On December 15, 1984, Mary Pena underwent a safe and legal abortion at San Vincente Hospital in Los Angeles. Mary had thought that she was 3 months pregnant, but doctors discovered she was at 22 weeks.
During the procedure, performed by Ruben Marmet, Mary sustained two cervical lacerations, and because she was bleeding heavily, a hysterectomy was performed in an effort to save her life.
Hospital owner Dr. Edward Allred and another physician, Sohn Soon, were assisting Marmet with the emergency surgery. They were unable to locate a severed artery so they packed Mary's abdomen with sponges and closed the incision.
Mary was still bleeding more than 24 hours after the abortion, so the surgical team called in another doctor who tried to repair the damaged artery, but to no avail. Mary died on the table in the early morning hours of December 16.
Mary was 43 years old and the mother of five.
The Investigator's Report states, "Dr. Allred cleared the case with Coroner and body was released to the family picked mortuary ... and services held. When the death certificate was taken to Kern County Health Department they refused to accept it and called the case to Los Angeles Coroner. ... Mortuary in Bakersfield will bring body to this office for autopsy on morning of 12-20-84."
Only then was cause of death attributed to exsanguination due to cervical laceration due to therapeutic abortion. The cervix showed two lacerations - a small one that had been sutured and a large unsutured one extending through the full ring of the cervix.
Once a cause for the fatal hemorrhage was determined, the death certificate was accepted, and Mary was laid to rest again.
San Vicente had been purchased by National Abortion Federation member Familiy Practice Associates Medical Groupshortly before Mary's death.
Other patients known to have died after abortion at Allred's facilities include
- Denise Holmes, age 24, December,1970
- Patricia Chacon, age 16, March, 1984
- Josefina Garcia, age 37, May, 1985
- Lanice Dorsey, age 17, February, 1986
- Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, June, 1988
- Tami Suematsu, age 19, August, 1988
- Susan Levy, age 30, May, 1992
- Deanna Bell, age 13, September, 1992
- Christina Mora, age 18, November, 1994
- Ta Tanisha Wesson, age 24, February, 1995
- Nakia Jorden, December, 1998
- Maria Leho, June, 1999
- Maria Rodriguez, age 22, March, 2000
- Kimberly Neil, May, 2000
- Chanelle Bryant, age 22, January, 2004
Another important point I'd like to raise is the claim that once California legalized abortions, they became much safer. The claim was based on a study showing a reduction of admissions to hospitals for treatment of abortion complications. What the study failed to mention, however, is that at the time the majority of legal abortions were, like Mary's, being performed in hospitals. Thus, even if the patient died, as Mary did, there would be no record of her being admitted to a hospital for treatment of complications because she was already hospitalized.
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