1992–1996: Abortion Fails Liver Transplant Patient

“Bianca” was an alcoholic with liver cirrhosis caused by her addiction. She had recently undergone a liver transplant and was either on tacrolimus-based therapy or cyclosporine A. Unfortunately, tests indicated that she was rejecting the graft.

Six months after the transplant, Bianca became pregnant. When she told Mt. Sinai Hospital (where she underwent the transplant) that she was pregnant, they “advised” her to have an abortion. The first-trimester abortion was done at the hospital.

It didn’t save Bianca. She died a few weeks later, from transplant rejection or cytomegalovirus infection with sepsis.

Most of the women in the study who gave birth had good outcomes. Bianca’s death was sometime from 1992–1996. After 1997, with treatment being more advanced, there were no maternal deaths of liver transplant patients reported by the hospital— it was advances in health care that saved lives, not abortion.

Mt. Sinai was also responsible for the abortion death of Gail Mazo in 1978 (patient with ulcerative colitis who was “advised” into an abortion and drowned in her own vomit due to negligence).

Source: "Pregnancy outcome in liver transplant recipients," Obstetrics & Gynecology, Vol. 102, issue 1, July 2002