The Dubious Care of an Abortion Rights Hero

“Carol” underwent a late-term abortion by Dr. George Tiller (John Roe 686) starting on May 13, 1980, at his Women's Health Care Services in Wichita, Kansas (Acme Reproductive Services 17). 

During the two-day procedure, completed on May 14, Carol’s uterus was perforated. 

Tiller suspected that he had created a hole in her uterus and that there would be a delay in her being dismissed. He had a staff member put her on an X-ray table and roll her into a storage room. 

Not only was this room not private, but a security man was allowed to come in and loaf there. 

Carol was in severe pain, but Tiller's staff told her to shut up because her cries were frightening patients who had not yet undergone their abortions. They left Carol cold, alone, and nauseated. 

Her cries were finally investigated by another patient, who said she would try to find someone to help.

During the post-operative check-up, Tiller blamed Carol for ruining his record of not “poking a hole through a uterus” in the last two or three years, and told her that she should have undergone the abortion in a hospital because of the fetus’s age.

Meanwhile, Carol's husband was left sitting in the waiting room and was not informed of his wife's whereabouts or condition. When the clinic closed, he was sent outside to wait. 

When Carol came out, she was bent over in pain and on the ride home she cried out in pain every time the car hit a bump. She had to be carried into the house, and had a pulse rate of 140-160 with a temperature of 104. 

They called the clinic, and Tiller prescribed medication. 

When Carol’s husband came home from the pharmacy, he found her on the hallway floor where she had collapsed after going into the bathroom to vomit. She then hyperventilated, vomited, lost feeling in her hands and feet, and turned bluish gray. 

On May 19, she had a follow-up visit. Tiller told Carol that she was still pregnant and that a second procedure would be necessary. When her husband asked about the second procedure and what precautions would be taken to prevent a second perforation, Tiller had the police eject him from the clinic. Tiller's clinic was a member of the National Abortion Federation.

Watch The Dubious Care of an Abortion Rights Hero on YouTube.
Watch The Dubious Care of an Abortion Rights Hero on Rumble.

Source: Sedgwick County (KS) District Court Case No. 82C1309