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Sunday, September 30, 2007

Anniversary: Death from a legalized "back alley" abortion

Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including abortions, in his filthy clinic. Reynolds' anesthetist, age 60, had originally been hired as a janitor, and an untrained orderly was acting as his nurse. The operating room was littered with dirty cups and papers. Reynolds tried to collect $500,000 on his wife's life insurance after she bled to death after he opened 25-inch incision, ostensibly for liposuction, on September 7, 1989. Reynolds was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter. He voluntarily surrendered his Oklahoma license.

Life Dynamics identified 21-year-old Gaylene Golden on their "Blackmun Wall" as the woman who died after an abortion by Reynolds. LDI put together the following information on Gaylene's death:

  • Reynolds performed the abortion on Gaylene in his Oklahoma City office on September 30, 1985.
  • Due to a cervical laceration, Gaylene developed an embolism -- both air and amniotic fluid in her bloodstream. This embolism killed her.
  • Gaylene left one child, a son, orphaned.

    How Gaylene's abortion, performed by an unsavory quack with untrained staff in a filthy facility, is an improvement on the proverbial "back-alley abortion" eludes me.
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