Pamela Colson, age 31, was 12 weeks pregnant when friends drive her to Women's Medical Services in Pensacola, Florida, for a safe and legal abortion on June 26, 1994.
Pamela bled heavily during the drive home. According to her friends, Pamela became unresponsive, so they stopped at a motel. Two passers-by did CPR while Pamela's friends called for an ambulance. Pamela was taken to a hospital where she died after an emergency hysterectomy.
Her autopsy showed: bloodstained fluid in chest and peritoneal space, and "extensive hematoma formation in the pelvic area with the peritoneum denuded from the left gutter area caudually." The surgeon who performed an emergency hysterectomy, trying to save Pamela's life, had removed her uterus at the site of the laceration "so that the laceration was a portion of the incision made to remove the uterus." Her uterus showed extensive hemorrhage and blood clots. Her uterine artery was also injured. Several of Pamela's ribs were fractured, apparently during attempts to resuscitate her; this is common in even properly performed CPR.
The cause of death was given as "irreversible shock from blood loss due to a perforated uterus occurring at the time of an elective abortion." William Keene was tentatively identified as having performed the abortion.
Pamela's fatal abortion was performed at the clinic where abortionist David Gunn was shot dead. But unlike Gunn's death, Pamela's death didn't raise so much as an eyebrow among the champions of women's lives. It took the death of a man to do that. Along with the fact that a dead abortionist is a "Man bites dog" story, whereas abortionists killing women is considered just part of the business.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Abortion mortality and the GIGO principle
I found this in an old email I'd sent out when venting, and thought it's not a bad idea to share it.
GIGO is a fairly simple concept: Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you have bad data, you can analyze it 'til the cows come home and you're still gonna have bad data. If my data on, say, what the average person spends on coffee a year comes from me looking at my own coffee budget, I'm not going to be giving Juan Valdez much to go on. I don't drink coffee. I'd rather suck an aspirin tablet. We can take the information on my coffee spending -- which would be maybe one cup a year purchased for a friend -- and we can extrapolate it to the entire country. We can see in which month I spent the most on coffee. We can look at my peak coffee expenditures, my low coffee expenditures, my average daily coffee expenditure, how much I spent on regular versus decaf, and it's not going to give you any useful information about how to market coffee, is it? Because it's not an accurate accounting of how much an average American spends on coffee. No amount of analyzing it is going to change that. You could hire ten thousand of the best statisticians and marketing experts, but if all the data they have is Christina Dunigan's expenditures on coffee, they're not going to know squat about the average American's coffee consumption.
And the same goes for abortion mortality data. We have to know where the data come from and how accurate it is or isn't before we spend any time analyzing it and drawing conclusions from it.
I spent six months of my life -- SIX MONTHS -- finding out exactly how the CDC gets their information about abortion deaths. I contacted every health department and vital records office in the United States -- the 50 states, New York City, DC, and the Virgin Islands (just to find out if territories worked differently from states). I spoke to the coding clerks that processed the death certificates, who analyzed them to see that they were filled out properly who abstracted data and sent it to the National Center for Health Statistics. I ordered database runs of state death records. I spoke to the people at the CDC who actually produce the annual Abortion Surveillance Reports. I got death certificates, autopsy reports, medical records, health inspection reports, medical board disciplinary documents. I talked to the guys at the NCHS. I spent SIX MONTHS finding out where the CDC gets their abortion mortality numbers.
What they do is very much akin to sticking a bushel basket under an apple tree, checking to see how many apples landed in it, and concluding that this is equal to the total number of apples that fell in the entire orchard. Note that it is NOT akin to counting those apples and then extrapolating the number of apples that fell in the entire orchard based on the size of the basket and the size of the orchard. No. They count what happens to land in their basket, then publish the numbers as if they really represent the total. And they defend the total on the grounds that sometimes people pick up apples off the ground and toss them into the basket, so they're not counting just the ones that fall straight down. This is a very clear and appropriate analogy to how the CDC collects their abortion mortality data. I know this because I spent SIX MONTHS LOOKING INTO IT. And the six months wasn't an arbitrary number. It's just how long it took of making phone calls and writing letters and waiting for data runs to come back so I could ask more questions. It's how long it took to get the information. It's how long it took to find out where the numbers come from. I can't stress this enough.
My troll keeps insisting that "there is an entire industry devoted to analyzing abortion deaths" and that therefore the numbers MUST be accurate. I agree that there is an entire industry devoted to analyzing abortion deaths.Where do they get the numbers they get tenure for analyzing?
FROM THE CDC. The guys with the bushel basket under a tree.
GIGO.
GIGO is a fairly simple concept: Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you have bad data, you can analyze it 'til the cows come home and you're still gonna have bad data. If my data on, say, what the average person spends on coffee a year comes from me looking at my own coffee budget, I'm not going to be giving Juan Valdez much to go on. I don't drink coffee. I'd rather suck an aspirin tablet. We can take the information on my coffee spending -- which would be maybe one cup a year purchased for a friend -- and we can extrapolate it to the entire country. We can see in which month I spent the most on coffee. We can look at my peak coffee expenditures, my low coffee expenditures, my average daily coffee expenditure, how much I spent on regular versus decaf, and it's not going to give you any useful information about how to market coffee, is it? Because it's not an accurate accounting of how much an average American spends on coffee. No amount of analyzing it is going to change that. You could hire ten thousand of the best statisticians and marketing experts, but if all the data they have is Christina Dunigan's expenditures on coffee, they're not going to know squat about the average American's coffee consumption.
And the same goes for abortion mortality data. We have to know where the data come from and how accurate it is or isn't before we spend any time analyzing it and drawing conclusions from it.
I spent six months of my life -- SIX MONTHS -- finding out exactly how the CDC gets their information about abortion deaths. I contacted every health department and vital records office in the United States -- the 50 states, New York City, DC, and the Virgin Islands (just to find out if territories worked differently from states). I spoke to the coding clerks that processed the death certificates, who analyzed them to see that they were filled out properly who abstracted data and sent it to the National Center for Health Statistics. I ordered database runs of state death records. I spoke to the people at the CDC who actually produce the annual Abortion Surveillance Reports. I got death certificates, autopsy reports, medical records, health inspection reports, medical board disciplinary documents. I talked to the guys at the NCHS. I spent SIX MONTHS finding out where the CDC gets their abortion mortality numbers.
What they do is very much akin to sticking a bushel basket under an apple tree, checking to see how many apples landed in it, and concluding that this is equal to the total number of apples that fell in the entire orchard. Note that it is NOT akin to counting those apples and then extrapolating the number of apples that fell in the entire orchard based on the size of the basket and the size of the orchard. No. They count what happens to land in their basket, then publish the numbers as if they really represent the total. And they defend the total on the grounds that sometimes people pick up apples off the ground and toss them into the basket, so they're not counting just the ones that fall straight down. This is a very clear and appropriate analogy to how the CDC collects their abortion mortality data. I know this because I spent SIX MONTHS LOOKING INTO IT. And the six months wasn't an arbitrary number. It's just how long it took of making phone calls and writing letters and waiting for data runs to come back so I could ask more questions. It's how long it took to get the information. It's how long it took to find out where the numbers come from. I can't stress this enough.
My troll keeps insisting that "there is an entire industry devoted to analyzing abortion deaths" and that therefore the numbers MUST be accurate. I agree that there is an entire industry devoted to analyzing abortion deaths.Where do they get the numbers they get tenure for analyzing?
FROM THE CDC. The guys with the bushel basket under a tree.
GIGO.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Women: That loser isn't worth your life
Woman gunned down on Ill. highway as drivers watch
Fortunately, the woman's 7-year-old daughter, who was in the car, was unharmed.
But here's the crux of the matter:
What has society come to, where women will settle for this kind of man? She ended up paying for her poor judgement or lonliness or whatever moved her to have him in her life, with her life.
He wasn't worth it.
Now her traumatized child has to live without a mother.
How do we bring up a new generation of women who wouldn't give a man like that the time of day? Who would rather be independent and self-sufficient than to debase themselves, and risk their own and their children's lives, by getting close to losers?
Read Cracked.com's The 10 Most Important Things They Didn't Teach You In School for a less preachy lesson on how to separate the rose from the poison ivy:
The Cracked.com author called them "douchebags". Sort of apropos.
All these guys want is a place to dip their wicks. Except the ones who also want to deal drugs out of your place or have you stash their dope for them.
They're trouble.
I'm a case manager in a welfare-to-work program, and the clear and far away #1 reason women end up on welfare is that they have sex with losers.
Spend your time becoming the best person you can become, so that you'll attract a man who will treat you with dignity and respect. Who won't get you busted for possession or conspiracy. Who won't shake your baby to death or gun you down in traffic.
A woman needs to be, as Dr. Laura said, more than "just a wo-wo-wo on a man."
Dozens of drivers crawling along in Sunday traffic on a busy St. Louis-area highway watched in horror as a woman, bleeding from a gunshot wound, leapt from a car and across several lanes of traffic, banging on vehicle windows and begging for help before her boyfriend chased her down and shot her in the head, then killed himself, authorities said.
Fortunately, the woman's 7-year-old daughter, who was in the car, was unharmed.
But here's the crux of the matter:
[The shooter] had a long criminal record, including a conviction for cocaine possession and delivery in 2004 that led him to spend almost three years behind bars, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. St. Clair County court records show he was due in court in next month after being charged with possession of marijuana and again in September over a pair of criminal trespass on state property charges.
What has society come to, where women will settle for this kind of man? She ended up paying for her poor judgement or lonliness or whatever moved her to have him in her life, with her life.
He wasn't worth it.
Now her traumatized child has to live without a mother.
How do we bring up a new generation of women who wouldn't give a man like that the time of day? Who would rather be independent and self-sufficient than to debase themselves, and risk their own and their children's lives, by getting close to losers?
Read Cracked.com's The 10 Most Important Things They Didn't Teach You In School for a less preachy lesson on how to separate the rose from the poison ivy:
Young ladies, you're in your teens now and already you have no doubt run into some guys who are being suspiciously nice to you. Likely you have figured out that in many cases, this has nothing to do with them being nice guys and everything to do with them desperately wanting you to touch their boner.
....
Now, some of these men will then become members of the Pick Up Artist Community, also known as the Seduction Community. This is a loose club of guys who see females as a collection of walking masturbation aids.
The Cracked.com author called them "douchebags". Sort of apropos.
All these guys want is a place to dip their wicks. Except the ones who also want to deal drugs out of your place or have you stash their dope for them.
They're trouble.
I'm a case manager in a welfare-to-work program, and the clear and far away #1 reason women end up on welfare is that they have sex with losers.
Spend your time becoming the best person you can become, so that you'll attract a man who will treat you with dignity and respect. Who won't get you busted for possession or conspiracy. Who won't shake your baby to death or gun you down in traffic.
A woman needs to be, as Dr. Laura said, more than "just a wo-wo-wo on a man."
Today's anniversaries
Doc ignores allergy, kills patient: Thirty-two-year-old Kelly Morse of Vermont traveled with her husband to Hillcrest Women's Medical Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for an abortion on June 19, 1996. When a staffer went outside to get her husband, he went in with the ambulance crew to find his wife, naked and blue-black from lack of oxygen, lying on a table that was halfway out of the examination room into the hallway.
Abortion in doc's office proves fatal: On June 22, 1928, 31-year-old Rose Hannover died at the office of Dr. Lester I. Ofner from complications of an abortion performed there that day.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
Abortion in doc's office proves fatal: On June 22, 1928, 31-year-old Rose Hannover died at the office of Dr. Lester I. Ofner from complications of an abortion performed there that day.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Abortion advocates supporting adoption?
HT: Jill Stanek
A New York Times piece, "Campaigning for Common Ground in Abortion Debate", starts by asking, "What if groups that demanded reproductive choices for women actually offered them?"
Indeed!
Note that this is new. This is a radical idea, a departure from the status-quo. It is, as the article states, "meteor-strike rare".
But it's a start. Maybe there will arise a third wave, a true pro CHOICE movement that's not all about choosing just abortion.
A New York Times piece, "Campaigning for Common Ground in Abortion Debate", starts by asking, "What if groups that demanded reproductive choices for women actually offered them?"
Indeed!
The idea is simple. It is about choice. Not choice as a euphemism for the right to have an abortion, but choice in the true sense of the word: options, informed consent and support for women trying to figure out what to do with an unwanted pregnancy.
Note that this is new. This is a radical idea, a departure from the status-quo. It is, as the article states, "meteor-strike rare".
But it's a start. Maybe there will arise a third wave, a true pro CHOICE movement that's not all about choosing just abortion.
An anniversary I missed yesterday
Milan Vuitch was a hero among abortion advocates. He had deliberately been arrested performing criminal abortions so that he could challenge the Washington, DC abortion law, and he succeeded in changing the way the law was enforced, effectively nulifying it.
On June 15, 1974, seventeen-year-old Wilma Harris of West Virginia went to Vuitch's Laurel Clinic for a safe and abortion. Five days later, she was dead.
During interrogatories, Vuitch said that anesthesiologist Strahil Nacev described Wilma as "so quiet" during the abortion. Although he had begun a vacuum abortion, Vuitch said that the fetus had been too big to pass through the suction tube. He said he used instruments to remove the remaining fetal parts.
Although the abortion was done at around 2:00 PM, Vuitch didn't trasfer Wilma to a properly equipped hospital until after midnight. Wilma's family sued, claiming that Vuitch and his staff had allowed Wilma to lapse into a coma and lie unattended for 12 hours before transferring her to the hospital. The suit also claimed that Vuitch and his staff falsified records to cover their tracks.
The family won a judgment on December 23, 1976, but the settlement was sealed by court order.
Georgianna English also died after an abortion by Milan Vuitch.
Vuitch isn't the only aborionist who kept his nose clean as a criminal abortionist, only to kill two patients after legalization. Jesse Ketchum managed to kill Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner in a four-month period after New York put out a welcome mat for carpetbagging abortionists in 1970. Benjamin Munson of South Dakota killed Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
On June 15, 1974, seventeen-year-old Wilma Harris of West Virginia went to Vuitch's Laurel Clinic for a safe and abortion. Five days later, she was dead.
During interrogatories, Vuitch said that anesthesiologist Strahil Nacev described Wilma as "so quiet" during the abortion. Although he had begun a vacuum abortion, Vuitch said that the fetus had been too big to pass through the suction tube. He said he used instruments to remove the remaining fetal parts.
Although the abortion was done at around 2:00 PM, Vuitch didn't trasfer Wilma to a properly equipped hospital until after midnight. Wilma's family sued, claiming that Vuitch and his staff had allowed Wilma to lapse into a coma and lie unattended for 12 hours before transferring her to the hospital. The suit also claimed that Vuitch and his staff falsified records to cover their tracks.
The family won a judgment on December 23, 1976, but the settlement was sealed by court order.
Georgianna English also died after an abortion by Milan Vuitch.
Vuitch isn't the only aborionist who kept his nose clean as a criminal abortionist, only to kill two patients after legalization. Jesse Ketchum managed to kill Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner in a four-month period after New York put out a welcome mat for carpetbagging abortionists in 1970. Benjamin Munson of South Dakota killed Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
What's up with this Louisiana abortion law?
Doctors who perform elective abortions no longer covered under state's medical malpractice laws
Does this mean that they're obligated to pay out-of-pocket any damages they cause? Or does this leave abortion-injured women in the lurch? Or both?
Does this mean that they're obligated to pay out-of-pocket any damages they cause? Or does this leave abortion-injured women in the lurch? Or both?
Yet another dumb woman dead baby scenario
Baby Killer Jailed for Just Four Years
The single greatest danger to small children is mom's live-in boyfriend. Yet women continue to put getting laid ahead of their children's lives.
Which is no surprise in an abortion culture.
Sexual enjoyment is the center of our society. It's THE entitlement. The one thing that everybody, young or old, rich or poor, of any race, creed, or religion, is fundamentally and unquestioningly entitled to. The Supreme Court even made note of it in PP vs Casey -- that abortion is there so that adults can pursue their sexual relationships without a thought to any children they might create.
So if it's a fundamental right to go into a sexual liaison with the intent of killing any resulting children, how can we have a beef with moms who merely RISK, rather than deliberately END, their children's lives?
What the hell is wrong with us?
Andrew Rawlings shook four-month-old Mason Tipper so hard he suffered massive brain injuries, a heart attack and a broken arm. Rawlings was living with Mason's mum Samantha Green but the six-week relationship became strained when she got pregnant.
Rawlings, 26, pushed her into an abortion because he thought the father was Mason's dad Daniel Tipper. .... DNA tests have since revealed the unborn child was Rawlings'. .... She went to seek advice about housing and left Mason alone with jobless security guard Rawlings, who became frustrated by the baby's noisy teething.
At around 9.45am the killer called 999 and said: "There's a red mark on his cheek and he's gone blue." Paramedics could not revive Mason and his life support was turned off three days later.
Rawlings denied murder but admitted manslaughter at Bristol Crown Court.
The single greatest danger to small children is mom's live-in boyfriend. Yet women continue to put getting laid ahead of their children's lives.
Which is no surprise in an abortion culture.
Sexual enjoyment is the center of our society. It's THE entitlement. The one thing that everybody, young or old, rich or poor, of any race, creed, or religion, is fundamentally and unquestioningly entitled to. The Supreme Court even made note of it in PP vs Casey -- that abortion is there so that adults can pursue their sexual relationships without a thought to any children they might create.
So if it's a fundamental right to go into a sexual liaison with the intent of killing any resulting children, how can we have a beef with moms who merely RISK, rather than deliberately END, their children's lives?
What the hell is wrong with us?
Two criminal anniversaries
On June 19, 1922, 26-year-old Veronica Maslanka died in her Chicago home from complications of an abortion performed there that day. The coroner identified midwife Mary Pesova as the person responsible for Veronica's death.
On June 19, 1928, 20-year-old Anna Mae Smith died from complications of an abortion she had undergone the day before at the Chicago office of Dr. George F. Slater. Dr. Slater, upon learning of Anna Mae's death, committed suicide at his home by taking poison. Anna Mae's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.
Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future when these women died. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
On June 19, 1928, 20-year-old Anna Mae Smith died from complications of an abortion she had undergone the day before at the Chicago office of Dr. George F. Slater. Dr. Slater, upon learning of Anna Mae's death, committed suicide at his home by taking poison. Anna Mae's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.
Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future when these women died. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
Friday, June 18, 2010
Choosing life when doctors say no
Life over death: Five moms pressed by doctors to abort choose life for their babies.
When you get a terrible prenatal diagnosis, there are three possible outcomes:
1. The doctors are right. Your baby's condition is fatal and he dies.
2. The doctors are partially right. Your baby has problems, but they're not fatal, and she gets to have a life.
3. The doctors are completely wrong. Your baby is just fine.
If you choose abortion, you rule out any chance of outcomes 2 and 3. You choose to make absolutely sure that the baby dies, regardless of whether or not the diagnosis and prognosis were correct.
Why do doctors push women to act out of despair and to cut off all hope? There are a lot of reasons, but they boil down to these:
1. Doctors are "fixers". They go into medicine because they want to fix things. And if the only thing they can think to do to "fix" a situation is abortion, they'll recommend abortion. Doing nothing and letting nature take its course is alien to them.
2. Some doctors are prejudiced, and think that people with disabilities are worthless and that there is no point in living if you have an ailment or disability.
3. Some doctors are ignorant. (Research has born this out.) They make recommendations based on information that is decades old. There is no excuse for this -- if you're in the business of making diagnoses and prognoses, it's your responsibility to stay up to date. But just because it ought not to be this way doesn't mean it's not really this way in real life.
If you choose abortion after an unfavorable prenatal diagnosis, you're ending your child's life based on a doctor's ego, prejudice, and/or ignorance. How wise a choice is that, really?
For real help and support, see:
Be Not Afraid
Carry to Term
Having Your Baby When Others Say No!
Perinatal Hospice
Prenatal Partners for Life
String of Pearls
Waiting With Love
When you get a terrible prenatal diagnosis, there are three possible outcomes:
1. The doctors are right. Your baby's condition is fatal and he dies.
2. The doctors are partially right. Your baby has problems, but they're not fatal, and she gets to have a life.
3. The doctors are completely wrong. Your baby is just fine.
If you choose abortion, you rule out any chance of outcomes 2 and 3. You choose to make absolutely sure that the baby dies, regardless of whether or not the diagnosis and prognosis were correct.
Why do doctors push women to act out of despair and to cut off all hope? There are a lot of reasons, but they boil down to these:
1. Doctors are "fixers". They go into medicine because they want to fix things. And if the only thing they can think to do to "fix" a situation is abortion, they'll recommend abortion. Doing nothing and letting nature take its course is alien to them.
2. Some doctors are prejudiced, and think that people with disabilities are worthless and that there is no point in living if you have an ailment or disability.
3. Some doctors are ignorant. (Research has born this out.) They make recommendations based on information that is decades old. There is no excuse for this -- if you're in the business of making diagnoses and prognoses, it's your responsibility to stay up to date. But just because it ought not to be this way doesn't mean it's not really this way in real life.
If you choose abortion after an unfavorable prenatal diagnosis, you're ending your child's life based on a doctor's ego, prejudice, and/or ignorance. How wise a choice is that, really?
For real help and support, see:
Be Not Afraid
Carry to Term
Having Your Baby When Others Say No!
Perinatal Hospice
Prenatal Partners for Life
String of Pearls
Waiting With Love
Today's anniversaries -- With question for trolls
Prochoice hero kills young abortion patient: Benjamin Munson had what it takes to be a hero to the prochoice movement: he paid his dues as a "back-alley butcher", scraping out fetuses in those dark days when women's lives were of ever so much less value. Once abortion was legalized, and the threat of prison was gone, Munson started leaving bits of baby behind after abortions. Which, of course, in no way diminished prochoice admiration for him.
A flukey thing? Or malpractice? LIke Munson's dead patients, "Sara" died from retained tissue. But the source material doesn't indicate if the abortionist left behind large chunks of fetus that anybody who could count to four would have known were still in there, or if the infection sprang from little bits of placenta or fetal internal organs. While Sara wound up just as dead either way, there's a lot more culpability in leaving behind a mangled fetus missing only a few parts, and leaving behind baby bits too small to grab with your forceps anyway.
For the benefit of the troll: If abortion is all about getting the fetus out of the mother's body because she doesn't want it there, doesn't the abortionist have the obligation to remove the entire fetus? Munson only took a leg, an arm, a bit of skull and a bit of torso, but left the bulk of Linda Padfield's fetus still where she didn't want it.
Has he discharged his duty when he achieves the death of the fetus, or does he need to get the entire unwanted fetus out?
A flukey thing? Or malpractice? LIke Munson's dead patients, "Sara" died from retained tissue. But the source material doesn't indicate if the abortionist left behind large chunks of fetus that anybody who could count to four would have known were still in there, or if the infection sprang from little bits of placenta or fetal internal organs. While Sara wound up just as dead either way, there's a lot more culpability in leaving behind a mangled fetus missing only a few parts, and leaving behind baby bits too small to grab with your forceps anyway.
For the benefit of the troll: If abortion is all about getting the fetus out of the mother's body because she doesn't want it there, doesn't the abortionist have the obligation to remove the entire fetus? Munson only took a leg, an arm, a bit of skull and a bit of torso, but left the bulk of Linda Padfield's fetus still where she didn't want it.
Has he discharged his duty when he achieves the death of the fetus, or does he need to get the entire unwanted fetus out?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Reviewing Kansas late abortions
I posted this a year ago but it deserves to be revisited, with the anniversary of Tiller's murder bringing the hagiographers out of the woodwork.
For more information, see A maternal-fetal specialist comments on Tiller's practice
I've spent a little more time looking at the Kansas abortion reports Kathy provided links to in a response to a post. Now, not all of these abortions were Tiller abortions, because in two reported cases, a doctor in another state did a post-22 week abortion on a Kansas woman and reported it to the Kansas health department. These doctors gave no reason for stating that the patient's baby wasn't viable. But since Tiller was The Late Abortionist, it's a pretty safe bet that by far the bulk of the reported post-22-week abortions were his.
First, let's look at the claim that Tiller was doing abortions to save the woman's life. I went through all the data, from 1998 through 2008. In exactly ZERO cases did a Kansas doctor, including Tiller, report doing an abortion after 22 weeks because the woman's life was in danger. Not a single one of these third trimester abortions was done even ostensibly to save the mother's life. Which, of course, makes sense, since it's nonsensical to check a moribund woman into a motel rather than a hospital.
There was room on the form to indicate what the mother's health condition was. There is no indication that any doctor, including Tiller, ever reported a specific reason for believing the mother was in danger of an "irreversible impairment" of a bodily function. The only reason ever given was a generic one, "Gestational and diagnostic information provided by the referring physician and other health care professional(s) as well as examination and interview of the patient by attending physician." Not once did any doctor, including Tiller, ever indicate "diabetes" or "cancer" or "toxemia" or "pre-eclampsia" or any other medical condition giving him a reason to believe that the patient was in danger.
In the case of an admittedly viable fetus, the form also asks if the risk of "irreversible impairment" to the mother was physical or mental. There is no record that any reporting doctor classified the risk of "irreversible impairment" to be either physical or mental. The closest any doctor, including Tiller, ever came to giving a condition that the woman was suffering was "medical emergency", which was reported on 1 of 301 abortions in 1999. This might have actually been an emergency abortion performed in a hospital, either in Kansas, or on a Kansas resident in another state.
The question about how it was determined that the fetus was non-viable was open-ended. It appears that if a doctor listed a reason once, that reason would remain as a possibility on future reports, even if doctor reported zero in subsequent years.
In that 11 year period, doctors reported that 2,968 of the third-trimester fetuses aborted were viable. They reported that 181 of them were too young to be viable. They reported specific diagnoses as to why 15 fetuses weren't viable. And they just used "professional judgment" with no diagnosis to state that 1,894 of those third-trimester babies were "not viable".
So, of 5,058 third trimester abortions in that 11-year period:
2,968, or 59%, were admittedly viable babies.
15, or .3%, had some specific condition that would make a doctor believe they weren't viable.
181, or 3.5%, were too young to be viable
1,894, or 37%, were just in the doctor's "professional judgment", not viable. Not that there was anything specific wrong with the baby. Not that the baby had immature organs, a genetic abnormality, or something serious wrong with heart or lungs or kidneys.
And of the 15 babies where a doctor, possibly Tiller, actually reported an unfavorable prenatal diagnosis, the reasons were:
"Ultrasound -- Extreme immaturity of heart and lungs" - 1 in 1999 (Could this baby's heart and lungs have matured if given more time to gestate?)
"Hypoplastic Left Heart, Chromosome abnormality" - 1 in 1999, 1 in 2002, 1 in 2004 (Hypoplastic left heart is treatable with surgery, though pretty intensive and risky surgery; The doctor(s) didn't indicate what the concurrent chromosome abnormality was)
"0 Apgar score; mother had severe oligohydramnios; fetus had poly/multicystic kidney disease" - 1 in 1999, 1 in 2005 (The polycystic kidney disease is typical fatal, but how he could say a fetus has a 0 Apgar score is mystifying, since this is a measure of a newborn's wellness)
"Diagnosis by genetic specialist with no amniotic fluid and other abnormalities" - 1 in 1999 (No amniotic fluid typically is indicative of severe kidney problems)
"Extreme Immaturity of Organs" - 3 in 2001 (Could these babies' organs have matured if they'd have been given more time to gestate?)
"Anencephaly" - 1 in 2002
"Hypoplastic L Heart determined by Level 2 ULS and perinatology consultation" - 1 in 2002
"Trisomy 22 Hydrocephaly" - 1 - in 2002
"Not Stated" - 1 in 2003, 1 in 2004 (Performed out of state on Kansas resident)
Why were there specific diagnoses only give for 15 babies? Were these aborted by other doctors who were filling out their forms honestly? Were they the only cases in which Tiller had a patient with a patient whose baby actually did have a condition considered "incompatible with life" rather than Down syndrome or other "quality of life" diagnoses, for which he'd just make a vague statement about "professional judgment"?
Tiller took these answers to his grave.
For more information, see A maternal-fetal specialist comments on Tiller's practice
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Very non-Christian perspectives on abortion
Thanks to Kathy who posted these links on the RealChoice FaceBook page:
A Spiritual Feminist Ethic on Abortion & Conception:
Woman is Shakti
The Sword Was Not With The Goddess
A Spiritual Feminist Ethic on Abortion & Conception:
Woman is Shakti
The Sword Was Not With The Goddess
Today's Anniversaries
All three deaths we commemorate today are of the safe, legal kind.
Erstwhile back-alley butcher kills patient: Jesse Ketchum gave up his "back alley" practice in Michigan to carpetbag to New York. There, his practices got sloppier and he started doing what he'd never done in Michigan -- killing his patients.
Young wife leaves child motherless after abortion: On June 16, 1989, 19-year-old Margaret Paula Clodfelter died in a Virginia hospital from complications suffered during a safe and legal abortion.
Newark mom bleeds to death: A 20-year-old Newark college student, identified in prolife sources as "Jane Doe of Newark", underwent a safe and legal abortion by Dr. Steven Berkman at Metropolitan Medical Associates on June 16, 199
Erstwhile back-alley butcher kills patient: Jesse Ketchum gave up his "back alley" practice in Michigan to carpetbag to New York. There, his practices got sloppier and he started doing what he'd never done in Michigan -- killing his patients.
Young wife leaves child motherless after abortion: On June 16, 1989, 19-year-old Margaret Paula Clodfelter died in a Virginia hospital from complications suffered during a safe and legal abortion.
Newark mom bleeds to death: A 20-year-old Newark college student, identified in prolife sources as "Jane Doe of Newark", underwent a safe and legal abortion by Dr. Steven Berkman at Metropolitan Medical Associates on June 16, 199
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Cringe-worthy YP search
I went to Yahoo! Local looking for churches near my new home. My choices are Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Catholic, and Pentecostal.
That's one of the things I hate about this area -- how thoroughly saturated it is with United Methodist Churches.
What do I have against Methodists? They're proud founding members of the "Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights", an umbrella-group of idolators. I'd as soon go to a Black Mass as go into a Methodist church. It's a visceral thing, a total revulsion. "Abortion rights" and Christianity are antithetical. Look at the nauseatingly heretical and downright Satanic things people say to justify embracing abortion as a "Christian" thing. It all boils down to ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME with no room for even one's own child, much less room for God.
Abortion is anti-Scriptural, anti-life, anti-love, anti-God.
I can look around at all the wonderful ministries local Methodist congregations have going, but there's always that undercurrent of "But you're cool with KILLING BABIES." That's not something that I can just casually overlook. It's a big honking deal. As big a deal as if the Catholic Church had responded to the pedophilia scandal with twisted justifications of child molesting and actually promulgated position papers on why the choice to molest children should rest in the conscience of each individual priest and that his choices as a moral agent needed to be respected as holy. At least by covering it up they were showing that they still knew that it's WRONG. As inexcusable as the cover-ups were, they were straightforward sin, they were ordinary human sin, ordinary human evil, not an embrace of evil as a right sanctioned by God.
Off soapbox.
I keep again and again being run headlong into the Methodist dilemma. Was I brought to this Methodist-saturated area for a reason? Am I supposed to be doing something other than avoid the Methodists?
Hm.
That's one of the things I hate about this area -- how thoroughly saturated it is with United Methodist Churches.
What do I have against Methodists? They're proud founding members of the "Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights", an umbrella-group of idolators. I'd as soon go to a Black Mass as go into a Methodist church. It's a visceral thing, a total revulsion. "Abortion rights" and Christianity are antithetical. Look at the nauseatingly heretical and downright Satanic things people say to justify embracing abortion as a "Christian" thing. It all boils down to ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME with no room for even one's own child, much less room for God.
Abortion is anti-Scriptural, anti-life, anti-love, anti-God.
I can look around at all the wonderful ministries local Methodist congregations have going, but there's always that undercurrent of "But you're cool with KILLING BABIES." That's not something that I can just casually overlook. It's a big honking deal. As big a deal as if the Catholic Church had responded to the pedophilia scandal with twisted justifications of child molesting and actually promulgated position papers on why the choice to molest children should rest in the conscience of each individual priest and that his choices as a moral agent needed to be respected as holy. At least by covering it up they were showing that they still knew that it's WRONG. As inexcusable as the cover-ups were, they were straightforward sin, they were ordinary human sin, ordinary human evil, not an embrace of evil as a right sanctioned by God.
Off soapbox.
I keep again and again being run headlong into the Methodist dilemma. Was I brought to this Methodist-saturated area for a reason? Am I supposed to be doing something other than avoid the Methodists?
Hm.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Two illegal anniversaries
Keep in mind that things that when these women died, things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
Friday, June 11, 2010
Alabama NAF facility closes to avoid state action
Alabama Abortion Mill To Close Down Rather Than Clean Up:
Ah, but this is just some seedy fly-by-night, right?
Wrong. The place is a member of the National Abortion Federation:
What exactly does it mean that Beacon is a member of the National Abortion Federation?
Well, let's quote the NAF web site (emphasis mine):
So, are NAF guidelines so slipshod that this seedy place was compliant, or is NAF lying when they say that their members comply with their standards?
UPDATE: I missed posting this NAF death yesterday. On a single day, a NAF clinic managed to fatally injure two teenage girls. Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of the first of the girls:
On June 11, 1979, 19-year-old Angela Scott died at Grady Memorial Hospital. The events that led to her death -- and also claimed the life of another teen -- began on June 2.
Angela was in the recovery room after her safe, legal abortion at National Abortion Federation member Atlanta Women's Pavillion. Somebody noticed that she wasn't breathing.
A nurse-anesthetist was administering anesthesia to 14-year-old Delores Smith while Dr. Jacob Adams was performing her abortion. The nurse-anesthetist ran to assist in efforts to revive Angela, leaving Delores unattended with her anesthesia drip still running.
After staff had resuscitated Angela and loaded her into an ambulance, they returned their attention to Delores, who had gone into cardio-respiratory arrest. Adams had accompanied Angela to the hospital, and staff refused to release Dolores to an ambulance until the physician had returned to discharge her. This resulted in a 30-minute delay, during which the ambulance crew was unable to attend to Delores or begin transporting her.
Angela lingered for a week in a coma before dying on June 11. Delores never regained consciousness and eventually was admitted to a nursing home, where she died of adult respiratory distress syndrome on October 24, 1979, some time after her fifteenth birthday.
Beacon Women's Center has announced on its website that their abortion clinic is now closed. The clinic remains open only for follow-up patients until June 18, 2010, when it will officially surrender its operating license.
Beacon Women's Center had a long history of health and safety deficiencies on record with the Alabama Department of Public Health.
Deficiencies included:
• Improper distribution of controlled substances without proper physician authorization
• Failure of nurses to administer the correct medication
• Failure to determine if patients had drug allergies
• Use of expired medication and supplies
• Being dangerously understaffed on abortion days
• Unlicensed administrator assisting with abortion surgeries
• Use of unsterilized medical equipment, including speculums and dilators
• Falsifying lab tests
• Improperly conducting urinary pregnancy tests, and reading results before prescribed time had expired – staff scored 60% failure for proficiency for conducting pregnancy tests
• Using faulty, uninspected lab equipment
• Broken suction machine that was not removed per order of inspector
....
According to sources in the ADPH, a consent decree was signed in June 8, 2010, agreeing to close the clinic in order to avoid a revocation hearing.
Ah, but this is just some seedy fly-by-night, right?
Wrong. The place is a member of the National Abortion Federation:
What exactly does it mean that Beacon is a member of the National Abortion Federation?
Well, let's quote the NAF web site (emphasis mine):
NAF is the professional association of abortion providers in North America. Our member clinics care for more than half the women who choose abortion each year in the United States. 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.
So, are NAF guidelines so slipshod that this seedy place was compliant, or is NAF lying when they say that their members comply with their standards?
UPDATE: I missed posting this NAF death yesterday. On a single day, a NAF clinic managed to fatally injure two teenage girls. Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of the first of the girls:
On June 11, 1979, 19-year-old Angela Scott died at Grady Memorial Hospital. The events that led to her death -- and also claimed the life of another teen -- began on June 2.
Angela was in the recovery room after her safe, legal abortion at National Abortion Federation member Atlanta Women's Pavillion. Somebody noticed that she wasn't breathing.
A nurse-anesthetist was administering anesthesia to 14-year-old Delores Smith while Dr. Jacob Adams was performing her abortion. The nurse-anesthetist ran to assist in efforts to revive Angela, leaving Delores unattended with her anesthesia drip still running.
After staff had resuscitated Angela and loaded her into an ambulance, they returned their attention to Delores, who had gone into cardio-respiratory arrest. Adams had accompanied Angela to the hospital, and staff refused to release Dolores to an ambulance until the physician had returned to discharge her. This resulted in a 30-minute delay, during which the ambulance crew was unable to attend to Delores or begin transporting her.
Angela lingered for a week in a coma before dying on June 11. Delores never regained consciousness and eventually was admitted to a nursing home, where she died of adult respiratory distress syndrome on October 24, 1979, some time after her fifteenth birthday.
Aborting after IVF
After IVF, Abortion? What Does This Say?
My resident trolls, along with many other abortion advocates, say that abortion is just because the fetus is an uninvited trespasser, that although the woman knows that her sexual activity can cause pregnancy, she didn't *intend* pregnancy. Therefore implantation equals trespass, and trespassers will be -- well, not shot, but certainly done away with.
But what of women who very deliberately put the fetus there -- who went to all the trouble of IVF to create the embryos and fetuses that they are then aborting?
Much of the outrage, the author notes, is purely financial: "We paid for your IFV because you wanted this baby, and now we're paying to trash it! Quit double dipping!"
And sometimes there's no outrage:
Yup. It's perfectly hunky dory to deliberately create human beings, have them implanted, let them gestate for a while, as you make up your mind if you want them or not. Call it "test driving the fetus". Sort of the way our society encourages premarital sex as a sort of test-drive, except that instead of passing the baby along to somebody else who wants it, you destroy it.
My resident trolls, along with many other abortion advocates, say that abortion is just because the fetus is an uninvited trespasser, that although the woman knows that her sexual activity can cause pregnancy, she didn't *intend* pregnancy. Therefore implantation equals trespass, and trespassers will be -- well, not shot, but certainly done away with.
But what of women who very deliberately put the fetus there -- who went to all the trouble of IVF to create the embryos and fetuses that they are then aborting?
Added to the scandal is the case that these abortions are classified as driven by “social” reasons. In other words, there is no medical issue at stake here. These are successful and healthy pregnancies that were sought by these women, even to the extent of seeking IVF treatments. Women who had sought such abortions after IVF told The Times that they decided after becoming pregnant that they just did not want to have the baby after all, that they terminated the relationship with their partner, or that the realization of impending motherhood was just too much.
Much of the outrage, the author notes, is purely financial: "We paid for your IFV because you wanted this baby, and now we're paying to trash it! Quit double dipping!"
And sometimes there's no outrage:
Some observers responded to the report with no outrage at all. Ann Furedi, a prominent defender of abortion rights, told The Times, “Sometimes, it is only when women get pregnant that they can allow themselves to ask the question about whether it is really what they want.”
Yup. It's perfectly hunky dory to deliberately create human beings, have them implanted, let them gestate for a while, as you make up your mind if you want them or not. Call it "test driving the fetus". Sort of the way our society encourages premarital sex as a sort of test-drive, except that instead of passing the baby along to somebody else who wants it, you destroy it.
A 19th century abortion death
Emma Post, "about twenty years of age, daughter of one of our most respectable citizens, was sudeced by a young man living at Belleville." He called on her at the family home for about a year before learning that she was pregnant.
He convinced her to leave Brooklyn with him. She told her family that she was going to visit somebody in Dover. Instead, "she was kept in two houses of ill repute in this city." From there she was taken to Boston, where she submitted to a surgical abortion. She was spirited off to Newburyport on Wendesday. On Thursday, June 11, 1857, she "paid the forfeit of such acts, dying in excrutiating agony."
Her baby's father, F.R. Kickason, was arrested, as was Dr. Lewis Dix, believed to have performed the abortion.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
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He convinced her to leave Brooklyn with him. She told her family that she was going to visit somebody in Dover. Instead, "she was kept in two houses of ill repute in this city." From there she was taken to Boston, where she submitted to a surgical abortion. She was spirited off to Newburyport on Wendesday. On Thursday, June 11, 1857, she "paid the forfeit of such acts, dying in excrutiating agony."
Her baby's father, F.R. Kickason, was arrested, as was Dr. Lewis Dix, believed to have performed the abortion.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
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Choosing who to serve
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15, NKJV. (Commentary here)
A waiter named Ramon refused to serve Planned Parenthood.
Not all heroism is spectacular.
I've been trying to get an update.
‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.'- Matthew 6:19-24 (Commentary here)
A waiter named Ramon refused to serve Planned Parenthood.
Not all heroism is spectacular.
I've been trying to get an update.
‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.'- Matthew 6:19-24 (Commentary here)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Mom rejects abortion, embraces conjoined twins
HT: Jivin' J
Conjoined twins locked in battle for life:
Although I'm glad Brianna stood by her children and refused to kill them, I have to wonder how she can maintain hope that the single malformed heart can sustain both of them, in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Taking them home with the standard preemie equipment so that they can soak up maximum love seems the option that would be best for everybody involved, even though it would mean the boys wouldn't live as long. Their time would be spent being held and cuddled, not just there on machines waiting for the daily visits.
I don't think Brianna and her family are bad, or that they're trying to harm the babies. And I do think that just because a doctor says there's no hope really means there's no hope. But there also needs to be a point where you recognized that the road is downhill and stop trying to go back up.
I would love to see a miraculous healing for the boys. But I'd not bank on it.
Prayers for them and their family and caregivers.
Conjoined twins locked in battle for life:
Lying face to face, with one arm draped around the other, Kaydon and Kameron appear to be locked in a loving embrace.
But the boys, not yet 3 months old, have no choice but to hug each other every minute of every day. They are conjoined twins who share a liver and a single malformed heart.
Doctors discussed terminating the pregnancy with the mother, Brianna Manns, 21, after they determined the twins were not likely to survive. But Manns said abortion was never an option.
Although I'm glad Brianna stood by her children and refused to kill them, I have to wonder how she can maintain hope that the single malformed heart can sustain both of them, in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Taking them home with the standard preemie equipment so that they can soak up maximum love seems the option that would be best for everybody involved, even though it would mean the boys wouldn't live as long. Their time would be spent being held and cuddled, not just there on machines waiting for the daily visits.
I don't think Brianna and her family are bad, or that they're trying to harm the babies. And I do think that just because a doctor says there's no hope really means there's no hope. But there also needs to be a point where you recognized that the road is downhill and stop trying to go back up.
I would love to see a miraculous healing for the boys. But I'd not bank on it.
Prayers for them and their family and caregivers.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
What sidewalk counselors are all about
A Pro Life Action League recruitment and educational video about their sidewalk counselors, and the women they help.
The pervert and the pencil abortion and how it's all our fault
Jill Stanek has an interesting bit about a creepy pervert who was sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl (who had been doing so since she was 12), and who hid the body of her stillborn baby when she performed a self-abortion with a lead pencil.
Jill Stanek points out that Jill at Feministe blames the prolifers, for, among other things, not impressing upon the girl that she was entitled to "pleasure" and "autonomy".
Excuse me? It was getting suckered by a 31-year-old man who promised her pleasure and the illusion of autonomy that got her into this mess to begin with!
And how would a visit to a fly-by-night have improved the situation? They'd have scraped her out and returned her to her abuser.
Maybe teaching girls that there is more to life than being "hot", getting "pleasure", and demonstrating their "maturity" by spreading their legs might go further to prevent these hideous scenarios.
We need to be teaching our kids, from a very young age, that the ability to *abstain from sex* is a mark of maturity. Anybody with hormones can cave in and rut like a weasel. It takes a lot of maturity to tell your hormones to shut up while you get on with getting an education and building strong relationships based on something more substantial than what Robert A. Heinlein called "the slippery friction of mucous membranes."
Yeah, society let this girl down. But not by a *failure* to encourage her to think with her crotch.
Jill Stanek points out that Jill at Feministe blames the prolifers, for, among other things, not impressing upon the girl that she was entitled to "pleasure" and "autonomy".
Excuse me? It was getting suckered by a 31-year-old man who promised her pleasure and the illusion of autonomy that got her into this mess to begin with!
And how would a visit to a fly-by-night have improved the situation? They'd have scraped her out and returned her to her abuser.
Maybe teaching girls that there is more to life than being "hot", getting "pleasure", and demonstrating their "maturity" by spreading their legs might go further to prevent these hideous scenarios.
We need to be teaching our kids, from a very young age, that the ability to *abstain from sex* is a mark of maturity. Anybody with hormones can cave in and rut like a weasel. It takes a lot of maturity to tell your hormones to shut up while you get on with getting an education and building strong relationships based on something more substantial than what Robert A. Heinlein called "the slippery friction of mucous membranes."
Yeah, society let this girl down. But not by a *failure* to encourage her to think with her crotch.
1988: One of a dozen
The survivors of 32-year-old Joyce Ortenzio filed suit against Edward Allred, his Family Planning Associates Medical Group (FPA), the San Vicente Hospital FPA facility, and abortionist Ruben Marmet.
Joyce went to San Vicente for laminaria insertion by Marmet on June 7, 1988. Later, Marmet performed a safe and legal abortion, but did not remove all of the fetal parts from Joyce's uterus.
The next day, June 8, Joyce was found dead in her home.
The cause of death was an overdose of the drug amitriptyline, infection from fetal parts that were not removed during the abortion and septic shock.
Joyce left three children motherless.
Joyce is one of many women to die at this National Abortion Federation facility.
Other women known to have died after abortion at Allred's facilities include:
I suspect that the reason the deaths appear in clusters is because those are years that researchers checked for lawsuits, rather than that these are all the women and girls who died at Allred facilities. Anybody with the time and resources to do so could probably uncover other deaths Allred and his staff have managed to sweep under the carpet.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
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Joyce went to San Vicente for laminaria insertion by Marmet on June 7, 1988. Later, Marmet performed a safe and legal abortion, but did not remove all of the fetal parts from Joyce's uterus.
The next day, June 8, Joyce was found dead in her home.
The cause of death was an overdose of the drug amitriptyline, infection from fetal parts that were not removed during the abortion and septic shock.
Joyce left three children motherless.
Joyce is one of many women to die at this National Abortion Federation facility.
Other women known to have died after abortion at Allred's facilities include:
- Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970
- Patricia Chacon, age 16, 1984
- Mary Pena, age 43, 1984
- Josefina Garcia, age 37, 1985
- Lanice Dorsey, age 17, 1986
- Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988
- Susan Levy, age 30, 1992
- Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992
- Christina Mora, age 18, 1994
- Kimberly Neil, 2000
- Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004
I suspect that the reason the deaths appear in clusters is because those are years that researchers checked for lawsuits, rather than that these are all the women and girls who died at Allred facilities. Anybody with the time and resources to do so could probably uncover other deaths Allred and his staff have managed to sweep under the carpet.
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
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Sunday, June 06, 2010
Today's anniversaries
Click on the links for more information on each case:
1907: Woman dead; midwife blamed: On June 6, 1907, Mrs. Julia Williamson, age 29, died at her Chicago home from complications of an abortion performed there that day. A midwife named Emily Redemski was held by the coroner's jury, but acquitted by a judge for reasons not given in the source document.
1963: The death of a poster child: Geraldine "Gerri" Twerdy Santoro is the woman in the infamous photo used by abortion advocates to illustrate the horror of illegal abortion. How did she end up dead on that motel room floor?
1984: Child left motherless by safe, legal abortion : A chronic asthma patient, 27-year-old Sheila Hebert went to Delta Women's Clinic in Baton Rouge for a safe and legal abortion on June 6, 1984.
2000: Sudden abortion death in Brooklyn : Nicey Washington was 26 years old when she underwent a safe and legal abortion at Ambulatory Surgery Center in Brooklyn, New York, on June 6, 2000.
Friday, June 04, 2010
2006 abortion death now coming to light
This is the first I'd learned of a 2006 abortion death at the hands of Maryland abortionist Romeo A. Ferrer: Board to discipline doctor in abortion death
(Note, by the way, that as usual it's the prolifers calling for this guy to be held accountable. The prochoicers are, as always, eerily silent. If they do say anything after an abortion fatality, it tends to be along the lines of, "Oh, no no no no! Dead broad OFF the table!")
Operation Rescue West made a PDF of the medical board documents available here:
Like many abortion "clinics", Ferrer's private practice, Gynecare Center, would look to the untrained eye like an outpatient clinic. A patient making an appointment there would likely believe she was in a licensed clinic, not a doctor's office.
The board refers to the dead woman as "Patient A", which I find dehumanizing. I'll refer to her as "Peggy" Roe.
Peggy was 21 years old, mother of a 3-year-old son, when she went to Ferrer's clinic-looking office for an abortion on February 3, 2006. She was 16 weeks pregnant. Peggy was in good health, with a history of two "uncomplicated abortions" and a miscarriage. "On her health history form, it was noted that [Peggy's] reason for terminating her pregnancy was, 'can't afford it right now.'" Peggy was accompanied to her appointment by a friend, who was helping to keep the abortion a secret from Peggy's family.
Ferrer started the abortion, a D&E abortion, at about 1:00 p.m., using ultrasound to help him visualize the baby as he dismembered it. Twenty-five minutes later, Ferrer was still pulling fetal parts out of his patient, and administered 20 units of pitocin via an IV solution. Five minutes later, he added 125 mg of Demerol and 5 mg of midazolam (Versed, a short-acting sedative and amnesia-producing medication). Because "pt. was still reacting to pain", Ferrer administered additional doses of Demerol and midazolam. It wasn't until 1:45 that Ferrer completed the abortion.
Peggy was moved to the recovery room, where at 1:47 a "surgical assistant" noticed signs of cyanosis (blue coloring) in Peggy's fingernails. A nurse assistant was unable to get a blood pressure or pulse reading on Peggy, and told Ferrer. He gave a verbal order for 0.4 mg Narcan, which was administered by the nurse assistant. Narcan is a drug to counteract narcotics.
At 1:50, Ferrer began efforts to resuscitate Peggy, including performing CPR, and having an assistant perform CPR while he administered intracardiac epinephrine. Staff called 911 while Ferrer continued resuscitation efforts, maintaining an open airway with the non-professional method of head tilt and chin lift. Ferrer did not use an airway or endotracheal tube, as is customary with professionally-administered CPR.
The medics arrived to find Peggy still unresponsive and without a pulse. The medics used an oxygen mask and additional drugs as they transported Peggy to Anne Arundel Medical Center. There, emergency room staff continued the attempts to resuscitate Peggy, to no avail. She was pronounced dead at 2:57 p.m.
The autopsy found no underlying physical reason for Peggy's heart to have stopped. The cause of death was given as "Meperidine intoxication" (an overdose of Demerol).
The medical board faulted Ferrer in his care of Peggy:
1. Ferrer administered successive "push" dosages of medications. He should have titrated (gradually administered) the second dose. "[T]he second dosage was too large and administered too quickly."
2. Despite having had a written policy in place since 1994 to provide proper monitoring, Ferrer did not use a pulse oximeter to monitor Peggy's pulse and blood oxygen, nor were her pulse and blood pressure monitored every five minutes during the 45 minutes of surgery. Ferrer also failed to provide oxygen to Peggy during surgery. "[Ferrer's] failure to monitor [Peggy] appropirately during and after the abortion constitutes a violation of the standard of quality care."
3. During resuscitation, Ferrer did not use an airway and did not provide supplemental oxygen with an ambu-bag.
In short, Ferrer gave Peggy too much medication too quickly, causing her to stop breathing, and failed to monitor her closely enough to notice in a timely manner. He then failed to adequately resuscitate her.
UPDATE: The medical board did go through with suspending Ferrer's license. They learned of the incident when Peggy's family sued. You can read the suspension order here.
(Note, by the way, that as usual it's the prolifers calling for this guy to be held accountable. The prochoicers are, as always, eerily silent. If they do say anything after an abortion fatality, it tends to be along the lines of, "Oh, no no no no! Dead broad OFF the table!")
Operation Rescue West made a PDF of the medical board documents available here:
Like many abortion "clinics", Ferrer's private practice, Gynecare Center, would look to the untrained eye like an outpatient clinic. A patient making an appointment there would likely believe she was in a licensed clinic, not a doctor's office.
The board refers to the dead woman as "Patient A", which I find dehumanizing. I'll refer to her as "Peggy" Roe.
Peggy was 21 years old, mother of a 3-year-old son, when she went to Ferrer's clinic-looking office for an abortion on February 3, 2006. She was 16 weeks pregnant. Peggy was in good health, with a history of two "uncomplicated abortions" and a miscarriage. "On her health history form, it was noted that [Peggy's] reason for terminating her pregnancy was, 'can't afford it right now.'" Peggy was accompanied to her appointment by a friend, who was helping to keep the abortion a secret from Peggy's family.
Ferrer started the abortion, a D&E abortion, at about 1:00 p.m., using ultrasound to help him visualize the baby as he dismembered it. Twenty-five minutes later, Ferrer was still pulling fetal parts out of his patient, and administered 20 units of pitocin via an IV solution. Five minutes later, he added 125 mg of Demerol and 5 mg of midazolam (Versed, a short-acting sedative and amnesia-producing medication). Because "pt. was still reacting to pain", Ferrer administered additional doses of Demerol and midazolam. It wasn't until 1:45 that Ferrer completed the abortion.
Peggy was moved to the recovery room, where at 1:47 a "surgical assistant" noticed signs of cyanosis (blue coloring) in Peggy's fingernails. A nurse assistant was unable to get a blood pressure or pulse reading on Peggy, and told Ferrer. He gave a verbal order for 0.4 mg Narcan, which was administered by the nurse assistant. Narcan is a drug to counteract narcotics.
At 1:50, Ferrer began efforts to resuscitate Peggy, including performing CPR, and having an assistant perform CPR while he administered intracardiac epinephrine. Staff called 911 while Ferrer continued resuscitation efforts, maintaining an open airway with the non-professional method of head tilt and chin lift. Ferrer did not use an airway or endotracheal tube, as is customary with professionally-administered CPR.
The medics arrived to find Peggy still unresponsive and without a pulse. The medics used an oxygen mask and additional drugs as they transported Peggy to Anne Arundel Medical Center. There, emergency room staff continued the attempts to resuscitate Peggy, to no avail. She was pronounced dead at 2:57 p.m.
The autopsy found no underlying physical reason for Peggy's heart to have stopped. The cause of death was given as "Meperidine intoxication" (an overdose of Demerol).
The medical board faulted Ferrer in his care of Peggy:
1. Ferrer administered successive "push" dosages of medications. He should have titrated (gradually administered) the second dose. "[T]he second dosage was too large and administered too quickly."
2. Despite having had a written policy in place since 1994 to provide proper monitoring, Ferrer did not use a pulse oximeter to monitor Peggy's pulse and blood oxygen, nor were her pulse and blood pressure monitored every five minutes during the 45 minutes of surgery. Ferrer also failed to provide oxygen to Peggy during surgery. "[Ferrer's] failure to monitor [Peggy] appropirately during and after the abortion constitutes a violation of the standard of quality care."
3. During resuscitation, Ferrer did not use an airway and did not provide supplemental oxygen with an ambu-bag.
In short, Ferrer gave Peggy too much medication too quickly, causing her to stop breathing, and failed to monitor her closely enough to notice in a timely manner. He then failed to adequately resuscitate her.
UPDATE: The medical board did go through with suspending Ferrer's license. They learned of the incident when Peggy's family sued. You can read the suspension order here.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
1975: Mother of four bleeds to death
Sandra Chmiel was a pretty young mother of four when she went to Biogenetics Ltd. in Chicago for a safe and legal abortion on June 3, 1975. Even though 35-year-old Sandra was more than 12 weeks pregnant, the Biogenetics doctor chose to ignore the Illinois law that required abortions after 12 weeks to be performed in hospitals.
Within hours of her abortion, Sandra had bled to death from a punctured uterus. Biogenetics (which had been the target of at least 30 malpractice suits) claimed that their doctor was only repairing damage Sandra had done to herself in an attempted self-induced abortion. However, Biogenetics settled the case with Sandra's survivors for $75,000.
Brenda Benton and Synthia Dennard also died after abortions at Biogenetics.
Biogenetics's owner Kenneth Yellin was gunned down outside his facility in an apparent gangland slaying in 1979.
(NOTE: The current Biogenetics company in Chicago is not affiliated with any abortion facility and was in no way associated with Sandra's death.)
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
Within hours of her abortion, Sandra had bled to death from a punctured uterus. Biogenetics (which had been the target of at least 30 malpractice suits) claimed that their doctor was only repairing damage Sandra had done to herself in an attempted self-induced abortion. However, Biogenetics settled the case with Sandra's survivors for $75,000.
Brenda Benton and Synthia Dennard also died after abortions at Biogenetics.
Biogenetics's owner Kenneth Yellin was gunned down outside his facility in an apparent gangland slaying in 1979.
(NOTE: The current Biogenetics company in Chicago is not affiliated with any abortion facility and was in no way associated with Sandra's death.)
For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:
To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
1962: The macabre tale of Barbara Lofrumento
Like the Jacqueline Smith case in the previous decade, the strange events surrounding the death of 19-year-old Barbara Lofrumento have become almost an urban legend. But the tale of Barbara's tragic death and its aftermath is all too true.
Barbara, a 19-year-old college student, informed her parents that she was pregnant. Mr. and Mrs. Lofrumento cast about for a reputable abortionist and were referred by an acquaintance to Dr. Harvey Lothringer. Lothringer (right), a Princeton graduate, examined Barbara on June 2, 1962, and assured the parents that although Barbara's pregnancy was 5 months advanced, there was no danger. He arranged to pick up Barbara and her mother, Rose, and took them to his office, which was in his home in a wealthy section of Queens.
This was typical of the "back alley abortion" -- a reputable physician would make sneaky arrangements to do abortions at the site of their legitimate practices, taking the woman in "through the back alley" rather than the front door. In fact, by far the bulk of criminal abortion were performed by doctors.
They arrived just after 3 AM on the 3rd. While Mrs. Lofrumento waited, Lothringer sent Barbara into a room where she removed her underwear and reported feeling unwell from the injection Lothringer had given her. Lothringer then took Barbara into his office and left Mrs. Lofrumento in his waiting room.
At about 5 AM, Lothringer told Mrs. Lofrumento that Barbara was all right, but that she needed some oxygen. Sources disagree as to what happened next. Milton Helpern says that at 7 AM, Lothringer told Rose that Barbara was resting quietly, and that she should go home and get some rest. The New York Times says that Lothringer told Rose that he was going to hospitalize Barbara for a minor complication. Both sources indicated that Lothringer instructed Rose to return later to get her daughter.
Lothringer sent Mrs. Lofrumento to Grand Central Station, where he had arranged for her husband to pick her up and take her home. Instead, the couple went straight to Lothringer's home, where they found no sign of Lothringer or their daughter. They went home and repeatedly called Lothringer, getting no answer.
The next morning they returned to Lothringer's home, where they found several patients waiting outside. No one had seen Lothringer. Mr. Lofrumento waited for several hours, then went home, and contacted the police to report Barbara missing.
Sources diverge again on what happened next.
According to Milton Helpern, later that day, Lothringer called a policeman who was a friend of his, telling him that he was away on business and asking him to call Roto-Rooter about the stopped-up toilet and to let them into the house.
The New York Times, on the other hand, said that Lothringer's father discovered that the drains were clogged, and called somebody to come attend to them.
Whoever called the worker in, the man found the toilet backed up, partially flooding the bathroom, and more water in the basement. Investigating the main house drain, the worker found the source of the problem -- pieces of bone and flesh. Somebody called the police, and an investigator took the tissue to be examined.
Soon the authorities had workers digging up the sewer lines from Lothringer's house. They found pieces of Barbara, her clothing, and her baby. The largest fragments were only a few inches long. Barbara had been dismembered and flushed down the garbage disposal and the toilet. Barbara's parents identified the clothing fragments, and Barbara's orthodontist identified a section of jaw with the teeth still in it along with several isolated teeth.
Lothringer, who had already been under surveillance for suspected abortion activities, appeared to have fled the country, accompanied by a Cuban-born former stewardess who was serving as his receptionist. Lothringer was well-to-do, with reports circulating that he kept as much as a million dollars cash in safe deposti boxes. An international manhunt was launched, with Lothringer first being traced to the area of his family's hunting lodge about 60 miles from Montreal. Eventually he was extradited from Andorra, where he was discovered in 1962.
Lothringer told police that Barbara had developed an air embolism. He had tried to dispose of her body, he said, to keep his receptionist from being implicated. He plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter in Barbara's death and was sentenced to 2 to 8 years. Barbara's mother reportedly screamed and fainted when she heard of what she considered a light sentence; Barbara's father called it "discount justice." But Lothringer's lawyer reported receiving numerous calls from Lothringer's woman patients, in support of the doctor.
Lothringer's medical license was revoked. He served four years in prison, and in 1968 he was releaed on parole.
Lothringer petitioned the medical board in 1972 to get his license restored, but the request was denied. In 1973, after Roe vs. Wade was handed down, Lothringer tried again, and this time he succeeded. On October 17, 1973, he was put ono a five-year probationary status and given his license back.
The New York Times said, "State officials said that records explaining why Dr. Lothringer's license was restored were in archives and not readily available."
Lothringer practiced psychiatry with no disciplinary actions or trouble until 1996, when he was working as a prison doctor. He ordered that the antidepressent 17-year-old Nancy Blumenthal was taking be disconintued, on the ground that the girl complained that the medication made her violent. Despite pleas by Nancy's mother, Nancy was not put on any other medication to address her depression. A month later, she hanged herself in her cell.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
Barbara, a 19-year-old college student, informed her parents that she was pregnant. Mr. and Mrs. Lofrumento cast about for a reputable abortionist and were referred by an acquaintance to Dr. Harvey Lothringer. Lothringer (right), a Princeton graduate, examined Barbara on June 2, 1962, and assured the parents that although Barbara's pregnancy was 5 months advanced, there was no danger. He arranged to pick up Barbara and her mother, Rose, and took them to his office, which was in his home in a wealthy section of Queens.This was typical of the "back alley abortion" -- a reputable physician would make sneaky arrangements to do abortions at the site of their legitimate practices, taking the woman in "through the back alley" rather than the front door. In fact, by far the bulk of criminal abortion were performed by doctors.
They arrived just after 3 AM on the 3rd. While Mrs. Lofrumento waited, Lothringer sent Barbara into a room where she removed her underwear and reported feeling unwell from the injection Lothringer had given her. Lothringer then took Barbara into his office and left Mrs. Lofrumento in his waiting room.
At about 5 AM, Lothringer told Mrs. Lofrumento that Barbara was all right, but that she needed some oxygen. Sources disagree as to what happened next. Milton Helpern says that at 7 AM, Lothringer told Rose that Barbara was resting quietly, and that she should go home and get some rest. The New York Times says that Lothringer told Rose that he was going to hospitalize Barbara for a minor complication. Both sources indicated that Lothringer instructed Rose to return later to get her daughter.
Lothringer sent Mrs. Lofrumento to Grand Central Station, where he had arranged for her husband to pick her up and take her home. Instead, the couple went straight to Lothringer's home, where they found no sign of Lothringer or their daughter. They went home and repeatedly called Lothringer, getting no answer.
The next morning they returned to Lothringer's home, where they found several patients waiting outside. No one had seen Lothringer. Mr. Lofrumento waited for several hours, then went home, and contacted the police to report Barbara missing.
Sources diverge again on what happened next.
According to Milton Helpern, later that day, Lothringer called a policeman who was a friend of his, telling him that he was away on business and asking him to call Roto-Rooter about the stopped-up toilet and to let them into the house.
The New York Times, on the other hand, said that Lothringer's father discovered that the drains were clogged, and called somebody to come attend to them.
Whoever called the worker in, the man found the toilet backed up, partially flooding the bathroom, and more water in the basement. Investigating the main house drain, the worker found the source of the problem -- pieces of bone and flesh. Somebody called the police, and an investigator took the tissue to be examined.
Soon the authorities had workers digging up the sewer lines from Lothringer's house. They found pieces of Barbara, her clothing, and her baby. The largest fragments were only a few inches long. Barbara had been dismembered and flushed down the garbage disposal and the toilet. Barbara's parents identified the clothing fragments, and Barbara's orthodontist identified a section of jaw with the teeth still in it along with several isolated teeth.
Lothringer, who had already been under surveillance for suspected abortion activities, appeared to have fled the country, accompanied by a Cuban-born former stewardess who was serving as his receptionist. Lothringer was well-to-do, with reports circulating that he kept as much as a million dollars cash in safe deposti boxes. An international manhunt was launched, with Lothringer first being traced to the area of his family's hunting lodge about 60 miles from Montreal. Eventually he was extradited from Andorra, where he was discovered in 1962.
Lothringer told police that Barbara had developed an air embolism. He had tried to dispose of her body, he said, to keep his receptionist from being implicated. He plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter in Barbara's death and was sentenced to 2 to 8 years. Barbara's mother reportedly screamed and fainted when she heard of what she considered a light sentence; Barbara's father called it "discount justice." But Lothringer's lawyer reported receiving numerous calls from Lothringer's woman patients, in support of the doctor.
Lothringer's medical license was revoked. He served four years in prison, and in 1968 he was releaed on parole.
Lothringer petitioned the medical board in 1972 to get his license restored, but the request was denied. In 1973, after Roe vs. Wade was handed down, Lothringer tried again, and this time he succeeded. On October 17, 1973, he was put ono a five-year probationary status and given his license back.
The New York Times said, "State officials said that records explaining why Dr. Lothringer's license was restored were in archives and not readily available."
Lothringer practiced psychiatry with no disciplinary actions or trouble until 1996, when he was working as a prison doctor. He ordered that the antidepressent 17-year-old Nancy Blumenthal was taking be disconintued, on the ground that the girl complained that the medication made her violent. Despite pleas by Nancy's mother, Nancy was not put on any other medication to address her depression. A month later, she hanged herself in her cell.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
Blasts from the past: Old posts worth revisiting
I've been struck by a spambot, which is requiring me to go to all my old blog entries that he spammed to remove the spam. But some of them are worth going back and visiting again, so I'll share them with you:
The Harassment of a Smiling Baby: The pro-life club at the University of Victoria that is in danger of losing its status over accusations of harassment. What form of "harassment"? Check out what the strong, independent women of the university are too fragile to walk past.
Two abortion supporters who get it. Sort of.: A response to the Tebow Superbowl ad gives an opportunity to reflect.
Here's one where I gotta agree with the ACLU: A Florida woman went to the hospital at 25 weeks to be assessed for premature labor. They ordered bed rest -- COURT ORDERED bed rest in the hospital, away from her children!
Planned Parenthood admits to live births.: An admission by a PP worker that some of the babies they abort are born alive brings an examination of how far off those ultrasound estimates can be, and what the odds are of long-term survival for these babies.
Astonishing new levels of abortion advocacy cluelessness: If one person believed this enough to post it, you'd do well to be aware and be ready to correct them.
Read complaints against Tiller and associates: The recent anniversary of Tiller's murder had his fans out lamenting the loss of their hero. Read here what kind of man they consider worthy of their admiration.
The Harassment of a Smiling Baby: The pro-life club at the University of Victoria that is in danger of losing its status over accusations of harassment. What form of "harassment"? Check out what the strong, independent women of the university are too fragile to walk past.
Two abortion supporters who get it. Sort of.: A response to the Tebow Superbowl ad gives an opportunity to reflect.
Here's one where I gotta agree with the ACLU: A Florida woman went to the hospital at 25 weeks to be assessed for premature labor. They ordered bed rest -- COURT ORDERED bed rest in the hospital, away from her children!
Planned Parenthood admits to live births.: An admission by a PP worker that some of the babies they abort are born alive brings an examination of how far off those ultrasound estimates can be, and what the odds are of long-term survival for these babies.
Astonishing new levels of abortion advocacy cluelessness: If one person believed this enough to post it, you'd do well to be aware and be ready to correct them.
Read complaints against Tiller and associates: The recent anniversary of Tiller's murder had his fans out lamenting the loss of their hero. Read here what kind of man they consider worthy of their admiration.
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