"California Trusts Women." Can Women Trust California?

California's proposed new abortion-rights license plate is to take an oblique angle, using a  "California Trusts Women" theme.

Proceeds from the plate will benefit the Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment (FPACT) program, which provides family planning services to 1.8 million Californians every year. Currently, the FPACT program is overwhelmingly supported by federal funding, with the federal government picking up 90 percent of the tab. FPACT funding is also a vital source of funding for Planned Parenthood reproductive health care services.

Since the money is going to Planned Parenthood and not to actual women, isn't the issue whether or not California can trust Planned Parenthood? And if so, to do what?

Edrica Goode , a 21-year-old woman who dreamed of becoming an attorney, trusted a Planned Parenthood in Riverside, California, in late January of 2007. Despite clear signs of infection, a nurse practitioner inserted laminaria (seaweed sticks that absorb vaginal moisture and expand, thus dilating the cervix) and sent her home. Not surprisingly, Edrica was quickly struck with an infection so swift and severe that it left her incoherent and unable to communicate the cause of her illness to her family or the medical professionals who tried but failed to save her life.

Diana Lopez, age 25, was 19 weeks pregnant when trusted Planned Parenthood in February, 2002. Had her abortion been performed with due care and diligence, it should have taken between 10 and 20 minutes. The doctor rushed through it in only six minutes, leaving Diana with severe internal lacerations. Before the day was over, Diana had bled to death, and her two young children were left motherless.

Holly Patterson age 18, trusted a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California in September of 2003. They provided the drugs for a medication abortion. Rather than instruct Holly to administer the second drug inside her cheek to dissolve, which is the recommended method, Planned Parenthood instructed Holly to insert the drug vaginally. For reasons that are still not understood, administering the drug this way had been shown to trigger swiftly-fatal Toxic Shock Syndrome. This is what happened to Holly. By the time she got to the hospital, it was too late to save her.

Vivian Tran, 22 years old, decided in December of 2003 to trust the Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood facility. She died just as Holly Patterson died, from TSS linked to the vaginal rather than buccal (inside the cheek) administration of the second of two medication abortion drugs. Evidently Planned Parenthood had chosen not to learn anything from Holly Patterson's death.

So, California, the question is not whether or not you trust women. It is whether they can trust you. Will you continue to turn a blind eye, or will you stop pumping money into Planned Parenthood and start demanding that they earn your trust before you give them another dime?

Safe and Legal in California, 1961

Erika Peterson, age 28, was admitted to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California on July 11, 1961, due to trouble breathing. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and placed in a tank respirator. Erika was at that time in the first trimester of pregnancy. Her physicians made the decision to abort her child as soon as she was well enough to undergo the abortion. Abortion was, at that time, legal only to try to save the life of the mother.

On July 21, Erika's condition had improved, and her husband signed the consent form for the abortion, which was scheduled to take place two days later.

The abortion was started as scheduled on July 23. Erika went into cardiac arrest during the procedure and was unable to be resuscitated. The abortion that was intended to save her life ended her life instead.

After autopsy, it was believed that Erika's original illness was caused by a hereditary disease that was exacerbated by the medications she was taking for her schizophrenia.

Erika's was not the only tragic death caused by doctors who recommended (or excused) abortion as a life-saving or health-preserving option for the mother:

• Allegra Roseberry was pushed into an abortion in order to obtain experimental cancer treatment.
• Anjelica Duarte sought an abortion on the advice of her physician, and ended up dying under the care of a quack.
• Barbara Hoppert died after an abortion recommended due to a congenital heart problem.
• Christin Gilbert died after an abortion George Tiller holds was justified on grounds of maternal health.
• "Molly" Roe died in 1975 when her doctors made the dubious decision to perform a saline abortion to improve her chances of surviving a lupus crisis.

Lethal Doctors, 1914 and 1988

A Doctor's Work in 1914

In 1914, when Mrs. Julia Reed's eighteen-year-old daughter Ester reported that her period did not arrive, Mrs. Reed took her to two people to find out whether she was pregnant, then bought pills to induce an abortion. These didn't work, so she took Ester to Dr. J.L. Neuman, who demanded payment of $150 for an abortion. Julia protested, and Neuman told her to sell furniture and clothes to get the money. She dickered him down to $50, though he complained about it. He started the abortion at his practice, then completed it two days later at the family's home.

His efforts clearly weren't even worth the $50, much less then $150 he'd wanted, since he managed to fatally injure Ester, who died of septicemia on June 8, 1914 at Park Avenue Hospital. The secret abortion intended to keep Esther's father from kicking her out of the house thus removed her from the family permanently. Neuman was arrested January 11, 1917, and though the case went to trial, the source does not indicate the outcome.

One of Many Victims of a Reputable Chain of Clinics, 1988

The survivors of 32-year-old Joyce Ortenzio filed suit against Edward Allred, his Family Planning Associates Medical Group (FPA), the San Vicente Hospital FPA facility, and abortionist Ruben Marmet. Joyce went to San Vicente for laminaria insertion by Marmet on June 7, 1988. Later, Marmet performed a safe and legal abortion, but did not remove all of the fetal parts from Joyce's uterus. The next day, June 8, Joyce was found dead in her home. The cause of death was an overdose of the drug amitriptyline, infection from fetal parts that were not removed during the abortion and septic shock. Joyce left three children motherless.

Joyce is one of many women to die at this NAF facility after theNational Abortion Federation was founded. Other patients known to have died after abortion at Allred's facilities include:

• Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970
• Patricia Chacon, age 16, 1984
• Mary Pena, age 43, 1984
• Josefina Garcia, age 37, 1985
• Lanice Dorsey, age 17, 1986
• Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988
• Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992
• Susan Levy, age 30, 1992
• Christina Mora, age 18, 1994
• Ta Tanisha Wesson, age 24, 1995
• Nakia Jorden, 1998
• Maria Leho, 1999
• Kimberly Neil, 2000
• Maria Rodriguez, age 22, 2000
• Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004

I suspect that the reason the deaths appear in clusters is because those are years that researchers checked for lawsuits, rather than that these are all the women and girls who died at Allred facilities. Anybody with the time and resources to do so could probably uncover other deaths Allred and his staff have managed to sweep under the carpet.