Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Docters' Work Pre and Post Roe

On May 10, 1929, 24-year-old homemaker Elizabeth Palumbo submitted to an abortion, evidently performed by Dr. Amante (or Amenti) Rongetti. She was taken to West End Hospital afterward, and she died there on May 23. Rongetti was held by the coroner on June 12. On June 20, he was acquitted. I was amazed to see Rongetti tied up in this case, because only the previous year he had been sentenced to die in the electric chair for the abortion death of Loretta Enders. Rongetti's attorney clearly had been successful in his bid for a new trial.


Life Dynamics lists 29-year-old divorcee Rhonda Ruggiero on their "Blackmun Wallsafe and legal abortions. According to the information LDI put together, and from genealogical research, Rhonda underwent an abortion in May of 1982. She suddenly died in her home of an abortion-related pulmonary embolism on May 23. No autopsy was performed.

Josefina Garcia, age 37, mother of 2, died after abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group (FPA) facility. Josefina's survivors filed suit against FPA owner Edward Campbell Allred, and 5 other doctors. The family said that staff failed to determine that Josefina had an ectopic pregnancy before proceeding with a routinesafe and legal abortion procedure by D&C on May 23, 1985. After her abortion, Josefina was left unattended in a recovery room, where she hemorrhaged. She died the day of her abortion. Other patients known to have died after FPA abortions include Denise Holmes, Patricia Chacon, Mary Pena, Lanice Dorsey, Joyce Ortenzio, Tami Suematsu, Deanna Bell, Susan Levy, Christina Mora, Nakia Jorden, Maria Leho, Kimberly Neil, Maria Rodriguez, and Chanelle Bryant.

3 comments:

Rebecca Bartlett said...

Im confused, Ive read the entire page and have not seen anything after 2000. I mean yes abortions have always been dangerous, anything involving anesthesia and other drugs have risks but medical advances and practices have advanced since then so where are more examples from the past 10-12 years? I'm not trying to undermine what you are saying but if I support what you are saying I would at least like all the facts and statistics. I'm sure you can understand. I was also curious as to if you know if these women had pre-existing conditions that led to the deaths or if it was specifically the abortion?

Kathy said...

Rebecca, there are many examples, but these are not arranged in chronological order by year, so you'll have to do more reading. Plus, many times abortion deaths are not advertised as such, so it takes some digging to find and unearth them [deaths are often hidden under terms like therapeutic misadventure, hemorrhage, infection, etc.]. And many times there are privacy issues (or media ignoring such stories) that prevent pro-life activists from knowing details and names. For example, Laura Hope Smith died recently, but her parents have been very vocal about her death on an abortionist's table; and there have been several women that have died from infection using medical abortion (particularly, inserting misoprostol tablets into the vagina, with an undiagnosed vaginal infection becoming lethal), but aforementioned privacy concerns or lack of people speaking out keeps pro-lifers from knowing all their names, and thus remembering them as victims of "choice". Then there's the problem of statistics often not being reported for several years after the fact (if they're reported at all -- many states do not have a good reporting program, and California does not report its abortion statistics to the CDC at all).

The blog owner may have more particulars and be able to more fully answer some of your questions, even provide you with a list of known abortion deaths; but in the meantime, don't assume that "lack of proof" is "proof of lack".

Christina Dunigan said...

Rebecca, these are deaths that happened on May 23 of their respective years.

If you want nore recent deaths, go to the main Cemetery of Choice page and search for more recent years. You will find Alexandra Nunez (2010), Ying Chen, Karnamaya Mongar and Antonesha Ross (2009), Edrica Goode and Laura Hope Smith (2007), Laura Grunas and "Peggy" and "Wanda" Roe (2006), Christin Gilbert, Orienne Shevin and "Cherish" and "Tara" Roe (2005), Chanelle Bryant and Tamiia Russell (2004), Leigh Ann Alford, Regina Johnson, Holly Patterson and Vivian Tran (2003), Diana Lopez, Brenda Vise, Stacy Zallie, and "Adelle" Roe (2002), Melissa Heim and "Haley Mason" (2001), and Kimberly Neil, Semika Shaw, Nicey Washington, L'Echelle Head, and Maria Rodriguez (2000).

I post on anniversaries.