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Saturday, November 05, 2022

Milan Vuitch archive

 I started my search in 1974, the year of the fatal abortion on 17-year-old Wilma Harris. It's staggering how little news coverage I could find. There was almost nothing on Newspapers.com and I could only find a single online article from a non-prolife source covering Vuitch's wrongdoing. There's such a contrast. In the prolife world, Vuitch is a monster who killed countless babies, a young woman, and a teenage girl. In the prochoice world, he's a hero to everybody except one activist. 

1974: Nothing worth downloading, just noting that he testified for Jesse Ketchum and stopped getting referrals from a referral service. Nothing about Wilma's death.

1975: Nothing.

1976: Just Vuitch suing to get the Federal government to restore funds for elective abortions.

1977 - 1983: Nothing.

1984: "Doctor Faces License Battle," Washington Post, November 11, 1984: Notes disciplinary action against Vuitch for his Laurel Clinic. "[Washington, DC] charges that several malpractice cases show a pattern of 'significant violations' of the city's licensure law. Specifically, the city cited a 1980 case in which it was charged that Vuitch, and not a trained anesthesiologist, gave anesthesia to a patient who died. [Jeannie English] The case resulted in a $150,000 settlement to the woman's estate." It also notes a 1983 case in which Vuitch started an abortion that resulted in the death of a premature baby who died the next day. Vuitch violated the law by allowing patients to stay in the clinic overnight and for driving patients to his house in Silver Spring, Maryland, to stay overnight. "In my basement, next to the swimming pool, I had organized a little infirmary, an annex to the clinic. Many of the patients come in from out-of-state and I don't want them traveling back right away." Vuitch surrendered his Maryland license after getting in trouble for running an unlicensed hospital in his home. There were also issues regarding expired medications and how anesthesia drugs were administered. To her credit, Ricki V. Grumberg, a member of the DC chapter of the National Organization for Women, said, "He should not be allowed to practice. It's ironic that he helped so much to get abortion legal in this city, but he's hearting women now. We're in favor of safe and legal abortions."

1986: Lots of coverage of the fact that WDVM-TV, Washington, DC, won an award for an investigation into Vuitch's deplorable clinic, but no coverage of the clinic.

1987 - 1989: Nothing.

1990: Note that Vuitch filed incorporation papers.

1992: Nothing.

1993: Hagiographic obituaries. 

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