Saturday, October 05, 2024

October 5, 1971: Safe and Legal Journey Ends in Death

I believe I have identified "Becky," who was 18 years old when she traveled from Arkansas to New York for a safe and legal abortion. Because the abortion was never publicized I will respect her privacy and continue to use the pseudonym that Life Dynamics gave her.

Becky was from a tiny Arkansas town, and a sophomore in college. She must have been academically gifted to be in her second year of college at the age of only 18. She was 14 weeks pregnant when she made what turned out to be a fatal journey.

The abortion was performed on September 26, 1971. Though Becky was running a fever the day after the abortion, staff discharged her to return home.

By the time Becky got back to Arkansas and saw a doctor, her condition was critical. This doctor admitted her to a hospital where she died from infection on the morning of October 5.

Sources: "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970," June 30, 1972” Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 325

October 5, 1911: Would Today's Technology Have Saved Her?

 On October 5, 1911, 38-year-old homemaker May Davis Bambrick died from an ectopic pregnancy, evidently after an abortion perpetrated that day by midwife Emma Schultz

Schultz was held by the Coroner's Jury and indicted on October 12, but the case never went to trial. 

Since at the time there were no easy means to detect ectopic pregnancy, May's death can not really be attributed to either Schultz or the abortion.

In the post-Roe era, however, access to ultrasound and serial HCG testing (checking how pregnancy hormones are changing over time), there really is no excuse for an abortion doctor failing to determine an ectopic pregnancy. Still, they fail to diagnose ectopic pregnancies and women thus attribute symptoms of a pending rupture to post-abortion pain and don't seek prompt care, leading to their deaths.

October 5, 1937: Deathbed Statement Implicates Prominent Physician

On the afternoon of Monday, October 3, 1937, a doctor whose name the authorities would not divulge admitted 22-year-old Eleanor Haynes to Hackensack Hospital. She was suffering from peritonitis.

In a dying statement, Eleanor said that 55-year-old Dr. P. Ralph McFeely had performed an abortion on her in his office at 242 Palisade Avenue in Bogota on September 25. 

Eleanor died at 4:30 on the afternoon of October 5.

Eleanor's fiancé, 22-year-old Eugene King, claimed no knowledge of an abortion.

McFeely, a school and police physician who was also president of the local PTA, was arrested. He said that although he was treating Eleanor for a "minor ailment," he had not performed an abortion. He was released on $5,000 bail. (c. $103,000 in 2022)

In a statement to the press, McFeely said, "The accusation against me is outrageous. All I ask is that judgment be suspended until I have the opportunity to disprove it thoroughly. The girl did visit my office for an examination and I treated her for an ovarian condition, but nothing more. I have been a resident of Bogota for 25 years, 22 of which I have spent in practice there, as well as being active in community affairs."

He added, "My reputation in private life and professional practice has never been questioned. Revelation of the facts in this case will clearly demonstrate my innocence and I hope that they will be disclosed as speedily as possible."

A grand jury met in December and heard evidence for two days. Among the witnesses were the county physician who had performed the autopsy, the assistant prosecutor who had taken Eleanor's dying declaration, and Eleanor's fiancé.

After hearing only from the prosecution, the grand jury declared that there was no evidence beyond Eleanor's deathbed claims that McFeely had been the one to cause the fatal injuries.  The community clearly believed in his innocence, since he resumed his practice and civic duties after the charges were dropped.

Watch Why Did She Implicate Dr. McFeely? on YouTube.

Sources:








October 5, 1937: Prominent Doctor Named in Deathbed Statement

One of the biggest factors separating the prochoice from the prolife is how they perceive the world of illegal abortions. The prochoice see the greasy old man with a coat hanger lurking in an abandoned warehouse, plying his trade with booze on his breath and lechery in his eye. The prolife see a story substantiated by newspapers: doctors doing abortions on the sly.

Today's case from newspaper archives serves as examples of a doctor entangled in an abortion case. Law enforcement was sometimes unable to tell if the doctor was indeed the guilty party who caused the woman's death, but the prevalence of physician involvement in these old abortion cases underscores the research done by Planned Parenthood and by Nancy Howell Lee: most criminal abortions were done by doctors, and most non-physicians performing illegal abortions had physician accomplices who provided support and equipment.

Eleanor Haynes, age 22, died of peritonitis at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey on October 5, 1937. She had been admitted two days earlier by a doctor whose name was not divulged. 

In a dying statement, Eleanor said that Dr. Percy Ralph McFeely had performed an abortion on her in his office on September 25. Eleanor's fiancée claimed no knowledge of an abortion. 

McFeely, a school and police physician who was also president of the local PTA, said that although he was treating Eleanor for a "minor ailment," he had not performed an abortion. 

McFeely was not prosecuted due to lack of evidence.  

Sources:

Watch Two Doctors, Two Decades on YouTube.

Thursday, October 03, 2024

October 3, 1977: The Death that Delighted Abortion Enthusiasts

Operational Preparation of the Environment

In 1976, the Hyde Amendment went into effect, banning the use of Federal funds to pay for abortions except to save the mother from an immediate threat to her life. The measure was named for its author, Congressman Henry Hyde. Abortion advocates had been keening from the moment the Hyde Amendment was up for vote. They painted a ghastly picture of coathanger-impaled women littering the streets as poor women were driven to desperation by lack of "access".

When the Hyde Amendment went into effect, abortion advocates ramped up the hysteria and waited for a death, any death, they could hang around Henry Hyde's neck. 

This process of creating a narrative and then either waiting for, facilitating, or creating an event that can push the narrative is called "operational preparation of the environment." 

On October 3, 1977, the abortion advocacy vultures got what they'd been waiting for: a dead woman they could use as leverage in the fight to once again force taxpayers to fund elective abortions. 

Operational Preparation Pays Off

Undated yearbook photo of Rosie
Their triumph started playing out on September 26, 1977, when 27-year-old Rosaura "Rosie" Jimenez had shown up at the emergency room of McAllen General Hospital in the Texas border town of McAllen.

She was overwhelmingly sick with septic shock. However, she denied having had an abortion, instead telling the doctors that her period had just started that day. 

Her uterus was enlarged, but due to guarding (resisting pressing on an area due to pain) the doctors had a hard time determining the size. Her cervix was dilated enough that they could insert a ring forceps. She had a dark bloody discharge. She was clearly suffering from a septic abortion.

She was immediately started on IV penicillin and fluids. Doctors performed a D&C to remove any infected material from her uterus. An examination of the tissue confirmed that she had been pregnant.

Rosie's condition deteriorated. She was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. She became jaundiced and developed a rash that covered her trunk and upper thighs. Her pulse increased to 160/minute. Her hemoglobin dropped, as did her urine output. 

Doctors performed a hysterectomy during her second day in the hospital, which seemed to improve her condition slightly. However, six hours later she suffered heart failure. She was treated aggressively in efforts to prevent edema, address her clotting problems, and defeat the infection. Eventually doctors performed a tracheotomy and put Rosie on a ventilator.

In spite of these efforts, she died on October 3 from renal and cardiac failure caused by disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (failure of the blood to clot properly) triggered by gas gangrene from a criminal abortion. She left behind a four-year-old daughter.

The initial response of the abortion lobby to news of Rosie's death was little short of euphoric. They had their trophy, their dead woman whose story they could leverage, they hoped, into the restoration of tax money flowing into abortion clinics. They've never stopped using Rosie's death to advocate for cheap, readily available abortions.

A Voice in the Wilderness

One voice stood out from the crowd: Ellen Frankfort, author of Rosie: the investigation of a wrongful death. Frankfort was disgusted with the bulk of the prochoice movement, who seemed content to make note of Rosie's death and then milk it for political gain. She began an investigation into what had led Rosie to her death, and she found a lot that neither the Centers for Disease Control nor abortion advocacy organizations had been willing to look for, since all they'd wanted was political leverage. They weren't looking for the real culprit behind Rosie's death: they'd had a bogeyman in mind even before she'd died, in the form of Henry Hyde.

Off to McAllen Frankfort went, to learn all she could.

The Whole Story

Rosie was one of 12 children of migrant farm workers. A single mother on welfare, she and a friend, Diana Rivera, moved into adjacent apartments to encourage each other to complete schooling and build better lives for themselves and their young children. Rosie planned to become a special education teacher.

Rosie's efforts to better her life, however, did not extend to her choice in men. Her long term boyfriend, Jesse, was in prison. 

Rosie had already undergone two abortions at taxpayer expense, one performed by her private ob/gyn, the second at a facility Rosie had been referred to by a local Planned Parenthood. She had become pregnant prior to both of these abortions after stopping her birth control pills on the advice of a physician.

In September of 1977, she suspected that she was again pregnant, and consulted with a cousin and a friend, who told her that Medicaid would no longer pay for elective abortions.

Rosie had also gone to her family physician, Dr. Homer, for treatment of pain in her sternum on September 19. She mentioned that she might be pregnant. He did not arrange for a pregnancy test or discuss her options with her in any way, but simply informed her that Medicaid would no longer pay for abortions, and let it rest at that. A referral seemed to have been in order, either to a prolife center that would help her with the expenses of continuing the pregnancy, or to the local Planned Parenthood, that could arrange an abortion on a sliding scale and could possibly help her tap into private funds for elective abortions. Dr. Homer effectively abandoned his patient.

The week of September 19, Rosie went to Reynosa, Mexico for some sort of injection to cause an abortion. She had the injection at a pharmacy, and paid $5. When the first injection didn't have the desired effect she returned for a second one. This one left her experiencing nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and fainting but failed to dislodge the fetus.

On September 25, Rosie consulted with her cousin, saying that she wanted to find a cheap abortionist quickly. At 7:00 that evening Rosie's cousin brought her to Maria Pineda, a lay midwife in McAllen, who charged $120 to insert a catheter into Rosie's uterus. Fifteen minutes later, she sent Rosie home.

Rosie had pain and cramping upon returning home. Over the next 12 hours, she developed an increasing fever, and had nausea, vomiting, chills, dizziness, and increasing vaginal bleeding. The next afternoon, Rosie was unable to get out of bed. She asked a friend to take her to the hospital where in spite of heroic efforts, doctors were unable to save her life.

The Reaction

Even the Centers for Disease Control, supposedly politically neutral public servants, were poised to place blame on the Hyde Amendment for whatever ill-advised decisions were made in its wake. Rosie's doctors reported the death to the CDC, the CDC notified their allies in the abortion lobby, and Rosie's death was quickly trumpeted nationwide as proof that Henry Hyde was a murderer and taxpayers should immediately resume funding elective abortions to prevent another such death. 

What is particularly telling in Rosie's death is that prochoice groups had been very successful in spreading the word that public funding for abortion had been cut -- Rosie's friend and cousin, as well as her physician, were well aware of this fact -- but they had pointedly failed to also pass out the word that Planned Parenthood still referred for abortions on a sliding scale, and that private funds were available. It's almost as if the public-relations departments of Planned Parenthood and other abortion-advocacy groups had deliberately increased the odds of a tragedy like Rosie's death in order to provide the corpses needed in order to prop up a drive to restore tax monies to abortion facilities. Again, this is a clear example of operational preparation of the environment.

Frankfort was particularly disgusted with the response of public health officials, who likewise simply announced Rosie's death and began a call to restore abortion funding, but made no effort to close down the illegal abortion practice where Rosie had undergone her fatal abortion. 

Frankfort took it upon herself to orchestrate a sting. She coordinated a dramatic raid, in partnership with Rosie's close friend Diana Rivera, that put the lay abortionist out of business.

The Sting

In June of 1978, nine months after Rosie's death, Diana, accompanied by a friend, went to Pineda's house. The friend was wearing a concealed microphone. Ellen Frankfort and Frances Kissing, then head of the National Abortion Federation, along with a Dallas television crew, listened in from a station wagon parked outside. 

Diana said that she was pregnant, needed to get an abortion quickly before her father found out she was pregnant, and couldn't afford to go to a doctor. Pineda quoted a price of $125 -- $5 more than she'd charged Rosie -- and told Diana to return at 1:30 the following afternoon.

Diana returned the next day, wired with the microphone. She paid the midwife using marked bills.

Pineda took her into a room with a cot and a bed and locked the door. Medical instruments were sitting in a jar of dirty water. Diana later said that she was crying and shaking, thinking of how just nine months ago her dear friend had sat in that same room, looking at those same dirty instruments, and had gone through with the abortion that ended her life.

To stall for time, Diana asked Pineda to describe what she was going to do. Pineda said that she would insert what Diana described as a filthy red rubber hose, which would cause bleeding. Like many safe-and-legal abortionists, Rivera instructed Diana to return to her rather than go to a doctor if she suffered complications. In the event that she did end up seeing a doctor, Rivera told her, make sure she claimed that she'd gotten her illegal abortion in Mexico. She then told Diana to take off her clothes and lie down on the bed.

That was when Kissling, listening from the station wagon, ran to a phone booth to call the police.

When the police arrived, Rivera hid the catheter in her bra and pushed her instruments and patient into a bathroom. Police still arrested her, along with the women who had orchestrated the sting. They were questioned for hours but finally released. Diana later said that when she was sitting in the police station, she cried and cried, saying "Rosie, we got her."

A Disappointing Outcome

Diana's excitement was short-lived. Rivera, who had killed a woman by performing a criminal abortion, was only convicted of practicing medicine without a license. This was a mere Class A misdemeanor. She served three days in jail and paid a $100 fine -- less than she'd charged Rosie for the abortion that had killed her.


"The FIRST!" Of how many?

And what of the hysteria? Had it been justified? Was Rosie's death the first of a new trend of women dead from being "forced" to resort to criminal abortionists?

There was indeed a small spike in reported illegal abortion deaths after the Hyde Amendment (from 2 in 1976 to 4 in 1977 to 7 in 1978). But there was likewise a spike in reported legal abortion deaths as well -- a far larger spike, from 11 in 1976 to 15 in 1977, falling to 8 in 1978. (I don't believe that the CDC's reported death numbers are accurate, but they're all we have to work with, and more to the point, abortion supporters place great faith in them.)

Despite predictions of a surge in carnage from criminal abortions, a study by the Centers for Disease Control, "The Effect of Restricting Public Funds for Legal Abortion," found "no evidence of a statistically significant increase in the number of complications from illegal abortions." In fact, they found that while there was no change in the illegal abortion complications, there was a significant decrease in publicly funded hospitalizations for legal abortion complications in cities where funding was restricted, compared to cities in areas where state or local government picked up the tab for elective abortions.

In other words, cutting funds for elective abortions actually had a measurable positive impact: Fewer women were ending up hospitalized for complications of elective abortions. Which strikes me as a good thing, personally. But the CDC remained adamantly in favor of funding elective abortions, asserting in the 1977 Abortion Surveillance Summary, "For at least 1 woman, the non-availability of public funds led to a situation in which she was forced to choose the less-safe illegal abortion because of financial factors." Like the abortion lobby they serve, they never took into account that Rosie had the money to pay for a legal abortion, available on a sliding scale. They especially never considered the possibility that Rosie could get support to continue both her pregnancy and her education. 

The Verdict

So was Rosie's death a fluke? Probably not. The heavy publicity put out by the prochoice movement about how poor women would be "forced" to resort to dangerous criminal abortions probably left Rosie, and some others like her, with the mistaken impression that criminal abortion (rather than birth or even sliding-scale legal abortion) was their only option. Only after the sting, when Frankfort and Rosie's friends banded together, were abortion funds publicized and new ones started. While I recognize the noble motives of women such as Rosie's friends, I retain cynicism about the motives of abortion-rights organizations, for whom these funds serve to funnel money into the pockets of their major donors -- abortion practitioners.

I agree with abortion advocates that the death of Rosie Jimenez was avoidable. But I disagree with them that lack of public funding was to blame. Prochoice organizations had ample opportunity to tout other resources. Prochoice people all around Rosie had opportunities to steer her toward a "safe and legal" abortion, had they chosen to do so. Not a one of them did. And the bigger problem was that nobody ever seemed to entertain the notion that abortion might not be the answer in the first place.

What's additionally puzzling about this whole turn of events is that the facility to which Planned Parenthood referred abortion patients charged only $130 for an abortion for poor women, just $10 more than Rosie paid for the amateur abortion that took her life. 

It's difficult to believe that a $10 price difference put the legal abortion out of Rosie's reach, especially if we consider that the day before her abortion she'd spent $8 on a cake for a friend's baby shower, and when she died she had a $800 scholarship check in her purse. In spite of her friend Diana's urging, Rosie refused to use any money from that check. Diana said that she'd offered to help Rosie come up with the money for a non-subsidized abortion, perhaps with a bake sale. But Rosie had for some reason rejected this help and had gone to Rivera while Diana was out of town visiting her mother.

Rosie Jimenez remains a poster child of the abortion lobby. Their own role in her death is never acknowledged. Henry Hyde is blamed instead -- in spite of his key role in passing a law that reduced abortion injuries among women like Rosie, and in reducing complications, surely also reduced abortion deaths -- in spite of the abortion lobby's best efforts.

As recently as 2021, the abortion lobby put Rosie's daughter on the front page in an effort to promote the abortion lobby. They claim that their motive is to prevent unsafe abortions, but given their appalling opposition to any efforts to ensure that legal abortions are performed safely, I doubt their motives.

Remember, the abortion lobby ignores the 15 safe-and-legal abortion deaths they counted for 1977. They may or may not include any of the five women whose 1977 deaths I've covered:
  • Mary Paredez, who bled to death in the hospital where her abortion had been performed.  The Centers for Disease Control, in reviewing deaths like Mary's, noted that, "Deaths from hemorrhage associated with legal induced abortion should not occur." In every hemorrhage death they investigated, "Lack of adequate postoperative monitoring or treatment of hemorrhagic shock" was a factor. Mary was in a hospital. What excuse do they have for letting her bleed out?
  • Louchrisser Jackson, who bled to death from a safe and legal abortion in Texas. The abortionist dragged his feet in treating the hemorrhage. First, instead of calling EMS and having her taken to the hospital, he ordered blood for a transfusion and waited for it to be delivered. Then, instead of calling EMS and having her taken to a hospital, he tried to give her a transfusion with his own blood, which was not a compatible blood type. Then, instead of calling EMS, he called a private ambulance service that was not designated for emergency calls but rather for routine transfers, and didn't tell them that the call was an emergency. Louchrisser was already in cardiac arrest by the time they arrived, so rather than wait for an EMS ambulance they began providing care and transported her to the hospital immediately, but by that point it was too late to save her. Hers was another totally avoidable hemorrhage death from a legal abortion.
  • NAF Member: Hope Clinic for Women
    Barbaralee Davis, who was sent home from a National Abortion Federation clinic with the face and spine of her dead baby embedded in a tear in her uterus. She was pale and weak, with low blood pressure and other signs of hemorrhage when she was discharged. Like Mary and Louchrisser, Barbaralee needlessly bled to death. The CDC did analyze her death in their 1977 Abortion Surveillance Summary, but did nothing to publicize that a National Abortion Federation clinic was so dangerously slipshod in their patient care. 
  • Mary Ann Page, who went into cardiac arrest during a combination abortion and tubal ligation
  • Jacqueline Bailey, who lay crying out for help and writhing in pain in a California abortion hospital, where nurses just closed the door to her room instead of attending to her. By the time a nurse decided to take her seriously, she was unresponsive. They called an ambulance to transport her to a fully equipped hospital, but it was too late to save her life. Her cries of agony were because her uterus had torn open, and she was left to bleed out. Like Mary, Louchrisser, and Barbaralee, Jacqueline bled to death needlessly.
They also ignore the seven safe-and-legal deaths they counted for 1978, a death count that may or may not include the ones I know about:
  • Minnie Lathan, who died after her bowel was punctured during a combination abortion and tubal ligation
  • Marina Deschapell, who died after a safe and legal abortion in a clinic owned and operated by an erstwhile criminal abortionist. She stopped breathing due to a reaction to the anesthetic drugs, and the facility did not have proper equipment to resuscitate her.
  • Gail Mazo, who died after an abortion at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York
  • Elizabeth Tsuji, who was one of five women to die from botched abortions at Inglewood Women's Hospital
  • Belinda Byrd, who also died from a botched abortion at Inglewood Women's Hospital. Belinda was the 69th of 74 women that Stephen Pine rushed through Inglewood's single procedure room. Afterwards she was weak and reporting that her legs were numb, but Pine had already left the facility so there was no doctor present to look after her. When she stopped breathing, staff performed CPR for two hours before calling an ambulance to take her to a properly equipped hospital. She arrived there already brain dead and remained in a coma until life support was discontinued. She had bled out from a hole in her uterus. Like Mary, Louchrisser, Barbaralee, and Jacqueline, Belinda needlessly bled to death.
  • Sherry Emry, who died because of slipshod procedures. After an abortion, the contents of the suction container are supposed to be examined to ensure that all of the fetal parts are accounted for. If there are no fetal parts, this is a sign that the woman actually has an ectopic pregnancy. But clinic owner Arnold Bickham just had his staff throw the contents of the containers away. They failed to diagnose the ectopic pregnancy, which later ruptured, causing Sherry to bleed to death needlessly, just like Mary, Louchrisser, Barbaralee, Jacqueline, and Belinda. Bickham himself later plunked a hemorrhaging teenage abortion patient into a wheelchair and shoved her out the door to bleed to death.
  • Gloria Small, who went to an Orlando facility operated by Dr. Ronald Tauber, who besides being a seedy abortionist also turned out to be a dangerous pedophile. Tauber kept patients overnight, so the place looked like a hospital, but it was actually just his private practice, a doctor's office not subject to state oversight. Tauber punctured Gloria's uterus during the abortion. Instead of identifying and addressing the cause of his patient's bleeding, Tauber packed Gloria's uterus with medical gauze and kept her overnight. He did not transfer Gloria to a hospital until 30 hours after she had been injured. She died despite an emergency hysterectomy. Like Mary, Louchrisser, Barbaralee, Jacqueline, Belinda, and Sherry, Gloria bled to death needlessly. 
With the Centers for Disease Control saying that there's no legitimate reason for a woman to bleed to death from a legal abortion, it strikes me as disturbing that of the 12 deaths I know about in a 2-year period, seven of them bled to death. But since those deaths can't be blamed, however tangentially, on abortion laws, we're supposed to turn a blind eye and instead stick with the narrative.


Sources: 

Monday, September 30, 2024

Trump's messaging on abortion needs a lot of work

 Trump and Vance just keep repeating that they returned abortion to the states, which is a losing message, alienating both prolife and prochoice citizens. A different approach would win over most prolifers and some prochoicers and would only leave the truly pro-abortion alienated.

Points to make: 

1. All states that put abortion restrictions in place made generous allowances for doctors to include abortion in their treatment of pregnant women with complications. The abortion lobby responded that doctors were not going to avail themselves of those allowances but would instead deny care to women and allow them to die. This is shameful. There were two women in Georgia who died from taking abortion pills provided to them legally and presumably safely. They believed the promises of safety. But they suffered predictable complications, complications that happen in about 5% of these abortion pill cases. They didn't get the aftercare they needed even though there was nothing in the law to stand between them and that care. Only the people involved know if the lack of care was politically motivated. After all, a woman in Nevada, where abortion remained legal until 24 weeks, also died around the same time after getting inadequate care after taking abortion pills, and there was no political reason to let her die. But since the abortion lobby is claiming that the reason they're denying women care is because of the law, I'll take their word for it and say that those women were allowed to die for political reasons in order to pursue a pro-abortion agenda. Every citizen, no matter what their stand on abortion, finds that to be deplorable.

2. Kamala and her supporters claim that abortion restrictions will lead to women bleeding out in the parking lot, even though there isn't a single abortion law that forbids providing transfusions or any other care to a woman suffering pregnancy complications. And if she cares so much about women being sent home to bleed to death, why isn't she talking about April Lowery? She was so weak when she left an Alabama abortion clinic that she could barely walk to her car. She had to be helped. She bled to death on the way home from a treatable injury. Thanks to the Dobbs decision, Alabama voters were able to say that April deserved real medical care, not a botched abortion and a fatal hemorrhage. That abortion clinic is now a real medical clinic providing care to underserved women. Kamala wants that clinic to go back to selling unsafe abortions with improperly sterilized, rusty instruments. The abortion lobby that supports her is the same abortion lobby that started a legal defense fund for Bruce Steir -- rhymes with Fear -- who pulled out a woman's bowel during an abortion then sent her home to bleed to death. They talk about caring about women bleeding out, but they don't do anything when it's an abortion clinic sending them home to bleed to death. That's shameful -- and that's something all Americans can agree on, no matter where they stand on abortion.

September 30, 1904: Scanty Information Again From Chicago

On September 30, 1904, Stanislawa Zagonski died in Chicago from an illegal abortion performed that day. Mrs. Alexander Wojtanowski, whose profession is not given, was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury on October 5. She was sentenced to a mere three months in prison.

Watch Possible Lay Abortionist in Chicago on YouTube.

September 30, 1985: Dead on the Scene

Life Dynamics identified 21-year-old Gaylene Michelle Golden on their “Blackmun Wall” as the woman who died after an abortion by by Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds. 

Reynolds performed the abortion on Gaylene in his Oklahoma City office on September 30, 1985. 

Due to a cervical laceration, Gaylene developed an embolism — both air and amniotic fluid in her bloodstream. This embolism killed her, leaving Gaylene’s son motherless.

The man Gaylene had entrusted with her life was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including safe and legal abortions, in his filthy clinic. His primary focus, though, seemed to be liposuction. Perhaps abortion seemed to be an easy way to make money using the same suction machine.

Reynolds’ anesthetist, age 60, had originally been hired as a janitor, and an untrained orderly was acting as his nurse. The operating room was littered with dirty cups and papers.

The quality of care at Reynold's facility was appalling

Reynolds tried to collect $500,000 on his wife’s life insurance after she bled to death after he opened 25-inch incision, ostensibly for liposuction, on September 7, 1989. Reynolds was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter and fined $1. He voluntarily surrendered his Oklahoma license.

ADDENDUM: Reynolds’ daughter, Shelly Reynolds, was charged with performing at least seven abortion without a license at her father’s clinic after he was stripped of his own license. (“District Attorney Seeks Abortion Information, The Oklahoman, July 31, 1991)

Watch Wife-Killer's Forgotten Victim on YouTube.

Sources: 

  • "Doctor’s Trial Nears In Liposuction Death,” The Daily Oklahoman, Apr. 22, 1991
  • District Court of Oklahoma (OK) County, Case, CJ 87-2991
  • Fatal Pulmonary Embolism During Legal Induced Abortion in the United States from 1972-1985,” Lawson, Herschel W., MD, Atrash, Hani K., MD, MPH, Franks, Adele L., MD, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vol. 162, No. 4, April 1990, p. 986-990

Sunday, September 29, 2024

September 29, 1915: Jilted Teen Procures Fatal Abortion

Rosalla Marie Rockhill, age 19, of Etna Green, Indiana, died September 29, 1915 at Ravenswood Hospital in Chicago from an abortion. Rosalla went by her middle name, so news coverage identifies her as Marie.

She was a popular young woman at the tiny town of 1,000. Marie was a clerk at the post office and secretary of the Sunday School at the Methodist Episcopal church, a senior at the tiny town's red brick schoolhouse. She attended church regularly with her parents, Warren and Lena, and her three siblings.

The October 7, 1915 Bremen Enquirer described the situation as "a singularly sad story."  The reporter lamented that "the young man said to be responsible for the girl's shame is the son of respected parents long residents of this community, whose grey heads are bowed in shame because of his conduct." The parents reportedly raised him better than to get a girl pregnant and abandon her.

The young man in question was 27-year-old Wilbur Swank. He and Marie were engaged and had set a wedding date for August 10. It was postponed until September 9. But the morning of her wedding day, Marie "learned by telephone that her promised husband had left home the night before secretly, leaving no word for her, and realized that she must meet her approaching shame alone or in some manner escape it," said the Bremen Enquirer

Wilbur's reason for taking off was, he said, because in all of his travels he had already married another woman and had not obtained a divorce. 

At some point Marie told her mother about the pregnancy, insisting that she had not consented to sex with her betrothed. "Mamma, after I ate the candy he gave me I was helpless." 

Lena later admitted that upon learning that Wilbur had jilted the girl, they went to Chicago looking for an abortionist. They walked around the city, Lena said, and saw a sign in a window reading "Midwife." They consulted with the woman there and arranged for the abortion. Marie remained at the midwife's practice while Lena returned to Etna Green.

Marie sickened during her stay. On September 22 she went into convulsions and was admitted to Ravenswood Hospital. Warren and Lena were summoned to the hospital and were there for her death a week later. 

The bereaved couple returned home with their daughter's body for the funeral and burial. Nearly the entire town greeted them at the train station. A large crowd attended the funeral. The Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel said, "Practically every business house in the town was closed during the services out of respect for the little secretary of the church. She was buried in the private cemetery on her family's farm.

While the townsfolk turned out to support the dead teenager, they held no cordial feelings towards Wilbur Swank. 


Watch Tiny Town Mourns Jilted Teen on YouTube.

Sources:

September 29: Chicago Deaths, 1917 and 1923

On September 29, 1917, 27-year-old Annie DeGroote, who worked as a salad maker, died in her Chicago home from a criminal abortion perpetrated by Dr. Emma J. Warren. Warren, as well as Annie's husband Herman, were arrested for her death. Warren was indicted on October 15, 1917, but the case never went to trial.

On September 29, 1923, 18-year-old Mollie Monilson, a native of Montreal, died in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion. The person or persons responsible for her death were never identified or brought to justice, so we can't know if Mollie availed herself of one of the many physicians or midwives practicing abortion in Chicago at the time.

September 29, 1915: Russian Immigrant Dies in Chicago

Twenty-one-year-old Anna Marie Dimford died at Rhodes Avenue Hospital in Chicago on September 29, 1915.  

Anna Marie and her family were Russian immigrants, according to Illinois death records. Anna Marie's father, Peter, had been a farmer in Kewanee, Illinois. Her mother, Maggie, ran a boarding house. Anna, then 16 years old, had been working in an iron mill to help support her five younger siblings. 

“The girl left the farm for Chicago thirteen months ago and for a long time her parents didn't know how she earned her livelihood. The last time they heard from her she wrote that she was employed as check girl in a restaurant, her mother said.” 

John Harris, a waiter, admitted to being the baby's father and to having paid $200 for the abortion. He gave the names and addresses of the doctors involved, both of whom fled. Dr. Harold M. Weinbert, who attended Anna in her final illness, said she named a Dr. Ness on the West Side as her abortionist. 

September 29, 1923: Revelations at a Baby Farm

On September 29, 1923, 44-year-old Annie Allison, a London native living in Brooklyn, died at the office of chiropractor Henry Lee Mottard at 114 West 71st Street in Manhattan. Mottard practiced under the name of Dr. Henry L. Green. Annie was a homemaker. Her husband, Herbert Allison, was a music professor. According to census records, she and Herbert had two children Bernhard and Elsie, who were young adults at the time of their mother's death.

Annie was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Brooklyn, on October 2. 

However, Annie's death certificate, signed by a Dr. Husson, attributed her death to chronic cardiac nephritis. 

Two years later, police were investigating 41-year-old Mottard for his suspected involvement in a kidnap/adoption scheme and the disappearance of an infant returned to him after a family backed out of an adoption. Somehow this investigation raised suspicions that Mottard was up to more than just kidnapping and selling infants. They had Annie exhumed. That's when things got really weird.

During the post-mortem examination, performed on April 17, 1925, doctors found that somebody had removed Annie's brain, heart, kidneys, and other organs. Mottard reportedly admitted that he had indeed performed an abortion but that Annie had actually died from falling down the shaft of a dumbwaiter on his premises while she was there recuperating. She had, he said, mistaken the dumbwaiter shaft for a bathroom. However, there were no broken bones or other injuries consistent with a fall. 

Mottard denied having been at his practice at the time that Annie died.

It was revealed that she had died from an abortion. Mottard was arrested on suspicion of homicide. His bond was set at $25,000. That's over $400,000 in 2022 dollars.

Police concluded that Mottard was running a very lucrative abortion business out of the Manhattan brownstone, bringing in as much as $100,000 a year. That's nearly $1.7 million in 2022 dollars. He admitted that he had performed many abortions and claimed no maternal fatalities. 

During the investigation, police searched Mottard's ten-acre farm outside the city for evidence of more bodies after allegations arose that Mottard had also performed an abortion there on a young woman the previous January. An operating room and a machine gun were found in the 14-room farmhouse. I haven't been able to find reports that they found the remains of any babies.

A second homicide case was filed against Mottard by officials of Suffolk County, where the farm was located. They had evidence that one of Mottard's rural abortion patients had suffered the same fate as Annie Allison. 

Mottard admitted to having performed three abortions in the farmhouse but recanted his admission that he had performed the fatal one on Annie. 

Mottard told officials that he had come to New York five years earlier from Wisconsin and had changed his name from Mottard to Green because he preferred the name. Records do show him practicing chiropractic in Milwaukee in the first quarter of the century.

Watch "She Fell Down the Elevator Shaft" on YouTube.

Sources:

Saturday, September 28, 2024

September 28, 1982: Scant Information in Louisiana

Rhonda Hess was 20 years old when she underwent a legal abortion. After the procedure, she developed an infection. The infection led to problems with clotting of the blood. 

Rhonda was taken to Moss Regional Hospital in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she died just after midnight on the morning of September 28, 1982.

According to her obituary, she was a mother of one son.

Watch Fatal Clotting Disorder After Abortion on YouTube.

Source: Louisiana Certificate of Death # 82 26 177

September 28, 2022: Can Planned Parenthood Blame Dead Woman on Trump?

In December of 2021, 24-year-old Alyona Kenna Dixon of Pahrump NV gave birth to a baby boy, whom she and her husband, Michael Dixon, named Wesley. 

In August of 2022, Alyona went to a doctor for a checkup and was found to be just over 8 weeks pregnant.

Though Alyona loved children, and hoped one day to operate a play center, she did not feel ready to add the child she was carrying to her family. Thus, on September 22, 2022, Alyona went to a Planned Parenthood for an abortion. Note: In spite of the Dobbs decision, abortion on demand remains totally legal in Nevada up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. Nobody can claim that what happened next was due to fear of prosecution under abortion laws.

According to a doctor who later reviewed the case, Alyona was "determined to be an appropriate candidate for elective termination of pregnancy with mifepristone followed 24-48 hours later by misoprostol intravaginally." The doctor further noted, "She was appropriately counseled about the risks of the medical abortion and was discharged home."

Three days later Alyona was suffering vaginal bleeding and sharp lower abdominal pain. The following day, still troubled by her symptoms, she went to the Dignity Health's St. Rose Dominican Blue Diamond emergency room in Las Vegas. She reported vaginal bleeding and sharp pain in her lower abdomen. Dr. Hayden Maag treated Alyona, but did not perform a pelvic exam or consult with an ob/gyn. He discharged her on September 26.

Alyona went to a different hospital the next day -- Desert View Regional Medical Center -- at around 11:15 the following evening, September 27. The admitting physician noted “abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, severe dehydration, acute renal failure, leukocytosis, sepsis, lactic acidosis, hypokalemia, sinus tachycardia, metabolic acidoses, pulseless electrical activity, respiratory failure.” The doctor treated her and her symptoms were improving. 

Doctors planned to transfer Alyona to Summerlin Hospital Medical Center, but her condition deteriorated. Her pulse elevated to 150 and she struggled to breathe. Doctors sedated her and intubated her to try to provide more oxygen. However, during the process she started vomiting and her heart stopped. In spite of attempts to resuscitate, Alyona was pronounced dead at 5:32 the next morning, September 28.

The Clark County Coroner's Office stated that her cause of death was "complications from septic abortion."

Her husband, Michael, sued Maag and Dignity Health on behalf of himself and their infant son Wesley. In an email to the Los Vegas Review-Journal, hospital spokesman Gordon Absher said, "While we share in the grief over the loss of any patient, Dignity Health policy does not permit us to comment on matters of pending litigation."

"We believe the evidence will show that defendants should be held accountable for Alyona's preventable and tragic death," the family's attorney, Mark Rouse, said. "We have alleged that had the sepsis been treated when she presented to Dignity Health they would have saved her life."

Dr. Hany Atallah, who had reviewed the case, noted that Maag had failed to rule out sepsis. 

Michael's father, Ian Dixon, said that Alyona was an angel with a heart of gold. "It just was all so sudden. ... To see her die in 24 hours. That's how long it took." Ian said that the family didn't even get a chance to properly say goodbye.

Ian said that Alyona had been a loving stepmother to Michael's two children from a previous relationship.

It's unclear why Planned Parenthood was not included in the suit, especially since Alyona was instructed to administer the second abortion drug vaginally -- which is known to increase the risk of fatal infection.

Alyona's death breaks Planned Parenthood's pattern of fatalities among young black women: 

Other Planned Parenthood deaths that I know of are:

Sources:

September 28, 1929: Unidentified Perp in Chicago

On September 28, 1929, 29-year-old Barbara Auer died in Chicago from complications of an illegal abortion performed at an unknown place, according to the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database. 

According to Illinois death records, Barbara was a married woman.

The person or persons responsible were never identified or prosecuted, so we can't know if she availed herself of one of the plethora of physicians and midwives practicing abortion in Chicago at that time.

September 28, 1982: The Short Life of Denise's Baby

"Denise" was 22 years old when radiologist Erma Roe 353 diagnosed her as 9 weeks pregnant. Roe performed two suction procedures on Denise on July 10, 1982. Roe noted only "scant tissue," but still sent Denise home. 

On July 22, Denise returned to report bleeding, pain, and passing clots. Roe reviewed the pathology report, which showed no products of conception. She performed a pelvic exam and told Denise that she wasn't pregnant. Instead she diagnosed a urinary tract infection and sent her patient home with antibiotics. 

On September 28, Denise went to the hospital. She was in active labor in a breech position, with a fetal foot protruding through her cervix. She gave birth to a 13 1/2 ounce baby boy who died an hour later. 

Denise underwent an emergency D&C, lost a liter of blood, and was hospitalized for three days. She suffered depression, recurring nightmares, and two subsequent miscarriages. (Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements, and Experts, August 1993, November 1993; Illinois Appellate Court, 1st District, 6th Division, Case No. 1-91-783; Cook County Illinois Circuit Court Case No. 84L 13308; Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, June 15 and 16, 1990; Peoria Star-Journal, August 9, 1990)

Friday, September 27, 2024

September 27, 1975: One of 6 Deaths at Inglewood Women's Hospital

Inglewood Women's Hospital reopens as a clinic

On September 13, 1975, 22-year-old Lynette Wallace underwent a safe and legal abortion at Inglewood Women's Hospital in Los Angeles County. According to death and Social Security records, Lynette was a black woman born in Maryland.

Early on the morning of September 27, Lynette went to the emergency room reporting abdominal pain. Staff reported that she became agitated and "difficult to handle." They put her in restraints, and she was pronounced dead of cardiopulmonary arrest at 10:53 AM.

The autopsy revealed what the abortionist should have detected -- the pregnancy had not been in Lynette's uterus but in her fallopian tube. The tube had ruptured, spilling blood and a 10-week fetus into Lynette's abdomen.

Women who seek abortion should be less likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. After all, the abortionist is supposed to perform an examination verifying the size of the uterus, and is supposed to visually examine the abortion tissue to be sure that the entire fetus and placenta are present. Also, a pathology examination is supposed to be done on the uterine contents to verify the presence of the entire fetal/placental unit. However, women who seek abortion are actually more likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. The pain and nausea associated with an ectopic pregnancy are often mistaken for ordinary post-abortion symptoms, and are ignored until the tube ruptures and the woman's life is in danger.

Lynette is one of many deaths currently attributed to Inglewood Women's Hospital (aka Inglewood Women's Clinic) in Los Angeles County:

Source: LA County Coroner Report 75-11665

September 27, 1908: An Unknown Midwife in Chicago

On September 23, 1908, "Mrs. G.," whom I call "Sophie," was admitted to Cook County Hospital in Chicago. Two weeks earlier, when she was ten weeks pregnant, she had undergone an abortion at the hands of a midwife. She began suffering from chills, fever, and abdominal pain about five days later. After two days of these symptoms, a physician treated her with a curettage to try to remove retained material, but this left Sophie feeling even worse.

Over the course of the ensuing week Sophie's condition deteriorated. When she was finally admitted she had a very tender, distended abdomen. Her pulse was racing at 120, her respiration a rapid 30. Her fever was 101.4. She was speaking incoherently. An internal examination found an enlarge uterus, a swollen cervix, and a purulent vaginal discharge.

On September 26, her condition was little changed. An additional surgery was attempted, involving dilating her cervix, curetting the uterus, then irrigating the uterus and packing it with gauze. The results were catastrophic. Sophie's fever spiked to 108.6, her pulse 160 and her respirations 58. She died on September 27, 19 hours after the surgery.

I lost my original source when the Cemetery of Choice Wiki shut down.

September 27, 1931: Newark's Tragic Bride

In early September of 1931, Jane Coult, the daughter of a Newark, New Jersey judge, secretly married John Merrill. The couple had a public wedding at the bride's home on September 22.

Five days later, Jane was dead.

She had been under the care of  Dr. Aloysius Mulholland, age 35, from September 24 through 26th before being admitted to Polyclinic Hospital in New York. Police said that Jane had paid Mulholland $500 of a $600 abortion fee. An autopsy confirmed that her death was due to a criminal abortion.

Both Mulholland and Jane's new husband were charged with murder. Each was released on $7,500 bond. Mulholland made no statement on the advice of his attorney. This turned out to be very good advice, because the case didn't end up going forward.

Mulholland was later charged with the abortion death of Katherine DiDonato and again remained free. He was finally imprisoned in 1943 after being charged with several abortions which were not fatal to the mothers.

Watch "The Tragic Five-Day Bride" on YouTube.

Sources:

September 27, 2012: Death After Medical Instrument Left in Woman's Body

 I don't like to dehumanize women by just using initials, so the woman identified in medical board documents as "S.H." will be called "Shirelle."

Frank Rodriguez
On September 22, 2012, 31-year-old Shirelle went to Presidential Women's Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, for an abortion. There, Dr. Frank Rodriguez pushed a cervical dilator into Shirelle's uterus and left it there. Shirelle died five days later, on September 27.

It's interesting to note that the medical board doesn't mention Shirelle's death in the disciplinary documents. Operation Rescue discovered the death on a malpractice payout reporting form.

Evidently the insurance payout was done quietly, since I have not been able to find any newspaper coverage of Shirelle's death.

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Kristan Hawkins: Born-Alive Infant Lies From Kamala Harris

Kristan Hawkins explored the five lies about abortion Kamala Harris uttered during the debate.

Kristan covers Lie Number Two: Babies that survive abortions aren't being killed or left to die

California Allows Infanticide

Kristan mentions the "pregnancy outcomes" in California law. Let's quote AB 2223

SEC. 7. Section 123467 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

123467. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty, or otherwise deprived of their rights under this article, based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death due to a pregnancy-related cause.

(b) A person who aids or assists a pregnant person in exercising their rights under this article shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty, or otherwise be deprived of their rights, based solely on their actions to aid or assist a pregnant person in exercising their rights under this article with the pregnant person’s voluntary consent.

In plain English: Nobody is to be prosecuted or sued or deprived of a right to abortion based on anything they do or fail to do that results in the death of an infant up to 28 days old due to "a pregnancy-related cause." The abortion lobby will say that this only includes causes directly related to the pregnancy itself such as fetal abnormalities or maternal health issues, but we've learned by experience that abortion advocates will drive trucks through any loophole, and this one is large enough to fly a jumbo jet through.

What About Michigan?

I haven't been able to find specific text that allows infanticide in Michigan. I wish Students for Life provided links. Her explanation, however, makes sense. If the desired "pregnancy outcome" is avoiding a live birth, then follow-through ensuring that she doesn't end up with a live baby makes sense.

Does Federal Law Override State Law?

Abortion advocates assert that the Federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act bans post-abortion infanticide by either neglect or overt action. However, the law contains no actual punishment for killing an infant born alive during an abortion, and to my knowledge it has never been enforced. Lacking the will to enforce existing laws effectively nullifies any laws that would otherwise protect these babies. Let's look at some examples:

    William Waddill
  • William Waddill aborted and strangled a 32-week baby in 1977. He beat the rap because nobody had tested the baby to make sure she had brain function before Waddill strangled her, and thus hadn't caused the baby's death as defined by "total and irreversible cessation of brain function." This effectively set a precedent that there was no point in charging anybody for the death of an abortion survivor because the practitioner could just claim that the abortion procedure had caused "total and irreversible cessation of brain function" prior to the baby being expelled, and thus, movement and breathing to the contrary, the baby wasn't technically alive to be killed. This is a moot point, though, because under current California law, just the fact that the baby had been injured in-utero would render Waddill immune from prosecution -- and from being sued by the baby's parents.
  • Clinic owner Belkis Gonzales put a live-born 22-week baby in a biohazard bag and threw her onto the roof to decompose in the sun. Due to decomposition before the baby's body was recovered, it could not be medically proved that the little girl had been born alive so charges against Gonzales were dropped.
More on Douglas Karpen

Kristan brings up the "Texas Gosnell." Douglas Karpen. Let's explore this sterling example of compassionate reproductive health care:

What About Kermit Gosnell?

Kermit Gosnell

While Gosnell was ultimately convicted in the murders of several born-alive infants, that only happened because a few people raised hell. According to the Grand Jury Report, Gosnell and his employees got away with murdering born-alive babies for as long as 31 years, beginning as early as 1979 continuing until his arrest in 2010. Why? Because Pennsylvania officials decided to turn a blind eye

While Gosnell is not an example of it being legal to kill babies to survive abortions, he is an example of getting away with brazenly killing live babies because officials don't have a problem with it.

The abortion lobby tries to pretend that Gosnell was an outlier. He worked one day a week at a National Abortion Federation clinic in Delaware. The NAF clinic would collect the patients' money, "counsel" them, and hand them off to Gosnell for illegal third trimester abortions to be started in Delaware and finished in his Philadelphia House of Horrors. One of those abortions culminated in the murder of Baby Boy A.

I have an entire playlist about this brave and stalwart provider of vital reproductive healthcare services.

Watch Kristen's video here.