Don't Fear the Hanger

This excellent post by Chuffling Tiger is a must-read!

Traditionally, the coat hanger has been treated as a trump card for abortion-rights advocates the same way that fetal photographs (particularly of living babies) have been for pro-lifers.

Chuffling Tiger points out the underlying truths with which we rationally counter the irrational implications of the coathanger. She goes on:

These are all true, and I agree that it's important to speak out about these. But I think we've been missing something much bigger: coat hangers belong on the same shelf as the curettes and forceps. All of them kill unborn people and sometimes women as well. We can't treat illegal abortion as an undesired side effect of an otherwise ideal post-Roe America, and we can't dismiss it or minimize it. We can't remain defensive. We have to treat it as part of the problem and go after it just like we go after legal abortion.

Preach it, sister!

Go, now, everybody, and read the rest.

UPDATE: The link went dead, so I went to the Internet Archive and rescued Chuffing Tiger's words of wisdom:

01/30/06

09:28:25 pm, by leyan , 488 words, 198 views  
Categories: Politics and life issues

Don't fear the hanger

With January 21st, the anniversary of Roe v Wade, came everyone's favorite political image: the coat hanger. Counterprotesters made sure the famous symbol was on display wherever pro-lifers congregated, particularly in San Francisco at the remarkable Walk for Life West Coast.
Traditionally, the coat hanger has been treated as a trump card for abortion-rights advocates the same way that fetal photographs (particularly of living babies) have been for pro-lifers. Both stir the viewer's emotions in a way that words can't. It's hard to argue that a fetus isn't a person -- and, further, that it should be treated like a malignant growth -- when it looks a whole lot like a baby. And all but the most hard-hearted anti-abortion activists, when confronted with a wire weapon, will shudder, then offer one of the following defenses:

• "The number of women who sought illegal abortions - and died from them - are orders of magnitude less than NARAL tells you."
• "Most illegal abortions were performed by doctors in hospitals, not by back-alley butchers."
• "The development of antibiotics like penicillin did significantly more to reduce abortion mortality rates than Roe -- or any of its predecessors on the state level -- did."

These are all true, and I agree that it's important to speak out about these. But I think we've been missing something much bigger: coat hangers belong on the same shelf as the curettes and forceps. All of them kill unborn people and sometimes women as well. We can't treat illegal abortion as an undesired side effect of an otherwise ideal post-Roe America, and we can't dismiss it or minimize it. We can't remain defensive. We have to treat it as part of the problem and go after it just like we go after legal abortion.
Imagine if we could take back the coat hanger. Imagine if we could splash it on posters and proclaim: "We don't want this either!" We would have so much to gain. By demonstrating that illegal abortion is not a "side effect" of pro-life laws but instead a problem to be solved, we'd show our peers on the fence that we are realistic about the issue of unplanned pregnancy and we know that just changing the laws won't solve the underlying problem. Moreover, we would show them that supporters of abortion rights do not have a monopoly on concern about women's health in a society where legal abortion is not an option. Finally, we'd be more consistent. Pro-lifers see every abortion as a tragedy, whether the government allows or forbids the choice. Our work is not done when Roe is overturned (and even if/when we achieve a Human Life Amendment).
We're already winning the image war in a big way, friends. If we could pull this off, not only would we see support for our legislative initiatives swell, we'd be in a better position to tackle the problem of illegal abortion itself when it comes time to confront it.

Start planning now for Abortionists' Day

Every year on March 10, abortion enthusiasts gather for the clumsily-named National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers. The date was chosen in honor of abortionist David Gunn, who was shot down on his way to work.

March 10 is only a little over a month away. It's time to start planning how we can help abortion staff awaken to the damage they're unwittingly doing to women, and that they can leave the business.

Now, we need to keep something important in mind: The National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers is mainly intended to overcome the powerful negatives of working in abortion. Dr. Rachel McNair has explored the stresses of abortion work in her Achieving Peace in the Abortion War. I'll not repeat Dr. McNair's findings here. I heartily recommend that between now and March 10, each and every person who is called to stand for life read this book online, prayerfully, with a heart open to ideas of how we can reach the folks who've fallen for the lie that abortion helps women.

Keep in mind that we're not dealing with evil people who enjoy killing babies. Yes, there's greed. Yes, there's egotism. But a common underlying motivation is the idea that somehow what they're doing is helping the patients. The typical abortion worker views himself as bravely overcoming his natural revulsion at destroying fetal life in order to better the lives of women.

So what we need to do is break through that illusion. With that in mind, let's look at Refuse and Resist's suggestions, and see where we can get ideas to reach these lost souls and help them break free. Refuse and Resist suggested the following activities for abortion fans last year:

• Praise clinic staff and doctors with cards and letters of appreciation. Let them know they have your support and thanks.
  
• Bring your local clinic staff flowers or a breakfast basket of fruit or muffins.
  
• Organize local appreciation day events.
  
• Organize with others to hold a March 10th dinner with area providers.
  
• Step up to the front lines and be a volunteer clinic escort.
  
• Ask your local provider how you can help.
  
• Write your local newspaper, call talk shows to express support.
  
• Take out ads in your newsletters and local newspapers.
  
• Use your imagination, creativity and dedication to help create a climate at clinics where women, doctors and staff can hold their heads high without feeling shamed or fearing assault.

My suggestions, based on the R&R list:

• Send clinic staff letters gently letting them know that though they may have meant well, they hurt you or your loved one.
  
• Bring your local staff gift baskets that include information on the Society of Centurions, or Clinic Worker.com. Make the gifts real gifts, like notecards, fruit, bath salts, and so forth, not phony "gifts" intended to crush the worker's spirit, like bloody dismembered baby dolls, baby clothes, etc.
  
• Organize a local event to increase awareness of how abortion hurts women, or provide a respectful counter-presence at locally organized pro-abortion events.
  
• Organize a job fair to help link clinic staff with people willing to give them new jobs that will allow them to escape the abortion business.
  
• Be a presence outside abortion facilities, reminding staff, patients, and the public of women who've been harmed there.
  
• Invite your local abortion staff to coffee, to let him or her vent in a safe environment without fear of being labeled a traitor.
  
• Write to your local newspaper, and call talk shows, to educate people about the harm abortion does to women.
  
• Use your imagination to create a climate in which abortion staff know that it's safe for them to approach you should they ever need your help.

Keep your eyes open for events being planned to keep abortionists in thrall. Think of ways to counter these efforts. Let's be a soft place for these wounded souls to land.

More deaths from my Westlaw notes

Margaret Marts asked her family physician to do an abortion. He made an ineffectual attempt to divert her from this plan. She instead found another physician who left her with a fatal infection.

Sylvia Sawdy died in 1885, two days before Christmas, after her paramour performed an abortion on her.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Additions to the Cemetery of Choice

I'm going through my Westlaw notes again, and adding historic abortion deaths to the Cemetery of Choice.

Maggie Gibbons died January 3, 1878. Her abortionist was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison.

Ada Hawk, age 20, died in 1893 after an abortion arranged by her paramour, who was sentenced to prison for her death.

Emily Nohavec, age 19, died in 1913. A midwife was convicted in her death.

More will be following later today.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Sad anniversary -- Another pre-Roe legal abortion death

Fifteen-year-old Gwendolyn Drummer was a student at Harry Ellis High in Richmond, California, when she was admitted to Doctor’s Hospital of Pinole for a legal abortion. On January 28, 1972, a strong salt solution was injected into Gwendolyn's uterus to kill her fetus. The salt solution got into Gwendolyn's blood stream, damaging her organs. She developed pneumonia, and died on January 31, 1972.

Gwendolyn was far from the only maternal death from legal abortion prior to Roe vs Wade. Others include:

• Cassandra Bleavins
• Twila Coulter
• Margaret Davis
• Janet Forster
• Doris Grant
• Betty Hines
• Denise Holmes
• Sara Lint
• Natalie Meyers
• Katherine Morse
• Maria Ortega
• Erica Peterson
• "Amanda" Roe
• "Alice" Roe
• "Amy" Roe
• "Annie" Roe
• "Andrea" Roe
• "Anita" Roe
• "April" Roe
• "Audrey" Roe
• "Barbara" Roe
• "Beth" Roe
• "Connie" Roe
• "Danielle" Roe
• "Judy" Roe
• "Julie" Roe
• "Kimberly" Roe
• "Monica" Roe
• "Robin" Roe
• "Roseann" Roe
• "Roxanne" Roe
• "Sandra" Roe
• "Sheryl" Roe
• "Tammy" Roe
• "Vicki" Roe
• LaSandra Russ
• F.S.
• Stella Saenz
• Carole Schaner
• Margaret Smith
• Kathryn Strong
• Cheryl Vosseler

Laws don't kill women. Abortionists do.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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We're pretty spotty at this brainwashing thing...

HT: After Abortion

So, the pro-life meeting, blogs I'm Not a Feminist. She laments the "brainwashing" of post-abortion women by the nasty right-to-lifers.

Now, I've heard this before: The only reason women experience negative feelings after abortion, so goes the abortion advocacy cant, is that them mean old right-to-lifers have brainwashed them.

If we're so good at brainwashing that we've managed to create the whole problem of post-abortion trauma (which even effects prochoice women!), how come we suck at brainwashing in other contexts? We're not able to brainwash legislators into passing legislation that protects women and children. We're not able to brainwash judges into upholding the few pro-women and pro-life laws that do get passed. We're not able to brainwash the abortion staff into putting away their canulas. We're not able to brainwash the activists on the abortion-rights side to abandon their cause. We're not able to brainwash the mainstream media into giving us a little favorable press once in a while. We're not even able to brainwash the women contemplating abortion. But once the woman gets off that abortion table, she's like putty in our hands! She switches to our side faster than Patty Hearst joined the SLA!

Now, how can this be? How can we be so skilled at brainwashing, but only with this one population?

It staggers the mind. Maybe somebody can write a doctoral thesis on this.

Another January abortion death to remember

The March 1990 Bernadell Technical Bulletin says that 17-year-old Glenna Jean Fox underwent a second trimester abortion at the hands of Dr. Morris Wortman in January of 1989. Glenna Jean continued to bleed for two days after this abortion. She was taken to an emergency room but died from shock several hours later.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Why we need to change hearts, not just laws

HT: jivinjehoshaphat

Cinnamon Girl at Live Journal posts about a friend who is probably pregnant. The pregnancy hasn't even been confirmed yet and already CG is trying to arrange an abortion because the girl's life is such a train wreck:

The guy she is sleeping with is a schizophrenic/bi-polar/drug addict. He told her once that if he had a kid, he would shoot up heroin infront of him/her.

This girl can't think very much of herself, to be having unprotected sex with a guy that a rational person would fear to approach for change for the pay phone. This is what our "If it feels good, do it" society has produced: Nobody sees anything wrong with this picture except the possibility that an embryo has just been added to the mix.

In "Only the Good Die Young," Billy Joel is trying to seduce a Catholic girl, crooking:

I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
The sinners are much more fun.

I don't think this girl's life is a lot of fun. I'd bet that she is pretty much miserable pretty much of the time, and doesn't even dream that she deserves anything better. Otherwise she'd not be seeking escape or solace or companionship in some loser's bed.

But somehow if you say, "Just say no to sex with losers," you're a kill-joy. Well, hello! Where is the joy in the kind of life that leads to the predicament this girl is in?

Another touching anencephaly story

HT: Dawn Eden

RightWingSprakle brings us A Brief Life:

Angelina was told at the county hospital that her baby had Anencephaly and would die within hours of birth and it was better to abort her now.

Again, abortion being pushed on a woman who doesn't want it. Just like it was pushed on Marla Cardamone and Allegra Roseberry. I can't stress this strongly enough: Legalization did not merely make abortion available to women who'd have chosen it anyway. It pushes it on women who'd never have even considered it.

The doctors and nurse at the County hospital were angry at Angelina for choosing to give birth. Abortion was a much easier way to go. They treated Angelina as ignorant because she was poor and Hispanic. This would cost more money they insisted, but I assured Angelina that they could gripe all they wished, but it was her decision.

My point exactly. How is this respecting Angelina's choices? How is this respecting Angelina at all? Having abortion available is an easy option for those who want to abandon women like Angelina.

The day she gave birth and her beautiful daughter, Rosa, was born, the whole family had gathered. .... She told me later that it was the most perfect looking baby she had ever seen. .... Her eyes open and she gurgles just like any other baby. The whole family spent about 12 hours loving and holding her and then she died peacefully in her mother's arms. The mother told me that she would always be grateful for those 12 hours and it literally changed her life. She appreciates everything in her life now. She feels a great need to be a better person for Rosa.

Choosing life for Rosa was a blessing not just for Rosa, but for her entire family. Abortion would have taken this brief miracle and turned it into something purely tragic, with no blessings on anybody.

More reading:

Don't Like Abortions? Don't Have One

Protecting Yourself and Your Unborn Child

Unwanted Abortion of a Wanted Child

A celebration of ignorance

Phunbee posts an alert, Stand Up For Reproductive Choice, inviting abortion enthusiasts to come shout down a Silent No More rally.

And she has her blog set to "friends only". So not only does she want to shout down SNM women in an effort to preserve ignorance, she shuts anybody who doesn't think exactly like her out of her blog, in the interests of preserving her own ignorance.

Though I'm sure the SNM women will tell you that ignorance is not bliss.

Blog roundup: Brits lose abortion enthusiasm, vote for best blog so far

Amy Welborn reports on Abortion rebellion in England. It seems, no doubt to the great consternation of the abortion lobby, that British women are sick of abortion. Forty-seven percent want the current 24-week limit cut back, and ten percent want abortion to be banned altogether.

***

Nominate the Best Blogs So Far in categories:
1. January’s Best Pet Blogs
2. January’s Best Political Blogs
3. January’s Best LinkFest Blogs
4. January’s Best Religious Blogs
5. January’s Best Humor Blogs

As Best Political Blog, I'm nominating After Abortion.

Illegal abortion anniversaries disprove myths

Rose Lipner, age 32, mother of 2, died at Riverdale Hospital on January 29, 1936. Dr. Maxwell C. Katz, who lived at Riverdale (maternity) Hospital, which he operated, signed a death certificate indicating that Rose had been operated on for a tumor. After the funeral, an anonymous caller notified police that the death was suspicious, and Rose was exhumed for an autopsy. The medical examiner determined that Rose had died from an abortion. Katz was arraigned for second-degree manslaughter. You can read here about other similar cases in which attempts to cover up an illegal abortion death were foiled.

Nearly a century earlier, the body of 20-year-old Olive Ash was exhumed in an investigation into her untimely death. Dr. William Howard was prosecuted for her death. Her twin sister, Olivia, was an important witness. You can read the whole story here.

These stories underscore facts that proponents of legalized abortion don't want people to know:

1. Most illegal abortions were done by doctors with medical instruments, not by amateurs with coathangers.

2. When abortion was a crime, it wasn't that easy to cover up the woman's death. Officials were able to determine fairly reliably how many women died because so many people were keeping alert to suspicious deaths among women of childbearing age.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Sad but beautiful story -- in the LA Times!

Grief, Gratitude and Baby Lee, a tale of how the perinatal hospice next door to Tiller's killing center, helped one woman through her pregnancy and the birth and death of her infant son. The sidebar includes a link to very moving photos.

I'd not expect the LA Times to paint a favorable picture of a place that helps women choose life over abortion, but they did throw in a kind word for Tiller to offset their otherwise favorable treatment of prolifers. ;)

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Zombie's excellent West Coast March for Life photos

HT: After Abortion

Zombie has some spectacular photos of the West Coast Walk for Life and counter-demonstration. I've tried to find an email to ask permission to post, but had no luck, so I'll give full credit and post a few of my favorites, linking each back to Zombie's page. Zombie, if you object, please let me know!


This chick seems happy with her coathanger hairdo, as if she'd gladly wield them on anybody. Remember: Every woman who ever died from an abortion died at the hands of a prochoicer. It's the prochoice who wielded the coathangers, and who wield the canulas, that do the damage.


Either there are some serious loonies on the Right as well, or the Lefties have perfected the art of pushing satire to the point where you can't tell if it's for real or not.


Again, the coathanger theme. Anybody who reams herself out with a coathanger has obvious mental health issues that legal abortion won't cure. But they're not too willing to let go of the myth. What I want to know is this: Why are the illegal deaths the only tragic ones? Why the indifference to the women who continue to die?


The freaks were out in large numbers.


And then there was this mysterious giant puppet. Bride of Godzilla?


I agree with this woman as far as the coathanger goes. What I'm not clear on is why it's okay with her to give a woman a bloody curette instead. Why is one bloody, deadly piece of metal so much preferable to another? The baby's just as dead either way, and the woman is still being given a pathetic excuse for real help.


Another unexplained mystery: Why they use "reproductive" in euphemisms about abortion. I mean, isn't it all about avoiding reproduction? George Orwell is vindicated.

Zombie then posed the question, Which side has the best-looking women? More on that in another post, since this one is already pretty graphic-heavy.

I get ink from my March for Marla

Daily Inklings gives me a mention.

I get a plug from After Abortion.

Jewels of the Jungle included a picture of me with the Marla sign among the other March for Life photos.

What women don't want, and how satisfying it is to give it to them

Read the ill-titled "hope for the future" at Abortion Clinic Days:

.... she said, "let's face it. i do not want to have an abortion. but who is going to adopt a black child? i do not want my child living in foster homes and having who knows what done to it." .... and so, she told me, she decided to sacrifice the never born child so that her other two kids can live. ....

shamika confided that she felt a great war going on inside her, the war between her head and her heart. she said that her heart was begging for the baby to be born, but her her head told her that she and her kids could end up homeless since their lives are very precarious. .... her partner has actually been with her since she was 14, more than a third of her life, but she says she cannot depend on him. the only thing that keeps him there is his love of the girls and despite the fact that he is not the greatest partner, he is a great dad. ....

so shamika talked of how she was talking to god, hoping that he would understand that she lived her life not for herself, but for her girls, and that her sacrifice of their sibling would allow the three of them to stay together, to keep working toward their goals. i left the session filled with the same hope for her future that she had. she made me believe that she will be able to move her life forward, one day at a time.

Some "choice"! This woman comes in clearly stating that she does not want an abortion, but her fears are driving her to it. And the people who are offering her help to avoid the abortion are the ones painted as "antichoice" monsters! Why is helping a woman do what she actually wants to do supposedly anti-choice and anti-woman, but facilitating what she does not want but feels trapped into is "pro-choice" and "pro-woman"? It's all backward. If these people were really for helping women go after what they want, what they'd freely choose, they'd not be facilitating abortions in the first place.

Abortion. The anti-choice.

Remembering Evangeline McKenna

Evangeline McKenna was 38 years old when she checked into Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles for an abortion and tubal ligation. Two days after the procedure, she had a seizure. She stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest. Doctors told the family that Evanegline was brain dead, but they held out hope and asked that she be put on life support. On January 28, 1974, after twelve days on life support, Evangeline was pronounced dead.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Belinda Byrd, one of many to die at Inglewood

On January 24, 1987, 37-year-old Belinda Bird had an abortion performed by Stephen Pine at Inglewood Women’s Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Belinda was left unattended for three hours after the abortion, and was found unresponsive. Staff at Inglewood delayed an additional two hours before transferring her to a hospital with appropriate emergency services.

Belinda was one of 74 women who had abortions in Inglewood’s single operating room that day, and one of 24 whose abortions were performed in the final two hours of the day. Belinda remained comatose until her death on January 27.

Belinda's mother wrote to a Los Angeles district attorney: “I am the mother of Belinda Byrd, victim of abortionists at [Inglewood]. I am also the grandmother of her three young children who are left behind and motherless. I cry every day when I think how horrible her death was. She was slashed by them and then she bled to death ... and nobody cares. I know that other young black women are now dead after abortion at that address. ... Where is [the abortionist] now? Has he been stopped? Has anything happened to him because of what he did to my Belinda? Has he served jail time for any of these cruel deaths? People tell me nothing has happened, that nothing ever happens to white abortionists who leave young black women dead. IÂ’m hurting real bad and want some justice for Belinda and all other women who go like sheep to slaughter.”

In the wake of the series of abortion deaths at Inglewood, the authorities inspected the place. Among other things, they caught an abortionist writing post-operative examination notes without even examining the patients. When the state closed Inglewood for numerous violations, the facility simply re-opened as Inglewood Women's Clinic; as a clinic rather than a hospital they were no longer subject to the same intense scrutiny and were able to remain in business.

Other women known to have died after abortions at the Inglewood facility include Kathy Murphy, Cora Lewis, Lynette Wallace, and Elizabeth Tsuji.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Safe-n-legal anniversary: Ingar Weber

A suit filed by the survivors of Ingar Lee Whittington Weber alleged that she underwent an abortion by Richardson P. Glidden and/or Thomas Booker on January 20, 1990, at Delta Women's Clinic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Ingar's family said that neither Glidden nor his staff at Delta diagnosed Ingar's kidney problems or the deterioration of her physical condition before, during, or after the abortion. Ingar was hospitalized several days after her abortion for acute kidney failure. She died on January 26, 1990.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Blogs for Life Report

My biggest note from the Blogs for Life conference: Do more reporting!

It's fine to editorialize on what you're reading elsewhere on the web, but there's a lot of that happening. But think of your bolg as your chance to be a cub reporter for the world at large. The model here is what Operation Rescue does with their Tiller Watch. OR reports on Tiller's every move, keeping Wichita, America, and the world up to date on what this notorious abortionist is doing to women, children, and families. Would that somebody would do that for each and every abortionist in America!

To encourage this kind of local reporting, I'm going to start a sidebar for on-the-spot reporting on abortionists' activities. Let me know about anybody who's doing this work, blog-oriented or with a regular web site.

I live in a county with no abortionist, but I will set the example by posting any local news or analysis. If nothing else, that should help reduce the roughly two dozen abortions on Bedford County women. Our target is an abortion-free county.

Marching for Marla -- Part Three

Just a few pictures to show how packed it was. I stood forever, it seemed, after the March started, just waiting for the crowd to start moving. These are pictures taken where the March officially began, during the period we were waiting for the crowd to move.

Words from Marla's Mom

This is a letter Debbie Cardamone wrote after attending a previous "March for Choice" counterprotest in DC. I've offered to publish it here as part of my pledge to Marla's parents to see that their daughter is not forgotten, and that she will not have died in vain.

WHAT YOU DIDN''T SEE IN WASHINGTON DC, Women Saving Lives, March for choice I made the trip to Washington, DC because I felt compelled to speak out for the hundreds of women who have no voice. My daughter, Marla, died from a legal abortion in 1989. She died a horrific death in a Woman's Hospital in Pittsburgh. So much for safe, legal abortion. I remember specifically that no women's group called to express their outrage or to offer their sympathy. So much for the "sisterhood" that NOW and Planned Parenthood say exists and is their cornerstone that they have built the feminist movement upon. When Goergette Forney, co- founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, invited me to join their prayerful protest I felt it was time for me to speak for myself and not be represented by the pro-choice feminists such as, PLANNED PARENTHOOD, NOW and NARAL. I was especially anxious not to be represented by Hillary Clinton and the Hollywood pro-abortion community. What do they care about the women who have died and the families they left behind to grieve for their daughters and grandchildren ? They would just prefer to have business as usual. Just as long as you hand them the money, you are pushed through the system and you have no support after the pain of your abortion takes over every aspect of your life, whether it be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. Silent No More Awareness provides the love and support women need after the effects of their abortion begin to take hold of their hearts and push them into depression and destructive behavior.We are NOT a political movement, just a prayerful witness to those women who are seeking the truth. Our signs are simple. "I regret my abortion" and "Women deserve better than abortion" and "women need love not abortion". My sign was the only one that was different. It was a tombstone poster that read, "Women Killed By Legal Abortion". On the poster there is a list of women who were murdered and left unaccounted for, including Marla and over 400 other daughters who have families that grieve for them everyday. Before we were scheduled to arrive in Washington, we were denied our First Amendment rights by Judge Gladys Kessler. Silent No More Awareness had applied for a permit to gather directly across the street from the National Mall. I guess they were afraid of women who were gathering to peacefully protest and to give silent witness to those in pain. I guess they were afraid that our signs would be an open invitation for women to feel free to talk about their private pain. I guess that they didn't want women to find hope and healing in God's abundant love for all of His daughters. Isn't that really what choice is all about? I guess in Washington there is only one choice for Judge Kessler and the feminists she represents. Campaign co-founder and Associate director of Priests for Life, Janet Morana questions their motives. "Isn't this hypocritical, marching for total access to abortion for all women while denying some women access to speak on public sidewalks?" President of NOEL , and Co-founder of the campaign, Georgette Forney stated, "It's ironic that they are marching to protect women's right to choose and at the same time working to deny us our right to talk about the pain abortion caused us. We are the faces of the choice they promote." We arrived in Washington around noon and we were divided into three groups. We were given specific instructions on what we could expect and what was expected of us. We were to remain SILENT, no matter what was said or what was done to provoke any type of angry response. We were to remain dignified and respectful in our attempt to keep this a prayerful protest. We all understand the reason for such anger and we understand very well the pain that can distort a woman's heart. What we weren't prepared for was the violence and viciousness of these pro-choice women. We only understood that we were in some danger after we were on the corner of 7th and Constitution Ave. With a police guard directly in front of us, we watched the beginning of what I can only describe as a combination of Marilyn Manson meets the circus. Young men dressed as terrorists banging drums stood in a line directly in front of us as young women danced in a very suggestive and sexual manner. They were chanting about masturbation and encouraging all to try a gay lifestyle. To further make their point, two young women gyrated against each other and then shared a long lengthy kiss while the young man screamed, "That's what I'm talkin' about!" The other young men in this group were shaking cans of spray paint and grinning at us to see if we would put down our signs. At this point, I was not frightened but I felt sorry for this college crowd.They had the nerve to suggest that their reproductive rights were being violated,while they spewed filth about all the ways you should spread STD's. It became increasingly apparent that this group was not exercising their freedom of speech, rather they were simply taking license to distort the truth. We saw signs that read: "SLUTS FOR CHOICE", "QUEERS FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS", "KEEP YOUR ROSARIES OFF MY OVARIES", "PRO FAMILY, PRO CHILD, PRO CHOICE", "GREAT GRANDMA FOR CHOICE", "FATHER FOR CHOICE", "RACISM", and "CATHOLICS FOR CHOICE". All these signs were mingled with the "KEEP ABORTION LEGAL", "STOP THE WAR ON WOMEN" and assorted filthy signs held by every age group. Making her way through the crowd was a woman who was dressed as a large vagina, dancing and singing the praises of safe abortion. When the pro-choice women saw our signs they screamed at us calling us "BIBLE BIGOTS" and chanting "CHURCH AND STATE SEPARATE!" We remained silent as they became violent in their verbal attacks. As the parade progressed the "celebrity" busses passed by filled with another angry bunch of women with an agenda to push. Ashley Judd and Whoopi Goldberg were probably the biggest draw for the feminists and they didn't disappoint the crowd. Whoopi continually misrepresents the Catholic Church and her teachings as she waves her coat hanger with such conviction. She is so convinced that women need the right to kill their babies by legal abortion or they will die by their own desperate hands. Here is where Whoopi and I part ways. As my sign said very plainly, "Women Killed By Legal Abortion".The pro-choice feminists in the crowd repeatedly asked me, "What about the women who died from illegal abortion?" Are these women the only ones the choice community is concerned with and will recognize as important? Did the feminists miss something? Are they telling me that my daughter's brutal death isn't important because ABORTION WAS LEGAL THEN! So when Whoopi is waving her hanger, she really doesn't care about any of the women who have died or the grieving families they left behind. she doesn't care if Marla was lied to and really had no choice. She doesn't care that Marla was brutally butchered in a state of the art Women's Hospital. No coat hangers. No back alley. No choice. Whoppi's agenda is to keep abortion legal and keep the killing profitable. Yes, let's not forget that the abortion industry is a huge money maker and they want to continue business as usual no matter what the cost is in broken lives and grieving hearts. Planned Parenthood, under the direction of Margaret Sanger, was designed to RID society of minorities, so that there would be less Whoopis in this world. How could anyone embrace and support such a group. Have women bought the lie so long that they can no longer think for themselves? My only conclusion is : If women died before abortion was legal, making it an unsafe medical procedure AND women are still dying now that abortion is legal, IT IS STILL AN UNSAFE MEDICAL PROCEEDURE! As part of the Silent No More Awareness Organization, my only concern was to give ALL women a voice no matter what political or moral side they represented. I didn't ask if they were pro-choice or pro-life, hurting hearts come from both sides of this issue. It was my goal to reach as many hearts as possible and if I was able to change only one, that would be enough for me. Am I glad I went to Washington? Yes, because it only shows us that we have so much to do as a pro-life community. We need to be teaching our children how to be strong in their faith and how to protect and defend life. We need to speak openly about abortion and the after effects so that we can reach those hearts who have lost all hope. We need to promote chastity and re enforce to our teens that true love waits. We need to give our youth the knowledge they need to go out in this world and proclaim the Gospel of Life.This is our responsibility and if we continue to ignore it we leave our teens in the hands of Planned Parenthood. They have had enough time to continue to spread their lies. The biggest lie I heard was "PRO-LIFE ,THAT'S A LIE, YOU DON'T CARE IF WOMEN DIE!" If we actively prepare our teens for this horrific barrage of feminist garbage they will be as effective as the young adults from Penn State who came with us and proudly wore tee shirts that said, "WE ARE....PRO-LIFE!" Did we make a difference? Definitely! As we were standing in protest, a women carrying a sign that read, "PRO-CHOICE", came over to Janet Morana and said, "I don't know why I am carrying this, can I hold one of yours?" As her tears fell, there was a story to be told and a heart to be healed. All she needed was to see that it was possible to regret and find peace in the mercy of Christ. That's what we came for and that's what we prayed for. So in the 700,000 angry women, we found one who needed to know that she was not alone. I call that a victory! Deborah Cardamone For more information about Silent No More Awareness, log on to: www.silentnomoreawareness.org To read Marla's story: Marla Ann Cardamone

If you want Debbie to speak to your group, post a message here or email me, and I'll pass it along. 

State legislation reduces abortions

HT: Pro-Life Blogs

Using Natural Experiments to Analyze the Impact of State Legislation on the Incidence of Abortion

The author uses the fact that some state laws are enjoined by the courts to see if it's the law that causes the reduction in abortions, or if the reduction is caused by the same values-shift that leads to the laws in the first place. The answer: The laws have it. Informed-consent and funding restrictions have the strongest effects.

Call for links -- Life-friendly birth control

A kind reader let me know that all but one of my links on life-friendly birth control were broken! Oh, the trials and tribulations of running a huge site!

But we have blogging now, so I'm asking you, my readers, to recommend the best sites on life-friendly birth control. Please keep in mind that my readers are not all Christians, and certainly not all Catholic, so I'd like to make a variety of methods available even though personally I'd agree with the Catholics and recommend abstaining outside of marriage, and NFP within marriage.

Marching for Marla -- Part Two

This year I attended March for Life in memory of Marla Ann Cardamone, who was browbeaten into an unwanted abortion that ended her life.

My first post covered the trials and tribulations of just getting to DC to begin with. The second challenge I faced was my sign.

Since I live in a rural area and my car was in the shop, there was no place I could go to get a sign printed. I designed a nice one on my Mac, full color, and Peter of March Together for Life tried to open it as an email attachment and print it for me, but my file kept crashing his computer. I got to the Family Research Council for the Blogs for Life conference, and they directed me to a nearby Kinko's. Problem solved, right? Wrong! I spent half an hour opening the file, tweaking it, and then discovered that their color printer went on the fritz and wouldn't accept files! So all I had was an 8x10 poor quality B&W. With this I hustled back to FRC and attended the conference. Then FRC let me use their copier to blow up the sign to double size, and tape it to the cardboard I'd brought to DC for that purpose. Not great, but as you can see it did the job.

Then, of course, it started to rain. Well, I had brought clear packing tape with me so I figured, "I'll just cover this with tape, no problem!" Ha! The tape wouldn't cooperate. It would tear. It would mat. Finally I vented my frustration to the guy next to me who said that the Devil sure was plaguing my efforts to stand for Marla. Hey, maybe! So I prayed. "Boss, give me a hand here. I promised Marla's parents I'd not let her be forgotten." My tape woes backed off as I prayed and I was able to successfully protect my sign. I was also able to find a "Women Need Love Not Abortion" sign, which I put on the back of my Marla sign.

When I got to the Supreme Court I joined the SNM ladies for a while, but my group was leaving. I used a pin as a knife to cut the tape and take my sign off the cardboard, then I folded the sign down to take off everything but the info on Marla. I taped this and the SNM sign to a discarded ALL sign and found a woman. "Are you staying here?" She was. I offered her the sign. "Can you be here for Marla?" "I sure can. Poor thing!" So Marla was being remembered and honored, even after I had to leave.

The reaction to the sign was good. Many people read it, and a few took pictures and a couple took down the Cemetery of Choice web site. Let's get out the word! Laws don't kill women; abortionists do!

Marching for Marla -- Part One

I attended this year's March for Life in honor of Marla Ann Cardamone, whose unwanted abortion killed her.

Getting there was challenge #1. I brought my car in for a routine state inspection and my mechanic found that it needed a lot of work. A lot of work. I called Jan at Bedford County Citizens Concerned for Human Life, and she alerted me to a bunch of Catholics who were riding a bus down from the Johnstown/Altoona area. Yay! For $10 I got a ride with some great people (who picked me up at a McDonald's near the Turnpike entrance), who fed me goodies.



I guess it's apt since I went down with Catholics, marching for Marla, because Marla was Catholic. Her parents remain very devout, active Catholics. So -- if I was going to be marching for Marla, I was also riding for Marla on the way down.



We went to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and bedded down in the chapels. There were more people bedded down at the Shrine than the MSM gave credit for attending the entire March, I'd bet.





We ate a spaghetti dinner at Catholic University of America after evening Mass, and bedded down at around midnight. Then they rousted us up off the floors at 5 AM to clear us out for morning Masses in the chapels. Which may explain in part why I look so bad. I slept on a marble floor after a long trip and didn't get much sleep.

Part Two to come later today.

Americans On Call -- PASS IT ON!!!

Thanks to the good folks at After Abortion for alerting me to this:

Americans On Call is a new call for everybody who cares about women -- prolife, prochoice, or in the middle -- to make themselves available for women in need. Wear and display the symbol with the purple background if you're available to help women who want to avoid an abortion and need help. Wear the symbol with the black background if you've been through abortion yourself and are available to help women recover from abortion.

You don't have to change anything else you're doing. You're just letting women know you're there. Click on the link and read more. And pass it along!

March for Life, Blogs for Life

It was wall to wall people. I'll have pictures and an update tomorrow.

Ironic aniversary

On January 21, 1972, 26-year-old Kathryn Strong went to Civic Center Hospital in Oakland, California for a legal abortion that was to be performed by Dr. Harold Van Maren. During the procedure, her uterus was perforated. According to her medical records, she suffered extensive hemorrhage and shock. She died the following day, leaving a three-year-old son.

In a sad irony, on the one-year anniversary of Kathryn’s death, January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide.

Kathryn was one of far too many women whose pre-Roe legal abortion deaths should have served as a warning:
• Cassandra Bleavins
• Twila Coulter
• Margaret Davis
• Gwendolyn Drummer
• Janet Forster
• Doris Grant
• Betty Hines
• Denise Holmes
• Sara Lint
• Natalie Meyers
• Katherine Morse
• Maria Ortega
• Erica Peterson
• "Amanda" Roe
• "Alice" Roe
• "Amy" Roe
• "Annie" Roe
• "Andrea" Roe
• "Anita" Roe
• "April" Roe
• "Audrey" Roe
• "Barbara" Roe
• "Beth" Roe
• "Connie" Roe
• "Danielle" Roe
• "Judy" Roe
• "Julie" Roe
• "Kimberly" Roe
• "Monica" Roe
• "Robin" Roe
• "Roseann" Roe
• "Roxanne" Roe
• "Sandra" Roe
• "Sheryl" Roe
• "Tammy" Roe
• "Vicki" Roe
• LaSandra Russ
• F.S.
• Stella Saenz
• Carole Schaner
• Margaret Smith
• Cheryl Vosseler

Sadly, politics came ahead of women's lives. And women have been paying the price ever since.

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For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Texas PP losing tax $$!

PP of Texas Losing Their Tax Dollars:

Texas is joining an elite group of states. They will become only the 6th state to offer no federal funds to Planned Parenthood. The new Texas budget amendment was the brainchild of state senators Steve Ogden, Tommy Williams in 2003 and added help from Sen. Robert Deuell this year. The new amendment read like this:

"It is the intent of the Legislature that no state funds shall be used to pay the direct or indirect costs (including overhead, rent, phones and utilities) of abortion procedures provided by contractors of the department.

"It is also the intent of the Legislature that no funds appropriated under Strategy B.1.3, Family Planning Services, shall be distributed to individuals or entities that perform elective abortion procedures or that contract with or provide funds to individuals or entities for the performance of elective abortion procedures."

Illegal abortion anniversary - Vivian Grant

On January 21, 1961, Dr. Mandel M. Friedman contacted a Queens undertaker, asking him to arrange burial for 23-year-old Vivian Grant of New York. Friedman told the undertaker that Vivian had died of a heart ailment. The undertaker notified authorities, who determined that although Vivian had not been pregnant, Friedman had attempted to perform an abortion on her, causing her death. Friedman was charged with homicide and falsifying a death certificate. (Source: New York Times 1-24-61)

So much for how easy it was to cover up an illegal abortion death by simply failing to report it.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Two more anniversaries

"Andrea" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a legal abortion. According to Life Dynamics, Andrea was 26 years old when she underwent a legal abortion at a New York City abortion facility on January 12, 1971. After her abortion, Andrea contracted an infection. Her system was unable to fight the infection, and she died on January 20, 1971, leaving behind six children.

The survivors of 21-year-old Linda Fondren sued after her death. Linda had an abortion performed by Mohammad Pourtabib at Pre-Birth in Chicago on New Years Day, 1974. She suffered bleeding, but Pourtabib did not provide follow-up care. Linda was taken by ambulance to Michael Reese Hospital, in shock and needing emergency care. They would not admit her, but instead sent her to Cook County Hospital, where doctors performed an emergency hysterectomy. Linda remained hospitalized at Cook County. On January 16, doctors tried to drain fluids from Linda's chest and inadvertently punctured her spleen. Linda died on January 20 from "hemoperitoneum with splenic rupture following hysterectomy and earlier dilatation and curettage." She left behind a small child.

Laws don't kill women. Abortionists do.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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A picture of Christin Gilbert

Thanks to Justice for Christin for this lovely photo of Tiller victim Christin Gilbert and her sister, in a field of Texas bluebonnets.

More on Tiller dissatisfied customers

Thanks to Ashli at The S.I.C.L.E. Cell for alerting me to this: Whistleblowers Tell Abortion Horror Stories.

With calls for an investigation into George Tiller's late term abortion facility in the wake of Christin Gilbert's death, two women, one who remains prochoice and one who became prolife, tell of their own horrible experiences having late abortions under Tiller's care. One woman's 8-month fetus had been diagnosed with full Trisomy 22; the other was a teen pregnant through rape.

The compassionate thing to do for a mother who has learned that her unborn baby is likely to die before or shortly after birth is to offer perinatal hospice, so that she can make the most of her short time with her child. We should not be adding the anguish of knowing that she'd taken steps to end her baby's life to her other griefs. Also with perinatal hospice there is no risk of accidentally aborting a baby who was misdiagnosed. After all, Allegra Roseberry had been told that her unborn daughter was "doomed." After the abortion -- which killed both mother and child -- an autopsy showed that the baby had been perfectly healthy.

Tiller has been preying far too long on despairing, desperate women. It's time he was held accountable.

Remembering: Back alley butchers thrive under legalization

Yesterday was the anniversary of the needless death of Angela Sanchez.

On January 19, 1993, Angela, age 27, went to Clinica Feminina de la Comunidad with two of her four children: 12-year-old Maria, and 2-year-old Victor. Angela's family is adamant that Angela wasn't seeking an abortion. They said that she was excited about the pregnancy and was hoping it would be a girl so Maria would have a sister. Angela's sister Celia said that someone from the facility had called Angela, telling her to come in for a consultation about the pregnancy.

Maria and Victor waited for their mother in the lobby. A clinic staffer approached Maria and suggested that she take the car and drive Victor home. Maria protested that she was too young to drive. The children continued to wait for their mother.

At around noon, a staffer took the children to lunch. When they returned to the clinic, Angela's car was gone, and Maria was told that her mother had gone to another clinic. The children continued to wait, but when their mother failed to appear Maria finally called her uncle, Hemiberto Sanchez, who took them home with him.

By 10:00, Angela's family was frantic, and Celia took Maria to the clinic to look for Angela. When they arrived, they saw Angela's car and Maria jumped out of her aunt's pickup truck and ran to the car. There she saw her mother lying on the ground.

Maria asked two women from the clinic, who were standing nearby, what had happened to her mother, and they told her, "She's dead." Sobbing, Maria clung to and kissed her mother while the two women from the clinic told Celia that a man had shoved Angela from a car and they were picking her up. One of the women, Alicia Ruiz Hanna, who operated the facility, told Maria that her mother had just come knocking on the door, then collapsed.

Celia put her sister's stiffening body in the back of her truck and flagged down a policeman, who led her and Maria to a hospital. There, Celia was told that her sister had been dead for several hours.

After a prolonged investigation, and Hanna's jailhouse conversion to Christianity, the full story finally emerged. Hanna, who had been passing herself off as a doctor and performing abortions at the facility, had given Angela an injection to induce abortion. Angela stopped breathing, and staffers attempted to revive her but did not summon paramedics because Hanna feared that she would go to jail and lose her children if it was discovered that she was running the clinic illegally. She and the other woman had planned to put Angela's body into the trunk of her own car and abandon the vehicle at a distant location.

In December 1994, Hanna was convicted of second-degree murder for Angela's death. She was sentenced to 16 years to life.

The woman who sought an illegal abortion knew that she was taking a risk. Legalization has given the illusion of safety, so that women like Angela are victims not only of butchery at the hands of abortionists, but betrayal on the part of a society that pretends to make abortion safe but only provides a veneer of safety.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Tennessee abortions drop to new low

Tennessee Abortions Drop to Lowest Point Since 1977, Down 7 Percent:

Continuing a trend that is occurring in most other states, the number of abortions in Tennessee has dropped to its lowest level in almost 30 years. Not since 1977 has the number of annual abortions been this low. .... In 2003, 14,933 abortions were reported performed on women residing in Tennessee. In 2004, the number dropped to 13,902, a 6.9% decline or 1,031 fewer abortions.

....

In 2000, 19,010 women obtained abortions in Tennessee, producing a rate of 15.2 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. The rate increased 4% since 1996, when it was 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women 15-44. Abortions in Tennessee represent 1.4 of all abortions in the United States.

Part of the decline may have to do with a lowering of the number of abortion businesses in the state. In 2000, there were 16 abortion centers in Tennessee. This represents a 20% decrease from 1996, when there were 20 abortion businesses.

In addition to the unborn babies whose lives were lost in Tennessee to abortion over the years, the following mothers have also lost their lives due to abortion: Linda Lovelace, Beverly Moore, and Catherine Pierce.

Americans catching on!

Life News reports that Americans are becoming more openly opposed to abortion, a total of 55% taking a pro-life stand. Of those, 33 percent said abortions should be allowed only for the "hard cases," 17 percent only to save the woman's life, and 5% opposing abortion altogether.

Ashli at The S.I.C.L.E. Cell points out that the opposition to abortion is even higher among Black Americans.

Ashli also serves as an example of the fact that "allowing" abortion for "hard cases" isn't doing the woman a favor. We ought not to be abandoning women with maternal or fetal indications to the despair of abortion just because situations like theirs were originally used to garner sympathy for aborting women. Ask Ashli -- these women need love, not abortion.

Justice for Christin

Prolifers in Kansas have started a new site, Justice For Christin, calling for a Grand Jury investigation into her needless death. Christin, a Texas teen with Down syndrome, was brought to George Tiller's infamous late abortion facility for a third-trimester abortion, likely in violation of Kansas laws against post-viability abortions. Killing somebody in the commission of a crime is Involuntary Manslaughter.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Three sad anniversaries

Today is the sad anniversary of three women who lost their lives because they thought abortion would solve their problems.

A woman whose name is not mentioned in the news reports went to Dr. Samuel Roth for an abortion on January 16, 1937. Roth, whose license was suspended at the time, performed the abortion in his office. The woman died. On December 23, 1941, Roth was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the woman's death.

Autopsy Report Case No. 0120-82-0057 on 34-year-old Shary Graham indicates that she was pronounced dead January 16, 1982, at an emergency room in Dallas. She had a 3cm tear in her cervix. "It is our opinion that Shary... died as a result of a laceration of the uterine cervix. By history, she had undergone a termination of pregnancy procedure the day prior to the death. Evidence of bleeding included large amounts of blood on three cloth robes that accompanied the body, and hemorrhage beneath the outer covering of the uterus." Life Dynamics uncovered this information as we worked to verify the story Carol Everett told in her book, Blood Money of the woman who died in her clinic.

Thirty-eight-year-old Pamela Wainwright and her husband had two children living at home, one of whom had Down Syndrome. Pamela was admitted to Shallowford Community Hospital in Dunwoody, Georgia on January 15, 1987, for an abortion and tubal ligation. Pamela was 11 weeks pregnant.

Pamela was taken to the operating room for her surgery the next day. The abortion and tubal ligation were to be performed by Dr. Wendell Phillips. Phillips placed a needle into Pamela's abdomen to pump in carbon dioxide. He did not ensure proper placement of the needle. Instead of pumping carbon dioxide into her abdomen, he pumped it into her bloodstream. Pamela died almost immediately from cardiac arrest, due to vapor lock in her heart.

Laws don't kill women. Abortionists do.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Sad anniversary: Eurice Agbagaa

Eurice Agbagaa, a 26-year-old immigrant from Ghana, went to Abram Zelikman for an abortion on January 7, 1989. Zelikman estimated the pregnancy as 11 to 12 1/2 weeks. He performed the abortion at about 1PM, then sent Eurice to the recovery room.

Over the next 2 1/2 hours, Eurice bled so heavily that the receptionist, Yolanda Penalzer, became alarmed and asked Zelikman to do something. Zelikman told her that the bleeding was normal and that she should put an ice bag on the patient. He then left the facility, leaving Yolada to care for the patients in recovery.

Yolanda continued to be concerned about Eurice's bleeding, and tried repeatedly to reach Zelikman at his home, but couldn't contact him. Finally she called an ambulance.

The ambulance crew found Yolanda performing CPR on Eurice, who was in shock. They were able to restore her breathing and transport her to a hospital, where an emergency hysterecomy was done. It was determined that Eurice had actually been at least 19 weeks pregnant. Eurice had a perforated uterus and severed abdominal artery.

Eurice survived the surgery and was put on life support, but remained in a coma until her death in the early morning of January 15.

Eurice isn't the only woman who ended up having an abortion far later in the pregnancy than she intended. Others included:

Magdalena Rodriguez, who died

Janet Forster, who died

Maria Ortega, who died

Rosa Rodriguez, who gave birth to a maimed baby

"Margo", whose botched abortion led to a hysterectomy

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Sad anniversary: Christin Gilbert death

Christin Gilbert, a 19-year-old developmentally disabled woman, was brought from Texas to George Tiller's Wichita abortion facility for a 3rd-trimester abortion. Christin had Down Syndrome and was legally incompetant, unable to give her consent.

Christin had been raised by her family in a small Texas town, according to Operation Rescue West. She was mainstreamed into her local high school, where she served as a bat girl for the softball team. She graduated in 2004.

During the abortion, something went wrong. Tiller employee Marguerite Reed called 911.

Operation Rescue West documented Christin's transport by ambulance from Tiller's facility to Wesley Medical Center on January 13, 2005, and verified that she died of abortion complications later that day.

Tiller is a member of the National Abortion Federation.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Yesterday's sad anniversary

I was unexpectedly at work all day yesterday and didn't get a chance to post an anniversary we should remember.

Former criminal abortionist Milan Vuitch had been operating his clinic without a license for two years when 32-year-old Jeannie English came to him for an abortion on January 12, 1980.

Vuitch administered general anesthsia for Jeannie, and she never woke up. She was transported to a nearby hospital where she died. Vuitch settled with Jeannie's family for $150,000. When Vuitch was investigated, it was discovered that he kept patients overnight in his home (an unlicensed facility) which he designated "The Annexe." Inspectors also noted repeated violations of medical standards regarding sanitation and anesthesia. Vuitch also admitted during another case that he had lacked hospital admitting privileges since 1963. In 1974, Vuitch performed the fatal abortion on 17-year-old Wilma Harris.

Another tragic anniversary

Life Dynamics lists 17-year-old Sharon Davis on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legal abortions. Life Dynamics says that Sharon was a high school student, 14 weeks pregnant, when she submitted to an abortion at a hospital in Tucumcari, New Mexico on September 20, 1982. Her uterus and bowel were perforated, and she developed an infection. For over three months, she was treated for her infection before she died on January 9, 1983.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Sad anniversary -- Teen dies after secret abortion

Life Site News reports that 15-year-old Tamia Russell died January 8, 2004 after a second trimester abortion at Woman Care Clinic in Lanthrup Village, near Detroit. Life Site News also indicates that the death has not been published anywhere except a minor mention on a local Fox station.

Womancare is a member of the National Abortion Federation.



According to U.S. Newswire, Tamia's abortion had taken place January 7.

Dr. Leigh Hlavaty, who performed the autopsy on Tamia, told a local pro-life activist who contacted LifeSiteNews.com that the girl's death was caused by "uterine infarction with sepsis due to status second trimester abortion." Hlavaty said, "I ruled it normal because these complications are expected with this type of abortion."

Tamia's boyfriend was 24. In Michigan that constitutes statutory rape. The boyfriend's sister took Tamia in for the abortion behind her parents' back, in violation of Michigan's parental involvement law.

Tamia's family told Fox News that they did not even know their daughter was six months pregnant. U.S. Newswire cites Fox, saying the family had only learned of the pregnancy the day before the abortion. The family is blaming the abortionist for Tamia's death. According to Jews for Life, the abortionist was Alberto Hodari (pictured) . Appallingly, the Michigan medical board has no disciplinary actions listed against Hodari despite his appalling track record.

Life Site News indicated that the case is under investigation by the police and the attorney general, but phone calls were not returned. Michigan Right to Life told LifeSiteNews.com they are following the case closely.

Life News says that according to Tamia's mother, laminaria was inserted WomanCare on January 7, then Tamia returned home. She told her aunt and mother that she was pregnant and she had begun the abortion. Tamia's mother said that she called the clinic, and staff told her that the abortion once be carried out once the laminaria are inserted. Life News notes, however, that according to eMedicine Journal, "pregnancies have safely been carried to term after laminaria insertion and removal."

According to Life News, Tamia bled heavily after coming home froom the abortion on January 8. She bled so heavily that the blood soaked a mattress. She was dead on arrival at the hospital despite paramedics' attempts to save her. Jews for Life reports that she died of sepsis.

LifeSiteNews.com reported that they called the Woman Care Clinic: "After being put on hold for an excessive period of time, a woman who did not wish to be named said, 'I'm sorry to tell you that because of all the privacy rules in effect, we cannot reveal any information.'"

According to Tamia's cousin, Nicole Redden, the sister of Tamia's abuser took her to five different Detroit area abortion facilities, and was turned away from all five because of how far advanced Tamia's pregnancy was. One facility reportedly even offered prenatal care and vitamins.

According to LifeNews, some prolifers are speculating that RU-486 was used for Tamia's abortion, because Holly Patterson of California died of a similar infection after taking RU-486. No credible evidence has been asserted to link Tamia's death to the abortion pill. Laminaria are used in preparation for some sort of extraction abortion.

Hodari was also implicated in the death of Chivon Williams. Dr. Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-life Society, reports that there have been 23 lawsuits in the past 20 years against WomanCare facilities and Alberto Hodari, for abortion injuries including complications resuting on hysterectomies on 19, 22, and 23-year-old women. All were dismissed, with many referring to undisclosed settlements.

Tamia died twenty years to the day after the death of Rita Goncalves. Twenty-five-year-old Rita took ill after her safe and legal abortion in late 1983. At some point after her abortion, she was taken to Roger Williams General Hospital in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. There, she died on January 8, 1984, from abortion complications.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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