Monday, July 27, 2020

Promising Young Lives Cut Short

Safe and Legal in Florida, 1974
Gina Gardner

Gina Gardner
, a 17-year-old cheerleader at Gulf Comprehensive High School in West Pasco, Florida went into convulsions almost immediately after Dr. James R. Lund administered the local anesthetic Lidocaine. She convulsed for nearly twenty minutes. That was the fourth time he administered the drug to Gina while she was still under the effects of an initial dose of Demerol for her abortion. Gina was pronounced dead at the hospital that day, July 27, 1974.


Gina's mother, Patricia Kennedy, had to wrangle to even bring the case to court because of a recently-passed Florida law regarding medical malpractice cases. Her suit alleged that Lund's office lacked the facilities and staff to deal with respiratory arrest and failed to provide appropriate informed consent. She ended up settling out-of-court for a mere $15,000.


An Erstwhile Back-Alley Butcher, 1985



Yvonne Mesteth
Eighteen-year-old Yvonne Mesteth was the second of two patients to die of infection after safe and legal abortions by South Dakota abortionist Benjamin Munson. (The other was Linda Padfield.)

Yvonne was in the second trimester of her pregnancy when abortion was performed in Munson's office in Rapid City. She developed an infection, kidney failure, and adult respiratory distress syndrome. She died on July 27, 1985.

Munson is the third former criminal abortionist I've learned of who had a clean record -- no patient deaths -- as a criminal abortionist, only to go on to kill two patients in his legal practice. The others are Milan Vuitch (Georgianna English and Wilma Harris) and Jesse Ketchum (Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner).

Despite having already killed Linda Padfield, Munson was welcomed into the National Abortion Federation


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New Gina Gardner sources: 

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