Friday, October 18, 2024

New to Me: Kalynda Collins

"This case stems from the tragic and preventable death of Kalynda Lachelle Collins, a 32-year-old mother of two. Ms. Collins died as a direct result of the negligent, reckless and outrageous conduct of Defendants at the Cherry Hill Women's Center." 

Thus opens the lawsuit filed by Kalynda's survivors against Cherry Hill Women's Center -- a name that has been linked to that malevolent phoenix, Steven Chase Brigham

The Facility

Cherry Hill Women's Center
Kalynda went to Cherry Hill Women's Center for her safe, legal abortion at around 6:30 am on September 2, 2017. As the lawsuit notes, Cherry Hill Women's Center "advertises itself as the only Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) in New Jersey offering surgical services exclusively to women. [Cherry Hill Women's' Center] advertises itself as being fully accredited by the Federated Ambulatory Surgery Association and the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities." This meant, the suit said, that Cherry Hill Women's Center was a top notch facility with "commendable safety records, continually educated staff, hospital grade medical equipment and high standard policies and procedures."

From a surface examination, Kalynda had every reason to believe that she would receive the safest, highest-quality care at Cherry Hill Women's Center. But -- for reasons I'll go into later -- Kalynda had reasons of her own to question the quality of care she would get there. As I read through the lawsuit, I learned that this fatal abortion was the final time Cherry Hill Women's Center failed her, but was not the first.

Failures on Multiple Levels

When looking for information about this young black woman, I learned that she had not had an easy life.

Kalynda's Chaotic Family of Origin

Kalynda was born in 1985, daughter of Chris Anthony Ray Forrest Sr. It's doubtful that Kalynda had a stable childhood. Her father's obituary says that he left behind 12 children. Judging by their surnames, Chris Sr. had five babymammas and was living out of wedlock with the final one at the time of his death. Kalynda's mother, Lachelle, likely had the surname Collins when Kalynda and her siblings, Crystal and David, were born. Lachelle had evidently married between bearing children to Chris Forrest Sr. and her daughter's death, since she sued under the surname Ramsey.

His obituary indicates that he was a self-employed mechanic. He shows up in the newspapers for the first time I've found in 1973, when he was about 19 years old. He was ordered to pay $5 a week on a $15 fine and $10 in costs for having in his possession a driver's license and personal papers belonging to another man. He continues to show up for criminal activity:

  • in 1974, at the age of 19, he was one of many people charged "during a wild melee." Five policemen were injured, one of whom was hospitalized with a head injury. The others arrested included Chris's sister, Barbara. The Millville Daily of July 24 said that "the disturbance .. apparently stemmed from a domestic quarrel."
  • in 1976, at the age of 21, when a woman alleged that he kicked her and hit her with a bottle. 
  • in 1991, at the age of 36, he shows up in the Vineland, NJ Daily Journal because he was charged on multiple warrants, including "aggravated assault, conspiracy, creating a riotous condition, possession of a controlled dangerous substance (CDS), possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, domestic relations, and numerous motor vehicle violations." 
  • 2003, at the age of 48, he was wanted for failure to pay over $68,000 in child support.
  • 2009 he got lengthy mention in the Daily Journal when he'd lied about his name to animal control officers regarding a loose pit bull, only to be positively identified. He was wanted on six contempt warrants in the area. 

At 6:50 am, Kalynda was taken to an exam room for the pre-procedure screening. Defendant Ms. Batchelor recording her vital signs. 

At 7:30 am, defendant Ms. Nunez reviewed consent forms and discharge instructions with Kalynda. The section of the consent forms regarding insertion of dilators notes that sometimes an allergic reaction to dilators can occur. The form did not indicate what specific dilators would be used, nor did it indicate that the dilators that would be used that day contained iodine.  

As the lawsuit notes, "by inserting Laminaria sticks Defendant Dr. Lieblich virtually guaranteed that Ms. Collins would have an allergic or anaphylactic reaction." Such reactions to the iodine in laminaria are, the suit notes, "well documented in the medical literature." The suit goes on to say, "the physicians and staff of [Cherry Hill Women's Center] should have been well aware of the potential consequences of using this dilator in someone who is allergic to iodine."

Between 7:46 and 7:55 am, Kalynda was examined by Nurse Lake, who reviewed her medical and social history, allergies, and medications and examined her lungs and heart. Kalynda told Nurse Lake that she was allergic to iodine, as well as penicilling, adhesive tape, and latex. Nurse Lake recorded this in Kalynda's electronic chart.

At around 9 am Defendant Ms. Cotto brought Kalynda into Exam Room 2 and verified Kalynda's allergies to latex and iodine. Cotto instructed Kalynda to undress from the waist down. Then at around 9:05, Dr. Richard M. Lieblich, who was to do the abortion, entered the room and met Kalynda for the first time.

Let's note here how far Kalynda got in this process before the abortion, which is supposed to be "a decision between her woman and her doctor," before she even saw a doctor.  Only at this point does any discussion with a doctor begin.

Lieblich reviewed Kalynda's medical history and allergies, performed a physical examination, and determined that she was a good candidate for the one-day procedure. 

At 9:09 am, less than four minutes after reviewing with Kalynda that she was allergic to iodine, Lieblich inserted 6 laminaria and two sterile sponges. He then administered misoprostol to Kalynda and instructed her to get dressed. Kalynda put her clothes back on and was taken to the "dress out" area where patients waited for the next step of their abortions.

At 9:25 am, Ms. Ortiz asked Nurse Cruz to check Kalynda out due to a rapid heart rate. Nurse Cruz noted that Kalynda's heart rate was 134, far higher than the normal resting heart rate of 60 to 100. Kalynda reminded Nurse Cruz that she was allergic to iodine. 

Nurse Cruz notified Lieblich, and he ordered that she be brought to the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) and be given Benadryl via IV to combat the allergic reaction. But before the Benadryl could be administered, Kalynda began to vomit and to perspire excessively. 

Defendant Dr. Smith was summoned to see Kalynda. She was awake and responsive but also confused and disoriented. Her upper arm was in violent spasms. She was showing clear signs of anaphylactic shock. 

For some reason, contrary to their transfer protocol with Kennedy University Hospital, Cherry Hill Women's Center staff did not contact EMS to transfer their gravely ill patient.

At 9:30, Dr. Lieblich was called back to check on Kalynda because her heart was racing and her blood pressure was dangerously low. He observed that Smith was assessing and tending to Kalynda. Nurse Rodgers administered Benadryl and Zofran by IV. Kalynda's heart rate was then recorded as 74, her blood pressure as 109/52. Kalynda was reporting itchy palms and nausea. Nurse Rodgers started IV fluids and oxygen by nasal cannula and placed Kalynda in the Trendelenburg position -- slanted with the head lower than the feet -- evidently in hope of increasing blood flow to Kalynda's brain. The lawsuit notes, "It appears that Nurse Rodgers was unaware of the widely circulated 2008 meta-study that found adverse consequences to the use of the Trendelenburg position and the recommendation that it be avoided."

Dr. Smith ordered a push of epinephrine via IV at 9:34.

Nurse Lake came to the PACU at 9:36 and found both doctors by Kalynda's side. Nurse Rodgers recorded Kalynda's blood pressure as having fallen to 98/48 and her pulse having risen to 122. 

At 9:40, Kieblich removed the laminaria that had triggered the reaction at this point -- around fifteen minutes after Kalynda started showing signs of an allergic reaction.

Over the next few minutes, Smith administered more drugs to try to combat the anaphylaxis. 

Finally, at 9:44 am -- 19 minutes after Kalynda started showing signs of anaphylaxis, and ten minutes after the first epinephrine was administered, staff finally initiated the transfer agreement and called 911. 

While they waited for the ambulance to arrive, Cherry Hill Women's Center staff again took Kalynda's vitals. Dr. Smith and Nurse Lake intubated Kalyndra. Then, for some reason, Smith decided to administer 200 mg of Propofol. The lawsuit states, "Defendant Dr. Smith's decision to administer 200 mg of Propofol, which is the dose that would be used on a healthy patient, sealed [Kalynda's] fate and made her death a certainty. Propofol is a vasodilator [widens the blood vessels], accordingly it is not appropriate to use in patients who ... have low blood pressure." Kalynda's blood pressure was only 91/49 at the time the drug was administered. Three minutes later, Kalyndra was given succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant to make intubation and resuscitation easier. This enabled the doctor to complete the intubation at 9:51.

By then, Kalynda's pulse was 122 and her  blood pressure 88/48.

Cherry Hill ambulance arrived just then to find Cherry Hill Women's Center providing artificial respiration with a bag-valve. 

Now things get weird. The EMS patient record said that Kalynda started showing signs of anaphylaxis not after the insertion of the laminaria, but after administering a sedative. The doctor reportedly told EMS that Kalynda had quickly become unresponsive and they intubated her and called 911.

At 9:53 am, Kalynda's skin was cool, clammy, and pale. Her pulse was 162, her blood pressure 50/28, her respirations 12 (at the low end of the 12-20 normal rate), and her oxygen saturation was only 85%. EMS took over resuscitation. Advanced Life Support arrived at 10 am, found Kalynda to be in cardiac arrest, and started CPR. 

At 10:05, Ms. Nunez called Kalynda's mother, Lachelle Ramsey, to say that her daughter was being transported to Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Cherry Hill. Kalynda arrived at 10:23, still with no pulse and with fixed pupils. Doctors attempted to revive her but pronounced her dead at 10:53, less than two hours after Dr. L inserted the dilators to which his patient had a predictable allergic reaction.

When the ER doctor called Smith, he blamed the allergic reaction on the misoprostol. Nobody told doctors at Kennedy Memorial about the six iodine-infused laminaria that had been placed in Kalynda's cervix. 

What makes the use of laminaria particularly disturbing is that when Kalynda had gone to Cherry Hill Wome's Center in April of 2013, her chart noted that she'd had an allergic reaction to laminaria at that very facility in June of 2012 and that the doctor was to use Dilapans, a dilator that does not contain iodine. 



Tuesday, October 15, 2024

October 15, 1926: Chicago Doctor Admits to Fatal Abortion

On October 15, 1926, 23-year-old homemaker Ethel Horner, a Chicago native, died at Chicago’s Jackson Park Hospital from an abortion performed earlier that day.

Theresa Feltz, a mother of five, admitted that she had taken Ethel to the Chicago office of 55-year-old Dr. Albert Peacock, who was arrested the following day. On November 15, 1926, he was indicted for felony murder.

Peacock, who told police, “I’m too old to go through with a trial,” when they arrested him, admitted to the abortion but insisted that it had been medically necessary. He was kept under close watch after making remarks indicating that he might kill himself.

Ethel’s husband, Robert Horner, said that he’d been unaware that his wife was arranging an abortion.

I've been unable to learn anything of the outcome of the case.

Ethel’s abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a doctor.

Watch Was the Deadly Abortion Legal? on YouTube.

Sources:

Wednesday, October 09, 2024

October 9, 1916: Chicago Firefighter Left to Raise Four Children Alone

 Earnest Projahn answered the questions put to him by the Cook County deputy coroner during the inquest into the death of his 33-year-old wife, Emily. The Projahns had four living children; two others had died.

In August and September of 1916 Emily's period did not come. She told her husband of the pregnancy and her plans to get an abortion, since she didn't think they could afford another child on her husband's salary as a firefighter. 

Ernest testified that he opposed the abortion and "spoke against it all the time." Though he may have made this statement in the hopes of avoiding further legal trouble for his role in the abortion, his remark, "That's the way the wife figured it," suggests that he followed her lead in this matter, however reluctantly. Mr. Projahn eventually came around to his wife's way of thinking and performed the male role of locating the abortionist and accompanying her to the doctor's office on a Friday night in September of 1916.

Emily visited a doctor whom her husband had seen previously, Dr. Clarence W. Mercereau, at 4954 Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. Dr. Mercereau, a graduate of Bennett Medical College in Chicago,  agreed to do the operation and told them the fee would be $10 and $2 for calling on her afterwards. They paid half the fee that night. 

Earnest later explained that the doctor "asked me to be quiet and not say anything more about it. I said I would." The doctor then shut the door and prepared to perform the operation. He had his patient lie in a surgical chair and used an instrument. Earnest  called the instrument a "womb opener." He described it as "nickel-plated, silver-like" and "ten or twelve inches long." The doctor told her to "stay on her feet until she got sick enough to go to bed." 

When they got home that evening, Emily was bleeding. A week later she called Dr. Mercereau, who came to their home and prescribed medicine. He visited her at home twice. After three weeks of chills and fever, she called in a second doctor, who admitted her to Albert Burns Hospital. While at the hospital she told an intern, "My husband and my self came to the conclusion that we had enough children and wanted something done so we would not have to support another."

Emily finally died on October 9.

Though Mercerau was held by the coroner and indicted, the case was stricken off on December 16.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

external image MaternalMortality.gif


Sources: 

Monday, October 07, 2024

October 7, 1963: The Only Kind of Abortion Death They Care About

On October 7, 1963, 21-year-old Ann Hartman Keenan died at Wyandotte General Hospital near Detroit. Her cause of death is identified on her death certificate as as "Subarachnoid hemorrhage (a brain bleed) following septic (massively infected) criminal recent abortion with septic thromboembolism pneumonia  (a clot getting into her lungs and causing septic pneumonia) and hepatitis with focal necrosis (spots of dead tissue) of liver."  

Ann Keenan was the sister of Mitt Romney's brother-in-law, Loren Keenan. During the 2012 Presidential election, Obama supporters dug into the past, and the story of Ann's tragic death went viral. The meme was that Romney's current pro-life stand would "let [her] die again." His change of stand to one of opposition to abortion was painted as opportunistic and based entirely on polling, not personal conviction. Romney's opponents, clearly, can not grasp that a mature adult can come to very different conclusions than he might have as a 16-year-old boy. 

The coverage was pretty thorough, including quotes from Ann's friends and relatives and an image of part of her death certificate

Much was also made of the fact that her parents had requested that memorial funds be given to Planned Parenthood. Never mind the women who died after abortions at Planned Parenthood. Never mind that Roselle OwensTonya ReavesVivian TranDiana LopezElise KalatCree Erwin-SheppardEdrica Good, and Alyona Dixon ended up dead after trusting Planned Parenthood. Go ahead and give your money to a place where women die the same kinds of death Ann died. It's legal. So it's okay.

Exactly who perpetrated the fatal abortion doesn't seem to pique the interest of those who want to hang her death around her distant-relative-by-marriage's neck. There was a lot of speculation but no facts were offered. For all the Keenan keeners know, Ann could have had an abortion performed by a reputable doctor in a clean office. Around 90% of women who sought abortions before legalizations did. At some level I think they don't want to know, precisely because of that possibility. The abortion was illegal, and that's why she died. Full stop as far as the abortion lobby cares.

Sunday, October 06, 2024

October 6, 1937: Deathbed Confession Implicates Prominent Doctor

Eleanor Haynes, age 22, died of peritonitis at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey on October 6, 1937. She had been admitted two days earlier by a doctor whose name was not divulged. In a dying statement, Eleanor said that Dr. P. Ralph McFeely had performed an abortion on her in his office on September 25. Eleanor's fiancĂ©e claimed no knowledge of an abortion. McFeely, a school and police physician who was also president of the local PTA, said that although he was treating Eleanor for a "minor ailment," he had not performed an abortion. McFeely was not prosecuted due to lack of evidence. 

During the first half of the 20th century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.

Watch Two Doctors, Two Decades on YouTube.

external image MaternalMortality.gif

Sources:

October 6, 1904: Chicago Allopath Convicted then Acquitted

On October 6, 1904, 33-year-old Mrs. Mary Lawson died at Passavant Hospital in Chicago, from complications of a criminal abortion. 

Dr. Alois Rassmussen, an allopath, was sentenced to fifteen years at Joliet for the murder, but was able to get a new trial. In this second trial, he was acquitted. 

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. 

Saturday, October 05, 2024

October 5, 1971: Safe and Legal Journey Ends in Death

I believe I have identified "Becky," who was 18 years old when she traveled from Arkansas to New York for a safe and legal abortion. Because the abortion was never publicized I will respect her privacy and continue to use the pseudonym that Life Dynamics gave her.

Becky was from a tiny Arkansas town, and a sophomore in college. She must have been academically gifted to be in her second year of college at the age of only 18. She was 14 weeks pregnant when she made what turned out to be a fatal journey.

The abortion was performed on September 26, 1971. Though Becky was running a fever the day after the abortion, staff discharged her to return home.

By the time Becky got back to Arkansas and saw a doctor, her condition was critical. This doctor admitted her to a hospital where she died from infection on the morning of October 5.

Sources: "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970," June 30, 1972” Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 325

October 5, 1911: Would Today's Technology Have Saved Her?

 On October 5, 1911, 38-year-old homemaker May Davis Bambrick died from an ectopic pregnancy, evidently after an abortion perpetrated that day by midwife Emma Schultz

Schultz was held by the Coroner's Jury and indicted on October 12, but the case never went to trial. 

Since at the time there were no easy means to detect ectopic pregnancy, May's death can not really be attributed to either Schultz or the abortion.

In the post-Roe era, however, access to ultrasound and serial HCG testing (checking how pregnancy hormones are changing over time), there really is no excuse for an abortion doctor failing to determine an ectopic pregnancy. Still, they fail to diagnose ectopic pregnancies and women thus attribute symptoms of a pending rupture to post-abortion pain and don't seek prompt care, leading to their deaths.

October 5, 1937: Deathbed Statement Implicates Prominent Physician

On the afternoon of Monday, October 3, 1937, a doctor whose name the authorities would not divulge admitted 22-year-old Eleanor Haynes to Hackensack Hospital. She was suffering from peritonitis.

In a dying statement, Eleanor said that 55-year-old Dr. P. Ralph McFeely had performed an abortion on her in his office at 242 Palisade Avenue in Bogota on September 25. 

Eleanor died at 4:30 on the afternoon of October 5.

Eleanor's fiancé, 22-year-old Eugene King, claimed no knowledge of an abortion.

McFeely, a school and police physician who was also president of the local PTA, was arrested. He said that although he was treating Eleanor for a "minor ailment," he had not performed an abortion. He was released on $5,000 bail. (c. $103,000 in 2022)

In a statement to the press, McFeely said, "The accusation against me is outrageous. All I ask is that judgment be suspended until I have the opportunity to disprove it thoroughly. The girl did visit my office for an examination and I treated her for an ovarian condition, but nothing more. I have been a resident of Bogota for 25 years, 22 of which I have spent in practice there, as well as being active in community affairs."

He added, "My reputation in private life and professional practice has never been questioned. Revelation of the facts in this case will clearly demonstrate my innocence and I hope that they will be disclosed as speedily as possible."

A grand jury met in December and heard evidence for two days. Among the witnesses were the county physician who had performed the autopsy, the assistant prosecutor who had taken Eleanor's dying declaration, and Eleanor's fiancé.

After hearing only from the prosecution, the grand jury declared that there was no evidence beyond Eleanor's deathbed claims that McFeely had been the one to cause the fatal injuries.  The community clearly believed in his innocence, since he resumed his practice and civic duties after the charges were dropped.

Watch Why Did She Implicate Dr. McFeely? on YouTube.

Sources:








October 5, 1937: Prominent Doctor Named in Deathbed Statement

One of the biggest factors separating the prochoice from the prolife is how they perceive the world of illegal abortions. The prochoice see the greasy old man with a coat hanger lurking in an abandoned warehouse, plying his trade with booze on his breath and lechery in his eye. The prolife see a story substantiated by newspapers: doctors doing abortions on the sly.

Today's case from newspaper archives serves as examples of a doctor entangled in an abortion case. Law enforcement was sometimes unable to tell if the doctor was indeed the guilty party who caused the woman's death, but the prevalence of physician involvement in these old abortion cases underscores the research done by Planned Parenthood and by Nancy Howell Lee: most criminal abortions were done by doctors, and most non-physicians performing illegal abortions had physician accomplices who provided support and equipment.

Eleanor Haynes, age 22, died of peritonitis at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey on October 5, 1937. She had been admitted two days earlier by a doctor whose name was not divulged. 

In a dying statement, Eleanor said that Dr. Percy Ralph McFeely had performed an abortion on her in his office on September 25. Eleanor's fiancĂ©e claimed no knowledge of an abortion. 

McFeely, a school and police physician who was also president of the local PTA, said that although he was treating Eleanor for a "minor ailment," he had not performed an abortion. 

McFeely was not prosecuted due to lack of evidence.  

Sources:

Watch Two Doctors, Two Decades on YouTube.

Thursday, October 03, 2024

October 3, 1977: The Death that Delighted Abortion Enthusiasts

Operational Preparation of the Environment

In 1976, the Hyde Amendment went into effect, banning the use of Federal funds to pay for abortions except to save the mother from an immediate threat to her life. The measure was named for its author, Congressman Henry Hyde. Abortion advocates had been keening from the moment the Hyde Amendment was up for vote. They painted a ghastly picture of coathanger-impaled women littering the streets as poor women were driven to desperation by lack of "access".

When the Hyde Amendment went into effect, abortion advocates ramped up the hysteria and waited for a death, any death, they could hang around Henry Hyde's neck. 

This process of creating a narrative and then either waiting for, facilitating, or creating an event that can push the narrative is called "operational preparation of the environment." 

On October 3, 1977, the abortion advocacy vultures got what they'd been waiting for: a dead woman they could use as leverage in the fight to once again force taxpayers to fund elective abortions. 

Operational Preparation Pays Off

Undated yearbook photo of Rosie
Their triumph started playing out on September 26, 1977, when 27-year-old Rosaura "Rosie" Jimenez had shown up at the emergency room of McAllen General Hospital in the Texas border town of McAllen.

She was overwhelmingly sick with septic shock. However, she denied having had an abortion, instead telling the doctors that her period had just started that day. 

Her uterus was enlarged, but due to guarding (resisting pressing on an area due to pain) the doctors had a hard time determining the size. Her cervix was dilated enough that they could insert a ring forceps. She had a dark bloody discharge. She was clearly suffering from a septic abortion.

She was immediately started on IV penicillin and fluids. Doctors performed a D&C to remove any infected material from her uterus. An examination of the tissue confirmed that she had been pregnant.

Rosie's condition deteriorated. She was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. She became jaundiced and developed a rash that covered her trunk and upper thighs. Her pulse increased to 160/minute. Her hemoglobin dropped, as did her urine output. 

Doctors performed a hysterectomy during her second day in the hospital, which seemed to improve her condition slightly. However, six hours later she suffered heart failure. She was treated aggressively in efforts to prevent edema, address her clotting problems, and defeat the infection. Eventually doctors performed a tracheotomy and put Rosie on a ventilator.

In spite of these efforts, she died on October 3 from renal and cardiac failure caused by disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (failure of the blood to clot properly) triggered by gas gangrene from a criminal abortion. She left behind a four-year-old daughter.

The initial response of the abortion lobby to news of Rosie's death was little short of euphoric. They had their trophy, their dead woman whose story they could leverage, they hoped, into the restoration of tax money flowing into abortion clinics. They've never stopped using Rosie's death to advocate for cheap, readily available abortions.

A Voice in the Wilderness

One voice stood out from the crowd: Ellen Frankfort, author of Rosie: the investigation of a wrongful death. Frankfort was disgusted with the bulk of the prochoice movement, who seemed content to make note of Rosie's death and then milk it for political gain. She began an investigation into what had led Rosie to her death, and she found a lot that neither the Centers for Disease Control nor abortion advocacy organizations had been willing to look for, since all they'd wanted was political leverage. They weren't looking for the real culprit behind Rosie's death: they'd had a bogeyman in mind even before she'd died, in the form of Henry Hyde.

Off to McAllen Frankfort went, to learn all she could.

The Whole Story

Rosie was one of 12 children of migrant farm workers. A single mother on welfare, she and a friend, Diana Rivera, moved into adjacent apartments to encourage each other to complete schooling and build better lives for themselves and their young children. Rosie planned to become a special education teacher.

Rosie's efforts to better her life, however, did not extend to her choice in men. Her long term boyfriend, Jesse, was in prison. 

Rosie had already undergone two abortions at taxpayer expense, one performed by her private ob/gyn, the second at a facility Rosie had been referred to by a local Planned Parenthood. She had become pregnant prior to both of these abortions after stopping her birth control pills on the advice of a physician.

In September of 1977, she suspected that she was again pregnant, and consulted with a cousin and a friend, who told her that Medicaid would no longer pay for elective abortions.

Rosie had also gone to her family physician, Dr. Homer, for treatment of pain in her sternum on September 19. She mentioned that she might be pregnant. He did not arrange for a pregnancy test or discuss her options with her in any way, but simply informed her that Medicaid would no longer pay for abortions, and let it rest at that. A referral seemed to have been in order, either to a prolife center that would help her with the expenses of continuing the pregnancy, or to the local Planned Parenthood, that could arrange an abortion on a sliding scale and could possibly help her tap into private funds for elective abortions. Dr. Homer effectively abandoned his patient.

The week of September 19, Rosie went to Reynosa, Mexico for some sort of injection to cause an abortion. She had the injection at a pharmacy, and paid $5. When the first injection didn't have the desired effect she returned for a second one. This one left her experiencing nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and fainting but failed to dislodge the fetus.

On September 25, Rosie consulted with her cousin, saying that she wanted to find a cheap abortionist quickly. At 7:00 that evening Rosie's cousin brought her to Maria Pineda, a lay midwife in McAllen, who charged $120 to insert a catheter into Rosie's uterus. Fifteen minutes later, she sent Rosie home.

Rosie had pain and cramping upon returning home. Over the next 12 hours, she developed an increasing fever, and had nausea, vomiting, chills, dizziness, and increasing vaginal bleeding. The next afternoon, Rosie was unable to get out of bed. She asked a friend to take her to the hospital where in spite of heroic efforts, doctors were unable to save her life.

The Reaction

Even the Centers for Disease Control, supposedly politically neutral public servants, were poised to place blame on the Hyde Amendment for whatever ill-advised decisions were made in its wake. Rosie's doctors reported the death to the CDC, the CDC notified their allies in the abortion lobby, and Rosie's death was quickly trumpeted nationwide as proof that Henry Hyde was a murderer and taxpayers should immediately resume funding elective abortions to prevent another such death. 

What is particularly telling in Rosie's death is that prochoice groups had been very successful in spreading the word that public funding for abortion had been cut -- Rosie's friend and cousin, as well as her physician, were well aware of this fact -- but they had pointedly failed to also pass out the word that Planned Parenthood still referred for abortions on a sliding scale, and that private funds were available. It's almost as if the public-relations departments of Planned Parenthood and other abortion-advocacy groups had deliberately increased the odds of a tragedy like Rosie's death in order to provide the corpses needed in order to prop up a drive to restore tax monies to abortion facilities. Again, this is a clear example of operational preparation of the environment.

Frankfort was particularly disgusted with the response of public health officials, who likewise simply announced Rosie's death and began a call to restore abortion funding, but made no effort to close down the illegal abortion practice where Rosie had undergone her fatal abortion. 

Frankfort took it upon herself to orchestrate a sting. She coordinated a dramatic raid, in partnership with Rosie's close friend Diana Rivera, that put the lay abortionist out of business.

The Sting

In June of 1978, nine months after Rosie's death, Diana, accompanied by a friend, went to Pineda's house. The friend was wearing a concealed microphone. Ellen Frankfort and Frances Kissing, then head of the National Abortion Federation, along with a Dallas television crew, listened in from a station wagon parked outside. 

Diana said that she was pregnant, needed to get an abortion quickly before her father found out she was pregnant, and couldn't afford to go to a doctor. Pineda quoted a price of $125 -- $5 more than she'd charged Rosie -- and told Diana to return at 1:30 the following afternoon.

Diana returned the next day, wired with the microphone. She paid the midwife using marked bills.

Pineda took her into a room with a cot and a bed and locked the door. Medical instruments were sitting in a jar of dirty water. Diana later said that she was crying and shaking, thinking of how just nine months ago her dear friend had sat in that same room, looking at those same dirty instruments, and had gone through with the abortion that ended her life.

To stall for time, Diana asked Pineda to describe what she was going to do. Pineda said that she would insert what Diana described as a filthy red rubber hose, which would cause bleeding. Like many safe-and-legal abortionists, Rivera instructed Diana to return to her rather than go to a doctor if she suffered complications. In the event that she did end up seeing a doctor, Rivera told her, make sure she claimed that she'd gotten her illegal abortion in Mexico. She then told Diana to take off her clothes and lie down on the bed.

That was when Kissling, listening from the station wagon, ran to a phone booth to call the police.

When the police arrived, Rivera hid the catheter in her bra and pushed her instruments and patient into a bathroom. Police still arrested her, along with the women who had orchestrated the sting. They were questioned for hours but finally released. Diana later said that when she was sitting in the police station, she cried and cried, saying "Rosie, we got her."

A Disappointing Outcome

Diana's excitement was short-lived. Rivera, who had killed a woman by performing a criminal abortion, was only convicted of practicing medicine without a license. This was a mere Class A misdemeanor. She served three days in jail and paid a $100 fine -- less than she'd charged Rosie for the abortion that had killed her.


"The FIRST!" Of how many?

And what of the hysteria? Had it been justified? Was Rosie's death the first of a new trend of women dead from being "forced" to resort to criminal abortionists?

There was indeed a small spike in reported illegal abortion deaths after the Hyde Amendment (from 2 in 1976 to 4 in 1977 to 7 in 1978). But there was likewise a spike in reported legal abortion deaths as well -- a far larger spike, from 11 in 1976 to 15 in 1977, falling to 8 in 1978. (I don't believe that the CDC's reported death numbers are accurate, but they're all we have to work with, and more to the point, abortion supporters place great faith in them.)

Despite predictions of a surge in carnage from criminal abortions, a study by the Centers for Disease Control, "The Effect of Restricting Public Funds for Legal Abortion," found "no evidence of a statistically significant increase in the number of complications from illegal abortions." In fact, they found that while there was no change in the illegal abortion complications, there was a significant decrease in publicly funded hospitalizations for legal abortion complications in cities where funding was restricted, compared to cities in areas where state or local government picked up the tab for elective abortions.

In other words, cutting funds for elective abortions actually had a measurable positive impact: Fewer women were ending up hospitalized for complications of elective abortions. Which strikes me as a good thing, personally. But the CDC remained adamantly in favor of funding elective abortions, asserting in the 1977 Abortion Surveillance Summary, "For at least 1 woman, the non-availability of public funds led to a situation in which she was forced to choose the less-safe illegal abortion because of financial factors." Like the abortion lobby they serve, they never took into account that Rosie had the money to pay for a legal abortion, available on a sliding scale. They especially never considered the possibility that Rosie could get support to continue both her pregnancy and her education. 

The Verdict

So was Rosie's death a fluke? Probably not. The heavy publicity put out by the prochoice movement about how poor women would be "forced" to resort to dangerous criminal abortions probably left Rosie, and some others like her, with the mistaken impression that criminal abortion (rather than birth or even sliding-scale legal abortion) was their only option. Only after the sting, when Frankfort and Rosie's friends banded together, were abortion funds publicized and new ones started. While I recognize the noble motives of women such as Rosie's friends, I retain cynicism about the motives of abortion-rights organizations, for whom these funds serve to funnel money into the pockets of their major donors -- abortion practitioners.

I agree with abortion advocates that the death of Rosie Jimenez was avoidable. But I disagree with them that lack of public funding was to blame. Prochoice organizations had ample opportunity to tout other resources. Prochoice people all around Rosie had opportunities to steer her toward a "safe and legal" abortion, had they chosen to do so. Not a one of them did. And the bigger problem was that nobody ever seemed to entertain the notion that abortion might not be the answer in the first place.

What's additionally puzzling about this whole turn of events is that the facility to which Planned Parenthood referred abortion patients charged only $130 for an abortion for poor women, just $10 more than Rosie paid for the amateur abortion that took her life. 

It's difficult to believe that a $10 price difference put the legal abortion out of Rosie's reach, especially if we consider that the day before her abortion she'd spent $8 on a cake for a friend's baby shower, and when she died she had a $800 scholarship check in her purse. In spite of her friend Diana's urging, Rosie refused to use any money from that check. Diana said that she'd offered to help Rosie come up with the money for a non-subsidized abortion, perhaps with a bake sale. But Rosie had for some reason rejected this help and had gone to Rivera while Diana was out of town visiting her mother.

Rosie Jimenez remains a poster child of the abortion lobby. Their own role in her death is never acknowledged. Henry Hyde is blamed instead -- in spite of his key role in passing a law that reduced abortion injuries among women like Rosie, and in reducing complications, surely also reduced abortion deaths -- in spite of the abortion lobby's best efforts.

As recently as 2021, the abortion lobby put Rosie's daughter on the front page in an effort to promote the abortion lobby. They claim that their motive is to prevent unsafe abortions, but given their appalling opposition to any efforts to ensure that legal abortions are performed safely, I doubt their motives.

Remember, the abortion lobby ignores the 15 safe-and-legal abortion deaths they counted for 1977. They may or may not include any of the five women whose 1977 deaths I've covered:
  • Mary Paredez, who bled to death in the hospital where her abortion had been performed.  The Centers for Disease Control, in reviewing deaths like Mary's, noted that, "Deaths from hemorrhage associated with legal induced abortion should not occur." In every hemorrhage death they investigated, "Lack of adequate postoperative monitoring or treatment of hemorrhagic shock" was a factor. Mary was in a hospital. What excuse do they have for letting her bleed out?
  • Louchrisser Jackson, who bled to death from a safe and legal abortion in Texas. The abortionist dragged his feet in treating the hemorrhage. First, instead of calling EMS and having her taken to the hospital, he ordered blood for a transfusion and waited for it to be delivered. Then, instead of calling EMS and having her taken to a hospital, he tried to give her a transfusion with his own blood, which was not a compatible blood type. Then, instead of calling EMS, he called a private ambulance service that was not designated for emergency calls but rather for routine transfers, and didn't tell them that the call was an emergency. Louchrisser was already in cardiac arrest by the time they arrived, so rather than wait for an EMS ambulance they began providing care and transported her to the hospital immediately, but by that point it was too late to save her. Hers was another totally avoidable hemorrhage death from a legal abortion.
  • NAF Member: Hope Clinic for Women
    Barbaralee Davis, who was sent home from a National Abortion Federation clinic with the face and spine of her dead baby embedded in a tear in her uterus. She was pale and weak, with low blood pressure and other signs of hemorrhage when she was discharged. Like Mary and Louchrisser, Barbaralee needlessly bled to death. The CDC did analyze her death in their 1977 Abortion Surveillance Summary, but did nothing to publicize that a National Abortion Federation clinic was so dangerously slipshod in their patient care. 
  • Mary Ann Page, who went into cardiac arrest during a combination abortion and tubal ligation
  • Jacqueline Bailey, who lay crying out for help and writhing in pain in a California abortion hospital, where nurses just closed the door to her room instead of attending to her. By the time a nurse decided to take her seriously, she was unresponsive. They called an ambulance to transport her to a fully equipped hospital, but it was too late to save her life. Her cries of agony were because her uterus had torn open, and she was left to bleed out. Like Mary, Louchrisser, and Barbaralee, Jacqueline bled to death needlessly.
They also ignore the seven safe-and-legal deaths they counted for 1978, a death count that may or may not include the ones I know about:
  • Minnie Lathan, who died after her bowel was punctured during a combination abortion and tubal ligation
  • Marina Deschapell, who died after a safe and legal abortion in a clinic owned and operated by an erstwhile criminal abortionist. She stopped breathing due to a reaction to the anesthetic drugs, and the facility did not have proper equipment to resuscitate her.
  • Gail Mazo, who died after an abortion at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York
  • Elizabeth Tsuji, who was one of five women to die from botched abortions at Inglewood Women's Hospital
  • Belinda Byrd, who also died from a botched abortion at Inglewood Women's Hospital. Belinda was the 69th of 74 women that Stephen Pine rushed through Inglewood's single procedure room. Afterwards she was weak and reporting that her legs were numb, but Pine had already left the facility so there was no doctor present to look after her. When she stopped breathing, staff performed CPR for two hours before calling an ambulance to take her to a properly equipped hospital. She arrived there already brain dead and remained in a coma until life support was discontinued. She had bled out from a hole in her uterus. Like Mary, Louchrisser, Barbaralee, and Jacqueline, Belinda needlessly bled to death.
  • Sherry Emry, who died because of slipshod procedures. After an abortion, the contents of the suction container are supposed to be examined to ensure that all of the fetal parts are accounted for. If there are no fetal parts, this is a sign that the woman actually has an ectopic pregnancy. But clinic owner Arnold Bickham just had his staff throw the contents of the containers away. They failed to diagnose the ectopic pregnancy, which later ruptured, causing Sherry to bleed to death needlessly, just like Mary, Louchrisser, Barbaralee, Jacqueline, and Belinda. Bickham himself later plunked a hemorrhaging teenage abortion patient into a wheelchair and shoved her out the door to bleed to death.
  • Gloria Small, who went to an Orlando facility operated by Dr. Ronald Tauber, who besides being a seedy abortionist also turned out to be a dangerous pedophile. Tauber kept patients overnight, so the place looked like a hospital, but it was actually just his private practice, a doctor's office not subject to state oversight. Tauber punctured Gloria's uterus during the abortion. Instead of identifying and addressing the cause of his patient's bleeding, Tauber packed Gloria's uterus with medical gauze and kept her overnight. He did not transfer Gloria to a hospital until 30 hours after she had been injured. She died despite an emergency hysterectomy. Like Mary, Louchrisser, Barbaralee, Jacqueline, Belinda, and Sherry, Gloria bled to death needlessly. 
With the Centers for Disease Control saying that there's no legitimate reason for a woman to bleed to death from a legal abortion, it strikes me as disturbing that of the 12 deaths I know about in a 2-year period, seven of them bled to death. But since those deaths can't be blamed, however tangentially, on abortion laws, we're supposed to turn a blind eye and instead stick with the narrative.


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