Educate yourself!

Want a good background on abortion in the US before Roe? Read about the 1955 Planned Parenthood Federation of America Conference on Abortion.

The conference covers abortion practice in the Scandinavian countries -- at the time, a model for what advocates of legalization wanted in the US, and a far cry from what they got. It also covers both legal and illegal abortion issues in the US.

Knowledge is power!

Define "Adequate Access"

Think a moment about what situation would lead an ordinary prochoice citizen to be concerned about women having "adequate access" to abortion. Then read What's 'Adequate Access' to Abortion and see if you agree with Planned Parenthood. Their complaint? That the District of Columbia does not provide "adequate access."

Tiller patient dies

Operation Rescue West reports that the patient rushed to the hospital from George Tiller's abortion facility has died:

Operation Rescue received information from two independent sources that a patient of abortionist George Tiller has died. The woman was transported by ambulance from the abortion clinic owned by late-term abortionist George Tiller to Wesley Medical Center on January 13. ....

According to one insider, Tiller’s patient arrived at the hospital with “severe hemorrhaging” and died “a few days later” from undetermined causes but the source said, “are very likely to be the result of a botched abortion.” ....

This is the fourth documented ambulance run from Tillers abortion mill to Wesley Hospital in the last 13 months. (June 04, Sept. 04, Jan. 05)

"I question the judgment of Governor Sebelius in vetoing the clinic regulation act. That statue could very well have prevented this needless and tragic death. Our prayer of concern and sympathy go out to the family and loved ones for the untimely death of mother and child." -Troy Newman, president, Operation Rescue

"We call upon the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, which is overseen by the Governor’s office, to quickly investigate this tragic and needless death, and, in the interest of public safety, to suspend the medical license of George Tiller until a full investigation is complete." -Cheryl Sullenger, Operation Rescue Outreach Coordinator

I'll refrain from commentary until the details come out.

West Coast Walk For Life

Free Republic brings pictures and commentary. Amazing turnout! And LOVE those "Women Deserve Better" signs! Go, FFL!

Hern furious over fetal funeral

The Denver Post reports that Colorado abortionist Warren Hern has his boxers in a twist over the revelation that a local Catholic church has been secretly receiving and burying the remains of fetuses killed at Hern's facility. Read: Abortion doctor: Mortuary broke pact.

Hern indicates that he thought the mortuary would privately bury the remains without holding a religious ceremony. But the mortuary wasn't performing the ceremony; the church was.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Hern and his staff are distressed by the late abortions they perform: Hern reported that his staff have nightmares and feelings of guilt and obsession, and he himself commented, "No one who has not performed this procedure can know what it is like or what it means; but having performed it, we are bewildered by the possibilities of interpretation. We have reached a point in this particular technology where there is no possibility of denial of an act of destruction by the operator. It is before one’s eyes. The sensations of dismemberment flow through the forceps like an electric current." (Read: The Nightmares of Choice,)

So somewhere in their hardened hearts is the realization that they're killing babies. Let's pray that this seed of compassion grows and they turn away from their business of death.

More trouble for abortionist in New Jersey

According to a new LifeNews report, New Jersey abortionist Flavious Thompson is in more trouble. First, his receptionist got caught selling abortions after hours at his facility. Now, he's been caught flushing aborted fetuses down the toilet.

Detective Lawrence Doyle ...charged Thompson with the crimes just days after his receptionist Liza Berdiel was charged with three counts of performing abortions without a medical license, theft and forgery. Thompson had alerted police to Berdiel's actions, which occurred at his Pleasant Women's Pavilion abortion facility. After he notified authorities of the injections, police issued a search warrant for the abortion business and found the additional problems, according to the Asbury newspaper.....Thompson also operates an abortion center in Trenton, the state capital.

Looking good at UNICEF!

According to a new LifeNews report, the new UNICEF director wants to move away from abortion advocacy and go back to the business of preventing childhood hunger and disease. Yay!

Outgoing U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman will take over at UNICEF after being nominated by President Bush for the post. ....On Tuesday, Veneman said at a press conference that she wants UNICEF to champion "an agenda of helping children, particularly in the areas of education and health and to address the issues of hunger and malnutrition." Asked by a reporter about "reproductive health" issues, she responded: "I don't believe that these issues are relevant to the missions of UNICEF."

Receptionist turns abortionist in New Jersey

A LifeSite News report, Abortion Practitioner's Receptionist Charged With Injecting Abortion Drug, informs us that Liza Berdiel, who works at Pleasant Woman's Pavilion, was doing after-hours chemical abortions via injection. The physician whose prescription pad she was using, Flavius Thompson, is being questioned but not charged.

LaQuinta Helps Tiller

Prolifers in Wichita are starting to hold LaQuinta accountable for giving discounts to women using their motel to undergo their abortions. Read the details in La Quinta Inns Aiding Late-Term Abortions Sparks National Pro-Life Boycott from LifeSite News.

The prolifers claim:

Tiller uses the motel to as a "labor annex" to his abortion facility. At La Quinta Inn, Tiller is "maintaining a full-time nursing staff on site to monitor the women who have begun the 3-4 day abortion process, and even dispensing medication."

Let's face it -- LaQuinta is actively assisting Tiller in his abortion business by providing what he's using as hospital rooms. There have been reports of women expelling their dead babies there.

This is one boycott I have to say I back 100%. Would YOU want to stay at this hotel for any reason other than to try to reach these women before it's too late?

School releases 13-year-old to bf's mom for abortion

On Friday morning, July 30, 2004, Diana Lopez, a divorced mother of four young children, was awakened by a phone call. The call was from a staff member at the middle school that her two oldest children attend, Memorial Academy in San Diego. Lopez recounted that the staff member told her that her 13-year-old daughter had been taken to the hospital because she was bleeding. Lopez states that when she asked what had happened to her daughter, the staff member's response was that they didn't know and that her daughter's boyfriend's mother had come to take her to the hospital.

When Ms. Lopez sorted the mess out, she found out that the school had released her daughter to the mother of the child's 13-year-old boyfriend so she could be taken for an abortion.

San Diego News Notes reports on this story: Mother Not Told of Thirteen-Year-Old's Abortion .

How did I know this was Brigham?

I saw the headline, "Abortion Facility in Erie, Pennsylvania Expected to Reopen Soon," and just knew Steven Chase Brigham was at it again.

Brigham just doesn't seem to get that he's not welcome in Pennsylvania. Prolife and prochoice activists actually worked together to get him run out of Pennsylania back in 1991.

Docs show prejudice against babies w/Down

In this press release, Children's Hospital Boston reports the results of a survey showing that mothers of babies with Down Syndrome are distressed by the prejudice their obstetricians show toward their infants.

The survey asked mothers about their experiences with physicians telling them of their child's diagnosis. From the press release:

Mothers were frequently advised to put up their child for adoption, or chided for not having prenatal testing, the survey found. Some mothers received the news too soon, such as while having episiotomies stitched up. While the worst reported instances came from the 1980s and earlier, and physicians improved over time, mothers still described insensitive comments as recently as the late 1990s and early 2000s. A mother in 1997, for example, heard a doctor refer to her newborn as an "FLK" ("funny-looking kid"); another who gave birth in 2000 reported, "The doctor flat out told my husband that this could have been prevented or discontinued at an earlier stage of the pregnancy."

"Doctors have gotten better over time, but it's been a very slow change, and they've really gone from terrible to just bad," says Skotko, who has a 24-year-old sister with Down syndrome and co-authored the award-winning book, Common Threads: Celebrating Life with Down Syndrome (Band of Angels Press). "Finding out a diagnosis of Down syndrome does not have to be a horrible process. In fact, the mothers in this study explain how physicians can make it a positive experience. We hope this paper will be a catalyst for increased dialogue among doctors."

Tiller patient rushed to hospital

Operation Rescue West published this report of a patient being rushed to the hospital via ambulance from Tiller's mill in Wicheta.

As an EMT, and as somebody who has provided abortion malpractice litigation support, I'd like to comment on some of Op-R West's coverage:

With sirens blaring and emergency lights flashing, an ambulance rushed an injured woman to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita...

Lights and sirens does not necessarily indicate that the woman's life was in danger. They indicate that the event met the protocols for lights and sirens, which would include mere suspicion of a life-threatening injury. I myself have run lights and sirens with a patient who was care-flighted to a trauma center, but who turned out to have only minor injuries. If the MOI (Mechanism of Injury) can cause a life-threatening injury, EMS workers treat the patient as if she has a life-threatening injury until a qualified emergency physician rules out that possibility. So in this case, the lights and sirens might have only indicated that Tiller was erring on the side of caution with this patient.

"They almost caused an accident at the intersection," said witness Brenna Sullenger, who filmed the arrival of the ambulance at Wesley. "They were in a big hurry."

Ambulance crashes are the number one cause of death among EMS workers. One cause of these crashes is running with lights and sirens! They reduce the drivers' ability to notice other traffic. They also give the drivers a false sense of security, leading them to take unnecessary risks when driving. So this is not a reflection of the seriousness of the patient's injuries. It's a reflection on the training and skills of that particular ambulance driver.


...Edna Roach, a nurse's assistant who often escorts injured women to the hospital from the mill...was observed to carry medical files into the Emergency Room in an apparent effort to expedite the intake process.


I'm not sure what to make of this. When we transported patients from outpatient facilities, usually the physician would call the recieving hospital and fill the staff in on what was happening with the patient. Having staff get to the hospital ahead of the patient does provide the patient with a sense that she is being looked after rather than shunted off -- which is both sound bedside manner and one of Warren Hern's hints for avoiding being sued by an injured patient. I can't think of any medical reason for this.

"As I pulled into the hospital parking lot, the EMTs were unloading the woman from the ambulance. ...they appeared very grim and in a very big rush to get the woman inside. She was covered with a blanket."

This could be due to the serious nature of the patient's injuries, due to a wish to get her inside quickly to protect her privacy, or due to a simple wish to finish the run quickly.

Tiller arrived a few minutes later in his armored Jeep, driven by another employee, Sara Phares.

This would make sense if Tiller transferred her with the intention of treating her himself. If so, this is actually a medically sound move on his part, willingness to brave bad publicity in order to treat his patient in a more suitable location. Michael Burnhill, erstwhile Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, used to scold Steve Lichtenberg for treating potentially dangerous complications on-site.

Meanwhile, back at the abortion mill, Pro-life witnesses observed one of Tiller’s security guards expelling a KNSS (radio) reporter from their parking lot in an effort to institute a media blackout of this story.

Actually, any medical facility will try to divert media attention in the name of patient privacy.

As much as I loathe what Tiller does and all that he stands for, the only fault I can find with him surrounding this event is that he was evidently at least preparing to do an abortion on this woman. She might well have suffered an attack of a pre-existing condition while on-site. To retain our credibility, we have to be careful to report carefully and not rush to judgment. Yes, he has no business slaying fetuses for politics and profit. But if he's convinced that he was doing this woman a favor by "treating" her, his handling of the emergency so far raises no eyebrows, just mild curiosity as to the reason for Edna Roach's early arrival at the emergency room.

Are abortions used for birth control?

Depending on how you define using abortion as birth control, the answer ranges from, "Most of the time" to "Almost half the time." But it's always, "Yes."

Head to "After Abortion"

Today's After Abortion blog is chock-full of great stuff. The Operation Outcry: Silent No More folks have been invited to the First Lady's Innagural Tea. There's an update on a beautiful child who was almost aborted but is now dancing in her fancy dress. And more excellent commentary on the "I Had an Abortion" shirts. Head on over!

You tell 'em, Father Frank!

Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life gives this response to the January 2005 Boston Magazine Online story, "Confessions of an Abortion Doctor."

This abortionist admits, "I have the utmost respect for life; I appreciate that life starts early in the womb, but also believe that I'm ending it for good reasons." ....[D]oesn't this abortionist realize that the words of those who kill people like her are simply an echo of her own? They say, "I have the utmost respect for life...but also believe that I'm ending it for good reasons."

Amen!

10 Warning Signs

Abstracting abortion injury cases has taught me patterns about how to spot a seedy clinic or quack abortionist. Please remember, though, that you enter any abortion facility at your own risk. Just because you don't notice any of these signs doesn't mean the place is necessarily safe. It's just that these particular signs should set alarm bells ringing in your head about the place.

Some of these things might seem so outrageous you'd wonder how anyplace could operate doing these things. And you might marvel that women don't just turn around and walk out when they see some of these things. All I can say to that is that I've seen the documentation myself. Many women dismiss their fears about the clinic or the doctor because they assume that somebody must be overseeing the place, or it wouldn't be operating openly. This is not necessarily the case.

1. The person who answers the phone when you call for an appointment verifies your pregnancy, and tells you how many weeks pregnant you are.
2. The prolifers outside are handing out copies of lawsuits against the facility or the doctor.
3. You are asked for payment in full up front, before any examination or counseling has been done.
4. You get vague, reassuring answers to your questions.
5. You hear other patients moaning and/or screaming.
6. The facility appears dirty and/or disorganized.
7. There is a putrid, rotting smell.
8. The procedure room is not private.
9. The abortionist can't immediately answer a question like, "Where did you go to medical school?"
10. When you call for follow-up, you can't get through to a human being that will listen to you and take you seriously.

For the full story, see 10 Warning Signs About Abortion Facilities

Speaking of warnings, on a more local note, people in Johnstown, PA, should be wary of doing business with Jeffrey A. Minana.

Abortion dividing Democrats

"Leading Democrats are still no closer to choosing a new chairman and abortion continues to be a controversial issue in the race to become the next head of the DNC," says Steve Ertelt

Finally the Democratic party is starting to see that a rabid pro-abortion platform is hurting them. If they wise up, this is bad news for Republicans, who might lose part of the edge a prolife record gives at the polls. It's a good sign for the country overall, though, indicating that rank-and-file Democrats are fed up with the lies about the abortion advocates' real agenda. Yay!

Exactly how does this threaten "abortion rights?"

Abortion advocates have their panties in a knot over a proposed Oregon law, modeled on California's 30-year-old law, that would make killing an unborn child during an assault on the mother a separate crime with a separate victim.

California, where roughly 20% of the nation's abortions take place every year, has had a fetal homicide law on the books for 30 years. There's no evidence that it's used against abortionists, even in cases where the abortionist is charged with murder for the death of the mother! Once she consents to the abortion, no crime can be committed against the fetus.

So what's the real problem here? I think it's that the abortion advocates simply can't stomach the idea that anybody could consider the death of a fetus to be a human death. No matter what the mother of the child thinks, they're gonna deny the humanity of that child. The mother can choose to have the child thrown away, but can't decide that it deserves to be protected by law. So much for allowing the woman to decide the moral status of the fetus!

Where are the prochoice on elective amputations?

There are people in the world who want healthy limbs amputated, some of whom will go to great lengths to achieve this goal, sometimes dying in the attempt. If the prochoice movement is indeed about doing whatever one wants with one's body, then sooner or later they're going to have to deal with the growing problem of apotemnophilia -- the desire to amputate a healthy limb.

Not really on topic, but...

... I can't resist sharing this odd little item by clicking a button on the bottom of one of those "Isnt' abortion just SUCH a wonderful expression of the feminine?" websites.

Gosh, how did I ever live without one of these?

If you live in Johnstown, PA, you might be curious about Jeff Minana.

Coathanger Abortion: Powerful image, but how true to life?

One of the strongest images in the abortion-advocacy arsenal is that of the desperate woman who, unable to arrange a legal abortion, harms or even kills herself in an attempt to do the abortion herself. There is no denying that some pregnant women attempt, and even die from, grotesque attacks on their own reproductive organs. But is this phenomenon really a sociological problem, caused by lack of "access" to legal abortion? Or is there something else going on?

Research and experience in the US and abroad, before and after legalization, indicates that the vast majority of abortion-minded women readily come to accept the pregnancy and welcome the baby if thwarted in their initial attempt to procure an abortion. What these women need isn't abortion -- it's an opportunity to get past the initial panic, a chance to resolve their real problems and issues, time to process in their hearts and minds the monumental reality of their pregnancies.

Which means that "prochoice" organizations and legislators are placing the ideology of hard-core abortion advocates over the real needs and wishes of the very women they're purporting to serve.

Drumming up business

There's a bawdy old song, sung to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean:"

My mother sells used prophylactics
She punctures each one with a pin
My father sells cut-rate abortions
And my! How the money rolls in!

Evidently it's not purely sick humor. It's a business plan for Planned Parenthood.

Rethinking coma and PVS

We've been taught to think of a coma as a state of unconsciousness from which a patient can not be aroused. But for the past twenty-plus years, a few innovative doctors and facilities have been working from another paradigm: of coma as a state of unconscousness from which the patient has not yet been aroused. Therein can lie the difference between life and death.

With so many people agitating for the deaths of patients like Terri Schiavo, it's about time we look again about how "hopeless" their situations really are or aren't.

California codifies "Keep parents ignorant" policy

Well, now in California it's not just a school's option to keep parents in the dark about their underage daughters' abortions. It's mandatory.

According to a FoxNews article, "State Attorney Gen. Bill Lockyer (search), a Democrat, said the legislation was meant for the small number of children coping with rape or incest who probably wouldn’t be able to talk to a parent but need some way to seek help."

Excuse me? If the girl is dealing with rape or incest, she needs serious intervention. How does doing a secret abortion, then returning her home for more abuse, help?

Child abusers and "funny uncles" all over California are no doubt applauding the new law. Now there will be even less chance that somebody in a troubled girl's life will be helping her to get out of an abusive situation. "You rape 'em, we scrape 'em," is now the official motto of the California public schools.

Peeking in the fridge

Yuck! No matter how much Americans might disagree about abortion, we can probably agree that abortion clinics ought not to be allowed to serve food.

The fridge at the practice of Benjamin P. Thamrong held some interesting items. It contained: expired medications, three syringes, a dirty carving knife, a specimen envelope containing a tube of blood collected 22 days earlier, one mostly-eaten salad, one partially-empty bottle each of Coca Cola and Sunkist soda, a bottle of Yoo Hoo, a half-full bottle of Riuniti peach wine, and a quarter-full bottle of Asti Spumanti with a paper towel stuffed in the top.

Aside from the question of why medical specimens and staff lunches were kept in the same fridge, I couldn't figure out if this guy was a tasteless tippler, or a dropout from the Belfast School of Bartending. And who, pray tell, was slurping down Riuniti on the premises of a medical practice? And was this imbibing taking place before or after the patients were led into the unsavory procedure room?

The Voodoo Abortionists

When called before the medical board in 1986, Dr. Judith Comeau-Samuel admitted to practices endangering the health of patients at her abortion clinics, but claimed that she had only done so because she was dominated by her husband and manipulated by him via voodoo.

Something I wondered, as I worked for Life Dynamics and read cases of abortionists that seemed to have gone off the deep end: Does abortion attract people who are already unhinged, or does it unhinge them after they've been involved with it for a while?