September 8, 2009: Planned Parenthood Brings Death to Another Black Woman

Roselle proudly celebrating non-alcoholic
just two months before her fatal abortion.

Roselle Owens was a vibrant 17-year-old high school student, thinking ahead to college, when she discovered that she was pregnant in 2009.

She made the mistake of entrusting herself to Planned Parenthood of New York City. She went to the Margaret Sanger Center for an abortion on the morning of April 11. Dr. Gerald Zupnick, who has a history of malpractice, performed the abortion under general anesthesia. The anesthesia was contracted out to employees of Somnia, also called Outpatient Anesthesia Services.

Zupnick noted in the operative report that the abortion was "uneventful," completing the procedure at 9:20 a.m. Shortly thereafter, staff found that Roselle's breathing was labored and her blood oxygen levels had fallen. A lawsuit filed by Roselle's half-brother on behalf of himself, Roselle's father, and her twin brother asserted that neither Somnia employees, Zupnick, or Planned Parenthood's other staff properly monitored Roselle. The ambulance was not summoned for her until 9:43 a.m., over 20 minutes after the abortion was completed. EMS services transported Roselle to St. Vincent's Medical Center at 10:05 a.m.

Staff at the hospital were able to stabilize Roselle, but the damage had already been done. Roselle remained on a ventilator at St. Vincent's until her death on September 8. She died when she should have been just getting settled into her new college life.

Both Zupnick and Planned Parenthood settled off-the-books, thus ending the paper trail.

Roselle Owens isn't the only woman to die from complications of a Planned Parenthood abortion. 

No Friend to Black Women

Taking Margaret Sanger's name off the clinic where Roselle suffered her fatal injuries does nothing to change a disturbing pattern at Planned Parenthood: It's disproportionately been Black women dying from Planned Parenthood abortions. According to Grok AI, Planned Parenthood reports that only about 14% of their abortion patients are black. So why do the deaths I've learned about disproportionately happen to black women? Of the 12 Planned Parenthood abortion deaths I know of, 5 of them -- 42% -- were black women.

Alexis "Lexi" Arguello was only 18 years old when she underwent an abortion at the Fort Collins, CO, Planned Parenthood in 2025. Planned Parenthood did an abortion her at 22 weeks even though their website says that they only do abortions up to 19 weeks and 6 days. She had developed a clotting disorder due to an amniotic fluid embolism -- a known possible complication that requires swift and decisive action to save the woman's life. Instead, Planned Parenthood requested an ambulance with no lights and sirens, delaying care. Her grandfather, who hadn't known about the pregnancy, rushed to the hospital as doctors did everything they could to save her, including multiple doses of epinephrine and seven liters of blood. She died as he watched helplessly. 

Alyona Dixon got abortion pills at a Nevada Planned Parenthood in September of 2022. Although research had shown that vaginal administration of misoprostol puts women at risk of sudden onset fatal toxic shock syndrome, Planned Parenthood instructed Alyona to take this risk. There's no evidence that she was informed of the risk of toxic shock syndrome, and there clearly was no arrangement for aftercare by a provider who would be alert to this deadly possibility. She ended up going septic and dying. Her death broke the streak of exclusively dead black woman at Planned Parenthood.

Cree Erwin-Shephard, age 24, suffered internal injuries during an abortion at Planned Parenthood in Kalamazoo, Michigan. When she suffered persistent pain, along with nausea and vomiting, she went to the hospital. They didn't provide adequate treatment  and sent her home. Her mother found her cold and stiff in the guest bedroom on the 4th of July, 2016. You can hear her mother's heartbreaking 911 call here. The autopsy found that she had a 1 1/2-inch full thickness tear in her uterus, and Planned Parenthood had somehow missed the fact that the doctor had done this to her and just sent her home to die. 

Tonya Reaves, age 24, left a one-year-old child motherless when she bled to death in July of 2012 after an abortion at a Chicago Planned Parenthood. The abortion had been performed at 11 am, but she wasn't transferred to a hospital until 4:30 pm. The CDC published an article back in 1983 explaining why there's no legitimate reason for a woman to bleed to death after a purportedly safe legal abortion. The article noted, "Deaths from hemorrhage can be eliminated by preventing uterine trauma during abortion and by rapidly diagnosing and treating hemorrhage if it occurs." Planned Parenthood, for some reason, failed to prevent the uterine trauma and failed to rapidly diagnose and treat Tonya's hemorrhage.

In 2008, 44-year-old Bonnie Hunt went to an Illinois Planned Parenthood and underwent an abortion. Afterwards she was hospitalized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, but they were unable to save her. Bonnie's mother sued. After the case dragged out in the courts, it was dismissed by stipulation or agreement.

     

When Edrica Goode went to Planned Parenthood for an abortion in 2007. A nurse examined her and noticed of obvious signs of a vaginal infection. The manufacturer of laminaria tents, used to dilate the cervix overnight, warns not to use them if the patient shows any sign of a vaginal infection, since laminaria absorb whatever moisture is in the area and would wick it directly into the uterus. Edrica was told to return the following day to get the laminaria removed and undergo her abortion. However, the infection spread into Edrica's uterus, and from there into her bloodstream, so quickly that by the following morning she was feverish, confused and disoriented. She didn't even know what day it was. Her family rushed her to the hospital, but since nobody knew about the abortion they didn't know to remove the laminaria and aggressively treat the infection. Edrica went septic and died.

Hoa Thuy "Vivian" Tran, age 22, went to Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood in late December of 2003. Six days later she was dead from sepsis. Her family sued Planned Parenthood, the Population Council (an organization that had pushed for fast-track approval of abortion pills), and the drug manufacturer, asserting that Vivian had not been adequately warned of the risks of a chemical abortion. 

Holly Patterson, age 18, died in mid-September of 2003 from sepsis caused by abortion drugs she got at a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California. Instead of instructing Holly to place the second dose inside her cheek and letting it dissolve, as the FDA instructed, Planned Parenthood told her that she could insert it vaginally. Researchers believe that the vaginal insertion of this second drug makes otherwise healthy young women particularly vulnerable to sudden death from toxic shock syndrome. After his daughter's death, Holly's father, Monty, wanted to know why Planned Parenthood didn't follow the FDA-recommended regimen. He wanted to know why they sent her to the emergency room instead of to a specially trained doctor who would know how to treat abortion pill complications. He never got answers, and as we see from the death of Alyona Dixon, Planned Parenthood didn't stop using this dangerous protocol. 

Irene Stevenson underwent an abortion at a Chicago Planned Parenthood in 2002. She developed an infection and died on July 12. Her widower, Maurice, sued Planned Parenthood, Dr. Lloyd Gregg, Dr. Murray Pelta, and Michael Reese Hospital for malpractice, but the case was dismissed by stipulation in 2006. 

Diana Lopez was 25 years old and 19 weeks pregnant when she went to Planned Parenthood for an abortion in 2002. According to a lawsuit later filed by Diana's widowed husband, Dr. Mark Maltzer, who performed the abortion, had rushed through the abortion in just six minutes when even the website said that the procedure should take between 10 and 20 minutes. He managed to tear Diana's cervix, causing severe bleeding. Diana was rushed by ambulance to County Women's Hospital where doctors performed an emergency hysterectomy and transfused her with five units of blood. It was all in vain. Diana bled to death, leaving two young children motherless. This fatal abortion was funded by California taxpayers through the Medi-Cal program. 

In 1981 abortion patient Elise Kalat suffered a severe asthma attack after her abortion at a Massachusetts Planned Parenthood. When the medics arrived to take over Elise's care they found that nobody on site evidently knew how to perform even layman-quality CPR, much less the type of advanced CPR that would be expected of medical professionals. She had not been intubated. The person using the bag-valve mask was only inflating Elise's cheeks, not getting air into her lungs. The person performing the compressions was doing them on her abdomen rather than her chest. Nobody was monitoring her on an EKG, using a defibrillator, or administering cardiac medications. Thus it should be no surprise that Elise died. 

Watch Another Dead Black Woman on YouTube.

Source: Thurman Owens vs. Planned Parenthood of New York City et al., Kings County Index No. 18364/11