Three Deaths and Why Women Will Always be Vulnerable to Abortionists

Dr. Robert Prince (pictured) has claimed that before Roe vs. Wade, he saw a lot of women suffering from the effects of illegal abortions. Rather than help his patients to address the real problems they faced, once abortion was legalized Prince became an abortionist himself and performed the fatal abortion on Dorothy Bryant, who died on May 31, 1986.

Would Prince stop perpetrating abortions if they were recriminalized? It's difficult to say. I've found no evidence that he was a criminal abortionist before Roe,  and he does not appear to be flagrantly breaking the law now, so he's not a likely candidate for taking up a life of crime. However, abortion has become his livelihood, so recriminalization would leave him in dire financial straights, as well as with an enormous void in his life. This is something we need to prepare for when legal protection is restored to the unborn and their vulnerable mothers. Fortunately, many abortionists are up in years (Prince himself graduated from medical school in 1960), so retirement will be a tempting option and might be enough to take many of them out of circulation. 

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Maureen Tyke (pictured), a 21-year-old Pennsylvania resident, was in Florida visiting relatives when she went to Aware Woman Clinic in Melbourne for a safe and legal abortion. The abortion was performed by Dr. John Bayard Britton on May 27, 1983. The clinic records indicate that Britton noted that Maureen had a complete double uterus and cervix. Nobody noted anything else unusual. About 24 hours after her abortion, Maureen developed nausea, vomiting, and chills. She felt extremely ill. The next day, she was admitted to the hospital. She had fever and chills, and was extremely weak. Her blood pressure was very low and her skin had turned an unhealthy blue-gray from lack of oxygen to her tissues. Her autopsy later noted that she was "in extreme septic shock." Doctors at the hospital performed a complete hysterectomy on Maureen to try to remove what seemed to be the source of the infection. But their efforts were in vain. The raging infection and heart failure Maureen suffered took their toll on her body. Maureen died early on the morning of May 31. In addition to the infection that took her life, the autopsy found that Maureen had "florid myocarditis, probably of viral etiology [a serious viral infection of the heart]." The medical examiner added, "The intensity of this myocarditis should indicate that the young woman was very ill and there should have been some signs or symptoms of serious illness at the time she was being prepared for the abortion." However, as the autopsy had noted, nobody at the clinic had noticed that Maureen was very ill and in no condition for elective surgery.

Britton, sadly, was murdered as he showed up at the facility for work one day, ending his life before he had any opportunity to repent of the destructive life's work he had chosen. His murderer had justified the crime on the grounds that killing Britton saved the lives of the unborn babies Britton would have continued to kill. But Britton's death did nothing to stop Patricia Baird-Windle (pictured), owner of Aware Woman, from practicing what she said upfront had become a religion for her -- promoting the "sacrament" (her word) of abortion. Only when she retired did Aware Woman finally close its doors for good. And you can bet that she's still at work in her retirement, making sure that active abortionists have plenty of customers.

As legal protection is restored to the unborn, life advocates need to maintain an awareness of people like Baird-Windle, who will pursue abortion with the fervor of a jihadist. These are the people who will set up networks to find vulnerable women and get them to an abortionist come hell or high water. We will need to develop strategies for keeping them in check -- and in prison if necessary. Habitual accomplices to abortion will have to be treated as what they are -- people who conspire to facilitate serial murder. Nothing short of locking them up for life will stop them, and even when they are in prison they will continue to strive to make sure that abortions are committed. It's their religion, and they're not going to give it up unless the Holy Spirit delivers an smackdown.

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On May 30, 1929, 19-year-old Amelia Stumbras died from complications of a criminal abortion. Though the coroner pushed for prosecution, the guilty party was never identified or apprehended.

Given how little information I have about Amelia's death, the only preventability factor is the obvious one of making sure that women know that they are not abandoned to the abortionists. Women who are offered loving support aren't nearly as likely to resort to abortion as women who are left to believe they have no other options. As Planned Parenthood Medical Director Mary Calderone (pictured) noted in 1960:

"[Planned Parenthood Abortion in America] Conference members agreed, and this was backed up by evidence from the Scandinavians, that when a woman seeking an abortion is given the chance of talking over her problem with a properly trained and oriented person, she will in the process very often resolve many of her qualms and will spontaneously decide to see the pregnancy through, particularly if she is assured that supportive help will continue to be available to her."

Modern abortion advocates know this as well. The more honest of them picked up and embraced this quote by prolife activist Frederica Matthewes-Green: "No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice-cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off its own leg."

We're once more seeing Big Abortion taking action to ensure that women remain caught in the trap through their latest attack on the pregnancy help centers that offer the woman a chance to free herself from the trap without resorting to abortion. Whether because, like Robert Prince, it's their bread and butter, or because, like Patricia Baird-Windle, it's their religion, there will always be those who will fight any attempts to help women avoid abortions. Keeping them in check will always have to be a high priority.