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Wednesday, November 02, 2022

Anne Hathaway and the 16-year-olds

 On The View, Anne Hathaway lamented the overturning of Roe v. Wade. in light of the 16th anniversary of The Devil Wears Prada. Joy Behar reads Hathaway's Instagram post about how wonderful a thing abortion is for young women, because it furthers their careers and "honors" their "reproductive destiny." Behar asks Hathaway why she wrote that post:

Because we're in the fight. We're in the fight every day, every minute, and you mention The Devil Wears Prada turning Sweet Sixteen -- Some sixteen-year-old's life has been irrevocably changed because of the current overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Ms. Hathaway, with all due respect, why can't you think of the irrevocable impact your beloved abortion providers have had on some sixteen-year-old girls? It's girls like these that I am in the fight for. Girls like these that I fight for every day while you sit in your mansion(s) and contemplate the wonder and joy of "safe, legal abortion."

Barbara Hoppert was a sixteen-year-old high school sophomore when she checked into Loma Linda University Hospital for an abortion. Barbara was in the second trimester of her pregnancy. She was having the abortion on the recommendation of her physician, because of a congenital heart condition. The abortion was performed on February 22, 1983. During the procedure, Barbara's heart stopped. Physicians were unable to revive her, and she was pronounced dead on the operating table.

Christella Marie Forte, age 16, screamed, convulsed, and went into cardiac arrest on January 14, 1986, 27 hours after instillation of saline for an abortion at New Centre Hospital. She died without ever expelling the 23-week fetus. The concentrated salt solution that had been injected into Christella's uterus to kill the fetus got into her bloodstream, poisoning her and causing cardiac arrest. What is particularly disgusting about Christella's death is how utterly needless it was: saline abortions had been discredited as far too dangerous for over a decade. The documents surrounding her death do not explain why her abortionist chose an outdated, high-risk procedure for his young patient.

Sixteen-year-old Erica Kay Richardson was brought to Dr. Gene Crawford by her aunt on March 1, 1989 for a safe, legal abortion performed without her mother's knowledge. Erica's aunt had gone to Crawford because Washington Center Hospital considered Erica's pregnancy to be too advanced for a safe abortion. Erica's aunt reported that Crawford left the girl unattended and bleeding for four hours after her abortion, then at 11PM carried her to the car and instructed her aunt to take her home and put her to bed. Erica's aunt, a nurse, instead took the girl to Bowie Hospital Center, where she was admitted already in respiratory arrest. Erica died of an embolism (foreign matter or air in the bloodstream) shortly after midnight on March 2. Her uterus and cervix had been punctured during the 19-week abortion. 

A 16-year-old girl identified as "F.S." underwent a safe and legal second-trimester saline abortion on August 26, 1969. F.S. developed an infection and symptoms of meningitis after her abortion. She continued to be treated for ten days before she was transferred to another hospital in San Francisco for further treatment. Doctors performed two heart valve replacements of F.S., and had scheduled her for yet another before she died on March 6, 1970. The cause of death was severe congestive heart failure and pneumonia.

Katrina Poole was conflicted about her pregnancy. She wanted her baby. But at 16, she was so young. She was doing well, excelling in her English classes at Raines High School in Tampa Bay, Florida. She decided on abortion, so her doctor referred her to A Woman's Choice, aka A Jacksonville Women's Health Center. The clinic records show no evidence that anybody at the clinic took any steps at all to determine how to provide appropriate care for Katrina. There was no physical examination of any kind noted. There was no ultrasound performed. Dr. Herman Miller simply charged ahead with a routine suction abortion, only suitable for first trimester pregnancies of 12 or fewer weeks. Katrina's mother was at her side. During the abortion, the doctor noted that he had suctioned out far more placental tissue than expected. Instead of reassessing the method he'd chosen, he simply kept going, making no notes at all about how he proceeded or any evaluation of the fetal remains other than to estimate that Katrina had actually been 22 weeks pregnant. That evening Katrina took a prescribed medication, kissed her mother goodnight, and went to bed. She died some time between 2:00 and 6:30 the following morning. Katrina's family evidently went to wake her in the morning and found her dead.

Loretta Morton was 16 years old when she underwent a legal abortion in December of 1983. On January 3, 1984, Loretta was at home, and having trouble breathing. Her mother called for an ambulance. The crew rushed Loretta to a hospital, but attempts to resuscitate her were in vain. Within an hour of having lost consciousness, she was dead. An autopsy showed that she had died from a pulmonary embolism from the abortion.

Sixteen-year-old Maureen Espinoza underwent a safe, legal abortion at a doctor's office in San Antonio on March 28, 1997. During the abortion, the doctor punctured Maureen's uterus, but didn't note this in her medical records or say anything to her about it, indicating that he simply didn't notice. Maureen was sent home. On April 3, she went to the emergency room at Northeast Baptist Hospital. Over the ensuing days, doctors there performed two surgeries to try to save her life, but to no avail. She died on April 15, 1997.

"NancyRoe was 16 years old, and 16 weeks pregnant, when she underwent a saline abortion in 1972. Nancy developed an amniotic fluid embolism that led to coagulopathy (clotting problems), causing her death.

Sixteen-year-old Natalie Meyers was brought to San Vicente Hospital in Los Angeles by her mother for a safe and legal abortion on October 21, 1972. Milton Gotlib injected saline into Natalie's uterus on the 21st. On October 22, Natalie expelled the dead baby but retained the placenta. She had trouble breathing and suffered abdominal pain, so San Vicente staff transferred Natalie to County-USC Medical Center at around 10:45 PM. Natalie was in shock when she arrived. She underwent a D&C there, but remained in shock from infection in her uterus. On October 26, a hysterectomy was performed to try to control the infection, to no avail. Natalie was pronounced dead at 9:35AM on October 27. The autopsy found most of Natalie's internal organs swollen and hemorrhagic. Death was attributed to hyaline membrane disease brought on by the abortion.

The National Abortion Federation, an organization of abortion practitioners and their for-profit and non-profit abortion facilities, is highly reputable in abortion-rights circles. Sixteen-year-old Patricia Chacon lost her life after placing her trust in one of those NAF members.  Patricia had no way of knowing, as she climbed onto the abortion table at Avalon Hospital, that 24-year-old Denise Holmes had died at Avalon in December of 1970. She also had no way of knowing that she would become the second of at least 18 women for whom a safe, legal abortion at Family Planning Associates would be the last choice she would ever make. Patricia, 24 weeks pregnant, underwent a safe and legal abortion at the hands of Edward Allred, assisted by Leslie Orleans at Allred's Avalon Hospital in Los Angeles on the morning of March 3, 1984. The abortion took five hours to complete. Patricia retained fetal tissues, so she was scheduled for a second procedure that afternoon to complete the abortion. There are conflicting stories as to what happened next. Allred pronounced Patricia dead at 4:30 pm, saying that Patricia died of an embolism during the second surgery.  Patricia's parents claim that their child bled to death while left unattended.

"Patricia" Roe was 16 years old and five weeks pregnant when she went to a doctor's office for an abortion some time around 1975. For some reason, the doctor chose an antiquated technique that had been common in illegal abortions. He inserted a catheter into Patricia's uterus and left it in overnight. The next day, Patricia's doctor removed the catheter and performed a D&C to complete the abortion. Two days later, Patricia arrived in an emergency room, reporting fever and severe abdominal pain. She told the ER physician of the abortion. She was diagnosed with sepsis, given antibiotics, and told to return to her doctor for follow-up. Several hours after leaving the emergency room, Patricia returned because she felt even worse. She was admitted to the hospital and given more antibiotics. The doctor who did Patricia's abortion came to the hospital and examined her. He attributed her symptoms to a reaction to the antibiotic, and had the medication discontinued temporarily. Less than five hours after she was admitted, staff at the hospital found Patricia with no blood pressure. They were not able to revive her. Autopsy confirmed the diagnosis of sepsis, caused by an incomplete abortion.

On March 4, 1975, Robert Julius Sherman (pictured, left) performed a safe and legal abortion on 16-year-old Rita McDowell, who was in the second trimester of her pregnancy, at his Columbia Family Planning Clinic. Sherman performed a vacuum aspiration abortion usually used for first trimester abortions. He used a 7 mm. cannula, which would be too small for the parts of a 12-week fetus to pass through and would therefore leave parts of the fetus, if not the entire fetus, still in her uterus. When Sherman discharged Rita, he told her mother that she would probably expel the fetus that night. As they left the office, Rita told her mother, "Oh, Mama, I feel like I had one hundred needles in me." Rita did not expel the fetus. Instead, she developed a fever. Her mother called Sherman's facility on March 5 to seek care for her daughter. She said that Sherman would not speak to her, and that the receptionist told her to bring Rita in two days later. In the early morning hours of March 7, Rita awoke screaming, then collapsed in her mother's arms. Doctors at the hospital where Rita was taken removed the macerated fetus, but she died from massive infection just after midnight on March 8. An investigation into Rita's death revealed evidence that Sherman deliberately performed incomplete abortions so that he could charge an additional $150 for follow-up care. He was performing anywhere from six to 25 abortions daily.

I can't understand why the supposed champions of women living the lives they want to live seem to have zero problem with those same women being unable to live any life at all because of a safe, legal abortion.

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