Monday, September 30, 2024

Trump's messaging on abortion needs a lot of work

 Trump and Vance just keep repeating that they returned abortion to the states, which is a losing message, alienating both prolife and prochoice citizens. A different approach would win over most prolifers and some prochoicers and would only leave the truly pro-abortion alienated.

Points to make: 

1. All states that put abortion restrictions in place made generous allowances for doctors to include abortion in their treatment of pregnant women with complications. The abortion lobby responded that doctors were not going to avail themselves of those allowances but would instead deny care to women and allow them to die. This is shameful. There were two women in Georgia who died from taking abortion pills provided to them legally and presumably safely. They believed the promises of safety. But they suffered predictable complications, complications that happen in about 5% of these abortion pill cases. They didn't get the aftercare they needed even though there was nothing in the law to stand between them and that care. Only the people involved know if the lack of care was politically motivated. After all, a woman in Nevada, where abortion remained legal until 24 weeks, also died around the same time after getting inadequate care after taking abortion pills, and there was no political reason to let her die. But since the abortion lobby is claiming that the reason they're denying women care is because of the law, I'll take their word for it and say that those women were allowed to die for political reasons in order to pursue a pro-abortion agenda. Every citizen, no matter what their stand on abortion, finds that to be deplorable.

2. Kamala and her supporters claim that abortion restrictions will lead to women bleeding out in the parking lot, even though there isn't a single abortion law that forbids providing transfusions or any other care to a woman suffering pregnancy complications. And if she cares so much about women being sent home to bleed to death, why isn't she talking about April Lowery? She was so weak when she left an Alabama abortion clinic that she could barely walk to her car. She had to be helped. She bled to death on the way home from a treatable injury. Thanks to the Dobbs decision, Alabama voters were able to say that April deserved real medical care, not a botched abortion and a fatal hemorrhage. That abortion clinic is now a real medical clinic providing care to underserved women. Kamala wants that clinic to go back to selling unsafe abortions with improperly sterilized, rusty instruments. The abortion lobby that supports her is the same abortion lobby that started a legal defense fund for Bruce Steir -- rhymes with Fear -- who pulled out a woman's bowel during an abortion then sent her home to bleed to death. They talk about caring about women bleeding out, but they don't do anything when it's an abortion clinic sending them home to bleed to death. That's shameful -- and that's something all Americans can agree on, no matter where they stand on abortion.

at 5:58 PM 0 Speak to me!

September 30, 1904: Scanty Information Again From Chicago

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. She was sentenced to a mere three months in prison.

Watch Possible Lay Abortionist in Chicago on YouTube.

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 30, 1985: Dead on the Scene

Life Dynamics identified 21-year-old Gaylene Michelle Golden on their “Blackmun Wall” as the woman who died after an abortion by by Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds. 

Reynolds performed the abortion on Gaylene in his Oklahoma City office on September 30, 1985. 

Due to a cervical laceration, Gaylene developed an embolism — both air and amniotic fluid in her bloodstream. This embolism killed her, leaving Gaylene’s son motherless.

The man Gaylene had entrusted with her life was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including safe and legal abortions, in his filthy clinic. His primary focus, though, seemed to be liposuction. Perhaps abortion seemed to be an easy way to make money using the same suction machine.

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.

The quality of care at Reynold's facility was appalling

Reynolds tried to collect $500,000 on his wife’s life insurance after she bled to death after he opened 25-inch incision, ostensibly for liposuction, on September 7, 1989. Reynolds was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter and fined $1. He voluntarily surrendered his Oklahoma license.

ADDENDUM: Reynolds’ daughter, Shelly Reynolds, was charged with performing at least seven abortion without a license at her father’s clinic after he was stripped of his own license. (“District Attorney Seeks Abortion Information, The Oklahoman, July 31, 1991)

Watch Wife-Killer's Forgotten Victim on YouTube.

Sources: 

  • "Doctor’s Trial Nears In Liposuction Death,” The Daily Oklahoman, Apr. 22, 1991
  • District Court of Oklahoma (OK) County, Case, CJ 87-2991
  • Fatal Pulmonary Embolism During Legal Induced Abortion in the United States from 1972-1985,” Lawson, Herschel W., MD, Atrash, Hani K., MD, MPH, Franks, Adele L., MD, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vol. 162, No. 4, April 1990, p. 986-990
at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

Sunday, September 29, 2024

September 29, 1915: Jilted Teen Procures Fatal Abortion

Rosalla Marie Rockhill, age 19, of Etna Green, Indiana, died September 29, 1915 at Ravenswood Hospital in Chicago from an abortion. Rosalla went by her middle name, so news coverage identifies her as Marie.

She was a popular young woman at the tiny town of 1,000. Marie was a clerk at the post office and secretary of the Sunday School at the Methodist Episcopal church, a senior at the tiny town's red brick schoolhouse. She attended church regularly with her parents, Warren and Lena, and her three siblings.

The October 7, 1915 Bremen Enquirer described the situation as "a singularly sad story."  The reporter lamented that "the young man said to be responsible for the girl's shame is the son of respected parents long residents of this community, whose grey heads are bowed in shame because of his conduct." The parents reportedly raised him better than to get a girl pregnant and abandon her.

The young man in question was 27-year-old Wilbur Swank. He and Marie were engaged and had set a wedding date for August 10. It was postponed until September 9. But the morning of her wedding day, Marie "learned by telephone that her promised husband had left home the night before secretly, leaving no word for her, and realized that she must meet her approaching shame alone or in some manner escape it," said the Bremen Enquirer. 

Wilbur's reason for taking off was, he said, because in all of his travels he had already married another woman and had not obtained a divorce. 

At some point Marie told her mother about the pregnancy, insisting that she had not consented to sex with her betrothed. "Mamma, after I ate the candy he gave me I was helpless." 

Lena later admitted that upon learning that Wilbur had jilted the girl, they went to Chicago looking for an abortionist. They walked around the city, Lena said, and saw a sign in a window reading "Midwife." They consulted with the woman there and arranged for the abortion. Marie remained at the midwife's practice while Lena returned to Etna Green.

Marie sickened during her stay. On September 22 she went into convulsions and was admitted to Ravenswood Hospital. Warren and Lena were summoned to the hospital and were there for her death a week later. 

The bereaved couple returned home with their daughter's body for the funeral and burial. Nearly the entire town greeted them at the train station. A large crowd attended the funeral. The Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel said, "Practically every business house in the town was closed during the services out of respect for the little secretary of the church. She was buried in the private cemetery on her family's farm.

While the townsfolk turned out to support the dead teenager, they held no cordial feelings towards Wilbur Swank. 


Watch Tiny Town Mourns Jilted Teen on YouTube.

Sources:

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 29: Chicago Deaths, 1917 and 1923

On September 29, 1917, 27-year-old Annie DeGroote, who worked as a salad maker, died in her Chicago home from a criminal abortion perpetrated by Dr. Emma J. Warren. Warren, as well as Annie's husband Herman, were arrested for her death. Warren was indicted on October 15, 1917, but the case never went to trial.

On September 29, 1923, 18-year-old Mollie Monilson, a native of Montreal, died in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion. The person or persons responsible for her death were never identified or brought to justice, so we can't know if Mollie availed herself of one of the many physicians or midwives practicing abortion in Chicago at the time.
at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 29, 1915: Russian Immigrant Dies in Chicago

Twenty-one-year-old Anna Marie Dimford died at Rhodes Avenue Hospital in Chicago on September 29, 1915.  

Anna Marie and her family were Russian immigrants, according to Illinois death records. Anna Marie's father, Peter, had been a farmer in Kewanee, Illinois. Her mother, Maggie, ran a boarding house. Anna, then 16 years old, had been working in an iron mill to help support her five younger siblings. 

“The girl left the farm for Chicago thirteen months ago and for a long time her parents didn't know how she earned her livelihood. The last time they heard from her she wrote that she was employed as check girl in a restaurant, her mother said.” 

John Harris, a waiter, admitted to being the baby's father and to having paid $200 for the abortion. He gave the names and addresses of the doctors involved, both of whom fled. Dr. Harold M. Weinbert, who attended Anna in her final illness, said she named a Dr. Ness on the West Side as her abortionist. 

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 29, 1923: Revelations at a Baby Farm

On September 29, 1923, 44-year-old Annie Allison, a London native living in Brooklyn, died at the office of chiropractor Henry Lee Mottard at 114 West 71st Street in Manhattan. Mottard practiced under the name of Dr. Henry L. Green. Annie was a homemaker. Her husband, Herbert Allison, was a music professor. According to census records, she and Herbert had two children Bernhard and Elsie, who were young adults at the time of their mother's death.

Annie was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Brooklyn, on October 2. 

However, Annie's death certificate, signed by a Dr. Husson, attributed her death to chronic cardiac nephritis. 

Two years later, police were investigating 41-year-old Mottard for his suspected involvement in a kidnap/adoption scheme and the disappearance of an infant returned to him after a family backed out of an adoption. Somehow this investigation raised suspicions that Mottard was up to more than just kidnapping and selling infants. They had Annie exhumed. That's when things got really weird.

During the post-mortem examination, performed on April 17, 1925, doctors found that somebody had removed Annie's brain, heart, kidneys, and other organs. Mottard reportedly admitted that he had indeed performed an abortion but that Annie had actually died from falling down the shaft of a dumbwaiter on his premises while she was there recuperating. She had, he said, mistaken the dumbwaiter shaft for a bathroom. However, there were no broken bones or other injuries consistent with a fall. 

Mottard denied having been at his practice at the time that Annie died.

It was revealed that she had died from an abortion. Mottard was arrested on suspicion of homicide. His bond was set at $25,000. That's over $400,000 in 2022 dollars.

Police concluded that Mottard was running a very lucrative abortion business out of the Manhattan brownstone, bringing in as much as $100,000 a year. That's nearly $1.7 million in 2022 dollars. He admitted that he had performed many abortions and claimed no maternal fatalities. 

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. An operating room and a machine gun were found in the 14-room farmhouse. I haven't been able to find reports that they found the remains of any babies.

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. 

Mottard admitted to having performed three abortions in the farmhouse but recanted his admission that he had performed the fatal one on Annie. 

Mottard told officials that he had come to New York five years earlier from Wisconsin and had changed his name from Mottard to Green because he preferred the name. Records do show him practicing chiropractic in Milwaukee in the first quarter of the century.

Watch "She Fell Down the Elevator Shaft" on YouTube.

Sources:

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

Saturday, September 28, 2024

September 28, 1982: Scant Information in Louisiana

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 just after midnight on the morning of September 28, 1982.

According to her obituary, she was a mother of one son.

Watch Fatal Clotting Disorder After Abortion on YouTube.

Source: Louisiana Certificate of Death # 82 26 177

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 28, 2022: Can Planned Parenthood Blame Dead Woman on Trump?

In December of 2021, 24-year-old Alyona Kenna Dixon of Pahrump NV gave birth to a baby boy, whom she and her husband, Michael Dixon, named Wesley. 

In August of 2022, Alyona went to a doctor for a checkup and was found to be just over 8 weeks pregnant.

Though Alyona loved children, and hoped one day to operate a play center, she did not feel ready to add the child she was carrying to her family. Thus, on September 22, 2022, Alyona went to a Planned Parenthood for an abortion. Note: In spite of the Dobbs decision, abortion on demand remains totally legal in Nevada up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. Nobody can claim that what happened next was due to fear of prosecution under abortion laws.

According to a doctor who later reviewed the case, Alyona was "determined to be an appropriate candidate for elective termination of pregnancy with mifepristone followed 24-48 hours later by misoprostol intravaginally." The doctor further noted, "She was appropriately counseled about the risks of the medical abortion and was discharged home."

Three days later Alyona was suffering vaginal bleeding and sharp lower abdominal pain. The following day, still troubled by her symptoms, she went to the Dignity Health's St. Rose Dominican Blue Diamond emergency room in Las Vegas. She reported vaginal bleeding and sharp pain in her lower abdomen. Dr. Hayden Maag treated Alyona, but did not perform a pelvic exam or consult with an ob/gyn. He discharged her on September 26.

Alyona went to a different hospital the next day -- Desert View Regional Medical Center -- at around 11:15 the following evening, September 27. The admitting physician noted “abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, severe dehydration, acute renal failure, leukocytosis, sepsis, lactic acidosis, hypokalemia, sinus tachycardia, metabolic acidoses, pulseless electrical activity, respiratory failure.” The doctor treated her and her symptoms were improving. 

Doctors planned to transfer Alyona to Summerlin Hospital Medical Center, but her condition deteriorated. Her pulse elevated to 150 and she struggled to breathe. Doctors sedated her and intubated her to try to provide more oxygen. However, during the process she started vomiting and her heart stopped. In spite of attempts to resuscitate, Alyona was pronounced dead at 5:32 the next morning, September 28.

The Clark County Coroner's Office stated that her cause of death was "complications from septic abortion."

Her husband, Michael, sued Maag and Dignity Health on behalf of himself and their infant son Wesley. In an email to the Los Vegas Review-Journal, hospital spokesman Gordon Absher said, "While we share in the grief over the loss of any patient, Dignity Health policy does not permit us to comment on matters of pending litigation."

"We believe the evidence will show that defendants should be held accountable for Alyona's preventable and tragic death," the family's attorney, Mark Rouse, said. "We have alleged that had the sepsis been treated when she presented to Dignity Health they would have saved her life."

Dr. Hany Atallah, who had reviewed the case, noted that Maag had failed to rule out sepsis. 

Michael's father, Ian Dixon, said that Alyona was an angel with a heart of gold. "It just was all so sudden. ... To see her die in 24 hours. That's how long it took." Ian said that the family didn't even get a chance to properly say goodbye.

Ian said that Alyona had been a loving stepmother to Michael's two children from a previous relationship.

It's unclear why Planned Parenthood was not included in the suit, especially since Alyona was instructed to administer the second abortion drug vaginally -- which is known to increase the risk of fatal infection.

Alyona's death breaks Planned Parenthood's pattern of fatalities among young black women: 

Other Planned Parenthood deaths that I know of are:

Sources:

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 28, 1929: Unidentified Perp in Chicago

On September 28, 1929, 29-year-old Barbara Auer died in Chicago from complications of an illegal abortion performed at an unknown place, according to the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database. 

According to Illinois death records, Barbara was a married woman.

The person or persons responsible were never identified or prosecuted, so we can't know if she availed herself of one of the plethora of physicians and midwives practicing abortion in Chicago at that time.

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 28, 1982: The Short Life of Denise's Baby

"Denise" was 22 years old when radiologist Erma Roe 353 diagnosed her as 9 weeks pregnant. Roe performed two suction procedures on Denise on July 10, 1982. Roe noted only "scant tissue," but still sent Denise home. 

On July 22, Denise returned to report bleeding, pain, and passing clots. Roe reviewed the pathology report, which showed no products of conception. She performed a pelvic exam and told Denise that she wasn't pregnant. Instead she diagnosed a urinary tract infection and sent her patient home with antibiotics. 

On September 28, Denise went to the hospital. She was in active labor in a breech position, with a fetal foot protruding through her cervix. She gave birth to a 13 1/2 ounce baby boy who died an hour later. 

Denise underwent an emergency D&C, lost a liter of blood, and was hospitalized for three days. She suffered depression, recurring nightmares, and two subsequent miscarriages. (Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements, and Experts, August 1993, November 1993; Illinois Appellate Court, 1st District, 6th Division, Case No. 1-91-783; Cook County Illinois Circuit Court Case No. 84L 13308; Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, June 15 and 16, 1990; Peoria Star-Journal, August 9, 1990)

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

Friday, September 27, 2024

September 27, 1975: One of 6 Deaths at Inglewood Women's Hospital

Inglewood Women's Hospital reopens as a clinic

On September 13, 1975, 22-year-old Lynette Wallace underwent a safe and legal abortion at Inglewood Women's Hospital in Los Angeles County. According to death and Social Security records, Lynette was a black woman born in Maryland.

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 pronounced 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:

Source: LA County Coroner Report 75-11665
at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 27, 1908: An Unknown Midwife in Chicago

On September 23, 1908, "Mrs. G.," whom I call "Sophie," was admitted to Cook County Hospital in Chicago. Two weeks earlier, when she was ten weeks pregnant, she had undergone an abortion at the hands of a midwife. She began suffering from chills, fever, and abdominal pain about five days later. After two days of these symptoms, a physician treated her with a curettage to try to remove retained material, but this left Sophie feeling even worse.

Over the course of the ensuing week Sophie's condition deteriorated. When she was finally admitted she had a very tender, distended abdomen. Her pulse was racing at 120, her respiration a rapid 30. Her fever was 101.4. She was speaking incoherently. An internal examination found an enlarge uterus, a swollen cervix, and a purulent vaginal discharge.

On September 26, her condition was little changed. An additional surgery was attempted, involving dilating her cervix, curetting the uterus, then irrigating the uterus and packing it with gauze. The results were catastrophic. Sophie's fever spiked to 108.6, her pulse 160 and her respirations 58. She died on September 27, 19 hours after the surgery.

I lost my original source when the Cemetery of Choice Wiki shut down.
at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 27, 1931: Newark's Tragic Bride

In early September of 1931, Jane Coult, the daughter of a Newark, New Jersey judge, secretly married John Merrill. The couple had a public wedding at the bride's home on September 22.

Five days later, Jane was dead.

She had been under the care of  Dr. Aloysius Mulholland, age 35, from September 24 through 26th before being admitted to Polyclinic Hospital in New York. Police said that Jane had paid Mulholland $500 of a $600 abortion fee. An autopsy confirmed that her death was due to a criminal abortion.

Both Mulholland and Jane's new husband were charged with murder. Each was released on $7,500 bond. Mulholland made no statement on the advice of his attorney. This turned out to be very good advice, because the case didn't end up going forward.

Mulholland was later charged with the abortion death of Katherine DiDonato and again remained free. He was finally imprisoned in 1943 after being charged with several abortions which were not fatal to the mothers.

Watch "The Tragic Five-Day Bride" on YouTube.

Sources:

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 27, 2012: Death After Medical Instrument Left in Woman's Body

 I don't like to dehumanize women by just using initials, so the woman identified in medical board documents as "S.H." will be called "Shirelle."

Frank Rodriguez
On September 22, 2012, 31-year-old Shirelle went to Presidential Women's Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, for an abortion. There, Dr. Frank Rodriguez pushed a cervical dilator into Shirelle's uterus and left it there. Shirelle died five days later, on September 27.

It's interesting to note that the medical board doesn't mention Shirelle's death in the disciplinary documents. Operation Rescue discovered the death on a malpractice payout reporting form.

Evidently the insurance payout was done quietly, since I have not been able to find any newspaper coverage of Shirelle's death.
at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Kristan Hawkins: Born-Alive Infant Lies From Kamala Harris

Kristan Hawkins explored the five lies about abortion Kamala Harris uttered during the debate.

Kristan covers Lie Number Two: Babies that survive abortions aren't being killed or left to die. 

California Allows Infanticide

Kristan mentions the "pregnancy outcomes" in California law. Let's quote AB 2223. 

SEC. 7. Section 123467 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

123467. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty, or otherwise deprived of their rights under this article, based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death due to a pregnancy-related cause.

(b) A person who aids or assists a pregnant person in exercising their rights under this article shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty, or otherwise be deprived of their rights, based solely on their actions to aid or assist a pregnant person in exercising their rights under this article with the pregnant person’s voluntary consent.

In plain English: Nobody is to be prosecuted or sued or deprived of a right to abortion based on anything they do or fail to do that results in the death of an infant up to 28 days old due to "a pregnancy-related cause." The abortion lobby will say that this only includes causes directly related to the pregnancy itself such as fetal abnormalities or maternal health issues, but we've learned by experience that abortion advocates will drive trucks through any loophole, and this one is large enough to fly a jumbo jet through.

What About Michigan?

I haven't been able to find specific text that allows infanticide in Michigan. I wish Students for Life provided links. Her explanation, however, makes sense. If the desired "pregnancy outcome" is avoiding a live birth, then follow-through ensuring that she doesn't end up with a live baby makes sense.

Does Federal Law Override State Law?

Abortion advocates assert that the Federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act bans post-abortion infanticide by either neglect or overt action. However, the law contains no actual punishment for killing an infant born alive during an abortion, and to my knowledge it has never been enforced. Lacking the will to enforce existing laws effectively nullifies any laws that would otherwise protect these babies. Let's look at some examples:

    William Waddill
  • William Waddill aborted and strangled a 32-week baby in 1977. He beat the rap because nobody had tested the baby to make sure she had brain function before Waddill strangled her, and thus hadn't caused the baby's death as defined by "total and irreversible cessation of brain function." This effectively set a precedent that there was no point in charging anybody for the death of an abortion survivor because the practitioner could just claim that the abortion procedure had caused "total and irreversible cessation of brain function" prior to the baby being expelled, and thus, movement and breathing to the contrary, the baby wasn't technically alive to be killed. This is a moot point, though, because under current California law, just the fact that the baby had been injured in-utero would render Waddill immune from prosecution -- and from being sued by the baby's parents.
  • Clinic owner Belkis Gonzales put a live-born 22-week baby in a biohazard bag and threw her onto the roof to decompose in the sun. Due to decomposition before the baby's body was recovered, it could not be medically proved that the little girl had been born alive so charges against Gonzales were dropped.
More on Douglas Karpen

Kristan brings up the "Texas Gosnell." Douglas Karpen. Let's explore this sterling example of compassionate reproductive health care:

What About Kermit Gosnell?

Kermit Gosnell

While Gosnell was ultimately convicted in the murders of several born-alive infants, that only happened because a few people raised hell. According to the Grand Jury Report, Gosnell and his employees got away with murdering born-alive babies for as long as 31 years, beginning as early as 1979 continuing until his arrest in 2010. Why? Because Pennsylvania officials decided to turn a blind eye. 

While Gosnell is not an example of it being legal to kill babies to survive abortions, he is an example of getting away with brazenly killing live babies because officials don't have a problem with it.

The abortion lobby tries to pretend that Gosnell was an outlier. He worked one day a week at a National Abortion Federation clinic in Delaware. The NAF clinic would collect the patients' money, "counsel" them, and hand them off to Gosnell for illegal third trimester abortions to be started in Delaware and finished in his Philadelphia House of Horrors. One of those abortions culminated in the murder of Baby Boy A.

I have an entire playlist about this brave and stalwart provider of vital reproductive healthcare services.

Watch Kristen's video here.


at 11:21 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 26, 1906 and 1922: Homicide in Chicago

Mrs. Annie Heaney, age 28, died at Post Graduate Hospital in Chicago on September 26, 1906, from complications of a criminal abortion performed that day. Like many women seeking abortions in Chicago at the time, Annie had availed herself of a physician's services. Dr. Jonathan L. Miller was arrested in the death.


On September 26, 1922, 35-year-old homemaker Mary Cybulski, a Polish immigrant, died at her Chicago home from peritonitis caused by a criminal abortion performed there that day. On November 15, Lucy Kozolwski, whose profession is not given, was indicted for felony murder in Mary's death.

Watch Two From Homicide in Chicago on YouTube.
at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 26, 1943: Self-Induced in Vermont

According to Vermont death records, 33-year-old "Iona Richards" died on September 26, 1943. She had been hospitalized  at Fanny Allen hospital in Winooski for 13 days before finally passing away from purpural septicemia from a self-induced abortion. Because her death was never publicized as an abortion death I am not using her real name.

According to her obituary, she was the mother of five children. No husband is listed as a survivor or as preceding her in death, so she was likely divorced and caring for these children on her own. With this in mind, she probably decided to abort this sixth child both because pregnancy outside of marriage was very much frowned upon and because a sixth child seemed overwhelming to her.


at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 26, 1990: Teen Killed by NAF Member "The Butcher of Avenue A"

The National Abortion Federation promises the moon. Their providers are supposedly the safest in the land. In practice, they don't exactly live up to their sterling reputation. Case in point: Dr. Abu Hayat, "The Butcher of Avenue A."

NAF member Abu Hayat
Sophie McCoy, age 17, was raising a toddler son and trying to finish her studies at Clara Barton High School when she learned that she was pregnant.

On September 17, 1990, Sophie ("Patient C") went to the office of National Abortion Federation member Abu Hayat, accompanied by her mother, Carmen McCoy, and by the husband of the operator of a facility identified as "the Willoughby Avenue Clinic." Sophie had been referred to him, but medical board documents do not say by whom.

Sophie and Carmen 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, Sophie was struggling to breathe, so Carmen took her to Kings County Medical Center. Sophie was admitted 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. 

Sophie died on September 26, leaving her one-year-old son motherless.

Blue and white logo with text: NAF and National Abortion Federation
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. Hayat had been the target of state investigation since 1988, but the complaints against him weren't considered to be of a serious enough nature to warrant quick action. Further investigation after Sophie's death indicated that Hayat might have been using dirty instruments when he performed Sophie's abortion, leading to the fatal infection, but nobody took any action against him until he pulled the arm off an infant during an abortion attempt in 1991. 

The child, Ana Rosa Rodriguez, (pictured), was born at a nearby hospital. Her right arm was entirely absent from the shoulder. 

Hayat was arrested, charged with assault and illegal third-trimester abortion, and convicted.

Sources:



at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Kristan Hawkins: Late Abortion Lies From Kamala Harris

Kristan Hawkins explored the five lies about abortion Kamala Harris uttered during the debate.

Kristan covers Lie Number One: Abortion isn't legal anywhere through all nine months. 

First she points out that there are no gestational limits in the following states:

  1. Alaska
  2. Colorado
  3. Michigan
  4. Minnesota
  5. New Jersey
  6. New Mexico
  7. Oregon
  8. Vermont
  9. Washington, DC
She forgot to mention Maryland, which also has no gestational limit. 

Kristan mentioned calling and scheduling late abortions:

To be fair, when I tried to schedule a 37-week elective abortion everybody turned me away. So evidently 34 weeks is the latest people are willing to go for an elective abortion.

Kristan is misremembering the story in Suzanne Poppema's book, Why I Am An Abortion Doctor. A woman did come in with the baby crowning. The story is on page 140. The woman didn't realize she was pregnant and begged for an abortion, but staff called an ambulance and sent her to the hospital. Poppema notes that the woman, who gave birth in the ambulance, "chose to keep the baby and was welcomed with a great outpouring of family support. So it was a happy ending. But we would have considered it a happy ending if this same woman had come to see us stressing her need to end a pregnancy that could be terminated." I'd like to point out that the pregnancy terminated all on its own in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Everything I've looked at indicates that Washington state didn't change anything in its abortion laws after Dobbs, which would mean that the current "fetal viability" rule was in effect back in 1996, when Poppema published her book. The tone of her book makes it seem like the felt sad that she wasn't able to legally abort that baby.

How many post-viability abortions are there? Like I've said before, the people who gather the statistics like to just to lump all abortions past 20 weeks in together so they don't have to distinguish between babies less than 24 weeks, who are much less likely to survive, and babies past 24 weeks, that have a strong chance of survival. The average percent of abortions past 20 weeks is roughly 1%. With over a million abortions per year, that's around 10,000 abortions done near or past the point of viability. 

You can also go to my playlist on late abortions for real-life examples of abortions in the second half of the pregnancy, most of which ended with both mother and child dead. Here's a sampling:
at 4:10 PM 0 Speak to me!

September 25, 1892: The Second Chicago Victim of Dr. Lucy Hagenow

At about 9:00 on the morning of Sunday, September 25, 1892, 30-year-old Sophia Kuhn "died in great agony" at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. She had been brought there by ambulance the previous evening from Dr. Louise Hagenow's practice at 882 West Madison Street.

"That the woman died from the result of a most cruel criminal operation is fairly well established, and an inquest to-day will beyond question reveal the details of what has every appearance of being little less than a butchery."

A poor quality picture of a white woman of late middle age, with sharp features, wearing round spectacles and a sailor-style blouse and hat
Louise "Lucy" Hagenow
Louise Hagenow and Ellen Hellieu were arrested. Sophia's father identified them as responsible for his daughter's death. Sophie, who had been separated from her husband for about two years, had been living with her sister, Mrs. White, at the time of the pregnancy and abortion. Sophie's brother-in-law, William White, said, "My sister-in-law left home about two weeks ago. She was then complaining of being sick and in trouble. I am certain she did not go to Mrs. Hagenow and the other doctors of her own accord. There was a man in the case who must have persuaded her to submit to an operation."

While police were interviewing Hagenow, who also used the name Lucy Hagenow, at her practice, Hellieu "rushed breathless into her apartments. When she saw Dr. Hagenow's interviewer, she exclaimed: 'Don't say anything!' Then she sank exhausted upon a sofa."

Hagenow had already been implicated in the abortion deaths of Louise Derchow, Annie Dories, Abbia Richards, Emma Dep in San Francisco before relocating to Chicago in 1890.

She was implicated in the abortion death of Minnie Deering in 1891. Shortly after Sophie's death in 1892, Hagenow was again arrested, this time for the abortion death of Emily Anderson. Further abortion deaths associated with Hagenow's Chicago practice include Hannah Carlson in 1896, Marie Hecht in 1899, May (or Mary) Putnam in 1905, Lola Maddison in 1906, and Annie Horvatich in 1907.

Hagenow went to prison for Annie's death. After her release she went back to business and was implicated in the deaths of Lottie Lowy, Nina Pierce, Jean Cohen, Bridget Masterson, and Elizabeth Welter in 1925. She was imprisoned for the last time for the 1926 death of Mary Moorehead.

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 25, 1978: Death in Cleveland

Minnie Lathan is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a safe and legal abortion. According to Ohio death records, Minnie was of African descent.

Minnie 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, 1978.

Source: Ohio Certificate of Death # 071410

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 25, 1989: Safe and Legal in Alabama

Debra Walton was 35 years old when she underwent an abortion in the fall of 1989. 

According to her obituary, she was an unmarried mother of one who had attended Tuskegee Institute and was a member of Harmony Street Baptist Church.

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.

Source: Alabama Death Certificate 89-027305

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 25, 1986: The Good Kind of Fake Clinic

Twenty-two-year-old Liliana Cortez walked trustingly into a place called Her Medical Clinic on September 20, 1986. 

She had no way of knowing that it wasn't actually a licensed clinic but had lots its license due to habitual malpractice. Maria Soto and Michelle Thames had died after abortions at there before the state finally shut the place down. Leo F. Kenneally had solved his business problem by reopening the facility as his private medical practice without changing the name. He continued to perform abortions, including one that killed a young asthmatic woman named Donna Heim on August 12, 1986.

Other than having asthma, Liliana was in good health when she went for her abortion. 

During the procedure, she suffered a seizure. Rather than take action to address the emergency, Kenneally continued the abortion. There was a 40-minute delay until the paramedics arrived to transport Liliana to a hospital. She died five days later. 

You can learn more about Kenneally's checkered history by reading "Doctor Tied to 2 Deaths Loses License" from the Los Angeles Times.

Watch "The Good Kind of Fake Clinic" on YouTube.

Sources:

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

September 25, 1925: Two Doctors Blamed in Chicago

On September 25, 1925, Faye McGinnis, a 23-year-old clerk, died at her home in Chicago from complications of an abortion performed that day. The coroner identified two physicians, Walter Penningdorf and Walter Voight, as being responsible. For Faye to choose a physician abortionist was common in Chicago in that era, though midwives were a popular choice as well. The doctors were arrested on September 25 and indicted for felony murder on October 15. Faye's husband, Roy McGinnis, was also arrested as an accomplice in his wife's death.

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

September 24, 1927: Nurse Implicated for a Second Death

On September 24, 1927, 35-year-old homemaker Martha Kohnke died in Chicago from a criminal abortion performed that day. Nurse Emma Schultz was held by the coroner on October 5 according to the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database.

Schultz had also been implicated in the abortion death of Mary Bambrick in October of 1911, but that case never went to trial.

at 12:00 AM 0 Speak to me!

Monday, September 23, 2024

September 23, 1915: Five Doctors, One Dead Woman

Stella Cams, age 30, died on August 2, 1915. at Chicago's Lake Shore Hospital. She had been admitted under the name "Mrs. Steele."

She had been sick since July. On the 17th, her husband, Harry Cams, called Dr. Thomas J. Balhatchett to attend to his wife. Balhatchett declared that she was suffering ill effects from an accident and called in Dr. Patrick Mills. Stella didn't speak English, so Mills could not get any information from her. He found Stella to be very ill, and, not liking the situation, left Balhatchett to deal with Stella's care alone. It was then that Balhatchett called in Dr. G. A. Stetler, who evidently recognized that he was dealing with an abortion case, and that a second surgery was necessary. One of the doctors performed it.

The next day somebody asked a nurse, Jeannette Houston, to provide nursing care. She hadn't been told before arriving that this was an abortion case. She din't want to stay but did anyway, caring for Stella until her admission to the hospital on July 29.

There, Dr. Maximillian Meinhard (hospital owner and/or head of surgery, specializing in ear, nose, and throat disorders), declared that Stella was suffering from pneumonia and handed her off to Dr. Charles W. Clark, who, not having been given a medical history also diagnosed Stella with pneumonia. She died on September 23.

Stella was to be buried as a pneumonia victim, but Dr. Springer, coroner, had herd vague rumors and decided to perform an autopsy. Concluding that Stella had actually died from a septic abortion, he set an inquest date of August 27 in order to have time to gather evidence.

Meinhart had been involved with abortion-related trouble before. In September of 1912, the body of Anna Rice was taken from his home to an undertaking establishment. He told the undertaker, E. I. Harty, that Anna had died of pneumonia. Harty notified the coroner, An inquest was held and the coroner's jury concluded that Anna had died from a botched abortion. Menhardt was implicated in 1917 in the abortion death of Emma Melvin.
at 8:27 AM 0 Speak to me!
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)