Anniversary: "This baby won't stop breathing"

On March 2, 1977, a high school student named Mary W. checked into Westminster Community Hospital in California for a saline abortion to be performed by Dr. William Baxter Waddill (pictured). She had been examined by another ob/gyn on February 22, and he had informed her that, since she was 28 weeks into her pregnancy by his estimate, she was too far along for an abortion. He advised Mary to consider making an adoption plan. But somehow Mary had learned that Waddill would be willing to do the abortion, even at this late point in pregnancy. Waddill initiated the abortion by saline injection and left Mary in the care of the nurses.

Mary's baby, a 2 lb, 8 oz infant girl, was expelled that evening and discovered by a nurse who was attending Mary. The nurse clamped the cord and was about to put the baby in a bucket for transport to the pathology lab, when she noticed that the infant was moving and crying. Another nurse suggested putting the baby in the bucket anyway. Yet another nurse testified that she had seen the infant move but said nothing about this to avoid distressing Mary. The first nurse summoned the nursing supervisor, who noted that the baby was pink and making sucking motions. She sent the baby to the nursery and summoned Waddill.

A nurse at the nursery cleared the infant's throat, placed her in an isolette, and charted a heartrate of 88. A neonatal ICU nurse began providing respiratory assistance on the little girl, and asked for help performing an intubation, which is routine NICU care. Waddill arrived and dismissed all the others from room. Several witnesses heard Waddill instruct staff "not to do a goddam thing for the baby." An ER doctor saw Waddill squeeze the umbilical cord, whereupon the "child jerked its body and gasped for air."

During Waddill's trial, a tape was entered into evidence of a call from Waddill to a pediatrician, Dr. Ronald Cornelsen. The tape had Waddill telling Dr. Cornelsen to come to the hospital, because the law required a pediatrician to assist when a newborn was in distress. Waddill said, "If we all tell the same story, there will be no trouble. ... So long as we stand together, no one anywhere can make any accusations anywhere. ... Do not get squirrely. Just tell them exactly as we've discussed. Just say you went in, there was no heartbeat and you left."

Dr. Cornelsen testified that when he arrived at the hospital the infant, a baby of about 31 weeks gestation, was breathing and had a heart rate of 60-70. There were bruises on her neck. Dr. Cornelson said that Waddill told him, "Sorry to get you in this mess. We had a baby that came out live from a saline abortion, and it can't live!" Dr. Cornelsen testified that he saw Waddill press on the infant's neck, saying, "I can't find the goddam trachea," and "This baby won't stop breathing." Dr. Cornelsen testified, "I said, 'Why not just leave the baby alone?' He said, 'This baby can't live or it will be a big mess.'" Waddill requested potassium choloride, for an injection to stop the baby's heart, but Dr. Cornelsen wouldn't let the nurse get it. Dr. Cornelsen said Waddill also asked for a bucket to drown the baby in.

Waddill claimed that he hadn't strangled the baby, that she had died of natural causes before he even arrived at the hospital to deal with the delivery. He also said that all of his actions were done in the best interests of the mother and the baby.

A pathologist examined the baby's lungs and concluded that she'd been alive for at least 30 minutes. The neck trauma was "consistent with manual pressure, and inconsistent with saline." This pathologist also testified that only the infant's placenta and small bowel seemed to have been "significantly affected by the saline," meaning that the baby had not suffered fatal injury from exposure to the saline in-utero. The autopsy found the cause of the baby's death to have been "manual strangulation." The baby's gestational age was determined to have been 29 to 31 weeks at autopsy. This is consistent with the gestational age estimated by the ob/gyn who had suggested an adoption plan.

All told, over 13 weeks of testimony, the witnesses described three unsuccessful attempts by Waddill to strangle Mary's baby, and the fourth, successful, attempt. But during deliberations, the jury asked for clarification of a procedural point. A few phone calls to clarify the point led to the discovery by the attorneys and judge that there was a definition of "death" in the California health and safety code that the jury had not been informed of. Because the testimony hadn't directly addressed this particular definition of "death," the jurors became hopelessly deadlocked over whether Waddill's actions, though clearly causing what laymen would consider the "death" of the baby, had caused what the law would call the "death" of the baby. The judge had to delcare a mistrial. A second jury was also deadlocked, and the charges against Waddill were eventually dismissed.

Mary later sued Waddill, saying that he'd never told her that her baby might been born alive, and that she never would have consented to the abortion had she known this was possible. She said that Waddill "willfully and unlawfully used force and violence upon the person of the baby [W.] ... causing the decedent baby [W.] to die."

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Waddill continued to perform abortions in California, and as of 2000 was working for National Abortion Federation member Family Planning Associates Medical Group, a chain where the following women and girls suffered fatal abortions: Deanna Bell, Chanelle Bryant, Patricia Chacon, Laniece Dorsey, Josefina Garcia, Denise Holmes, Susan Levy, Christine Mora, Kimberly Neil, Joyce Ortenzio, Mary Pena, and Tami Suematsu.

Why the sudden interest?

Suddenly the blogosphere is abuzz about little Shanice Williams, the baby killed after she was born alive in a Florida abortion mill.

My blog was flooded with a massive amount of visitors since the MSM started covering the story. Searches for Belkis Gonzalez, Sycloria Williams, and variations on "baby born alive and thrown away" have brought my page views to an all-time high:




Shanice is hardly the first baby deliberately put to death for the unforgivable sin of surviving an abortion attempt. In fact, given what we know of how many abortionists are selling late abortions, the survival chances of preemies, how easy it is to miscalculate gestational ages, how slovenly abortion practitioners often are, and how abortion laws are enforced, we also know this: the sort of thing that happened in that Florida clinic is literally an everyday occurrence.

Why this sudden massive interest in something that happens every day?

Is it because Shanice was given a name, rather than just being "a baby" or "a fetus that survived an abortion"?

Is it because of the biohazard bag?

Is it because she was tossed on the roof?

Is it because she was actively killed instead of just abandoned to die of neglect?

Why is there so much more interest in Shanice's brief life and cruel death than in so many other children who survived a prenatal attempt on their lives, only to be finished off by the people who had, after all, been paid to kill them?

For more on just how ordinary what happened to Shanice is, see:

A Question About Live Born Babies and Criminal Charges

Barack Obama and the Born-Alive Babies

Born Alive

Jesse Floyd: Murder charge, flushing fetuses, assault and racial slurs

Jill Stanek and FactCheck's Faulty "Facts"

More Born Alive Babies

More Born-Alive Babies and Their Fates

Obama Coments. I Respond.

Planned Parenthood Admits to Live Births

Pro-Choice, Pro-Child? Baby Rowan

"This Baby Won't Stop Breathing!"

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Searches: Sycloria Williams and Belkis Gonzalez

Sycloria Williams is the young woman now suing a Florida abortion mill. Her baby, who she named Shaniece, was born alive at the clinic. The clinic owner, Belkis Gonzalez, put the baby in a biohazard bag and tossed her on the roof. An anonymous tipster alerted the cops, who eventually found the baby -- leading to the utterly surreal call for an autopsy not to determine just the cause of death, but the very nature of the corpse. Was this a dead baby, or just biomass? You need an expert to discern these things in the post-Roe era.

Gosh, Barack Obama reassured the people of Illinois that babies just aren't born alive during abortions. That it's a non-issue. The doctors are always very careful not to start abortions on babies that might survive! There's no need for a neonatologist to come see if the baby could survive if it's born alive -- excuse me, if the nonviable tissue that is wrigging and squirming and gasping in your procedure room is actually a baby. Illinois law was very clear on that point -- if the doctor decided before the abortion that it was a nonviable tissue mass, well, then it was, all squirming and gasping and generally acting like a preemie to the contrary. Any nonviable tissue mass that does that -- wiggles and squirms and breathes and gasps -- is just pulling a clever ruse, trying to convince you it's a baby. But it's not! And how do we know? Barack Obama says so! And of course, he never screws up.

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Keep in mind amidst the outrage is that things like what happened to Sycolria and her baby are literally an everyday occurrence in this country. The CDC's last admission was that they got about 400 reports a year of live births during abortions, and their spokesman, Willard Cates, said that this number was no doubt a gross underreporting because reporting a live birth is "like turning yourself in to the IRS for an audit." This is an everyday occurrence. Keep that in mind.

For more about babies that survive abortions, click on the "born alive" topic just below this post.

Ximena survived abortion, attempted infanticide. Happy birthday.

At 3:20 a.m. on December 17, 1985, 22-year-old Nadine Bourne gave birth to her baby while seated on a toilet at Vancouver General Hospital. The little girl weighed about three pounds -- consistent with an infant of 30 or 31 weeks gestation, well into the third trimester. The trouble was, Nadine had been admitted to Vancouver General Hospital the day before to be treated for fever and rapid pulse after an abortion she'd undergone four days earlier at a Bellingham, Washington Planned Parenthood. Nadine had told hospital staff that she'd been 14 to 16 weeks pregnant. Dr. Jaroudi, a resident summoned by the Emergency Room physician when Nadine was admitted, examined the young woman but failed to notice that she was still pregnant. The baby came as a complete and very unwelcome surprise to everybody.

A nurse, Vera Wood, did not call a resuscitation team or an infant transport team to take the shivering, whimpering, gasping infant to Children's hospital. Instead, according to court records, "She took the baby into the service room where dead fetuses are stored, and left it there [in a bedpan] for 40 minutes."

Thomas Berger, an attorney representing the child and her adoptive family noted, "We could prove that Vera Wood and other nurses did nothing to suction the baby or to provide warmth or oxygen for the child. Our case was that the baby suffered severe [trauma] as a result of these acts or omissions by VGH and its employees, resulting in brain damage in the form of mental retardation and cerebral palsy." After 40 minutes, nurse Wood called the night nursing supervisor, Joyce Hatherall, who cleared the baby's air passages, provided warmth and called for oxygen.

Mr. Berger also said, "We also had evidence that Dr. Jaroudi, called up to the ward, realized the baby had been delivered by Nadine Bourne, and realized it was viable, but nevertheless told the nurses not to resuscitate the baby ('...let it go')." Which, while not exactly rushing to the child's aid, was an improvement over what William Waddill did while nurses were attempting to resuscitate Baby W. in a California hospital. Jaroudi's attempt to complete the abortion was limited to an order to let the baby die, an order Joyce Hatherall ignored.

But even after Hatherall's intervention, the baby was placed on a metal counter, where she likely suffered further hypothermia. And when Jaroudi finally contacted the transport team for Children's Hospital, he gave them insufficient information, causing an additional half-hour delay in providing care to the baby.

That neglected baby, left to die, has since been adopted. And she has a name: Ximena Renearts. But thanks to the attempts on her life both before and after her birth, she suffered permanent brain damage. She is quadriplegic and has the mental capacity of a three-year-old.

BC police made two abortive (how appropriate!) investigations of the case, with spokesman Sergeant Bob Cooper calling the case "bullshit", comparing it to cases where children die when being delivered by midwives. Which leaves me wondering if BC midwives routinely leave premature infants in metal bedpans in the closet for over half an hour at a time before somebody else comes along and provides care over the midwives' objections.

Part of the reason for the callous attitude of the police may be that the spokesman for the BC Minister of Health's Office, Michelle Stewart, is dismissive of the issue of infants born live during abortions, commenting, "As you know, this Ministry is very much in favor of giving women choices about their reproductive health." British Columbia's Chief Coroner Larry Campbell included a letter in a report on such live births, and dismissed them as to be expected in abortion and therefore outside the purview of BC coroners, who only get involved if a death is "unexpected". In other words, at least in British Columbia, abortion is 100% about achieving the death of the infant, even if the infant is born alive. Which leaves me to wonder if a perpetrator who shot Ximena dead tomorrow would face charges at all. Is she still, legally, only an aborted fetus?

The family filed suit against the hospital, the doctor, and the nurse, settling out of court for over $8 million, which will be used to build an accessible house for Ximena and to provide her with the care she will need for the rest of her life.

The hospital never conducted an internal review of how a live-born infant was treated like a pathology specimen on their premises, in violation of the law forbidding anyone to abandon or expose a child under the age of ten "so that its life is or is likely to be endangered or its health is or is likely to be permanently injured." Under Canadian law, having been born alive, Ximenia was a living human being entitled to full protection under the law. Prolife activists hold that charges of attempted murder might be more appropriate, since nurse Wood's intent in putting the child in the bedpan aside in a room for dead fetuses was to allow the baby to die and be sent to the pathology lab with the other results of recent abortions.

Ximena's adoptive mother, Margaret, says, "How can you ever bring justice when all the damage is done? I guess my big hope that what happened to Ximena won't be in vain. It could be you in the hospital and what if they feel that you're not worthy of life. We have to stop somewhere."

And it must be a sad overtone to every birthday Ximena's family celebrates, to realize that they're also celebrating the day she was stuck in a bedpan and left to die.

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Obama comments. I respond.

HT: Blithering Idiot



Senator, you seem to assume that the doctor doing an abortion is incapable of making a wrong decision. Or if he does make a mistake, he'll just recognize and fix the problem immediately.

Yes, Senator Obama, we do suspect that here are doctors won't seek adequate medical care for these babies on their own initiative. Because they have a history of sticking these babies in a closet to die. Of strangling them. Of drowning them in a bucket.

Yes, Sanator Obama, we know that when a baby is born alive during an abortion, a doctor has already "made that assessment" -- presumably that the baby in question isn't "viable" -- that is, able to survive outside the womb. But if the baby is born alive, the doctor in question has already established in a pretty palpable way that his clinical judgment isn't all it's cracked up to be. He already thought the baby wouldn't survive the abortion process. Now are we to trust him to judge the baby's chance of survival when she's already proved to be much more tenacious of life than he expected?

Senator Obama , you indicate that it's somehow just burdensome to bring a second doctor in, after the abortion doctor has made his assessment: an assessment that has been proved to be flawed.

As if doctors are all the same. As if a second opinion is never called for.

Imagine for a moment, Senator Obama, that your wife or daughter is in a car crash. She's brought into the emergency room with a serious head injury. A doctor examines her, tells you that there is no hope, and hands you papers for organ donation.

This doctor is telling you that your loved one's brain injury is fatal. If that doctor is a neurosurgeon, how much would you trust the assessment? What if the doctor isn't a neurosurgen, but an ob/gyn? Would you want him making that call?

Probably not. He might be the best ob/gyn in the world, but brain surgery is tricky business. You'd want a specialist, somebody with experience assessing patients with brain injuries.

Some areas of medicine are fairly simple, and don't really require a specialist. Probably just about any doctor can set a simple fracture, drain an abscessed toenail, or treat your poison ivy. But for a brain injury, you're rightly going to want a specialist, with intensive specialized training and extensive specialized experience. The same goes with preemies -- especially the micropreemies that can be expected in an abortion-triggered birth. These tiny babies are not easy to assess and care for. They require a very high level of skill and clinical judgment. Only neonatologists are qualified to assess and care for them.

The doctor making the initial assessment in an abortion is likely an ob/gyn, though he might be a psychiatrist or dermatologist or ENT. There's no requirement that abortions be performed by ob/gyns. But let's for the sake of argument assume that he is an ob/gyn.

Ob/gyns who are providing care to women who don't intend to abort routinely concede that assessing and caring for critically ill, premature, or injured babies isn't their speciality. They have sense enough, when the mother loves and wants her baby, to call in an expert to make an expert assessment.

But, Senator Obama, you are asserting that in the case of an infant born during an abortion, the usual standard of care -- to have a neonatologist assess the premature and/or injured baby -- suddenly doesn't apply. In abortion cases, and abortion cases alone, you assert, the ob/gyn's skill is adequate to assess and care for that baby.

But to reiterate, the ob/gyn in question has already shown poor clinical judgment in his own specialty by trying to abort a baby strong enough to survive the procedure.

Perhaps you are not necessarily endorsing infanticide of babies born during abortions. You might not even have thought through the fact that you're stating that a lesser standard of care is adequate. It might simply never have occurred to you that a premature baby needs a neonatologist, not an obstetrician.

It doesn't show murderous intent. But it shows poor judgment and lack of reasoning. And it still leaves babies in the lurch if they're born after an abortion.

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Senator Obama, think of how William Waddill strangled Baby W. Think of how Raymond Showery drowned Baby Girl Doe. Think of how Xemina Renearts was stuck in a bedpan and put into a closet. Think of how Rowan was kept locked in a bathroom with his screaming, desperate mother pleading for help.

Can you find a shred of compassion in your heart for these children? Can you find just a shred of doubt that all doctors can always be trusted to risk their medical license, insurance, and reputation for the sake of a baby they've been paid to kill?

Can you break out of your "abortionists are saints who can do no wrong" mindset, just for a moment?

Planned Parenthood admits to live births.

Some folks are insisting that hey, these are after all 22 week babies at the oldest. They can't survive even if they are born alive. Well, I found preemie survival rates here:

22 weeks: 0-10% survival rate

23 weeks: 10-35% survival rate

24 weeks: 40-70% survival rate

25 weeks: 50-80% survival rate

26 weeks: 80-90% survival rate

27 weeks: greater than 90% survival rate

This page addresses errors in estimating gestational age: "The accuracy of ultrasound in predicting gestational age gets worse as the pregnancy advances. By 20 weeks, ultrasound is accurate only to within plus or minus two weeks, and by the third trimester, its accuracy falls to plus or minus 3 weeks."

Ultrasound is the most common method of estimating gestational age in abortion practice. Many women are going in for late abortions because they'd lost track of their cycles and weren't sure they were pregnant at all, so the LNMP method of dating is lost with these women. The doctors are having to rely almost entirely on ultrasound.

Here are some cases of abortion doctors miscalculating gestation age: a supposedly 21-week baby who turned out to be 30 weeks, a supposedly 11-week baby that turned out to be 27 weeks, a baby that was believed to be about 12 weeks and turned out to be 28 weeks, and a supposedly 6-week baby that turned out to be 26 weeks. I'll recognize, however, that these are unusual screw-ups. I'll just focus on being within the margin of error for a doctor who is taking reasonable care.

With the range of error of properly performed ultrasounds, a "22 week" baby with an estimated 10% or less chance of survival may just as readily be a 20 week baby with no chance of survival, or a 24 week baby with a 40-70% chance of survival.

And remember, also, that this particular facility has a 22-week cut off. Other facilities openly advertise elective abortions to 26 weeks -- babies that have an 80-90% chance of survival, and who may actually be three weeks older than estimated. They might be as old as 29 weeks, with a greater than 90% chance of survival.

Of course, of you wrap them in a towel and stick them in a closet, they have a 0% chance of survival.

********** ********** ********** **********

Let's review again why these late abortions are being done:

And now would be a good time for a refresher on Barack Obama and the Born Alive Babies

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Also covered in Hot Air, Transfigurations, Pro Life Blogs, Parenting Freedom, Jill Stanek, and Generations for Life.

Gianna Jessen takes Obama to the woodshed again

Let's look again at what his attitude means in actual practice:

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A question about born alive babies and criminal charges

Somebody came to my blog after searching for "Why are there no felony prosecutions in illinois for children born alive during abortions who then die?"

Well, it turns out that in Illinois, the law Barack Obama said already protected babies who survived abortions — 720 ILCS 510.6 — applied only where an abortionist declared before the abortion that there was "a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival of the fetus outside the womb." In other words, all the abortionist would have to do is declare before performing the abortion that the fetus would not survive, and presto! Even if it did survive, even if it turned out to be full-term and perfectly healthy, legally the baby would be considered "pre-viable" and thus not entitled to medical care.

But babies in places other than Illinois should be okay, right? Well, maybe not:

Ximena Renearts (pictured) was born alive in a Canadian hospital, shortly after her mother had undergone an abortion in a clinic in Washington state. The attending nurse put the baby, gasping and shivering, into a bedpan, and left her in a utility closet to die. Multiple medical professionals were involved in the decision to deny the baby medical care and to simply wait for her to die. Over an hour later another nurse rescued her and sent her for proper care. Many citizens were outraged at this attempted murder, but it became clear that there would be no prosecution due to abortion politics. A police spokesman called the case "bullshit", not worth investigating. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health defended the choice to try to kill Ximena, saying, "As you know, this Ministry is very much in favor of giving women choices about their reproductive health." And had Ximena died, there wouldn't even have been an autopsy to determine whether or not she'd have survived had she been given care. BC Chief Coroner explained that his office only got involved if a death was "unexpected". In an abortion, he explained, the baby is expected to die. So the death of a baby born alive after an abortion is not considered worth investigating. (Hearken back to the police spokesman who called public outcry for an investigation "bullshit".

So clearly, the attitudes of the people involved in health care and law enforcement play a role in these decisions.

Before legalization, one of the problems prosecutors had in getting convictions was the difficulty in proving that the fetus had been alive at the time of the abortion. Remember, in America you are innocent until proven guilty. So, in order to prove that the abortionist hadn't simply been removing a fetus that had died already, the prosecutor had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the baby had been alive. Imagine trying to prove this! All you would need is a sympathetic juror and an attorney who points out that none of the state's witnesses had put their hands on the pregnant woman's belly and felt fetal movement!

A similar dynamic plays out in cases in which live-born babies are left to die. They are extremely premature in most cases. How can the prosecutor prove that it was the neglect, and not extreme prematurity, that caused the baby's death? How can you prove that the baby would have lived, had he or she been taken to the NICU? All you can do is bring out charts showing survival rates, which prove only that the baby might have survived. This was the idea behind the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which doesn't require that you prove that the care would definitely have saved the baby's life. All you'd have to prove is that other babies the same gestational age would have been provided with the care, which is much easier to prove.

There is a case playing out right now in Florida that will show how hard it is to prosecute these cases. A baby was born alive at a freestanding clinic. Multiple staff, as well as the mother, saw the baby moving. The clinic owner, Belkis Gonzalez (pictured), put the baby in a biohazard bag and tossed her on the roof of the building. An autopsy showed that the baby had been born alive. But will prosecutors believe that they can prove that it was being put in a biohazard bag and tossed on the roof in the hot sun that killed her? Will a juror sympathetic to the abortion cause hold out, claiming that Shanice would have died from prematurity anyway?

Yes, a juror can really bog down a case that way. William Baxter Waddill (pictured) strangled a 32-week baby girl in front of multiple witnesses, including a pediatrician and several NICU nurses. His trial resulted in two hung juries because some jurors clung to an obscure legal definition of "death". They said that while the baby died of manual strangulation, not of prematurity or abortion injuries, they still felt that the prosecution couldn't prove that Waddill had caused Baby W's "death" under this legal definition of death.

Considering how Gianna Jessen, Jill Stanek, and now Sarah Palin are coming under attack merely for pointing out that these things happen, can you imagine the firestorm an Illinois prosecutor could expect if he tried to pursue murder charges against an abortionist?



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Funeral scheduled for Baby Shanice, thrown on a roof to die

Funeral for Baby Shanice to be Held 26 Months After Being Left on Abortion Clinic Roof to Die

A funeral will be held for Baby Shanice Denise Osbourne in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, next week, over 26 months after she was born alive during an abortion, shoved into a biohazard bag, and tossed on the roof of a Hialeah abortion mill to die.

The facility was owned by Belkis Gonzales (pictured - photo credit Operation Rescue West), who has no medical training.

Shanice's mother was at the facility for the second day of a multi-day abortion when she delivered her baby. According to a police affidavit, the baby's mother "observed the baby moving and gasping for air for approximately five (5) minutes. The staff began screaming that the baby was alive; at which time, Ms. Belkis Gonzalez cut the umbilical cord, threw it into a red bag with black printing. Ms. Gonzalez then swept the baby, with her hands, into the same red bag along with the gauze used during the procedure."

Gonzales then tossed the bag, with Shanice inside it, onto the clinic roof to conceal her body from the police. A clinic worker informed the police, who recovered the child's body.

An autopsy found that Shanice's lungs contained gas bubbles and floated, proving that she was alive and breathing before being stuffed into a biohazard bag and tossed onto the roof to die in the hot Florida sun.

Prolifers are hoping to see Gonzalez charged in the child's death. It is only due to their continued attention to the case that there was any investigation at all.

Shanice's funeral will be held on October 14 at 11 AM at Queen of Heaven Cemetery, 1500 S. State Road 7, in Ft. Lauderdale. The ceremony will be officiated by Rev. O'Neal Dozier. Former presidential candidate Dr. Alan Keyes will deliver the eulogy. The public is encouraged to attend.

Let's remember what Barack Obama said about providing medical care to babies like Shanice:

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One more time, with feeling:

"[A]dding an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion."



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1984: Another born-alive baby

Today's anniversary is an intended death -- a baby meant to die, who didn't.

Ruth Ann S. was sent to Detroit Memorial for an abortion performed October 3, 1984 by Enrique Gerbi. The saline was injected to kill the fetus.

At 12:30 AM on October 4, Ruth Ann delivered a live infant girl, that she named Vanessa.

The hospital did not have a NICU, and did not transfer Vanessa to another hospital for NICU care. Little Vanessa was "left to languish without the care of an obstetrician and/or a pediatrician." Vanessa suffered brain damage, required heart surgery due to saline damage, and required surgery "to relieve hydrocephalic conditions produced by the result of the salt injection."

As a result of the abortion, Vanessa suffered blindness, mental retardation, severe scarring and burning of her feet, growth retardation, and "Lack of coordination, ambulation and other dysfunctions not yet manifest."

A lawsuit filed on her behalf also charged Jack Ryan, President/Chief Medical Officer, with failing to "require the checking of the eleven malpractice suits in claims filed against abortionist ENRIQUE GERBI," and with failing to require Gerbi "to present evidence of knowledge and skill" for performing abortions. The suit also faulted the hospital with failing "to require that physical evaluations would be made on patients to determine the gestational age of the fetus before an effort was made to kill the same by abortion techniques," failing to have arrangements for care of live-born infants after abortion, and failure to have Gerbi placed under adequate supervision.

But why would an abortion hospital have a doctor on hand to care for babies like Vanessa? After all, as Obama said, "[A]dding an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion."

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One more time, with feeling:

"[A]dding an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion."



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Another fetus with attitude

Obama -- why not tell Melissa Ohden that whoever made an additional doctor available for her was just trying to burden her mother's original decision to have an abortion:



"Face the Choice" - Courtesy of Feminists for Life.

What I told the Utne Reader

Utne Reader has a new article up, New Group Enters “Born-Alive” Fray with Anti-Obama Video. Being a good leftie, the author, Jake Mohan, launches into the usual "political nuances" turf, going so far as to object to using "freighted terms" like "born alive". As if a neglected baby, gasping for breath in a utility closet, is in any way nuanced. As if describing that baby as "alive" is a cheap, sleazy political trick.

Here's the comment I made. I'm guessing they'll post it when pigs fly.

Obama's main concern seems to be protecting abortion rights. If anybody wants to see how this plays out in practice, they need only look at the case of Ximena Renearts, who was born alive in a Canadian hospital after her mother had undergone an abortion earlier in an American facility.

Hospital staff treated Ximena like an expelled fetus, not like a live-born infant. They put her in a bedpan in a utility room and waited for her to die. After she'd been left for over an hour to suffer from hypothermia and lack of oxygen, a nurse finally sent her to a children's hospital for care. But the damage had already been done. Ximena was left quadriplegic, with the mental capacity of a three-year-old.

BC police made two abortive investigations of the case, with spokesman Sergeant Bob Cooper calling the case "bullshit", dismissing what was done to Ximena as beneath his notice.

Part of the reason for the callous attitude of the police may be that the spokesman for the BC Minister of Health's Office, Michelle Stewart, is dismissive of the issue of infants born live during abortions, commenting, "As you know, this Ministry is very much in favor of giving women choices about their reproductive health." And, presumably, providing care to babies like Ximena would, as Obama so clearly put it, "burden" the choice of abortion for those women whose babies had the audacity to survive.

British Columbia's Chief Coroner Larry Campbell included a letter in a report on such live births, and dismissed them as to be expected in abortion and therefore outside the purview of BC coroners, who only get involved if a death is "unexpected". Since Ximena was expected to die, had she been left in that closet until she died, the death would have been expected, and no big deal, not worth getting all in a tizzy about.

The hospital never conducted an internal review of how a live-born infant was treated like a pathology specimen on their premises, in violation of the law forbidding anyone to abandon or expose a child under the age of ten "so that its life is or is likely to be endangered or its health is or is likely to be permanently injured." Under Canadian law, having been born alive, Ximena was a living human being entitled to full protection under the law. Prolife activists hold that charges of attempted murder might be more appropriate, since nurse Wood's intent in putting the child in the bedpan aside in a room for dead fetuses was to allow the baby to die and be sent to the pathology lab with the other results of recent abortions.

The law, it seems, doesn't matter if it "burdens" the "reproductive choice" of a woman who elects abortion, even if it means leaving a baby, cold and alone, to suffer in a closet.

Parse it with all the nuances you want. The kind of dedication to "choice" at any cost displayed by Obama is the same kind of dedication to "choice" at any cost displayed by Canadian authorities in Ximena's case. And if you're at ease with putting a live, shivering, whimpering, gasping baby in a closet and leaving her to die lest you hamper her mother's choice, by all means parse Obama's stand with great nuance. Just please stay away from babies like Ximena.

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More Born Alive Babies

This time I searched my files for "infant" rather than "baby", as I did last time. And remember that these are just the babies whose births were caused by an attempt to abort them, and doesn't include babies that survived early abortions and continued to gestate to a more viable age. (Codes after entries are references to my source documents, which are somewhere in the attic. If you know of links to such documents, please let me know.)

A deposition of a former employee of Dr. Ronachai Banchaonmonie states an infant aborted alive was placed on a tray, covered, and allowed to die. (418 - summary)

Dr. Jesse Floyd was indicted on charges of illegal abortion and murder in the death of a 2 lb 5 oz infant boy of approximately 27-28 weeks gestation who survived 20 days following a third-trimester abortion performed in Richland Memorial Hospital, South Carolina in September of 1974. The state dropped the charges due to reluctance of the infant's mother to testify and Floyd challenging the constitutionality of the abortion law. Floyd said that he had no reason to believe that the fetus was over 20 weeks gestation, but also said he selected prostaglandin to induce the abortion in an effort not to harm the fetus -- an odd assertion, since he'd been paid to kill the baby in question. (The Columbia State 8-29-75, 8-30-75; Indictment for Murder 43590; Omaha World-Herald 10-19-79; Philadelphia Inquirer 8-2-81; New York Times 3-6-79)

Ruth Ann S. was sent to Detroit Memorial for an abortion performed October 3, 1984 by Dr. Enrique Gerbi. There, saline was injected to kill the fetus. At 12:30 AM on October 4, Ruth Ann delivered a live infant girl, that she named Vanessa. The hospital did not have a NICU, and did not transfer Vanessa to another hospital for NICU care. Little Vanessa was "left to languish without the care of an obstetrician and/or a pediatrician." Vanessa suffered brain damage, required heart surgery due to saline damage, and required surgery "to relieve hydrocephalic conditions produced by the result of the salt injection." The baby suffered blindness, mental retardation, severe scarring and burning of her feet, growth retardation, and "Lack of coordination, ambulation and other dysfunctions not yet manifest." The suit also charged Jack Ryan, President/Chief Medical Officer, with failing to "require the checking of the eleven malpractice suits in claims filed against [Gerbi]I," and with failing to require Gerbi "to present evidence of knowledge and skill" for performing abortions. The suit also faulted the hospital with failing "to require that physical evaluations would be made on patients to determine the gestational age of the fetus before an effort was made to kill the same by abortion techniques," failing to have arrangements for care of live-born infants after abortion, and failure to have Gerbi placed under adequate supervision. (Wayne County Circuit Court Case No. 85-529757)

Dr. Martin Haskell is a National Abortion Federation member who provided training on D&X abortions (aka Partial Birth Abortion), performed 20 weeks and beyond, in which live fetus is extracted feet first but the brain is suctioned out just before the head emerges. (Nurse Brenda Pratt Shaffer describes the procedure here.) An Associated Press article dated December 11, 1989, says that a witness who allegedly observed 17 other procedures told police one infant girl of 21 or 22 weeks gestation had emerged alive before the procedure had been completed, and survived approximately 20 minutes, on September 21, 1989. The police did not prosecute because it was the student observer's word against Haskell's. Haskell claimed that her complaint was a personal attack because he does abortions, but the student said, "I don't want this to sound like I'm a freak antiabortionist. I don't want to sound like a radical," and noted that she had gotten permission to observe abortions because she would like to be nurse or doctor specializing in abortions. Another of Haskell's patients went to a hospital between phases of one of his D&X procedures, where she gave birth to a premature infant who later died.

Nicolette C., sixteen years old, was subjected to the first two days of an illegal third-trimester abortion, without parental consent, by Dr. Douglas Karpan at Women's Pavillion in Houston. Nicolette repeatedly stated that she did not wish to go through with the abortion, and requested a referral to a doctor to help her to complete the pregnancy. Both Karpan and his associate, Richard Cunningham, refused to remove the laminaria that were endangering Nicolette's baby. When she refused to undergo the final phase of the abortion, she was told "to look in the yellow pages for an anti-abortion group," made to sign a release form, and ejected from the facility. Nicolette sought emergency care, but hospital doctors were unable to stop labor. She gave birth to an infant girl, Ashley, who survived only six months due to extreme prematurity.

Dr. C. J. LaBenz was charged with unlawful abortion and criminal neglegence in 1979. Allegations are that he estimated a gestational age of 19 to 20 weeks prior to initiating an abortion on September 6, 1979. The woman expelled an infant boy who weighed approximately 2.5 pounds, indicating a gestational age closer to 27 weeks. A nurse involved with the abortion testified that the infant was placed on a sink drain board in what she described as a "dirty utility room." The baby moved his arms and legs, and cried intermittently. The nurse said that the baby's breathing appeared to be normal. LaBenz reportedly took no action to kill the baby, but he also took no action to allow the child's life to be saved. The neglected infant died after 2 1/5 hours. (Omaha World-Herald 10-9-79, 10-12-79, 10-13-79, 10-19-79, 11-12-79, 11-25-79, 10-10-80, Associated Press 10-10-79, 11-15-79, 12-14-79, 12-15-79, 12-28-79, Lincoln Star 10-12-79, 10-31-79.) According to coverage by the Omaha World Herald, February 8, 1980, and Associated Press coverage, February 7 and 15, 1980, Planned Parenthood Federation of America provided "financial and moral support" for LaBenz during his trial for allowing the baby to die.

An article in the August 2, 1981 Philadelphia Inquirer states that in July of 1974, Dr. Leonard E. Laufe initiated an abortion at West Penn Hospital. The woman had been turned down at another hospital after gestation had been estimated at 26-31 weeks. Laufe estimated gestation at 20-22 weeks and injected the woman with prostaglandin. Laufe was filming the procedure for educational purposes. The film showed a 3-pound live-born infant, which moved and gasped. The infant subsequently died, but no charges were filed. Laufe contended the infant had sustained fatal injuries during the procedure.

Carol P. filed suit after her ordeal. She was examined by employees at Portland Feminist Women's Health Center on June 24, 1985. Staff estimated Carol's pregnancy at 13-15 weeks. Carol returned for an ultrasound on June 26 by John Wayne Loomis, and she was instructed to return on June 28. She returned on June 29, and was informed pregnancy was 16 weeks. After two unsuccessful attempts by Dr. Gilda Lorensen to abort the pregnancy by suction, Carol was transferred to a hospital where physicians discovered that the fetus was actually of 29-30 weeks gestation. They transferred Carol to Bess Kaiser Hospital, where an infant girl, Brandi Nycole, was delivered by C-section the following day. Brandi suffered bruises and lacerations, and was abraded "from her left shoulder blade to her anus and leg." She also had "extensive abrasions, lacerations, wounds and pain to her right shoulder, side, back, buttocks, rectum and legs." Brandi was hospitalized 5.5 weeks, during which time she suffered "respiratory distress syndrome, infections, apnea and jaundice." ( Multnomah County Circuit Court Case No. A8605 03177)

Dr. Fred H. Pulver voluntarily surrendered his medical license at the age of 79 in the wake of allegations regarding his January 18, 1990 attempt to perform an abortion on a woman who gave birth to a three-pound, 27-week baby boy five days later. Pulver said that the woman was obese and had deliberately misstated her last menstrual period in order to get the abortion. Pulver had estimated the pregnancy as 11 weeks. Planned Parenthood Health Services of Northeastern New York, where the abortion was attempted, did not have an ultrasound to verify estimated gestational age. (Schenectady Daily Gazette 11-1-91, 11-5-91, Sunday Times-Union 11-24-91, 12-8-91)

An August 2, 1981 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer said that in April of 1973, Dr. Xavier Hall Ramirez initiated a saline abortion at Greater Bakersfield Hospital. The patient expelled a live 4.5 pound infant. Nurses called Ramirez, who ordered them to discontinue the oxygen they were giving the baby. Another doctor countermanded that order, and the infant survived to be adopted. Ramirez was indicted for solicitation to commit murder.

Dr. Joseph Rucker (scroll down) reportedly examined 14-year-old Cecelia G. Rucker, estimated her pregnancy as 14 weeks, and tried to perform a suction abortion on her on January 26, 1977. Cecelia began to hemorrhage, and was transported to a hospital by car. There, a doctor examined her, and discovered she was 7 months pregnant. She was released, but returned days later. Her infant girl was born February 1, with a 2-inch piece of her scalp missing. ( Detroit Free Press 11-14-82; The Abortion Profiteers)

Dr. Herbert Schreiber reportedly committed suicude on July 18, 1976, one month after being charged with first degree murder and illegal abortion after reportedly strangling to death an infant girl who had survived abortion. (1828)

"Taranda," age 17, went to Family Planning Clinic for Reproductive Health for an abortion on December 22, 1989. Dr. Karen J. Smiley estimated the pregnancy at 6 weeks and performed an abortion. Four days later, Taranda gave birth to a one pound, critically ill infant girl in a hospital corridor. Taranda's lawyer said, "She's devastated, obviously. She would never have dreamed of having an abortion had she known it was 26 weeks old." Taranda needed psychiatric care after her ordeal. (The Tennessean 3-15-90; Today's Tennessean 2-2-90; Associated Press 1-11-90, 1-26-90, 1-29-90)

Tommy Tucker's former employee, Joy Davis, alleged that he crushed a live infant's skull with forceps after it survived an abortion. (New York Times 4-23-94)

An August 2, 1981 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that in February of 1979, a 1 lb. 11 oz. baby girl was born at Inglewood Hospital following a saline abortion. Staff there supposedly summoned a rescue team from Harbor General Hospital, but the team didn't respond. The baby died.

According to The Abortion Profiteers, an illegal abortion was attempted at Michigan Avenue Medical Center in 1978. The teenage patient was 26-29 weeks pregnant. The hospital where the girl was taken for emergency treatment reported the incident to the health department. The baby was born prematurely on October 2, 1978.

According to an August 2, 1981 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, a woman went to Mt. Sinai Hospital in Cleveland for an abortion. The infant was born live. A source told the newspaper, "The doctors had a very hard time making her realize she had a child. She kept saying, 'But I had an abortion.'" The infant was discharged in the care of its mother.

A suit by patient L.H. alleged that she underwent an abortion by Dr. Alan Beer at Planned Parenthood of Mid-Michigan on July 16, 1985. No ultrasound was performed to determine gestational age. Beer ruptured the amniotic sac, then referred Harat to University of Michigan Medical Center, where five days later she gave birth to a 2 lb. 3 1/2 oz premature infant boy of approximately 25-29 weeks gestation. The infant, named Bryan, suffered developmental delay, intracranial bleeding, hydrocephalus, and disfigurement.. (Washtenaw County Circuit Court Case No. 85-30344 NM)

The August 2, 1981 Philadelphia Inquirer said that in the spring of 1979, two infants were born live at Wilmington Medical Center after saline abortions. Both survived to be adopted. The first infant was placed in a plastic specimen jar and rescued by a nurse who noted that baby was struggling for breath and had a heartbeat. The second infant was immediately determined to be alive and given help.

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More Born Alive Babies and Their Fates

Obama, Babies, and the Benefit of the Doubt

Obama and the Born Alive Babies

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Jill Stanek and FactCheck's Faulty "Facts"

I encourage you to read Jill's Fact-checking Factcheck.org on Gianna and Obama ads. I'm going to just pull a few points Jill makes and add some information.

It is easy for somebody who doesn't know about the legal, judicial, and medical wrangling and double-speak that go on in abortion practice to think that Jill is being either nit-picky or deliberately painting everything in a worst hypothetical light. I've been doing abortion malpractice research for a quarter of a century now, and I can add my experience to Jill's.

To restate, there was no enforceable definition of "born alive" in IL law when Obama opposed IL's Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

To the layman, "born alive" seems obvious. The baby emerges from the mother. He or she is breathing, crying, wriggling, or showing other signs of life. But in practice, things like "alive" and "dead" aren't as clear when you are dealing with abortion.

The degree to which things that ought to be painfully obvious become distorted and turned upside-down in abortion is best illustrated in the Waddill case. Waddill strangled a live-born baby girl in front of multiple witnesses, including a pediatrician and NICU nurses. He made repeated statements such as "I can't find the goddam trachea!" "This baby won't stop breathing," and "This baby can't live or it will be a big mess." The autopsy performed on the baby found that neither the abortion injuries, nor the baby's prematurity, had caused her death. She had died of manual strangulation. But two trials produced hung juries. Waddill was never brought to justice for murdering a child in front of witnesses. Why not? Because there is a definition of "death" on the books in California that allowed Waddill's attorneys to claim that Waddill didn't cause the baby to be dead under that particular definition of death. After that, all Waddill would need is one adamantly pro-abortion juror to stand on that obscure legal definition of "death" to prevent a conviction. How much more would a vague definition of "birth" allow an abortionist to get off the hook?

The IL Abortion Act applies only to viable infants, while Born Alive applies to all live-born infants, regardless of viability. In other words, the former dealt with viability, the latter with live birth. Thus, in the case of the live birth of a child who was determined not to be viable at the time the abortion was committed, the 1975 law did not apply.

"So?" you might say. "If the baby isn't viable, what's the point of providing any care?"

Jill goes on to explain that:

The one determining a baby's viability according to the IL Abortion Act is the abortionist, and s/he is allowed to determine viability pre-birth. Rational people understand the potential for the very person trying to kill the baby pre-birth to subjectively assess the baby's likelihood of survival post-birth.

In other words, all that was necessary to prove that the baby wasn't "viable", and therefore not in need of care, is for the abortionist to point out that he did an abortion. Circular logic gets him off the hook.

Take some time to look at how these legal loopholes play out in practice.

Start with the Cooper case in Philadelphia. A baby boy was born alive when Cooper performed an abortion at 23 weeks. The baby gasped and tried to breathe. No efforts were made to revive the infant due to the parents' wishes and the infant's size. The baby was placed in a utility room used as an infant morgue. Cooper instructed nurse, "Leave the baby there -- it will die." The nurse testified that the baby was still gasping in the closet when she returned to work 12 hours later. Cooper then finally agreed to allow the baby to be transferred to intensive care, where he died 4 days later. But in spite of all this, the baby's death was ruled "accidental" rather than homicide. Leaving the baby, cold and alone, without any medical care or even a warming pad, in a closet for 12 hours was not accidental. It was done deliberately in order to achieve the baby's death. But these facts were ignored.

Dr. Gordon Sean Goei was arrested on suspicion of murdering what he had thought was a 26-week baby born live during an abortion. The baby, whose gestational age was revised to 30-32 weeks after examination, died due to blunt force trauma. At 30-32 weeks, the baby had as much a chance of survival as a term infant; he or she would just have needed NICU care.The death was ruled a homicide. But the charge against Goei was reduced to practicing medicine without a license and illegally performing an abortion.

Of course, the BAIPA is only any good if it's being enforced. And clearly the federal law isn't:

Back in 2006, prolifers had high hopes that staff at a Miami-area abortion facility would be charged with murder for killing a baby. A search warrant reported that there was “probable cause” to pursue a second degree murder investigation. The mother, 18-year old Sycloria W., told police that she had arrived at the facility to complete a late-term abortion. She says she gave birth to a live baby girl in the facility’s recovery room. Sycloria said that she had watched her daughter moving and gasping for air for about five minutes. Staff “began screaming that the baby was alive.” Then “Ms. Belkis Gonzalez [an owner of the facility] cut the umbilical cord, threw it into a red bag with black printing. Ms. Gonzalez then swept the baby, with her hands, into the same red bag along with the gauze used during the procedure.” She then threw the bag onto the roof of the building so police wouldn't find it. Eight days later, police searched again and found the body of the baby, which had been treated with a caustic chemical and left in the sun to accelerate decomposition and muddle the autopsy findings. The police were horrified and outraged and wanted to see the guilty parties prosecuted, but the coroner ruled that the baby had died of "extreme prematurity", leaving prosecutors in the lurch.

The fact that they stuck the baby in a bag and tossed her on the roof instead of sending her to the NICU to be assessed should have been enough to prosecute under BAIPA. But nobody picked up the ball.

What do we, as citizens, need to take away from this? The fact that babies that could possibly survive are being aborted. And that Barack Obama has no beef with this. His only beef is with people who think these babies are entitled to an assessment by somebody who doesn't have a personal, professional, and financial interest in making sure that they die.

And that clearly the people who want these babies dead have enough clout that they're rarely held accountable.

That ought to be scary.

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More Born Alive Babies and Their Fates

Obama, Babies, and the Benefit of the Doubt

Obama and the Born Alive Babies

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More Born-Alive Babies and Their Fates

I'm going through my e-files for stories of what happens to babies who are born alive during abortions. I'm just doing a search for "baby" and cleaning up my notes for your edification. When you read these cases, keep Barack Obama's words in mind:

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Occasionally instead of a normal source you'll see a code. That's so that when I drag my files down out of the attic I can look and see the document in question and fill in what it is.

An August 2, 1981 story in the Philadelphia Inquirer said that in July of 1979, Dr. Boyd Cooper performed an abortion at 23 weeks at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The 1 lb 2 oz infant boy gasped and tried to breathe. No efforts were made to revive the infant due to the parents' wishes and the infant's size. The baby was placed in a utility room used as an infant morgue. Cooper instructed nurse, "Leave the baby there -- it will die." The nurse testified that the baby was still gasping in the closet when she returned to work 12 hours later. Cooper then finally agreed to allow the baby to be transferred to intensive care, where he died 4 days later. Despite having left the child gasping, cold and alone, in a morgue for over twelve hours, the baby's death was ruled accidental.

Dr. Joseph Durante was put on probation for five years Sept. 3, 1996, over case where a baby survived an abortion at San Diego Womancare. Durante was fined $14,000. (M29, M207) There was also an incident in 1980, when Baby Boy Sanchez was supposedly born alive at Indio Community Hospital, I’d guess after an abortion. Durante had announced that the baby was dead, and had the body incinerated. (M207) Also: Melisha W., age 17, underwent an abortion by Joseph Durante at Womancare on March 7, 1992. Durante did not follow standard exam procedures or use an ultrasound. He estimated that Melisha was 11-12 weeks pregnant, but during the abortion he discovered that the fetus was much larger than he expected. Only then did Durante perform an ultrasound, which revealed a 25-26 week fetus. Durante gave Melisha painkillers and referred her to a facility specializing in late abortions. Melisha's mother instead took her to Kaiser medical center, where infant Victoria G. was born weighing 1 lb 13 oz. The baby suffered physical and cognitive disabilities. (Why Would Planned Parenthood Bother?)

The Edelin case is fairly well-known. Dr. Kenneth Edelin, a member of the National Abortion Federation's Standards Committee, had been convicted for manslaughter in the case of an infant boy aborted by hysterotomy (a c-section in which you intend for fetal death rather than live birth) in 1973 at Boston City Hospital. Edelin had estimated fetal age a 20-22 weeks pre-abortion. Witnesses said Edelin smothered the baby, and the prosecution held that at 1 lb 8 oz, the infant was viable. The prosecution also said that a right to abortion constituted a right to terminate a pregnancy, not a right to a dead baby. The defense contended that the death of the baby -- okay, they said fetus -- is a desired and foregone conclusion in such cases. Edelin's conviction was overturned on the grounds that the jury had been improperly instructed. Edelin later became national chairman of Planned Parenthood. (Omaha World-Herald 10-19-79; Philadelphia Inquirer 8-2-81; also cited in Orange County Superior Court Case No. C-37815)

Dr. Gordon Sean Goei was arrested on March 19, 1998, on suspicion of murdering a 26-week preemie born live during an abortion Goei had performed six days after his license had been suspended for failing to pass a competency exam. The charge was reduced to practicing medicine without a license and illegally performing an abortion. The fetus had been found in a trash bag at Centro Mexico Family Planning Clinic. The mother was age 42. She had been rushed to a hospital for severe bleeding, and the police found had found the baby's mutilated body in a dumpster. The baby's death was ruled a homicide due to “blunt force trauma.” Later reports placed the baby's age as 30-32 weeks. Goei's license had been revoked in 1995, but the revocation was overturned by order of an Administrative Law judge because although the Medical Board had sent two letters by surface mail, and another two by registered mail, Goei hadn’t gotten the letters. A witness for Goei said that he had opened the letters, felt sorry for Goei, and hidden them. ((M20, M195, M196, M197, M199, M200)

Dr. Joseph Melnick was convicted of infanticide and unlawful abortion after the death of 32-week infant girl (3 lb, 9 oz) born during an abortion Melnick performed on a 13-year-old girl at what was then West Park Hospital, Philadelphia, in 1984. The nursing supervisor testified that "Baby Girl Smith" showed signs of life and gasped and moaned following the abortion, others in the room pointed out infant's condition and requested that Melnick aid the infant. The nursing supervisor attempted CPR on the baby, detecting a heartbeat. She found a death certificate filled out by Melnick stating that the infant was stillborn. She tore up the death certificate, whereupon Mewlnick filled out a birth certificate for the infant. Another doctor ordered resuscitation, but the baby died after 90 minutes. Melnick indicated on medical records that he observed "agonal breathing" in the infant, which he defined for the judge as "It's the last effort a human being makes to sustain life." After the judge asked him three times he admitted that agonal breathing would not be observed in a stillborn infant. An autopsy found that the infant had a full head of hair, and skin typical of a term infant. Melnick allegedly admitted, "After the fact, it occurred to me that I had miscalculated." He also admitted that when the patient insisted that she was four months pregnant, Melnick noted the size of the infant and told her "if that's true, your baby would have been 18 pounds at birth." Melnick's defense claimed that the prosecution was based on "frustration raised over the abortion issue" rather than the evidence, and that a conviction would have "chilling effect" on other doctors' willinglness to perform abortions. (LA Times Magazine 1-7-90; Houston Chronicle 6-13-89; United Press International 10-3-84; Associated Press 3-16-89, 5-13-89, 6-12-89, 12-20-89)

Dr. Raymond Showery was found guilty in 1983 of the 1979 murder of a 5-7 month baby aborted by hysterotomy (cutting the mother open and taking the baby out to die). Five of his employees testified that the infant girl had light brown hair, was about a foot long, and curled up in Showery's hand. One employee saw the infant apparently attempting to breathe as Showery held the placenta over her face. Showery then dropped her into a bucket of water. His employees testified that bubbles rose to the surface. Showery then put the baby in a plastic bag which was tied and put at the end of the operating room. The bag moved as though someone were breathing in it, then the bag stopped moving. One witness said he was holding the bag as Showery put the infant in, and that he later put the bag in the freezer where fetuses were stored. Showery was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison even though the body of the infant was never found and employees could not identify the patient upon whom the abortion was performed. The jury chose to convict for murder even though they had the option of convicting for manslaughter. A news report said that Showery, "his voice breaking and tears filling his eyes," denied all the allegations. "I never killed a baby," Showery said, "and if I'm not telling you the truth, may I die right now." Showery had also been convicted of a felony charge of altering his hospital's records, which hindered the state's attempts to locate the woman. The former employees alleged that Showery falsified records on all patients over 20 weeks pregnant, saying they were all exactly 20 weeks pregnant, and that such abortions were routine. One former employee, Gloria, said she assisted in abortions in which Showery would sedate the patient, dilate the cervix, and pull the fetus out with forceps. "He wanted them in pieces, but a lot of times they would come out whole." She said that she saw signs of life in at least two fetuses aborted this way. Another former employee, Belinda, said she looked away as Showery removed a fetus through a hysterotomy incision, and that when she turned back Showery had placed the fetus in a plastic bag within a bucket "and just waited until it stopped moving." She said the fetus squirmed and wiggled for about 10 seconds. Former employee Anita alleged that for late abortions, "He walks in, closes the door, and locks it." She also said Showery instructed them, "If you see any movement or anything, you don't see anything, you don't know anything," and that he always asked employees to look away when the fetus was extracted. A former employee said the fetuses would be put in plastic bags and frozen, that employees did not know what became them but that someone removed them from the freezer. An autopsy on a male fetus identified as Baby John Doe #81-01, found among other fetuses in the freezer at Showery's hospital, was inconclusive as to whether he was born live due to decomposition during thawing. The fetus was just over 2 pounds, just over 13 inches long, with sparse dark hair; the autopsy also found meconium, usually found in the intestine of full-term fetuses. Showery denied ever performing abortions after 20 weeks, and is quoted as saying, "If that baby takes a breath, that's life. Now the department of vital statistics comes into it and you fill out death certificates. It cried once. It took life. It took breath. It becomes a person. You cannot dispose of it with hospital wastage. It must go to the mortician and et cetera." Family Hospital was not known to have ever filed fetal death certificates. While out on bail pending appeal of the murder conviction, Showery performed the fatal abortion on Mickey Apodaca. (New York Times 4-29-84; DesMoines Register 5-5-84; El Paso County Offense Report No. 00-380101, Houston Chronicle 6-9-85; El Paso Times 9-22-83, 9-23-83, April 5-8, 1981; Dallas Morning News 4-20-84, Dallas Times-Herald 9-29-83)

The woman in the following case never consented to an abortion, but I'll include it because I think it illustrates the attitude some abortionists have toward infants. Carmen H., age 36, reported that in 1983 she was 8 months pregnant to Dr. Pravin Thakkar, who had seduced her when she was his patient. He gave her drugs while she was at his house, knocking her out. She briefly awoke to hear the muffled sound of a baby's cry. Thakkar told her the baby was still-born while she was unconscious. She did not consent to terminate the pregnancy. No death certificate was filed for the fetus. Thacker was convicted in the baby's death. (Tyler Morning Telegraph 6-12-91, 6-13-91; Associated Press 2-9-89)

I have this mysterious note: Baby Roe survived Allred abortion saline, born 7 PM, kept 7 hours, sent to USC medical center, died next day 10 AM. ()

Ohio State University Hospital faced a lawsuit filed by Joseph M. He said his infant girl was alive when expelled during an abortion performed on Joseph's wife, Peggy, on September 9, 1981. Joseph faulted staff Debra Clapp and Mervyn Samuel with failure to take measures to preserve the child's life, resulting in her death. The baby was estimated to be of 20 weeks gestation, and sent to the pathology lab with permission of her mother, and destroyed before Joseph could request an autopsy. Defendants contended that the baby was nonviable and therefore by definition dead upon delivery. Joseph's case was dismissed. (Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Case No. 83CV-09-5231)

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