So here we go with the Foreword, written by Alan Robertson. He writes of the importance of a free press. And indeed, when the press has been responsible and diligent, they have uncovered many appalling examples of abortionists behaving badly. Some of the most memorable examples are:
"The Abortion Profiteers" in the Chicago Sun-Times in late 1978:
Live Action recently did a multi-part summary of what a five-month undercover investigation by Pamela Warrick and Pamela Zekman uncovered: "The abortion assembly line," "Used car salesmen as abortionists," "'We are in the business of selling abortions,'" and "A dozen women died. The health department knew nothing." Of course, one must never besmirch the abortion industry as a whole, so the paper also did a puff piece for the recently-launched National Abortion Federation. Just the previous year a NAF member clinic had sent Barbaralee Davis home to die with the face and spine of her unborn baby lodged in a tear in her uterus, but that's nothing that would diminish the press's adoration of the abortionists' guild. "Yes, there are some bad apples but NAF is above reproach" is a consistent theme, even when the truth is staring reporters in the face.
Dr. Raymond Showery in the El Paso Times, primarily in 1981, 1983, 1984, and 1985:
Showery was the original Texas Gosnell. The El Paso Times pulled no punches when covering Showery's shenanigans. They informed readers about the conditions in his filthy abortion hospital, the botched abortions, the murder of a born-alive baby, and an assortment of illegal and even bizarre behavior. They also covered the covey of Showery supporters who rallied outside the courthouse while he was being tried for manslaughter in the death of Mickey Apodaca. The articles are available for subscribers at Newspapers.com. If there is enough interest expressed, I'll gather the articles and write up a summary.
Dadeland Family Planning in The Miami Herald, 1985 and 1989:
I only just discovered that the Left-leaning magazine Slate took notice of "The Kermit Gosnell of Florida" in the aftermath of the Gosnell story. Kudos to Slate for that article, along with "The Sunshine State," a gruesome summary of the Herald's larger 1989 expose. The filthy conditions, deceitful practices, unqualified staff, grotesque malpractice, and death of Ellen Williams were exposed to the world. I wrote a multi-part summary of Dadeland's horrors that is still available on the Internet Archive: "Meet the Easons," "Welcome to Dadeland," "'Act Now! We Can't Hold this Price!'" "Tea and Sympathy," "Kast's Botched Abortions," "Enter Nabil Ghali," and "Eason Rises From the Ashes." The Herald also exposed the prochoice movement's successful efforts to block any efforts to protect women, even quoting Janis Compton-Carr's infamous comment: "In my gut, I am completely aghast at what on at that place. But I staunchly oppose anything that would correct this situation in law." Such efforts, of course, continue to this day.
Alas, I can't think of any major reporting on abortion malpractice in the mainstream press since 1989. Diane Sawyer's people contacted us at Life Dynamics in 1995, saying that she was thinking of doing a piece on abortion clinics selling abortions to women who weren't really pregnant. We provided her with dossiers on clinics that had been caught doing that and were still open, and also provided her with dossiers on clinics that had been caught committing egregious malpractice and were still open. We even got a scoop on a nurse who was willing to talk to Sawyer about appling conditions she was reporting to the medical board about Lawson Akpolonu. Sawyer's people got back to us to say that she had determined abortion malpractice to be "a non-story." After the Akpolonu story broke locally, women came forward to report that he'd raped them in his filthy, unsafe clinic. A non-story indeed. Just like Gosnell was merely "a local crime story."
Every single case of the lid being blown off the egregious goings-on in abortion clinics is followed by empty promises and the sound of crickets. I have no idea what to do to get people mobilized and aware that they can not trust the abortion lobby. This indifference to what happens to the women as long as the abortion takes place is something that goes back long before abortion was legalized, as I've learned while researching criminal abortion deaths for the Cemetery of Choice. There's something about abortion that poisons the soul, I guess. Once you accept abortion, it seems, you're willing to accept all of the evil that comes with it.
I'd love to hear from prochoicers who are demanding better, or from former prochoicers who can explain why they ignored and/or tuned out the horror stories. Maybe there is a way to reach prochoicers. But I'm not holding my breath hoping to find it.
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