NARAL's lies open the door for truth

Women Who Once Considered Abortion Tell How Pregnancy Resource Centers Helped Them:

On a recent summer afternoon Danica Fountain was spending time with her eight-year-old daughter, but the pair was not relaxing at home or shopping at a nearby mall. Fountain and Aaliyah Sanchez were on Capitol Hill lobbying members of Congress about the work done by pregnancy resource centers across the nation.

The visit came in the wake of the release of a report by NARAL Pro-Choice America’s California affiliate that accuses pregnancy resource centers of convincing women not to have an abortion by apparently using inaccurate medical information and untrained volunteers who use intimidation techniques.

Prolife pregnancy centers combine two of the things abortionists hate most -- prolifers and competition. Let me restate that. Prolife pregnancy centers combine the THREE things abortionists hate most -- prolifers, competition, and truth.

Melinda Delahoyde, executive director of Care Net, which oversees a network of more than 1,000 pregnancy resource centers around the United States, said that NARAL’s attempts to discredit the work that centers do through these kind of reports, and also in court cases it has brought against centers, actually can work in their favor when people hear the stories of women like Fountain and Payne.

“When we go in front of state legislators and tell what we do, it’s not working to [NARAL’s] good,” Delahoyde said. “It works for our good because they hear from women themselves.

“We have a chance to educate the media, community leaders, public health officials – everyone who is there in that room,” Delahoyde said. “Here are the stories from women, here is what actually happens – what do pregnancy centers do and how we’re connected in our local communities.

All of which, of course, ignores the question, Who should we investigate?

Why are these self-proclaimed guardians of women at NARAL calling for a nationwide investigation of abortion clinics to weed out all the guys like Steve Brigham, who's going to kill a woman or two at the rate he's going, and Kermit Gosnell, who has already killed two women? Why not an investigation asking, "How common are seedy, dangerous abortion mills? Do they need more oversight?

A lot of these places are unregulated doctor's offices that deliberately give the false impression that they're regulated clinics. But that little piece of deception isn't enough to raise the ire of NARAL. But citing studies they disagree with -- peer-reviewed studies that they disagree with -- is a "deception" worthy of Congressional hearings.

Where are their priorities?

Women's lives, women's health, and even women's choices seem to be pretty low on the list.

But God's using what they intend for evil -- to leave women alone, ill-informed, and demoralized -- for good.

Abortion death from 1904

On September 30, 1904, Stanislawa Zagonski died in Chicago from an illegal abortion performed that day. Mrs. Alexander Wojtanowski, whose profession is not given, was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury on October 5.

Note, please, that with standard public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.



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

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1985: Abortion death overshadowed by abortionist's other issue

Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including safe and legal abortions, in his filthy Oklahoma clinic. Reynolds' anesthetist, age 60, had originally been hired as a janitor, and an untrained orderly was acting as his nurse. The operating room was littered with dirty cups and papers.

It was into this operating room that 21-year-old Gaylene Golden stepped on September 30, 1985. During the abortion, Reynolds lacerated Gaylene's cervix. This allowed both air and amniotic fluid to get into her bloodstream, causing a fatal embolism. Gaylene left a little boy without a mother.

Gaylene's tragic death is usually overlooked, however, when people remember Dr. Reynolds. For what is Joe Bills Reynolds most known?
A baby was born with her right arm missing after Reynolds had tried to abort her at 32 weeks.
He beat his wife to death on Valentine's Day.
He let his wife bleed to death during a liposuction he was performing on her.
The Humane Society had to confiscate 4 of his 11 horses because they were half-starved and living in filth.



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Two deaths from 1923

On September 29, 1923, 44-year-old Annie Allison of Brooklyn died at the office of chiropractor Henry Lee Mottard, who practiced under the name of Dr. Henry L. Green. Mottard alleged that Annie had died after an accidental fall down an elevator shaft at the premises. However, Annie's death certificate, signed by another physician, attributed her death to chronic cardiac nephritis.

In the wake of the autopsy's preliminary findings, Mottard was arrested on suspicion of homicide. The autopsy had shown no broken bones or other injuries consistent with a fatal fall, and therefore showed that Mottard had lied about the circumstances of Annie's death. Police, who were investigating Mottard for his suspected involvement in a kidnap/adoption scheme, were suspicious and had Annie exhumed. It was revealed that she had died from an abortion.

A Grand Jury questioned Dr. Norris, who had performed the autopsy; one of Annie's friends; the undertaker who buried Annie; Annie's brother; and the owner of the building where Annie had supposedly fallen to her death.

During the investigation, police searched Mottard's ten-acre farm outside the city for evidence of more bodies after allegations arose that Mottard had also performed an abortion there on a young woman the previous January. Mottard admitted to having performed three abortions in the farmhouse, which was outside Long Island, but denied having performed the fatal one on Annie.

An operating room and a machine gun were found in the 14-room farmhouse. A second homicide case was filed against Mottard by officials of Suffolk County, where the farm was located. They had evidence that one of Mottard's rural abortion patients had suffered the same fate as Annie Allison.

On the very same day that Annie died, 18-year-old Mollie Monilson of Chicago died from complications of a criminal abortion. The person or persons responsible for her death were never identified or brought to justice.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future when Ameila 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

Equally dead

On September 28, 1929, 29-year-old Barbara Auer died in Chicago from complications of an illegal abortion performed at an unknown place. The person or persons responsible were never identified and as a result never prosecuted.

Rhonda Hess was 20 years old when she underwent a legal abortion. After the procedure, she developed an infection. The infection led to problems with clotting of the blood. Rhonda was taken to Moss Regional Hospital in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she died on September 28, 1982. Nobody cared who was responsible, since it was no longer a crime to do this sort of thing to women.

40 Days for Life on Day 6: 44 confirmed saves so far!

DAY 6: 44 babies saved!:

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

TWO women rejected abortions on the first day of the campaign in Birmingham.

One young woman went into the Planned Parenthood center — and turned right around and left within 15 minutes. She spoke to one of the volunteers and followed her to the pro-life pregnancy center nearby, where she decided to keep her baby.

Later, a couple took information from a volunteer, but entered the Planned Parenthood building and stayed for hours. It didn’t look good. But finally they walked out — with huge smiles — and told the people praying they canceled the abortion.

DAY 5: A ray of light:

When I moved to Charlottesville this summer I met a couple men who had been standing outside of Planned Parenthood for years. In fact, one of them had been standing for so long that he was starting to question his service.

He said to me, “It’s very rare that I get any positive feedback.” I told him that it was a small town, but I knew from my experience in Houston that lives were being changed simply by the presence of men and women outside of the abortion clinic praying and handing out literature.

No sooner had he crossed the street than a woman pulled up into the Planned Parenthood parking lot and started yelling at me. At first I thought she angry with me. But then she told me she wanted to tell me something. She pointed to the back seat of her car and said she had a grandson in a car seat that was alive because people were standing outside of the clinic — and she wanted to say thank you.

1975: Sloppy diagnostics lead to death

On September 13, 1975, 22-year-old Lynette Wallace underwent an abortion at Inglewood Women's Hospital in Los Angeles County.

Early on the morning of September 27, Lynette went to the emergency room reporting abdominal pain. Staff reported that she became agitated and "difficult to handle."They put her in restraints, and she was pronouced dead of cardiopulmonary arrest at 10:53 AM.

The autopsy revealed what the abortionist should have detected -- the pregnancy had not been in Lynette's uterus but in her fallopian tube. The tube had ruptured, spilling blood and a 10-week fetus into Lynette's abdomen.

Women who seek abortion should be less likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. After all, the abortionist is supposed to perform an examination verifying the size of the uterus, and is supposed to visually examine the abortion tissue to be sure that the entire fetus and placenta are present. Also, a pathology examination
is supposed to be done on the uterine contents to verify the presence of the entire fetal/placental unit.

However, women who seek abortion are actually more likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. The pain and nausea associated with an ectopic pregnancy are often mistaken for ordinary post-abortion symptoms, and are ignored until the tube ruptures and the woman's life is in danger.

Lynette is one of many deaths currently attributed to Inglewood Women's Hospital (aka Inglewood Women's Clinic) in Los Angeles County. The others are Yvonne Tanner, Kathy Murphy, Belinda Byrd, Cora Lewis, and Elizabeth Tsuji.

The New York Times shares late abortionist's short-sightedness

Dr. William Harrison, Defender of Abortion Rights, Dies at 75 The New York Times obituary sings the praises of a man who, by his own reckoning, performed over 20,000 abortions in his career. The obituary goes to the heart of what abortion is, and how people get sucked into it. Harrison, if he is to be believed, thought he was helping women. And it's easy to get into that mindset, to fall into the idea that if the woman is distressed at being pregnant, then abortion is the way to help her. But is it? The fact that she's contemplating -- or even seeking out -- abortion is surely a sign that she's distressed. Harrison saw that distress as evidence of a need for abortion:

“Oh, God, doctor, I was hoping it was cancer.” Those words so affected Dr. William Harrison that for years, he said, he could not repeat them. They made him break down in tears. The woman who spoke them — black, poor and middle-aged — had come in 1967 to the Arkansas hospital where Dr. Harrison was a medical student in obstetrics. A doctor, after examining her swollen belly, had told her she was pregnant.

"I was hoping it was cancer." That's a lot of distress. That's a lot of stress. That's a major crisis. But is the first or most obvious response necessarily the right one? It's long been known that stress hampers the decision making process. Let's examine some of the impact of stress on decision-making:

 

The greater the stress, the more likely the person is to choose a risky alternative.

The greater the stress, the more likely the person is to make a premature choice without adequately weighing alternatives.

The greater the stress, the more difficult it is to think clearly and remain focused.

The greater the fear and frustration caused by the crisis, the more likely the person is to choose an aggressive or escape behavior ("fight or flight").

We have all had this experience in our own lives, in ways both big and small. We've yelled at our kids when we should have handled the situation calmly. We've quit jobs when we should have effectively addressed a problem at work. We've tried to fix things ourselves, breaking them in the process, when we should have waited for expert help. There is not one of us who has not, in a time of stress, done what seemed like a good idea at the time, then come to regret it. 

During times of stress, the person tends to think short-term, trying to escape the crisis. When pregnancy is such an intense stressor that the woman is contemplating abortion, she is making her decision under great stress. This means that she is likely to make a risky, premature, ill-thought-out decision based on what seems like the quickest way out of the immediate crisis. This does not mean that the pregnant woman is uniquely vulnerable; it means that she is just as likely to behave like a stressed-out person when the stress is due to pregnancy as she is if the stress is due to any other cause. 

 A difficult pregnancy is, we can clearly see, a time of particular vulnerability for the woman. She is not likely to be in an emotional state that will lead her to gather all the information she needs. She is not likely to be thinking clearly. She is not likely to think past the first choice that looks as if it will solve her immediate problem and get her out of this crisis. 

The regret of having chosen abortion isn't simple buyer's remorse. It can be profound, soul-crushing distress that can end in suicide. A study in Finland, where government health care enables them to track all pregnancy outcomes and the aftermath, found the suicide risk of women who had undergone abortions to be six times higher than that of women who had given birth. And just why is it that abortion can leave the woman so wounded? Because before the abortion, her focus is on her immediate distress, to the point where there's something she's not seeing. Something she has the entire remainder of her life to see clearly -- but only after it is too late. 

Women are hard-wired for relationship, particularly their relationships with their children. And after the immediate crisis is over, and it's to late to have a do-over, the reality of what the abortion did has time to sink in. What the abortion did, hidden inside her body and invisible to her because of her focus on the immediate distress, is horrifying: 

It's easy to support abortion as long as you're able to ignore the reality of what happens inside the woman's body. And it's amazing the lies people can tell themselves to allow themselves to continue to dismiss the destruction:

Dr. Harrison readily admitted that he destroyed life, but denied that he killed babies. His view was that an embryo was far from being a human being with a brain.

Just so we're clear, the human brain is already "highly complex at just 8 weeks into life. Let's look at what The Visible Embryo says about a 42-days-into-pregnancy (six weeks into gestation, four weeks into life) embryo -- the youngest that, for most of Harrison's career, that you could abort a baby:

Brain is well marked by its cerebral hemispheres. The hindbrain, which is responsible for heart regulation, breathing and muscle movements, begins to develop.

About two days later, "The nasofrontal groove becomes distinct and an olfactory bulb (sense of smell) forms in the brain." And Harrison performed abortions throughout the entire first two trimesters of pregnancy. He was willing to do the destruction himself past 22 weeks -- a time when the fetus "recognizes maternal sounds such as breathing, heartbeat, voice, and digestion." And after 24 weeks, right up until term, he'd refer women to George Tiller. Why?

The higher moral value to Dr. Harrison was salvaging the future of an often disadvantaged girl or woman.

But Harrison simply assumed that the abortion was salvaging her future. He wasn't there after her baby was dead -- unless she, like half of all abortion patients, was returning for another abortion, and perhaps another, and another, and another. The abortion that was to free her may just have returned her for another cycle of poverty and abuse and abortion. Or she might manage to avoid another abortion, but still continue to suffer. Even women who remain firmly "prochoice" after their abortions often report devastation:

I am prochoice, but...:

It is the worse feeling in the world, to know lying on that table, that you can't take it back. I have struggled with depression, flashbacks, anxiety and a big sense of loss. I also struggle with guilt, the guilt of having actually taken a life, yes a life. I believe now that life begins at conception. No it didn't look like a peanut, or a glob of jelly; it had arms, legs and eyes and moved around, although it was too early for me to feel. I was 9 weeks. I lost my life after i lost my child, i had to give up my apartment because i was too unstable to stay alone, and the memories, well they were overwhelming. I nearly lost my job, and it will be a constant reminder, babies and pregnant women everywhere, every day, commercials, movies etc. It haunts me, and it goes right into the night. I like most women who have this thing called PASS: experience nightmares, terrible terrible ones, dead babies, crying babies, you name it; visit the dream board. I am just letting you know my personal experience. I am a 29 year old woman, who wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

Abortion: A Hell of a Decision:

Slowly I began to notice little babies, and grief started to eat into my calm exterior. Pain such as I had never felt before worked its way into my vulnerable mind, and I realised that I was crumbling. The numb feeling that had protected me for so long was ebbing away, and I didn't know what to do. The reality of the termination had hit me in the form of grief and despair and above all guilt. I tried to reason with myself that I had no option, but that grief was being translated into anger. .... I couldn't sleep at night and during the day I alternated between self pity and pain. Worst of all were the frequent moments when tears just poured uncontrollably down my face.

Shawn's Story:

I'm so sad... I'm so regretful for what could have been. .... Will I ever get over my regret? I want my baby back. .... I wish I would have thought through it more. I wish I would have taken the time to visit old friends I haven't seen in a long time... who have little children in their thirties. But I didn't... I was feeling pressed for time. As the more time that went by, the more attached I got. I was confused, I felt fat already and uncomfortable in my clothes. I wasn't married. Didn't want to get married... But would love to hold another big, fat healthy baby. I knew, with this one, there would be no arguing, no divorce or custody issues. I would be with this baby each and every day of its life. But its life never came to be... I'm still so sad... I feel I made the wrong choice. I believe in Pro-Choice... but why aren't those clinics given more counseling requirements. Why couldn't they be forced to make me wait another day or week? Perhaps I would be a very happy expecting mother... Now I'll never know whether or not I made the right choice. I'm still so sad.

Abortion-minded women do change their minds, if given the chance. (Some of them do so when given a second chance because an abortion attempt fails.) 

Dr. Alec Bourne, whose activism effectively paved the way for abortion on demand in the UK, later wrote:

"Those who plead for an extensive relaxation of the law [against abortion] have no idea of the very many cases where a woman who, during the first three months, makes a most impassioned appeal for her pregnancy to be 'finished,' later, when the baby is born, is thankful indeed that it was not killed while still an embryo. During my long years in practice I have had many a letter of the deepest gratitude for refusing to accede to an early appeal."

Planned Parenthood Medical Director Mary Calderone wrote, in "Illegal Abortion as a Public Health Issue":

[Members of the 1955 Planned Parenthood conference on abortion] agreed, and this was backed up by evidence from the Scandinavians, that when a woman seeking an abortion is given the chance of talking over her problem with a properly trained and oriented person, she will in the process very often resolve many of her qualms and will spontaneously decide to see the pregnancy through, particularly if she is assured that supportive help will continue to be available to her

It's probably easy to feel as if you've solved the woman's problem when she staggers out the door, no longer pregnant, no longer facing whatever it was she was so scared of. But I think if Dr. Harrison had run into some of his patients a decade later and asked, "Well?" he'd have gotten a very different story. 

1906: Chicago doctor's fatal work

Mrs. Annie Heaney, age 50, died at Post Graduate Hospital in Chicago on September 26, 1906, from complications of a criminal abortion performed there that day. Physician Jonathan L. Miller was arrested in the death.

Note, please, that with standard public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.



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

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Anniversary: National Abortion Federation Quality Care

On September 26, 1990, 17-year-old Sophie McCoy died in a New York hospital, leaving a one-year-old son motherless.

The events that led to her death started on September 17, when Sophie went to the office of National Abortion Federation member Abu Hayat. She was accompanied by her mother and by the husband of the operator of a facility identified as "the Willoughby Avenue Clinic." She had been referred to him, but medical board documents do not say by whom.



Sophe and her mother returned to Hayat's office the next day and paid $300 for the safe, legal abortion. Sophie was given intravenous medications which put her to sleep. She was kept about four hours and discharged with another prescription for antibiotics.

That evening, Sophie was bleeding, had abdominal pain, and was having trouble breathing.

The next day, September 19, she was taken to a hospital, reporting vaginal bleeding, chest pain, and shortness of breath. Dr. Harding, who treated her, discovered that Sophie had a perforated uterus and serious sepsis. An emergency hysterectomy was performed, but Sophie developed disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (a clotting disorder) and septic shock, which killed her.

After Sophie's death, Hayat originally denied having treated her at all. But Sophie's mother identified Hayat by name and from a photograph.

While continuing to deny having treated Sophie, Hayat told one of the physicians who had tried to save her life that she had expelled a fetus at home and come to him for treatment, whereupon he'd sent her to the hospital. But Margie, an employee of his, recognized Sophie from a photo and said that Hayat had indeed treated the girl on two occasions. Margie added that after the second visit, Sophie's mother had called, hysterical and crying. Margie further said that she had seen medical records for Sophie at the facility, and that Hayat had argued with the referring clinic about payments for Sophie's treatment.

The case was reported to the district attorney and the New York Health Department, but nobody took any action against Hayat until he pulled the arm off Ana Rosa Rodriguez (pictured, above right) during an abortion attempt in 1991.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Today's anniversaries

Minnie Lathan was 41 when she had an abortion and tubal ligation performed some time in September of 1978. Her uterus was perforated and her colon damaged during the procedure. She developed an infection and was hospitalized at Cleveland Clinic Hospital. She died there on September 25.

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Twenty-two-year-old Liliana Cortez underwent an abortion by Leo Kenneally at his Her Medical Clinic in Los Angeles on September 20, 1986. Other than having asthma, Liliana was in good health when she went for her abortion. After the procedure, she went into cardiac arrest. There was a 40-minute delay until the paramedics arrived to transport Liliana to a hospital. She died five days later.

Liliana's death was ruled a "therapeutic misadventure," which a coroner's spokesman called, "a nice medical term for a mistake."

An attorney for Her Medical Clinic said, "If something like this happened at a hospital ... people would just say it was bad luck, one of those fluky things. But ... all of a sudden they make it seem like these (abortion clinics) are terrible places where terrible things happen."

Other Deaths at Her Medical Clinic include Donna Heim and Michelle Thames.

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Debra Walton was 35 years old when she underwent an abortion in the fall of 1989. On September 24, 1989, about three weeks after the abortion, she was admitted to University Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. She was in septic shock. Despite efforts to save her, she died the next day, September 25, 1989. Her death certificate does not say where the abortion took place or who performed it.

More trouble for abortionist Brigham

Abortion entrepreneur Steven Chase Brigham was already in a heap of trouble when an 18-year-old abortion patient he caravaned from New Jersey to Maryland was nearly disemboweled by one of his contract abortionists, then hauled to the hospital in a rented Malibu.

He's in trouble in New Jersey over his treatment of two more patients.

The first, a 35-year-old Canadian woman, had sought out Brigham's services in ending the life of her 33-week unborn baby because the child had been diagnosed with Down syndrome. As was his MO, Brigham inserted started the abortion on August 3 in New Jersey -- where he's not licensed to kill babies that old -- then the following day had the mother drive herself to Maryland where either he or one of his contract workers finished the job.

The second, whose age isn't given, was 24 weeks pregnant. On August 13, Brigham injected drugs to kill her unborn baby, inserted laminaria to dilate her cervix, then sent her to spend the night in a nearby motel. There, she went into labor and delivered her dead baby.

Reducing maternal mortality versus embracing abortion

Medical Experts Demand UN Action on Maternal Health, Not “Safe” Abortion:

NEW YORK, September 23 (C-FAM) Medical experts blasted the UN’s “abortion-first” approach in a maternal-health presentation to UN delegates last week. Coming on the eve of a UN summit on development issues, the expert panel urged governments to focus on basic medical care rather than abortion to reduce pregnancy-related deaths.

“It is egregious to suggest to mothers that the only way to save their lives is to kill their babies," said Dr. Robert Walley, head of MaterCare International. "They have the right to health care. They have no voice when they are dead."

Controversy has dogged the maternal health goal since heads of state established it at the Millennium Summit in 2000. The heads of state explicitly rejected language used by many Western countries to mean abortion, despite intense lobbying for its inclusion at that time and at the subsequent 2005 follow up summit. Even so, subsequent UN-sponsored meetings like the Women Deliver conference in May focused almost exclusively on access to abortion as the way to improve maternal health.

Panelists last week criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for insisting that as long as an abortion is legal, it would always be considered "safe”. The WHO definition of abortion as unsafe or safe is not a medical but legal definition, said Dr. Donna Harrison, an OB/GYN. By contrast, if a country prohibits abortion, any abortions or related complications are automatically categorized as "unsafe," Harrison said.

Harrison, president of the American Association for Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said WHO and other UN bodies are being dishonest in campaigning for legalized abortion worldwide by hiding behind the pretext of "safe" abortion.

In another blow to the argument that abortions help reduce pregnancy-related deaths , Dr. Elard Koch concluded from government data going back 100 years that Chile’s maternal-death rate continued to fall even after the government banned abortion.

Increasing education levels, maternal literacy rate and maternal health services appear to be the most important factors in lowering maternal deaths, said Koch, an epidemiologist at the University of Chile. Legal access to abortion is not important, as advocates have claimed.

Health systems in developing countries are failing because the focus has been shifted to “reproductive health,” according to Dr. Obi Ideh, an OB/GYN practicing in Nigeria. The failures can be linked to corruption, lack of community-based healthcare, and incomplete medical data that prevent women from getting the care that they require.

Ideh emphasized the need to strengthen family, community and cultural factors as the first-line support for poor mothers and to increase training and staffing of health facilities to combat maternal deaths.

In a passionate account of his work with MaterCare, Dr. Walley described a post-earthquake Haiti where mothers were forced to give birth to their babies “in a toxic soup of rainwater and sewage.” Walley called for the international community to meet its responsibilities to poor mothers in emergency situations in the developing world.

The panel was organized by a coalition of pro-life advocacy groups and hosted by the governments of the Philippines and Malawi.

Experience in the US has likewise shown that addressing nutrition, sanitation, and overall good health are what bring down maternal mortality. The legalization of abortion didn't even make a visible blip on maternal mortality numbers:

This is all maternal deaths, from abortion, miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, complications of childbirth, and so forth. You can see that the 20th Century got off to a good start, improving maternal health, but that trend would later level off, and then reverse itself temporarily, before taking the downward trend that would continue for the rest of the century. I've put a vertical line at Roe vs. Wade, so we can see the clear, unmistakable, undeniable, staggering and spectacular impact ready access to safe, legal abortion had on maternal mortality:



For those of you with a faulty sarcasm detector: Roe didn't even amount to a blip on the line.

For those of you who get your information from abortion lobby "fact sheets" this might come as a bit of a shock. You're accustomed to being told things like: "The legalization of induced abortion beginning in the 1960s contributed to an 89% decline in deaths from septic illegal abortions (15) during 1950-1973." (Courtesy, in this case, of the Centers for Disease Control -- for those of you who had any doubts as to their abortion-praising agenda.)

Let's look specifically at abortion mortality, to see the profound and clear and unmistakable impact of legalization. I marked vertical lines at 1970 (when New York and California became the first states to legalize abortion on demand) and 1973 (when Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion on demand nationwide).



If you're having a hard time spotting it, I'll zoom in a bit on abortion deaths since 1960. Note that I marked New York and California's legalization and Roe vs. Wade for you:



The things put forth by abortion advocacy organizations leave you with the impression that improvement in maternal health in general, and abortion mortality in particular, must be due to the ready availability of legal abortion. But if you look at maternal mortality, as we just did, and look at the legalization of abortion, as we just did, you can see that the dramatic and very laudable drop in maternal death in the 20th Century was achieved with no help whatsoever from the abortion lobby.

They just take credit for other people's hard work.

1907: Abortion by midwife proves fatal for Indiana woman

On September 23, 1907, Mrs. Mabel Brock of Lake Station, Indiana, died in Chicago's John Streeter Hospital.

The coroner's jury determined that she had died from an abortion performd by midwife Mrs. Lobbie from Hobart, Indiana.

See Mabel's grave at Find a Grave.

Mabel's abortion was unusual in that it was not performed by a physician.

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

Two different perspectives on a pre-Roe death

"Amanda" was 19 years old when she traveled from Indiana to New York for a safe, legal abortion in 1970. She was 12 weeks pregnant.

The doctor performed the abortion on September 3. He was unable to remove any of the fetus or placenta. For some reason, he did not suspect a problem. He discharged Amanda and she returned home. Upon her return home, she suffered from pain, nausea, and vomiting, so she sought care from a physician in her community. She was admitted to the hospital with a perforated uterus.

Her doctor performed a lapartotomy, and found that the fetus was still inside Amanda's perforated uterus. The abortion was completed and the hole in her uterus was repaired.

After the surgery, Amanda had a series of complications beginning with difficulty breathing. On September 10, doctors performed a hysterectomy. Amanda continued to be treated in the hospital, but despite all their efforts she died on September 22.

I believe that Dr. Paul Jarrett was one of the doctors who tried to save her life. His story is here:

A few months into my residency, I came face to face with the issue of abortion for the first time. An 18-year-old Indiana University coed came into Coleman Hospital with lower abdominal pain. She related to me that she had been to New York City earlier that day to have a legal abortion performed at a clinic there. She had gotten on a plane at 8am at Indianapolis International Airport and flown to New York. She was taken to a legitimate clinic by a cab driver. She had believed she was two and a half months pregnant, but after the doctor had unsuccessfully attempted to abort the pregnancy, he told her she wasn't really pregnant after all and sent her home. She returned to Indiana on the 4pm flight as planned.

When she returned home in terrible pain, she realized she was in trouble and for the first time, told her mother what had happened to her. Her mother contacted her own gynecologist, who in turn referred the patient to Coleman Hospital to be evaluated by the resident on call--me.

Even though I was still wet behind the ears, I know that this pale, frightened little girl was still 10 weeks pregnant and her blood count was only half of what it should be. The private, attending doctor came in and took the patient to surgery immediately that night, where he repaired the hole that had been torn in the back of her uterus, which had caused her massive internal hemorrhage.

Over the course of the next few days, infection set in which did not respond to antibiotics, and we made the painful decision to perform a hysterectomy. Tragically, the shock from the infection severely damaged her lungs and her course was steadily downhill. As I helplessly watched, she slipped into unconsciousness and a few days later she died.

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Today's anniversaries

1930: Fatal abortion by doctor: On September 9, 1930, 20-year-old Matilda Kleinschmidt underwent a criminal abortion, believed to have been performed in the office of Dr. J. Murney Nicholson. Matilda died on September 21. Matilda's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

1995: Antiquated abortion method kills mom as well as baby: Linda Boom, age 35, decided on abortion when she learned that her baby might have Down syndrome. Fourth-year resident Karen S. Watson and supervision physician Daniel Gilman used the antiquated saline abortion technique, causing fatal damage to Linda's heart.

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I learn of another historic abortion death

In December of 1880, just four months after the botched-abortion death of Mary Ann Faulkner, Ellen Stack sought an abortion from Dr. Thomas Neil Cream.

Cream's usual MO was to have a "midwife" act as a go-between, renting a room where he and the woman would meet for the performance of the abortion. However, after the death of Mary Ann Faulkner, Cream evidently changed his tactics. He gave Ellen pills that were promised to get rid of her unwanted fetus. But Cream had evidently laced his pills with strychnine. He was able to avoid prosecution by attempting to pass the blame off to a pharmacist who Cream said had prepared the drugs. Cream's later doings indicate that he was undoubtedly the guilty party.

Cream had emigrated to Canada with his parents as a small child. Though he was set up to inherit his father's lumber mill, he instead chose to become a physician. The first abortion attributed to him was in April of 1876, shortly after his graduation from medical school. The woman was Flora Elizabeth Brooks, who evidently had been pregnant by Cream. An angry mob stormed the hotel where Flora had taken ill after the abortion, and to escape the wrath of the mob and the girl's family, Cream married her. The next day he left for Edinburgh, Scotland, whence he sent his bride some abortifacients, and settled down to study midwifery (obstetrics). Flora died, reportedly from consumption, shortly thereafter. Cream then returned to Canada, and faced another scandal when a young woman, Kate Gardener, was found dead of an overdose of chloroform -- a substance Cream had studied for his doctor thesis. Cream tried to claim that Kate had committed suicide with chloroform because he'd refused to perform an abortion on her, but scratches on her face indicated that she had struggled with whoever had administered the fatal dose. After an unsavory career in North America, and a murder conviction for killing the husband of his wealthy mistress, Cream eventually returned to the UK, was hanged on November 16, 1892 for poisoning prostitutes and trying to blackmail men with threats of accusing them of the killings.

---

I have no information on overall maternal mortality, or abortion mortality, in the 19th century. I imagine it can't be too much different from maternal and abortion mortality at the very beginning of the 20th Century.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

For more on this era, see Abortion Deaths in the 19th Century.

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

Sources:

Homicide in Chicago Interactive

Thomas Cream on Find-a-Grave

Thomas Neil Cream on Wikipedia

Thomas Neil Cream at Crime Library

New info on an old death

On August 20, 1880, Miss Mary Ann Faulkner, a white woman formerly of Ottawa, Canada, died at the office of Dr. Thomas J. Cream during the commission of an illegal abortion. Mary Ann was a prostitute, and had probably learned about Cream during her time in Canada, where Cream had originally practiced.

Cream, a Glasgow-born physician, and Mrs. Mackey, a Black nurse, were arrested in the death. Cream managed to beat the rap by saying he'd only been trying to save Mary Ann from the damage the nurse had done. The jury of 12 men believed him.

Cream had emigrated to Canada with his parents as a small child. Though he was set up to inherit his father's lumber mill, he instead chose to become a physician. The first abortion attributed to him was in April of 1876, shortly after his graduation from medical school. The woman was Flora Elizabeth Brooks, who evidently had been pregnant by Cream. An angry mob stormed the hotel where Flora had taken ill after the abortion, and to escape the wrath of the mob and the girl's family, Cream married her. The next day he left for Edinburgh, Scotland, whence he sent his bride some abortifacients, and settled down to study midwifery (obstetrics). Flora died, reportedly from consumption, shortly thereafter. Cream then returned to Canada, and faced another scandal when a young woman, Kate Gardener, was found dead of an overdose of chloroform -- a substance Cream had studied for his doctor thesis. Cream tried to claim that Kate had committed suicide with chloroform because he'd refused to perform an abortion on her, but scratches on her face indicated that she had struggled with whoever had administered the fatal dose. After an unsavory career in North America, and a murder conviction for killing the husband of his wealthy mistress, Cream eventually returned to the UK, was hanged on November 16, 1892 for poisoning prostitutes and trying to blackmail men with threats of accusing them of the killings.

---

I have no information on overall maternal mortality, or abortion mortality, in the 19th century. I imagine it can't be too much different from maternal and abortion mortality at the very beginning of the 20th Century.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

For more on this era, see Abortion Deaths in the 19th Century.

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

Sources:

Homicide in Chicago Interactive

Thomas Cream on Find-a-Grave

Thomas Neil Cream on Wikipedia

Semika Shirelle Shaw, Kermit Gosnell's first known maternal death

In March of 2000, Semika Shirelle Shaw underwent an abortion at Kermit Gosnell's Philadelphia office. Semika, a 22-year-old mother of two, called Gosnell's office the next day to report heavy bleeding, but according to court documents she was not instructed to seek care. Two days later, she died of sepsis and a perforated uterus.

I've been unable to get further details as of this time.

Find a Grave Memorial - Catherine Barnard et al

I've been searching Find A Grave for memorials to of the women in the Cemetery of Choice. My search found me more information about Catherine Barnard. 

On April 6, 1969, 35-year-old Catherine, of Arvada, Colorado, died of a botched criminal abortion. Dr. Virgil Jobe, who was later also charged with performing an abortion on a 17-year-old Oklahoma girl, was convicted in Catherine's death. He was sentenced to five years in prison for the Oklahoma girl's abortion. I have been unable to determine the outcome of any trial over Catherine's death. 

Find a Grave tells me that Catherine's middle name was Laureen. Her funeral was in the Chapel of the Flowers at Capitol Mortuary. Catherine left behind children Pamela Jewel, Holly, and Faith. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Wilson of Arvada. Her grandparents were Mr. and Mrs. L. I. Zimmerman of Independence, Kansas. Catherine evidently was a Mormon. And there's no mention of her husband in her obituary. Perhaps she was a widow, and this is why she sought an abortion. 

UPDATE: I also found a memorial for Mabel Brock, who died in 1907, as well as for Dorothy Brown, who died in 1974, and for Vivian Campbell, who died in 1950. Additional: Teresa Causey, Twila Coulter, Barbara Covington, Clara Duvall, Maureen Espinoza, Ruth Friedl, Maggie Gibbons (age 19, I now learn), Christin Gilbert, Christina Goesswein, Gaylene Golden, Sarah Grosvenor, Ruth Hall, Sharon Hamptlon, Rhonda Hess, Rosie Jimenez, Viola Koepping, Minnie Lathan, Nancy Lee, Michelle Madden, Georgia McGill, Kendra McLeod, Yvonne Mesteth, Marian Mills, Beverly Moore, Loretta Morton, Lydia Nelson, Sara Niebel, Holly Patterson, Mary Pena, Vanessa Preston, Virginia Rappe, Jacqueline Reynolds, Lennis Mae Roach, Geraldine Santoro, Florence Schnoor, Pearl Schwier, and Pauline Shirley. I learned that Sheryl Cottone had married Donald Cottone on September 10, 1976, and was the daughter of James W. Pershing & Opal (Simpson) Scott. I learned that Emily Nohavec was the daughter of Fred and Mary (nee Karl). I learned that Mrs. George Robinson was Annie Robinson. I learned that Ellen Shirah was born around 1876 in Ireland. She immigrated to the United States about 1898, and worked as a maid from about 1903 to her marriage to Jacob Shirah in 1907. She had two children, Evelyn and Joseph. She lingered in the hospital for about 2 weeks before her death. I have a possible match for Alice Kimberly, Mary Kirkpatrick, Dorothy Martin, Margaret Smith, Teresa Smith, Mary Stone, Mary Sudik, and Esther Wahlstrom. I'd learned about Elise Stone on Find a Grave to begin with, but will ask for a photo of her grave marker. I also found another abortion death that I'll have to write up: Susannah Lattin. M.A.M. Faulkner is Mary Ann Faulkner; I found this at the memorial of her abortionist.

Victims of abortion across a century and a half

1857: Martha Lockdoy, age 19, died in Albany, NY, from effects of an abortifacient she got from an "Indian doctress". Whatever that means. I was unable to determine if Mrs. Halm really was a doctor, and whether by "Indian" they mean she was Native American or she was from India.

1958: Mrs. "Glenda Coe" was found dead in her Norman, Oklahoma home by one of her four children. An autopsy confirmed that an induced abortion had caused her death. Her ex-husband was arrested for questioning. I've been unable to determine who, if anybody, was ultimately held responsible for Georgia's death.

1993: Kathy McKnight, age 36, died of a pulmonary embolism the day after her safe, legal abortion.

2003: Regina Johnson, age 32, became the third abortion patient to die under the dubious care of National Abortion Federation member Womancare, run by Medical Students for Choice hero Alberto Hodari. Hodari was fined $10,000 by the medical board for Regina's death, which was blamed on his sloppy policies and procedures and lack of adequate equipment and protocols. Hodari was also responsible for the abortion deaths of Chivon Williams and 15-year-old statutory rape victim Tamiia Russell.

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2003: The death that got attention

With abortion, as with anything else, it seems, you need a cute blue-eyed blonde to get the MSM's attention. Thus they noticed when Holly died.

Holly Patterson, age 18, died September 17, 2003, from sepsis caused by a fetus incompletely expelled in a safe and legal medical abortion. Holly had gotten the drugs for the fatal abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California, on September 10.

Rather than follow the recommended protocols for chemical abortions, Planned Parenthood followed the more popular American approach of giving Holly the mifepristone at the facility, then giving her misoprostol to self-administer at home.

Holly had experienced severe cramping and pain, and went to the emergency room. She was examined, given pain medication, and discharged.

At her boyfriends insistence, she returned to the emergency room on September 17, but by then her condition had deteriorated and efforts to save her were futile.

Monty Patterson, Holly's father, told the San Francisco Chronicle, "The medical community treats this as a simple pill you take, as if you're getting rid of a headache. The procedure, the follow-ups, it's all too lackadaisical. The girl gets a pill. Then she's sent home to do the rest on her own. There are just too many things that can go wrong."

Three other women were identified as having died of infection deaths after RU-486 deaths in the Los Angeles area: Chanelle Bryant, Oriane Shevin, and Vivian Tran. Chanelle got her abortion drugs at a Planned Parenthood, and Oriane and Vivian got theirs from National Abortion Federation members.

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Embryonic Stem Cell Research: The Betamax of modern medical science

Embryonic stem cells: Outmoded science:

As you turn on your HDTV and watch the endless controversy over embryonic stem cell research, ask yourself: Should the government spend taxpayer dollars to develop that bulky old cathode-ray television you once owned?

As you install your $79 Blu-ray player, what if Uncle Sam was paying millions to develop Betamax videotapes?

This kind of government waste is what embryonic stem cell researchers are demanding even when science itself, according to scientists such as former NIH Director Bernadine Healy, has made embryonic stem cell research obsolete.

In a nutshell:

Totally aside from the ethical and moral quagmire involved in killing the youngest members of the human family, embryo-killing stem cell research has produced exactly diddly squat as far as safe and effective treatments.

And I love this quote: "Human embryonic stem cell research is the $10,000 toilet seat of the 21st century. "

tem cell research that destroys human embryos is also taking money away from successful adult stem cell work, in which no embryos are destroyed. Found in people already born, adult stem cells are the only cells with a track record of actually and successfully treating patients.

Adult stem cells have grown new corneas and tracheas, restoring sight and speech. Adult stem cells placed into children have repaired damage from fatal genetic skin diseases. As CBS News reported on August 2, adult stem cells appear to have the ability to stimulate tissue repair and to suppress the immune system.

"That gives adult stem cells really a very interesting and potent quality that embryonic stem cells don't have," said Rocky Tuan, director of a cellular engineering institute at the University of Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, embryonic stem cell researchers have produced no treatments at all.

HT: Jivin' J via Jill Stanek.

A wide variety of deaths observed today

In 1941, 23-year-old Helen Clark died from an abortion performed by a blind lay abortionist. The abortionist, 57-year-old Sarah Howe, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison.

In 1994, 36-year-old Alerte Desanges died after an abortion performed by David Gluck, an abortionist who had just gotten his license back after it had been revoked for selling narcotics to pay off a gambling debt. He had been Medical Director of another abortion facility when staff there charted a patient they'd killed with an anesthesia overdose as "pink, alert, responsive". The clinic where Alerte died justified hiring Gluck despite his background, saying, "We are firmly committed to helping people who are skilled medical professionals who have had a fall from grace."

In 1997, 19-year-old Gracealynn "Tammy" Harris died after staff at Delaware Women's Health Organization dealt with her post-abortion weakness by putting her in a wheelchair and shoving her out the door. She left a young child motherless.

In 1999, 60-year-old Shelby Moran died of lingering complications of an abortion that had left this mother of five totally incapacitated and in a nursing home since 1978.

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Three pre-Roe abortion deaths

On September 15, 1925, Mary Williams, a 25-year-old Black woman, died at Chicago's County Hospital from an abortion performed on her that day at an undisclosed location. The person responsible for Mary's death was never identified.

On September 15, 1926, 23-year-old Mary Bailek died at Chicago's Lutheran Deaconnes Hospital from complications of a criminal abortion performed at her home that day. Rozalia Ossowska, alias Olszewski, was arrested for the death on October 7. On March 15, 1927, she was indicted for felony murder by a grand jury.

On September 15, 1971, 18-year-old Janet Foster died from complications of a "therapeutic abortion" performed by Richard Neal at Valley Doctors' Hospital in North Hollywood, California. The autopsy found that in Janet's uterus was a "macerated, lacerated and purulent male fetus of about 19 weeks gestation. This fetus measures 14.5 cm. in crown-rump length, shows lacerations in the shoulder area, evisceration of the bowel through an abdominal laceration, and destruction of the skull and facila structures." Janet's uterus also contained "approximately 20 cc. of red-brown purulent and foul-smelling liquid with similar odor and color to an exudate on the endometrial surface." Janet's doctor faced no charges for her death.For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Abortionist Rapin Osathanondh does the perp walk

HT: Choice is Murder:



Osathanondh's lawyer comments:

LAWYER: I think everybody worked hard yesterday in the court room and we ended up with a fair and just result.

REPORTER: How's your client feel, going off to prison today?

LAWYER: Well, I don't think he feels good about going off to prison, but I think he's glad to be able to get this behind him on the one hand, and as well to bring closure to the Smith family. He really does feel a tremendous amount of remorse as a result of this.

This is the first we've heard of Osathanondh taking any responsibility for what he did to Laura Hope Smith, a young woman with her entire life ahead of her. A string of choices -- her boyfriend's, hers, Osathanondh's -- ended that life, along with the life of her unborn baby. Laura and her boyfriend decided to have sex under circumstances in which they would not feel ready to welcome a baby. Laura decided, rather than turn to her church and her family for help, to end the life of her baby. Osathanondh chose to sell abortions rather than to help women overcome their fears, and to cut corners on staffing, training, and equipment, trusting instead to luck to preserve the lives of his anesthetized patients, and then when Laura stopped breathing he chose to delay calling 911 to get adequately trained help to her.

Laura's choices were based on a lot of things, including lies she'd been steeped in since childhood, growing up in American culture that teaches that sex is a consequence-free activity to be engaged in based on your momentary physical and emotional urges. A culture that teaches that abortion is a right, a responsible thing to do, an effective "reset" button that sets everything back to where it was before the pregnancy test came up positive, the mere removal of some problematic tissue. Laura's family had raised her to know better, but somewhere along the line, not enough was done to equip her to resist lies and temptation.

Laura has paid for her choice with her life. She will never have a chance to learn from her mistake, to repent, to live a new life based on grace and love.

Osathanondh still can.

He's not saying what made him decide to sell abortions for a living, rather than offer real hope to pregnant women. He's not saying if he really believed he was helping, if he was just out to make a quick buck, or whatever. He's not saying what made him decide to operate without adequate equipment, training, or staff. He's not saying why he chose to try to deal with his patient himself rather than quickly calling 911 to get trained help on the scene.

I'm working on developing a curriculum to be used in churches, to help young women like Laura avoid her fate, and the fate of other Christian women who end up weeping on the abortion table and wondering how this happened to them. These tragedies are entirely preventable. These young women can be reached, and given the tools they need to avoid ending up on the abortion table themselves. But it's an uphill battle, against the flesh, the world, and the Father of Lies.

And it was probably a combination of the flesh, the world, and the Father of Lies that put Osathanondh in prison.

He can still be reached as well. And I pray that during those three months he spends in prison, somebody reaches him.

For further study: Demolishing Strongholds

UPDATE: Former Doctor Gets Prison (including a video with a brief statement by Laura's father)

She arrived at the Smith household almost 18 years ago, a small raven-haired girl with tattered and dirty clothing, a black eye, and all her possessions in a plastic grocery bag, except for the doll she held in her hand. Tom and Eileen Smith wrapped the neglected, abused, and abandoned girl with their love, only to lose her later to a botched medical procedure.

....

Investigators discovered that the doctor’s office lacked basic resuscitation equipment, that he was not certified for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and that he failed to monitor her vital signs.

Authorities also said he took great measure to conceal those facts, going as far as creating false CPR cards, remodeling his office, and buying the necessary equipment such as a defibrillator. When investigators arrived at his office, he told them that it was as it had been when Smith died.

....

Osathanondh was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in prison, but will serve only six months as the remainder of the sentence was suspended.

He was also sentenced to nine months’ home confinement to follow, and three years’ probation to start immediately.

He had faced up to 20 years in prison before the agreement. As a result of a separate civil trial, Osathanondh was ordered to pay the Cape Cod family $2 million.

....

The board alleged that Osathanondh had placed Smith under sedation without any means to monitor her heart rate, blood pressure, or the oxygen level of her blood.

The board said the doctor had no qualified person assisting him while Smith was under anesthesia. The only other person in the room was an office worker who had no training in CPR or other life-saving procedures.

The board added Osathanondh “failed to timely initiate a call to 911, failed to maintain an adequate airway,’’ and “failed to adhere to basic cardiac life support protocol.’’

....

Note -- Tom and Eileen Smith are prolifers. Prolifers who adopted one of those "unwanted" children. One of those "born" children prolifers supposedly don't care about.

Irony alert: Abortion advocates hold that the lives of "unwanted" children like Laura should be ended by abortion. Well, Laura's was.

ONE MORE UPDATE, courtesy of Eileen. This is the "prison" Osathanondh will be "doing time" in:




As Eileen said, it looks like a bed-and-breakfast! Osathanondh is getting a vacation, then an early retirement.

Three other anniversaries today

After you study the 1742 abortion death of Sarah Grosvenor, carry your reflections forward and examine the three other anniversaries I have for today:

On September 14, 1928, 20-year-old Stella Wallenberg died from a criminal abortion performed in Chicago. Loretta Rybicki, identified as a "massaguer", was held by the coroner for murder by abortion. Dr. Nicholas Kalinowski was held as an accessory. Rybicki was indicted for felony murder on November 15.

On September 14, 1925, 19-year-old Miss Elizabeth Welter died in the Chicago office of Dr. Lucy Hagenow from complications of an abortion performed that day. Lawrence Vail or Vaily was identified by the coroner as responsible for the pregnancy, and the coroner recommended his arrest. Though the coroner also recommended the arrest of Dr. Hagenow. However, because Vail refused to give a statement, police were unable to gather enough evidence to arrest her.

On September 14, 1992, Rhonda Rollilnson died in a Philadelphia hospital from complications of an abortion attempted by Dr. Jay I. Levin at Malcom Polis's Philadelphia Women's Center September 3. The abortion attempt was unsuccessful. Rhonda experienced such severe pain, dizziness, fever, and discharge that on September 10 she sought emergency care at a hospital. Doctors did a laparoscopy, dilation and evacuation, abdominal hysterectomy, and splenectomy, to no avail. Rhonda died on September 14. The autopsy revealed a perforation from her vagina into the uterine cavity, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis, pulmonary infarctions, and dysplastic kidney.

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A chance for study and reflection: Historic abortion death

The first time I posted about Sarah Grosvenor's death in 1742, I posted a study guide, inviting readers to ask themselves questions first, study the source documents, then review their presuppositions and draw their own conclusions. I will again encourage you to do so. For both supporters and opponents of legalized abortion, the exercise is very enlightening.

After you complete your studies, you can read my summary here.

For this particular death, I prefer that nobody post just their own established thoughts on abortion, but rather what, if anything, struck you about Sarah's death. Was anything surprising? Just as you expected?

Please share your own insights in the comments.

Operation Rescue got the dirt on Brigham: Waste disposal and recovery room logs

I recommend that you read the entire report.

In short, the Elkton facility was just a satellite of Brigham's Voorhees, NJ facility. It was just there to circumvent New Jersey law. Brigham and his staff would caravan down with the patients. Brigham hired an elderly and disabled doctor, licensed in Maryland, to have somebody on paper who was legal to practice, but Brigham did a lot of the work himself. The injured woman, D.B., was under the impression that Brigham was training Riley when the abortion was being performed.

Now, let's look at some very interesting documents: The Elkton Medical Waste Logs and Recovery Room Logs. Among other things, they show gestational age and "total sample weight" -- which would be the weight of the pieces of fetus and, I suppose, the placenta. The weights ranged from 152 grams for patient MR's 15.4 week baby, aborted on August 6, to 2,946 grams for SF's 33 week baby, aborted July 30. This baby weighed more than the 2,500 grams (5.5 lbs.) that's the cut-off for a "low birth weight" baby. This was the only baby whose weight was in the normal range for a term infant.

"Very low birth weight" is less than 1,500 grams. 4 of the babies would be in this range had they been delivered alive.

My friend's daughter weighed 380 grams at birth. Fifteen of the 30 babies tossed out in Elkton's medical waste outweighed her.

The dates on the logs indicate that the records are incomplete. There are some days where there is a recovery room log, but no waste disposal noted. There are dates where there are babies disposed of, but we don't have recovery room logs.

The babies on the medical waste log range from 15 weeks to 23 weeks. The moms on the recovery room logs range from 15 weeks to 36 weeks.

Other points of interest:

Dr. Shepperd, who was disabled and unable to do any actual procedures, is listed as the doctor on the medical waste logs and on most of the recovery room logs.

There's not a payment amount noted for every patient, but for those for whom it is noted, the fees ranged from $745 for patient TW, whose 15.5 week baby was aborted on July 16, to $2,645 for patient LN, whose 23.2 week baby was aborted on July 2.

"Grace" was the most frequent notation for both "Chart #" and "Payment Amount". I'm guessing that Grace is a staff member who handled those patients, or at least handled their finances.

Make of all of this what you will.

Will Laura Hope Smith's killer face justice?

UPDATE: Fresh from Eileen Smith. Osathanondh plea bargained. New reports note that Osathanondh will serve three MONTHS behind bars, nine MONTHS of house arrest, and three years of probation.

A young woman's entire life was taken away from her by his sloth, greed, and carelessness. What does he get? Three months in the slammer and an early retirement, essentially.

News report with video here.

It was 7pm, we had just finished dinner and settled down to watch the evening news. My husband's cell phone rang with Laura's name on the ID. We always loved hearing from her. Laura was so full of life, your spirits were lifted just by talking to her. Except this time it wasn't her voice. There was guttural screaming and sobbing on the other end by a voice I did not immediately recognize. I heard the words "Laura", "Hospital" and the worst one, "Not Breathing," and then "abortion". My brain tilted, my heart sank, and life as I knew it ceased. It was Laura's friend Karen on the phone. She told me what happened, that Laura was having an abortion and something went terribly wrong. Karen was at the ER and the Doctor needed to talk to me. What Karen didn't know was that Laura had arrived at the ER already deceased. The EMT's found her this way at the abortion mill. The hospital was looking for next of kin to give the news to first, and Karen wasn't kin. "Laura's gone" the doctor told me. I wanted to hear "50-50 chance"...I would even accept "90-10 chance." But the word "chance" was not in the doctor's statement. All hope was gone, along with my daughter.

That call came on September 13, 2007 to Eileen and Tom Smith. Laura had died on a Hyannis, Massachusetts abortion table.

The bewildered couple hadn't even known that their daughter was pregnant.

Karen and Laura (pictured) had arrived at Women Health Center in the morning for preparatory steps to abort Laura's 13-week baby. The two young women were to return in the afternoon for the actual procedure. Laura wasn't supposed to drive, so Karen drove and the two ran errands. Because Laura wasn't supposed to eat, Karen fasted with her friend.

They returned to the facility at about 4 in the afternoon and waited. Laura was called in at about 5, back to where Dr. Rapin Osathanondh (O-SATH-an-on) and his instruments waited for her. Karen stepped out briefly, expecting her friend to be out of surgery in about fifteen minutes. But Laura didn't emerge from the bowels of the clinic. A worried Karen grew increasingly distressed.

"And then all of a sudden [an assistant] comes out and says she's not breathing. And I was like, what do you mean she's not breathing," Karen told the Cape Cod Times.

Fire department rescuers were dispatched to the clinic at 5:49 p.m., and found an unresponsive patient. They initiated CPR and took her to the hospital. Karen followed, but was not permitted to see her friend. She asked about Laura's condition. "It doesn't look good," she was told. Because next of kin hadn't been notified yet, the doctor couldn't tell Karen the truth: Laura was already dead on arrival. It was 6:22 p.m.

Charges were filed against Osathanondh. After Laura's death, a Sheriff's Deputy from another county to provided Osathanondh and his staff with CPR training, then backdate the session to a date prior to Laura's death. Osathanondh and his staff had been not been certified in CPR at the time of Laura's fatal abortion.

I met with the doctor who aborted my grandchild, and who saw my daughter take her last breath. He would only meet me in a public place, without my husband. We talked for an hour and a half. Based on that meeting I believe I know what happened to Laura. He denies doing anything that caused her death. When we were done talking about Laura, I prayed, and asked God if there was anything He would have me say to the doctor. This is what I said next.... "The blood of my daughter is on your hands; the blood of my grandchild is on your hands; the blood of every life you have ever taken is on your hands," and I went on from there. He was silent with his head hung low. When I was ready to leave, I asked him if he would think about my daughter, and consider not doing any more abortions—he said he would think about it. When I left there I was praying, and said to God, "Can You stop this man from doing abortions? Is this what You have in mind, that he might even stop doing them?" I was thinking too small. I thought if one girl changed her mind [about having an abortion], I could find some comfort. I then realized that the Lord had much bigger plans. I have never experienced in my life, such tragedy, nor such grace.

OR also reports that Eileen Smith said she was "appalled and sickened" by her daughter's death, but can not give more details due to a pending lawsuit against the abortionist.

"My daughter was 22, healthy, and alive when she walked into that clinic," OR quotes Eileen Smith. "She didn't even have a cold. There is no reason for her to be dead."

OR says, "Laura was born into abject poverty in Hondurus on May 25, 1985, and was abandoned at an orphanage. An American couple that adopted Laura abused her terribly and gave her up. Laura was then adopted by Tom and Eileen Smith, a Christian family that lovingly raised Laura in the Cape Cod community of Sandwich." She graduated from Upper Cape Tech in 2004, trained as a cosmetologist, but she left that field to work in retail management.

It's particularly sad to me that Laura resorted to abortion despite being a Christian active in her local church. Her mother also reported that Laura was strongly opposed to abortion. Which goes to show that anybody can panic, and our churches need to be teaching young women how to get past the panic that too often leads to the abortion table.

OR reports that over 600 people attended Laura's funeral, and at least one young woman decided to reject abortion after learning of Laura's needless death. National Catholic Register reports that the young woman was being pressured by her parents to abort, and was about to capitulate when she learned of Laura's fate.

I know that God is going to bring good out of my daughter's death. What a horrible thing; for my daughter to be associated with abortion. But, if God's going to use it for good and for His glory, then so be it. We're going very public with a very shameful, private thing because I believe God wants to use it to save lives. I believe the truth will come out, and the light of God will shine on this. Laura's death has had tremendous impact around the country, and even into Canada, without the local news mentioning it. It just came out in the secular media this week—5 weeks after Laura's death. I now believe it is my calling to keep telling Laura's story to the Church, and the world. I naively believed that abortion was not a choice for a Christian girl. A Pastor had even apologized to me and the Lord, for not speaking about this from his pulpit. We both had false assumptions. This is a problem in the Church, and one that needs to be spoken about from the pulpits. We have to take the "A" word out of the closet, put it out in the open, and discuss it. And maybe, possibly, hopefully, we'll even become active against it. Please keep our family in your prayers, and please tell someone Laura's story.

Osathanondh (pictured) was to go on trial today for Laura's death. You can follow updates on Eileen Smith's FaceBook page. He has already surrendered his medical license in order to halt the medical board's investigation into Laura's death. Among the preliminary findings were that he had his receptionist assisting with anesthesia. (Having untrained staff assist with anesthesia is hardly unheard-of among abortionists. After the death of Gloria Aponte, invesgigators learned that her abortionist, National Abortion Federation member Hanan Rotem, had, like Osathanondh, allowed his receptionist to administer general anesthesia.) Eileen believes that Osathanondh is planning a plea-bargain to avoid a trial.

FINAL UPDATE: It's official.