Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Two more non-dead non-women

This date, July 27, is the sad anniversary of the day two non-women didn't-die from safe-n-legal abortion.

I tried to write up these women's stories from the perspective of those who hold that only illegal abortions kill women, but it just doesn't work. These were real, living, breathing women and their families loved them. They had friends, hopes, dreams, and all of that was taken away from them. Those of you who refuse to let that fact enter your minds can go back to chanting "Safe-n-legal safe-n-legal safe-n-legal..." Those of you who can grasp reality can read on.

Eighteen-year-old Yvonne Corrie Mesteth was in the second trimester of pregnancy when she went to Dr. Benjamin Munson's office in Rapid City, South Dakota. Munson performed the abortion and sent Yvonne home. She developed infection, kidney failure, and respiratory distress syndrome. She died July 27, 1985. Yvonne was the second of two patients to die of infection after abortions by Munson. (The other was Linda Padfield, who died just short of five months after Roe vs. Wade magically made all abortion perfectly safe.) By the way, despite having done such a botch job on Linda's abortion that he was prosecuted for murder, Munson was welcomed into the National Abortion Federation. Isn't it great to know that prochoice groups like that are watching out for women?

The other death anniversary the abortion lobby wants to sweep under the rug is that of thirty-two-year-old Mary Ann Dancy. This mother of five went to Fleming Center in North Carolina for an abortion in 1990. The abortion was performed by Clarence J. Washington. After Mary Ann went home, she bled and was taken to Halifax Memorial Hospital. She died that night during emergency surgery from hemorrage due to a lacerated cervix.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since you like to throw irrelevant blame around- What about the many women from unsafe pregnancies who die because they carried to term- why don't YOU care about THEM!?!

Anonymous said...

All medical procedures carry risk, including abortion. Its ridiculous that you claim Roe would magically make a medical procedure completely safe- no law can do that...only safer.

BTW- prochoice groups also watch out for women by encouraging funding for prenatal care (makes pregnancy safer) as well as funding for birth control, which prevents pregnancies for those who CHOOSE not to become pregnant. We are looking out for women, so your little story is simply irrelevant & beside the point.

Christina Dunigan said...

Anon, childbirth safety isn't relevant, because it has no impact on how abortion is practiced. You might as well point to drunk driving deaths as an excuse for a pilot failing to get the wings de-iced before take-off.

As for what legalization did, how can removing the risk of jail time possibly make quacks be more careful? I know of three practitioners off the top of my head who had clean records as criminal abortionists -- not a single dead patient among them -- who each went on to kill TWO women in his legal abortion practice because he played Russian roulette with women's lives.

And I'd like to see some evidence of these prochoice groups doing diddly-squat to promote safe pregnancy. They're always agitating for more access to abortion. It's their answer to everything.