughter was the first of four pregnancies during the three years the girl was allegedly beaten, threatened and abused. Authorities said the girl had been living with Honore because of problems at home.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Honore is accused of forcing her to terminate at least two pregnancies and, during the second, when she was 15, telling her that if she did not have an abortion he would "kick her ass and do it for her."

At the time she reported the crimes, authorities noted she was four months pregnant with another of Honore's children, but court records did not specify whether that child was carried to term.

On Aug. 2, 2006, while police were investigating, Honore allegedly went to her house and threatened to blow it up and kill her, her guardian and the daughter after finding out that the teenager was with another man, the affidavit said.

It would be interesting if they'd do a timeline showing when the pregnancies took place, when the authorities came into the picture, why the girl wasn't removed from this man's clutches when she gave birth to the first child, etc.

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Verified: Ex-abortionist is now public school administrator

The Chicago Sun Times is doing a retrospective on their groundbreaking "The Abortion Profiteers" series they did back in 1978. One piece notes that Arnold Bickham, one of their featured abortionists, briefly turned away from the abortion business and joined a church. He quit the church and went back into abortion, evidently long enough to kill Sylvia Moore, before losing his medical license in 1988.

He is now an administrator in Chicago Public Schools.

Now, it's great news that he's no longer making a living killing women and children. But has he also returned to the church? Prayers for him, that he's doing what he's doing now because he has truly repented and is now seeking to do right by children. Because stopping evil-doing for purely practical reasons leaves the soul damaged. He can only be truly healed and redeemed if he has sought forgiveness for what he did to all those children all those years, and to their mothers, to the public, and to Sherry Emry and Sylvia Moore. Yeah, the mothers of the Chicago area, and their unborn children, are just as safe from this man regardless of his reasons for abandoning abortion. But there's a world of difference for Bickham himself.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Valentine's Day Special: Top Ten Signs Your Boyfriend is an Abortionist

Top Ten Signs Your Boyfriend is an Abortionist

Anniversary: Planned Parenthood patient loses battle against sepsis

On Valentine's Day of 2007, 21-year-old Edrica Goode died from sepsis in a Los Angeles hospital. The chain of events that led to her death started when Edrica went to a Planned Parenthood in Riverside, California, on January 31, 2007, for a second-trimester abortion. She was a little over 14 weeks pregnant.

A nurse there inserted laminaria to dilate Edrica's cervx, although Edrica had "odiferous creamy-colored discharge", indicative of a vaginal infection, at the time. Laminaria are sticks of seaweed that absorb moisture and expand, so they would wick any bacteria or viruses from the vagina into the uterus.

Edrica, who had not told her family about the abortion, did not return to the facility to have the laminaria removed and the abortion completed because her mental state had deteriorated overnight. She had became feverish, her mother said. She became mentally "confused and disoriented," not knowing what day it was, and started acting aggressively. She also began vomiting. Planned Parenthood's patient profile for Edrica said that they mailed Edrica two letters telling her that she had to return and have the laminaria removed, but Edrica's mother said that the letters never arrived. She does indicate that Planned Parenthood called, but that Edrica was too sick to take the calls.

Edrica's family took her to Riverside County Regoinal Medical Center on February 4. A blood test there revealed the pregnancy to the physicians, but the hospital did not perform a pelvic exam because at the time Edrica was unable to consent to the examination due to confusion and inappropriate speech. Edrica was treated in the medical ward for five days, then transferred to a psychiatric unit, which promptly sent her back to the medical unit to have them check her for possible sepsis. There, her condition continued to deteriorate. After Edrica's boyfriend told her family about the visit to Planned Parenthood, staff at the hospital performed a pelvic examination and discovered the laminaria, along with some gauze. Edrica miscarried that day, and died the next day, Valentine's Day.

The coroner's report attributes Edrica's death to toxic shock syndrome, prolonged retention of laminaria, and pregnancy. Which means that her death will likely be counted as a pregnancy death by health statisticians, but not as an abortion death because though the laminaria had been inserted to facilitate an abortion, no abortion actually took place.

Edrica had been a student at Riverside Community College. Her mother said that she enjoyed traveling and reading. Her mother commented, "My daughter made a choice, but she didn't choose to die." She added, "A lost dog gets more attention than my daughter did. This has really torn at my family."

Edrica is the third known death among Planned Parenthood patients in California in the last four years. Holly Patterson, 18, died of an infection after an RU-486 abortion in 2003. Diana Lopez, 25, bled to death in 2002 after her cervix was punctured during the procedure. Edrica's mother's lawyer indicates that Planned Parenthood did not report any of these deaths to the state, as required by law.

State records indicate that the clinic in question was last inspected in July of 2003. The inspection found 12 deficiencies, most involving recordkeeping and documentation problems that were to be corrected by Sept. 20, 2003. The file doesn't show if the corrections were made or not.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Valentine's Day abortion death of heiress

On February 14, 1942, Florence Nimick Schnoor, age 24, died at St. Joseph's Hospital in New York of what the coroner called a "brutal and inept" illegal abortion. Florence, grand-niece of Andrew Carnegie and heiress to a Pittsburgh steel fortune, had eloped with Richard H. Schnoor, sergeant-at-arms of the New York State Assembly, nine days earlier.

Her husband reported that he had taken her to White Plains so she could catch a train to New York for a day's shopping. Later that morning, she called and asked him to pick her up at the station. He found her obviously ill and asking for a doctor. He took her straight to the hospital, where she died three hours later. Doctors reported that Florence refused to discuss her case at all, much less implicate the abortionist, despite pleas from her husband.

Investigators contacted all 200 people whose names were in Florence's address book, but were unable to gain any clues as to who performed the fatal abortion. All they were able to piece together is that Florence evidently paid $40 for the abortion. Florence's husband was not implicated in her death; police belived that he had not even known Florence was pregnant.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Abortionist bludgeons wife to death on Valentine's day

On February 14, 2001, John Baxter Hamilton (pictured), provider of safe and legal vital reproductive health care services, bludgeoned his wife, Susan, to death in the bathroom of their Oklahoma City home. Hamilton is one of three abortionists I know of convicted of killing their wives. The others were Joe Bills Reynolds, also of Oklahoma City, and Malachy Dehenre of Mississippi.

Anniversary: Abortion by midwife proves fatal

On February 13, 1929, 20-year-old Anna Fazio died from complications of an illegal abortion performed about February 2, 1929, at the Chicago home of >midwife Marie Zwienczak. Zwienczak was arrested March 1, as recommended by the coroner. Stephanie Paczkiewicz was booked on February 23 as an accessory, but was not mentioned in the verdict.

Zwienczak was indictedfor homicide by a grand jury. She was tried, and was sentenced on June 20 to 14 years at Joliet Penitentiary. She appealed, but her sentence was affirmed by the Supreme Court.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Them mean old prolifers help woman avoid unwanted abortion

A young mom had been referred to Tiller under numerous misdiagnoses: that there were a blue million horrible things wrong with her baby, and that she was at risk of death herself: Healthy Baby Narrowly Escapes Late-Abortion At Tiller’s Clinic

Fortunately, the prolifers invited her next door for a free ultrasound, and if necessary a referral for high-risk obstetric care and perinatal hospice.

Turns out she didn't need any of those things after all. The whole thing had been a goof. Oops. Sorry about scaring you into nearly killing your baby in a risky third-trimester abortion.

One more time, with feeling: a prognosis is a prediction. When a doctor gives a patient a prognosis, he's doing the same thing the weather man is doing when he gives a forecast: Trying to predict the future. Would you stake your child's life on the weather report? No? Then why stake his or her life on anybody else reading high-tech tea leaves?

There are also doctors who aren't above lying to get a woman to do what he thinks is the sensible thing. Shari Russell was told that her life was in danger in order to trick her into aborting her anencephalic baby. Dolores was told that she had a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy to trick her into a abortion her boyfriend wanted her to have.

Women have died because of abortions pushed on them for maternal and fetal indications that simply weren't true. Allegra Roseberry had been falsely told that she wouldn't be eligible for cancer treatment, and that her baby was "doomed" anyway. Marla Cardamone was falsely told that her medications had injured her unborn baby.

For more:

• The Limitations of Medical Prognostications
  
• Parents 'misled over gene disorders'
  
• When The Future Looks Bleak
  
• Midtown Hospital's Late Abortion Scandal
  
• Beware of "Maternal and Fetal Indications"
  
• "Don't Like Abortions? Don't Have One."
  
• Protecting Yourself and Your Unborn Child
  
• "Don't Like Abortions? Don't Have One!" Redux

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Another one doesn't bite the dust

Woman Thought Brain Dead Recovers

Granny's bought the farm. Get ready to plant her.

Not.

When are we going to catch on to the idea that "As good as dead" is a prediction and stop believing every Nostradamus of a doctor who claims somebody's already knocking at the Pearly Gates?

Two Safe, Legal Anniversaries

Elise Kalat was 22 years old when she had an abortion sometime around February 10, 1987. Two days after the abortion, her bronchial tubes went into spasms and caused her to go into respiratory arrest. She died at Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts on February 12, 1987.

****

Bonnie Fix, a mother of four, was admitted to Fresno Community Hospital on February 7, 1974. Doctors there performed an abdominal hysterectomy on Bonnie. Codes used at the state registrar's office inidcate that an abortion had been induced on her for medical reasons. Several days after her hysterectomy, Bonnie began to suffer bowel and lung problems. She suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead on February 12.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

OT. Sad. Namdaemun gate burns in Seoul

I could cry. Namdaemun has burned. It was 610 years old, a relic from the old wall that used to surround the city.



Major bummer. It was beautiful.




My kids tried to tell me about it, but when they said there was a fire in Seoul, Namdaemun, I thought they were referring to a fire in Namdaemun neighborhood, not to the gate itself. I am heartsick. This was a major cultural treasure in my adopted second home. It's such a shame.

Anniversary: Tender loving care leaves 13-year-old girl dead

They told me I had to get down to St. Luke's right away, that Dawn was at that hospital fighting for her life.

It's the call every parent dreads. Ruth Ravenelle was no exception. Her 13-year-old daughter, Dawn, was active in the church where both her parents were ministers. The family sang Gospel songs together. Dawn was a dream child -- the kid who did her homework without being told, who liked to surprise her mother by cleaning the house. She was what's known in the vernacular as "a good girl." Her parents never expected any trouble about Dawn.

I was going, 'How can she be fighting for her life? She left for school this morning, looking healthy, never been sick.'

What Ruth didn't know was that Dawn had slipped off her pedestal, had engaged in a dalliance with a 15-year-old Romeo. And when she learned that she was pregnant, she knew her parents would be crushed. She went to a teacher for advice. The teacher and a counselor arranged to take care of the whole mess so that Dawn's parents would never have to know. The boyfriend borrowed a credit card from a relative to pay for the risky, expensive, second-trimester abortion.

The counselor at Eastern Women's Center (a National Abortion Federation member) had seen how frightened Dawn was, and had marked on her chart that she should be treated with "tender loving care." But abortionist Alan Kline had his own ideas about what constituted "tender loving care." According to the suit filed by Dawn's parents, he didn't administer enough anesthesia to get the frightened child through the entire procedure. She began to cough, vomit, and choke. Kline put a breathing tube in Dawn's throat, put her aside, and left her unattended to lapse into a coma. Dawn was eventually rushed to the hospital, where it finally occurred to somebody to do the obvious: call Dawn's mother.

While I was there at the hospital -- they were doing tests -- I had to keep my hand pressed over my mouth to keep from screaming in horror. I kept going, 'This is all a bad dream. I am going to wake up and this will not have happened.'

Day after day Dawn's family gathered at her bedside, talking to her, playing tapes of the family singing together, trying to lure her back from the brink of death -- all to no avail. Dawn died three weeks after her abortion, on February 11, 1985, without ever having regained consciousness.



The family sued and won, but as the New York Post headline pointed out, "$1.2M Won't Bring Her Back." The story featured a photo of Dawn at her junior high graduation, in cap and gown, gazing out smiling at a future she would never have.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Brittany's abortion nightmare

Nabil Ghali was a seedy abortionist in Florida before moving to Ohio, where he worked at Academy Medical Center. The most detailed description of his behavior at Academy is in a lawsuit by a 17-year-old girl I'll call "Brittany." Brittany said that she had an abortion done by Ghali at Academy on February 11, 1991, when she was 23 weeks pregnant. The skull of the fetus was left inside her body, and she hemorrhaged. She was transferred by ambulance to a hospital for a transfusion and surgery.

Another doctor’s review of the case called Brittany's treatment "far below the standard of care that is customary in any area of this country." He cites the following deficiencies: "There is essentially no note and no details of what was done in order to perform this abortion. It appears from reading the entire chart ... that some type of suction or extraction utilized in order to terminate the pregnancy. The patient had a uterus that was 22 to 24 weeks in size. This type of maneuver in a uterus that size is dangerous, and life threatening." He added, "In an attempt to remove the fetal parts, the uterus was ruptured and the head extruded into the abdominal cavity. The rupture and the following consequences...were certainly all part of a horrible chain of events which demonstrate the severe departure from any acceptable standard of care. ... The patient was sent to St. Luke's Hospital and apparently no written information was provided in the transfer... The patient was in severe distress. ... She required immediate stabilization, transfusions, and from the notes provided by St. Luke's Hospital, there did not seem to be a thorough understanding of what had happened in the abortion clinic. ... It is my opinion that this entire case demonstrates a severe life-threatening departure from all acceptable standards of medical care..." Ghali had no medical malpractice insurance since 1986, and moved for an order preventing Brittany from discovering his financial status. (Cleveland Free Times, January 20-26, 1993; Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. 230925)

Searches: A motley assortment

Mortality anesthesia after abortion: Here are the 30 anesthsia deaths I've found. There are no doubt more.

Down syndrome abortion: The idea that life with Down syndrome wasn't worth living cost Linda Boom her life as well as her baby's life. Christin Gilbert (pictured), on the other hand, was most likely subjected to an abortion because she herself had Down syndrome. She, like Linda, ended up as dead as her baby. Then there is the Italian woman who ended up with two dead babies because she was willing to gamble her "normal" child's life in order to eliminate the one with Down syndrome. But she only jumped on the bandwagon: Three genetically ordinary babies are killed for every one with Down syndrome we weed out. Evidently these kids are such a horror that it's worth killing any number of "normal" kids, just to exterminate them.

Abortion survivors

Barbara Lofrumento died in 1962 when her parents arranged for Dr. Harvey Lothringer to do a "back-alley abortion" on her. (Note: back-alley indicates the clandestine way the woman is brought to the doctor's office, not the location where the abortion was performed. Lothringer killed Barbara in the same office where he'd perform legitimate medical care.)

1913 abortion. The only death I have for 1913 is Emily Nohavec, who had an abortion performed by a midwife.

There were several searches pertaining to abortions and fetuses of 20 weeks. Here is my roundup of relevant information.

"Self induced miscarriage". I like the denial there. Sweetie, if it's self-induced, it's an abortion, not a miscarriage. Re-naming it doesn't change the reality of deliberately killing the baby. These mis-named "miscarriages" are embraced by some women as natural and safe and gentle. They're also how Kris Humphrey and Penny Roe ended up killing themselves.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Woman killed by veterinarian attempting abortion

On February 10, 1957, veterinarian Ira Ledbetter performed an abortion on Alice Kimberly. Ledbetter used a veterinary instrument called a milk tube on Alice, causing lacerations and an embolism. She quickly died of her injuries, leaving her husband with five minor children to raise alone.

Alice's abortion was unusual in that it wasn't, like most pre-legalization abortions, performed by a physician. Instead it represented a second kind, unusual but still more common than amateur or self-induced: abortions performed by people with medical training who were not physicians.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Sweeny Todd and James Parks

I watched Sweeny Todd last night. The sight of the meat grinder brought an image to mind.

I lost my original source document. But I still have my write-up:

Abortionist Curtis Stover filed an affidavit stating that he vomited after observing abortionist James Parks' method of disposing of aborted fetuses of 15 to 22 weeks gestation: he ground them up with a standard kitchen meat grinder and flushed the tissue down the sink. In a letter to the health department, Stover stated that Parks told him he had developed this method because the fetuses would "stop up" the toilet and because he did not want fetuses retrieved from the trash by pro-lifers. (Sources: letter by Stover dated 6-15-92, affidavit by Stover dated 6-15-92; Up The Creek 9-11-92; excerpt from Parks' deposition 2-4-91 Arapahoe County District Court Case No. 90CV432)

Stover described the flesh as coming out looking like "multiple tubes of pink toothpaste".

Fetus woes? Call Roto-Rooter!

Sometimes the damndest things just stick in your head. I had to look up Parks' name. I could only remember Stover. And the image of the multiple tubes of pink toothpaste.

Self-induced abortion: A response to a search

Somebody was searching for "self induced abortion". I checked their search results and found this:

Self-induced abortion in a bulimic woman

It's a case from New Zealand. Here's the abstract:

We report the case of a woman with bulimia nervosa, several personality disorders, and a past history of anorexia nervosa who deliberately induced an abortion via self-imposed starvation and vigorous exercise. Her history reveals severe obsessive-compulsive and narcissistic personality disorders as well as a lifelong pattern of denial of affect and illness.

Closer to home for me, is this one from Southern Medical Journal, July of 1983: Use of quinine for self-induced abortion

Here's the abstract:

4 cases in which quinine was used in recent attempts at self-induced abortion in Charleston, South Carolina, are described, and the pharmacology, toxicity, and abortifacient efficacy of quinine are described. A 28-year old indigent, unmarried woman with 3 children was seen 1 day following ingestion of 16 quinine capsules. 3 weeks later she had suction curettage of an 8-week size uterus at which time it appeared that incomplete abortion had already occurred. 5 months previously, the woman had taken a similar dose of quinine to abort a previous unwanted pregnancy. A suction curettage was done and the pathology report showed products of conception. The other 3 cases were a 26-year old woman with 1 child who was 13 weeks pregnant when first seen, 3 weeks after ingesting 4 quinine pills; a 23-year old pregnant for the 1st time who came to the emergency room approximately 22 weeks pregnant a day after taking quinine in an attempt to induce abortion; and a 33-year old woman with 3 children who was 14 weeks pregnant and who 6 weeks earlier had taken 4 quinine tablets of unknown strength along with several tablets of Humphrey's Number 11 in an attempt to induce abortion. The 4 women experienced side effects including tinnitis, diminished hearing, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, chest pain, dyspnea, tachycardia, abdominal pain, back pain, leg weakness, irritability, and a feeling of impending syncope. The latter 3 women were delivered of live infants at 35 weeks or later. The abortifacient efficacy of quinine is unclear. There are no well controlled studies and the majority of cases are unreported. Most references deal with the complications of quinine use. Of 70 cases identified in the literature in which quinine was used to abort a known or suspected pregnancy, at least 11 resulted in maternal death, and at least 41 offspring had congenital anomalies for which quinine was suspected as the etiologic agent. Abortion was achieved without maternal death in only 3 cases. 4 grams of quinine usually causes toxic effects and 8 grams is the average fatal dose for adults. These 4 cases suggest that belief in the abortifacient efficacy of quinine persists despite questionable evidence.

Very illuminating, but I wish this abstract had included this little snippet from the first abstract I read on that article (emphasis mine):

Literature review suggests that quinine is an ineffective abortifacient, even when taken in toxic doses. Adverse effects of quinine include cinchonism, potentially fatal renal failure, and possible teratogenesis. Quinine is available over-the-counter, but it has few legitimate medical indications. Health care personnel treating women with undesired pregnancies should be alert to the signs and symptoms of quinine toxicity.

There's stuff from my own web site I'd like to refer to here, but for some reason the stupid server is acting up and won't load my page! My main point being that legalization didn't get rid of dangerous self-induced abortion attempts. Some women know what they're doing is dangerous and do it anyway (like the bulemic woman in the first cite). They're doing what they're doing because they have a mental illness, which is something that an abortion won't cure and will probably only exacerbate. Other women probably have been told by "helpful" friends that what they're intending to do is perfectly "safe" and "natural". Kris Humphrey, for example, died persisting in trying to perform a "safe" and "natural" pennyroyal abortion on herself. Plugging abortion as "safe" and "natural" isn't going to help these women.

Then there's Risky choices: the dangers of teens using self-induced abortion attempts

Here's the abstract:

The introduction to this article on the existence and dangers of self-abortion attempts among adolescents in the US notes that in 1992 more than 134,000 US adolescents sought legal abortions, while an unknown number attempted illegal or self-induced abortions. The article goes on to describe a case in which a 19-year-old almost died after ingesting 1.5 g of quinine in a self-abortion attempt. Next, the article reviews the literature on methods used to attempt self-induced abortion and points out that 70 cases of attempted quinine induced abortion resulted in three abortions and 11 maternal deaths. A table lists other methods of self-induced abortion, including use of drugs, instrumentation, cervical dilation, and trauma. After noting that adolescents may be particularly susceptible to such attempts because of their limited resources and limited access to legal abortions, the article describes reasons for self-induced abortion attempts. Next, recommendations are made to help nurse-practitioners recognize the symptoms of self-induced abortion attempts and prevent the occurrence of self-induced abortion by accessing risks and providing adolescents with the education and support needed to prevent such attempts.

Since I only have access to the abstract, not the full article, I don't know how far back the literature search goes to find the 11 self-induced abortion deaths. I'll have to look it up back stateside next month.

I like that they work to alert nurse practitioners to the signs of attempted self-induced abortions, but I worry that their "prevention" might be entirely focused on sending her to the local Hodari or Hayat rather than helping her get past the initial abortion ideation, which has been shown to be normal in early pregnancy. (Again, I can't search my site for the links I want!)

Now we go from social and medical research into la-la land:

"In fact, most women who died pre-Roe, died from self-induced abortion."

Of the pre-legalization illegal abortion deaths I found, that I've sorted so far:

• 2 were self-induced
  
• 8 were unclassifed (perpetrator not identified)
  
• 9 were by people with some medical training (nurse, midwife, etc) who were not doctors
  
• 24 were performed by people with no formal medical training
  
• 59 were performed by physicians

Total: 102

Now, I'll have to go do a more thorough search and tweak my numbers once I can get back into my site, but preliminary results indicate:

• 2% self-induced
  
• 8% unclassified
  
• 9% by people with medical training
  
• 24% by people with no formal medical training
  
• 58% by physicians

While I don't have all illegal abortion deaths, by a long shot, I do have a representative sample of those reported by the newspapers and investigated by the coroner's office. We can't draw rock-solid conclusions, but we can get a ballpark idea of what was going on.

Even if we assume that the unclassified were all self-induced, that gives us 10 self induced deaths out of 102, for about 10%. This is in keeping with research by Nancy Howell Lee and Mary Calderone into pre-legalization abortion, which found that over 90% of illegal abortions were done by physicians, and the bulk of the remainder by non-physicians with formal medical training. Amateur and self-induced abortions would, of course, be over-represented among the dead because they'd be performed by the people with the least skill in performing the abortion, and in detecting and treating complications.

So, a reminder:

Self-induced abortion attempts do persist, despite the availability of legal abortion, for a variety of reasons

Medical professionals need to be aware of at-risk women and be ready to help them get real help

Promoting do-it-yourself abortions isn't help

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Safe and legal in California

Abortion clinics operator is charged, Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2008

By the time paramedics arrived, the patient was lying in a pool of her own blood, her pulse racing and her blood pressure dangerously low.

The medical board documents identify the woman as Angela P. She had undergone what she expected to be a safe legal abortion at Clinica Medica Para la Mujer de Hoy in Santa Ana, California in the summer of 2004. The abortion was performed by Phillip Rand, then in his early 80s. Rand used a simple suction abortion, appropriate only for the first trimester, on Angela, though she was 20 weeks pregnant. Angela had been given no anesthesia or pain medications.

Angela P.'s experience was cited in a 2004 medical board accusation against Rand as "barbaric" and a "severe departure" from a reasonable standard of care. Rand surrendered his license in 2005.

Rand was one of at least six doctors with histories of malpractice complaints, addiction or medical board actions who were employed by a chain of Southern California abortion clinics, according to court and medical board records.

Bertha Bugarin, who manages the clinic and others in the chain, has been charged with five counts practicing medicine without a license in February and March of 2007. Her sister, Raquel Bugarin, has also been charged with related crimes.

A fictitious name statement from 1991 filed for the business lists Bertha Bugarin as the person behind Clinica Medica Para La Mujer de Hoy, although paperwork filed with the medical board lists Nicholas Braemer, a Torrance doctor who lost his license in 2000, as the sole registrant of the clinics between 1991 and 1999.

The chain had offices in "Baldwin Park, Huntington Park, Los Angeles and Panorama City, operating either under the name Clinica Medica Para La Mujer de Hoy or Community Women's Medical Clinic. Public records contain references to four more locations, in Chula Vista, North Hollywood, Torrance and Santa Ana. One clinic doctor said in a deposition for a 2002 malpractice suit that there were nine clinics."

The Los Angeles Times article noted "at least 12 personal injury and malpractice lawsuits and one wrongful death suit have been filed in Los Angeles County against Bertha Bugarin, the clinics or both." The wrongful death might be associated with a botched delivery by one of Bugarin's abortionists (see George Dalton Flanigan, below), but since this death took place at a hospital and not at one of the chain of abortion facilities, this seems unlikely.

The Times indicates that "Bugarin developed the clinics herself, hiring the doctors to work on an on-call basis." The doctors themselves are a rogues' gallery:

Nicholas Braemer, who sometimes appears on documents as an owner of the facilities, admitted to the medical board that in 1987 he initiated an abortion but only removed one arm of the fetus. The patient expelled the rest of the maimed fetus the following day. Braemer was put on probation with the board, but then violated the terms of his probation three times. In 1996, he left the cranium and placenta inside a patient, who had to be hospitalized for a month to have her bowel repaired and multiple abscesses drained. "Braemer surrendered his license in 2000, after a medical board investigation of several Clinica Medica clinics. Without a physician present, unlicensed receptionists performed ultrasounds on undercover investigators posing as patients, according to medical board records."

"Mohamed Dia, who surrendered his license in 1999. He admitted to the medical board that he used a van to bring a bleeding patient to a hospital after perforating her uterus and leaving part of the fetus in her body during a 1996 abortion at Clinica Medica."

"Laurence Reich, who surrendered his license in 2006 after pleading no contest to misdemeanor criminal charges of sexually exploiting two patients during abortions in 2000 at clinics not associated with Bugarin. His conviction was expunged in 2004 after he completed a yearlong probationary period and paid the court a $100 restitution fine, according to a Van Nuys court file." One patient reported that Reich groped her breasts during an abortion. "An earlier board accusation in 1982 had accused Reich of sexual abuse in three cases in 1981 and 1979. Reich asked the women to masturbate and rubbed their genital areas, according to the accusation, which led the board to put Reich on probation for 10 years until 1994."

"Glenn Edward Miller, an admitted alcoholic whose license was revoked by the medical board in 2005 due to repeated substance abuse relapses. Miller was on probation for performing obstetrical procedures while under the influence of alcohol when he began working in Bugarin clinics in about 2003, according to board records." Miller and Rand settled a suit filed by a woman they performed an abortion on, even though she was not pregnant. She suffered a ruptured uterus.

"George Dalton Flanigan, who was hired as an independent contractor at five Bugarin clinics in 2002, according to court documents. That same year, at an unnamed hospital, he delivered a dead baby using a vacuum procedure after refusing to perform a cesarean section, according to a board accusation that led to a 2007 decision to put him on probation for five years." After reading the medical board documents myself, it is pretty clear that it was Flanigan's quackery that caused the baby's death. He persisted in attempting to use a vacuum forceps in the face of contraindications, causing fatal brain damage to the infant.

I am currently working on downloading copies of the medical board documents. I'll write them up and make them available for your perusal. You won't have to take my word for any of it; you'll be able to check it yourself.

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Yet another ringing endorsement

'The right choice' leads to a 'fountain of pain':

The feminist in me shrinks away from talking about the pain of that loss. Even though my heart believes I sent it back so it could return at a better time, there’s fountain of pain and a kind of aloneness I had never experienced that seems to gush interminably.

....

I dream about the baby, the one with no name. In the dreams, I am overwhelmed with trying to find someone to help me care for it, of hearing it call the babysitter “mama” because its mother can never be there. When this happens, I feel like I made the right choice for myself and the children that will come. But I still grieve.

She also speaks of the physical nightmare that was the abortion itself.

Is it just me, or is there a sort of "misery loves company" aspect to the prochoice movement? This is far from the first heartsick cry from a woman totally wrecked by an abortion, awash in a sea of anguish and regret -- but still insisting it was "the right choice" and one she wants other women to have the chance to experience firsthand.

What other human act can so totally blow up in so many people's faces, cause them so much heartbreak and grief, and still be promoted as palliative?

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Welcome to America!

Congratulations, Craig Ferguson, new American citizen!



(I'm leaving this up even though the video is down, alas. Does anybody have the segment of Craig's swearing in? It was very moving.)


AND he soloed for the first time! He became a pilot the same weekend he became a U.S. Citizen.

I'm so proud of my beloved Scotsman! Correction -- my beloved Scots-American.

Anniversary: Back alley butchery? Or safe and legal vital reproductive health care services?

Safe and legal? Or back-alley butchery? The case of 19-year-old Nancy Ward certainly sits on the cusp.

In November of 1967, Nancy, a student at the University of Oklahoma, told her boyfriend that she was pregnant and wanted an abortion. The boyfriend contacted his father in Kansas City, Missouri for help. On January 30, 1968, the boyfriend's father contacted Dr. Richard Mucie at his ear, nose, and throat clinic in Kansas City and made arrangements for the abortion. On February 7, Nancy and her boyfriend flew from Oklahoma to Kansas City and visited Mucie at clinic. Mucie examined Nancy and told the couple that he would contact them at their hotel.

At 11 p.m., Mucie called and arranged to pick them up and drive them to his clinic. He took Nancy back for the back room while the boyfriend waited in the outer office. About 20 to 30 minutes later, Mucie returned to the front office and asked the boyfriend for money before starting the procedure. Evidence indicates that Mucie then performed a D&C abortion on Nancy.

During the abortion, Mucie made a 1/2 inch tear in Nany's uterus. She went into shock and died at the clinic at about 9 a.m. February 8, in spite of Mucie's attempts to resucitate her. At about 11:30 a.m., Nancy's body was taken to Osteopathic hosptal. An autopsy revealed parts of a 4 1/2 to five month fetus still in Nancy's uterus. She had bled to death.

Mucie was convicted on June 8, 1968, of performing an abortion "not necessary to preserve the life" of the mother. Illegal abortion at that time carried a penalty of 3-5 years, with the sentence to be increased in cases where the mother died. Mucie served 14 months then was released on parole. Parole was set to expire on July 27, 1977. His medical license was revoked on May 4, 1971. After Roe v. Wade overturned Missouri's abortion law, Mucie successfully appealed his conviction and got his license restored under a ruling that made Roe retroactive in Missouri. He was released from propation and his record expunged of the manslaughter-abortion convicted. Ironically, Nancy's fatal abortion was retroactively declared legal on the grounds that the state's "interest in materal health" did not allow Missouri to have prohibited Mucie from performing it.

So, at the time Mucie performed it, Nancy's abortion was one of those horrible back-alley abortions that no woman should have to endure, much less die from. But after Roe, it was retroactively declared safe and legal, and thus transforms Nancy's death to something the abortion lobby can dismiss with a flippant, "All surgery has risks!"

Did Nancy's death become more acceptable and less tragic after it was retroactively relegated to the realm of safe and legal abortions?

And lest Mucie's specialty being ENT and not Ob/Gyn stick in your craw, keep in mind that this is not unusual at all for abortion specialists. Scroll down here to Robin's story. Her abortion at a National Abortion Federation member clinic was performed by Don Jaffe, who was, like Richard Mucie, an ear, nose, and throat man. And Lawson Akpulonu, whose seedy abortion mill Diane Sawyer dismissed as "a non-story", was a podiatrist.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Isn't that special?

A well-off, stable married couple decide to abort because, well, that's just their preference. And it brought them ever-so-much closer! It was a beautiful thing. "A love story."

Choosing Us

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka also found an unusual way of building their marital intimacy. Hey, Alison and Walter, check out the company you choose to keep.

And Karla's out of the klink now. Invite her over for a wine and cheese party. I'm sure you'd have a lot to talk about.

HT: JJ

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Baby-loving moms get moral support in France

Court ruling sets stage for abortion row in France

The French Supreme Court ruled that parents who loved their unborn baby can register the child's name legally if he or she is miscarried.

This, of course, has the women who consider these babies medical waste up in arms.

There's a parallel battle in the United States. I have in my hands "Proof of Life", an article in the December 11, 2006 issue of People. Grieving parents want certificates of stillbirth. Nothing more. But anti-choice activists hiding under the mantle of "prochoice" are against the idea. Anything that acknowedges these mothers' grief might undermine public support for abortion. So these women are to be dismissed, their anguish belittled, in the interests of those women for whom the loss of a child before or during birth is something to be chosen and celebrated, rather than lamented and mourned.

Go for it. Fight it. Show the public that the abortion lobby isn't about supporting whatever the woman in question chooses. It's only about supporting the rights of those who want their unborn babies to die unremarked, unmourned, and tossed into the incinerator like so many used bandages.

This ruling isn't nearly as great a threat to "choice" as the hissy-fit abortion supporters are throwing will be. Show your true colors. Go to town.

Anniversary: Shanda's Nightmare Abortion

Arizona abortion provider P. Scott Ricke got in trouble with the medical board regarding his dubious care of a patient I'll call "Shanda," identified by the authorities as "S.P." Shanda was 25 years old when she went to Ricke for an abortion on February 7, 1987 at his Women's Surgical Clinic in Arizona.

During the abortion, Shanda said, the head of the fetus became lodged. She was screaming in pain, but Ricke refused her request for painkillers by telling her that he didn't have any. She asked to be taken to a hospital, but Ricke told her that since her pregnancy was more than 24 weeks along, beyond the 24 week limit most hospitals observed, no hospital would take her.

Ricke made as many as 40 unsuccessful attempts to start an IV, and asked Shanda for advice about how to deal with the lodged head (wanting her to decide if crushing the head would be the right course of action). After three hours of attempts to remove the head, Ricke wrapped the body of the fetus -- which was hanging out of Shanda's vagina -- in a towel, and loaded Shanda into an employee's car to be transported to the hospital.

The Assistant Arizona Attorney General investigated the case, and asserted that during the three hours he spent trying to dislodge Shanda's fetus, Ricke left her several times to do other abortions. After packing Shanda into a private car for transport, Ricke remained behind at his clinic to do three more abortions before following Shanda to the hospital and completing her abortion there.

The Assistant Attorney General said that by attempting to abort a 28-week, 2.4-pound fetus in this manner, he failed to minimize risks and jeopardized Shanda's health. Ricke's attorney countered that the fetus was only 24 weeks old, and that it had a less than 50% chance of survival. Ricke was disciplined by the medical board.

Anniversary: Kathy Davis

Life Dynamics lists 26-year-old Kathy Davis on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legal abortions. Citing Kathy's death certificate, Life Dynamics says that Kathy died at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital of heart failure and hypertension following a legal abortion on February 6, 1987.

Anniversary: Laniece Dorsey

Seventeen-year-old Laniece Dorsey underwent an abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group facility in Orange County, California, on February 6, 1986. FPA is a National Abortion Federation member facility. Laniece lapsed into a coma, was transferred to a nearby hospital, and died later that day.



The Orange County Sheriff's Department medical examiner blamed the death on cardiorespiratory arrest due to the anesthesia, although he also found a "thick adherent layer of fibrinous material containing moderate numbers of inflammatory infiltrates" in Laniece's uterus.

Laniece wasn't the first or last young woman to die from abortion at a facility owned by FPA head honcho Edward Campbell Allred. Others include Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970; Patricia Chacon, age 16, 1984; Mary Pena, age 43, 1984; Josefina Garcia, age 37, 1985; Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, 1988; Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988; Susan Levy, age 30, 1992; Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992; Christina Mora, age 18, 1994; Kimberly Neil, 2000; and Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004. Allred's facilities remain members of the National Abortion Federation despite these deaths.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

The Gutierrez Abortion: All in vain

On this date in 1996, 21-year-old Carolina Gutierrez lost her battle with post-abortion sepsis.

Just four days earlier, doctors had amputated her gangrenous feet, hoping that this would free up her immune system to battle the infection that had been raging since her abortion on December 19, 1995.

Carolina had been hospitalized since December 21, when her family had called an ambulance in their alarm over her difficulty breathing. Two days of trying to contact Maber Medical Center, where Carolina had undergone the abortion, had yielded no help. The voice mails she left had gone unanswered. When somebody finally did pick up the phone, whoever it was had hung up on her. The young mother, who had no medical insurance, had been suffering from fever and pain since the evening of the 19th.

She had arrived at the emergency room already in septic shock. Doctors had performed an emergency hysterectomy, trying to halt the spread of infection from her perforated uterus, but the sepsis had raged on.

Carolina had spent her 21st birthday as she had spent Christmas and New Year's: on a respirator, sepsis raging through her body. Her two children from a previous relationship, now orphaned, had spent most of their time in the care of relatives as her husband, Jose Linarte, had spent as much time as he could by Carolina's side, waiting and praying.

His prayers, like the doctors' efforts, had ultimately been in vain.

Anniversary: Abortion by midwife kills woman

On January 29, 1929, Louise Allman, age 25, underwent an abortion at the home of Amelia K. Jaruez, a midwife. The address is also listed as a medical facility, so evidently she provided care to legitimate patients there as well. On February 5, Louise died. Jaruez was held by the coroner on February 23, and indicted for homicide by a grand jury, but she was acquitted on July 2.

Anniversary: Sloppy practices lead to woman's death

Janyth Caldwell, age 36, died February 4, 1986, a month after George Wayne Patterson attempted to perform an abortion on her. The Alabama state Medical Examiner attributed her death to loss of oxygen to the brain, due to internal hemorrhaging from an ectopic pregnancy.

A proper pre-abortion examination should be able to determine if the pregnancy is ectopic, in which case standard abortion techniques will not touch the embryo. Proper post-abortion pathology reports would detect that no embryo was removed from the uterus, and would clue the abortionist in to the fact that the pregnancy was ectopic. Patterson evidently missed both of these opportunities to detect Janyth's ectopic pregnancy and prevent her death.

Even though, in theory, women who choose abortion should be less likely to die of ectopic pregnancy complications, experiences shows that they're actually more likely to die, due to sloppy practices by abortion practitioners. Brenda Vise, for example, suffered this fate after getting abortion drugs at a clinic that was operating illegally after having been shut down by Tennessee authorities.

According to official documents, another Alabama woman, Mary Bradley, died after an abortion performed by a doctor identified as Wayne Patterson. The Alabama medical board lists no Dr. Wayne Patterson, only Dr. George Wayne Patterson, deceased, which leads me to believe that the same Dr. Patterson responsible for Janyth's death had also caused the death of Mary Bradley the year before. If anybody can confirm or disprove this theory, please let me know.

Patterson himself also suffered an early death at somebody else's hands. He was gunned down outside a pornography theater in an apparent gangland slaying. (The Feminist Majority Foundation, and Revolutionary Worker refer to the slain doctor as "Wayne Patterson", which is further evidence that he is the same doctor responsible for Mary Bradley's death. The fact that these groups lament the gangland shooting of an abortionist, while ignoring the fact that he himself had evidently killed two women, underscores where the abortion lobby's priorities are.)

Hear Janyth's story in a minute:

February 3: two examples of botched abortions and the aftermath

An underage girl, April S., went to Margaret Sanger Center for a vaccum aspiration abortion procedure February 3, 1987 by Dr. Norman E. Matthews. There were no fetal parts found in the examination of the tissue removed during the abortion, but nobody at Margaret Sanger Center told April that. She was sent home.

Three months later, on May 7, another doctor examined April and noted that she was still pregnant, 22.5 weeks along. April "decided to keep the child due to the emotional trauma experienced by the first abortion procedure and the numerous additional risks to a late stage abortion."

Thus began a time of great anxiety for April. Ultrasounds performed between May 7 and June 29 showed decreasing amniotic fluid. It was on June 29 that April went into premature labor and underwent a c-section. Due to the low levels of amniotic fluid, the baby was born with chorioamnionitis, hypoplastic lungs, and Hyaline Membrane Disease. The baby died the following day. (Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Case No. A-8905595)

****

Closteen J. underwent an abortion by Carlos Baldoceda at Biogenetics on February 3, 1982. Her lawsuit faulted Baldoceda with failure to perform an adequate physical exam, and failure to inform Closteen of complication or give sufficient post-op instructions. Closteen endured pain and suffering during a prolonged convalescence, and required further medical treatment. (Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 84L 2565)

Equally dead. Is only one needless and tragic?

On February 2, 1926, Alberta Handa, a 38-year-old Black woman, died of a botched abortion in Chicago. The perpetrator was never caught.

Fast forward half a century, to February 2, 1977. Elizabeth Tsuji, a 21-year-old Cal State student, checked into Inglewood General Hospital for a saline abortion. She died that day. Two autopsies were performed, neither of which could find a definitive cause of the young woman's death. Other women who met their deaths at Inglewood include Kathy Murphy, Cora Lewis, Belinda Byrd, Yvonne Tanner and Lynette Wallace.

The Muppet Campaign

It's uncanny!



Though, personally, I still say this guy gets my vote:



HT: Gizizza

Typical: State backs mom who wants daughter dead, father desperate

Life for Lauren

Due to a brain injury at age 23, Lauren Richardson is in what her doctors are calling a "vegetative state". She was pregnant at the time of injury. She gave birth a year ago, while on a respirator. Now she needs only a feeding tube and is no longer vent-dependent. Nevertheless, her mom wants her Schiavoed, and her dad wants her to live. Guess who the State is siding with.

The one who wants her dead, naturally. That's the motto when dealing with the weak, defenseless, and vulnerable. "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."

More on this story:

Lauren Richardson

Pray for Lauren Richardson, Being Starved to Death in Delaware

Do not remove Lauren's feeding tube

Parents battle over life of brain-damaged daughter

The Gutierrez Abortion: Desperate Measures

On this date in 1996, doctors finally got 21-year-old Carolina Gutierrez stable enough to survive the amputation of her gangrenous feet. She had been hospitalized since December 21, 1995, when her family had called an ambulance in their alarm over her difficulty breathing. Two days of trying to contact Maber Medical Center, where Carolina had undergone an abortion on the 19th, had yielded no help. The voice mails she left had gone unanswered. When somebody finally did pick up the phone, whoever it was had hung up on her. The young mother, who had no medical insurance, had been suffering from fever and pain since the evening of the 19th.

She had arrived at the emergency room already in septic shock. Doctors had performed an emergency hysterectomy, trying to halt the spread of infection from her perforated uterus, but the sepsis raged on.

Carolina had spent her 21st birthday as she had spent Christmas and New Year's: on a respirator, sepsis raging through her body. Her two children from a previous relationship spent most of their time in the care of relatives as her husband, Jose Linarte, spent as much time as he could by Carolina's side, waiting and praying.

The doctors hoped that once her body no longer was coping with the gangrene in her feet, Carolina could fight off the massive infection. Only time would tell if their desperate measures would be enough to save the young mother's life and restore her to her children.

We now have a confirmed trio of wife-slaying abortionists

After just 45 minutes of deliberation, a jury found abortionist Malachy DeHenre guilty of manslaughter in the 1997 death of his wife, Nyasah DeHenre, in their Mississippi home. DeHenre claimed that he had noticed out of the corner of his eye that his wife had the gun that he kept in the couch, and that she was accidentally shot while he tried to wrest it from her grip. But he also claimed that she shot herself while sitting on the love seat. At any rate, he's going to jail, and his conviction raises to three the number of confirmed wife-killing abortionists I know of. John Baxter Hamilton bludgeoned his wife to death in the bathroom of their Okahoma City home on Valentine's Day of 2001. Joe Bills Reynolds, the same guy who performed the fatal abortion on Gaylene Golden, was convicted of killing his wife in a sloppy botched liposuction in his filthy Oklahoma clinic.

Imagine the national headlines and network lead stories if this was the third doctor who worked at a prolife pregnancy center convicted of having killed his wife. Double standards, anybody?