Some folks have argued that women's abortion deaths, even when caused by gross malpractice by abortionists, aren't a sign of widespread problems. These guys are just bad apples. Are they?
The National Abortion Federation is the abortion equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. They advertise that their members meet the highest standards. They -- and other prochoice folks and groups -- urge abortion-minded women to call the NAF hotline to get a referral to a safe, high-quality abortion provider. Well, the truth is that to be a NAF member, you don't need to meet any standards of care. You only have to pay dues. Pay those dues and no matter how big a quack you are, NAF will refer women to you and assure those women that you are a high-quality practitioner. Here's some food for thought:
Steir and NAF in Perspective reflects on how many NAF practitioners admitted to dangerous practices even after one of their number had been scolded for endangering patients' lives.
Who Do You Believe? contrasts what NAF says and what they do.
Ignorance and Mushrooms Grow Best in the Dark looks at how NAF keeps information away from their hotline counselors in order to ensure that callers are kept in the dark about what goes on inside member facilities.
Eighteen-year-old Barbaralee Davis was the first woman to die of abortion complications in member facility of the then newly-formed NAF. She was far from the last.
Fifteen-year-old Sara Niebel died after an abortion at NAF member Midtown Hospital.
Despite the fact that he was responsible for the death of 28-year-old Linda Padfield, Benjamin Munson was welcomed into NAF. He went on to perform a fatal abortion on 18-year-old Yvonne Mesteth.
Twenty-year-old Gloria Aponte died after an abortion by NAF member Hanan Rotem.
Eighteen-year-old Christi Stile was left in a vegetative state after an abortion at NAF member facility Mayfair Women's Clinic. She'd been referred there by Planned Parenthood.
Seventeen-year-old Sophie McCoy died after an abortion by NAF member Abu Hayat, who is best known for having ripped the arm off a 32-week-fetus, Ana Rosa Rodriguez, who was then born live and maimed.
NAF member Curtis Boyd performed the fatal abortion on 22-year-old Vanessa Preston.
NAF member facility Atlanta Women's Pavillion managed to fatally injure two teenage girls, Angela Scott and Deloris Smith, in the same hour.
NAF member facility Easter Women's Center is responsible for the deaths of 13-year-old Dawn Ravenell, 21-year-old Dawn Mack, and Venus Ortiz, who was 23 years old when her abortion left her comatose until her death six years later.
NAF member Robert Crist has three patient deaths to his discredit: 17-year-old Latachie Veal, 22-year-old Nichole Williams, and 19-year-old Diane Boyd.
And the following women and girls died after abortions at the largest NAF member, the Family Planning Associates chain of abortion facilities:
Thirteen-year-old Deanna Bell
Seventeen-year-old Laniece Dorsey
Sixteen-year-old Patricia Chacon
Kimberly Neil
Forty-three-year-old Mary Pena
Thirty-year-old Susan Levy
Thirty-seven-year-old Josefina Garcia
Nineteen-year-old Tami Suematsu
Thirty-two-year-old Joyce Ortenzio
Eighteen-year-old Christine Mora
FPA had been permitted to join NAF even though 24-four-year-old Denise Holmes had already died under their care.
Most recently, a 19-year-old developmentally-disabled woman I call "Myra" Roe died after an abortion at NAF member George Tiller's famous late-abortion facility in Wichita.
If prochoice activists put half the effort into exposing NAF that they put into attacking prolife CPCs, imagine how much safer women would be! But the main priority of prochoice efforts isn't protecting women's lives; it's protecting the practice of abortion.
Totally unrelated to abortion, just letting people in Johnstown, PA, know about a local bad apple: Jeff Minana. Check him out carefully before having anything to do with him.
I think it's terrible that sometimes women die from abortion procedures, just like, sometimes women die in childbirth.
ReplyDeleteHowever, for example, a clinic like Family Planning sees tons and tons of patients with nothing but glowing things to say about the place. I'm curious the time span of these deaths? 9 deaths in a year would be reallly really reallllllllly bad, but if that is over, say, 15 or 30, you have to take into account that small percentage of women suffer unfortunate complications and die.
Also I would just like to go on the record saying that Dr Boyd is a great doctor, and like your link says, wrote an article about it warning other doctors about the, at the time, unknown blood clotting issue. He really does care about providing the best care to women possible.