Showery Was Convicted; Why Not Karpen?

Is the sworn testimony of four former employees enough to send an abortionist to prison for killing a live-born infant? Douglas Karpen might want to whip out his Ouija board and talk to Raymond Showery.

Five of Showery's employees testified against him. They said that Showery was performing an abortion in 1979 on a woman who was between five and seven months pregnant. He was performing a hysterotomy, which is basically a c-section, but with the intention of achieving the death of the baby. The baby was a girl, about a foot long, with light brown hair.

The child lay curled up in Showery's hand. She was attempting to breathe. Showery held the placenta over her face. She continued breathing. Showery then dropped her into a bucket of water. Bubbles rose to the surface. Showery then retrieved the child from the bucket and put her in a plastic bag which he tied and set aside. The employees reported that the sides of the bag moved as though somebody was breathing inside it. Eventually the bag stopped moving.

One witness said that he held the bag while Showery put the little girl in it, and that he later put the bag into the freezer where the fetuses were stored.

Showery was convicted in 1983 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, though the body of the infant was never found and employees could not identify the baby's mother from among the facility's patients. Showery had "been convicted of a felony charge of altering his hospital's records," which hindered the state's attmepts to locate the woman. The jury chose to convict him of murder even though they had the option of convicting him of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Karpen might do well to remember that unlike his own workers, Showery's workers only had their testimony, not any photos of the murdered newborn.

Current clinic workers might want to think twice about staying in their jobs. Police and prosecutors look a lot more kindly on people who come forward than on those who wait to get caught then beg for plea deals. Legal help is available to you if you contact one of the following organizations:

• And Then There Were None: Toll-free (888) 570-5501
• Life Dynamics: (940) 380-8800
• Operation Rescue: ($25,000 reward for information leading to arrest and conviction) (316) 683-6790 X 155