Twenty-six-year-old nurse's aide Moris Helen Herron* went to Bakersfield, California Dr. William D. Stanley for a tubal ligation in October of 1983. When Stanley examined Helen, he informed her that she was pregnant and asked if she wanted him to perform a safe, legal abortion when he did the tubal ligation.
Trouble Starts Brewing
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Helen consented. Stanley admitted Helen to Greater Bakersfield Memorial Hospital on October 26 for the surgery, which he performed that day.
After Helen went home, she suffered weakness, vomiting, and severe pain. She called Stanley, who told her that she had the flu and instructed her to take a laxative.
Helen still wasn't having bowel movements so she went back to the hospital and was given an enema, but was still unable to move her bowels.
Desperate Care Proves Fruitless
Helen developed a high fever and severe abdominal pain. She was re-admitted to the hospital through the emergency room on October 31. Her abdomen was distended. Dr. Vincent Phillips performed a laparotomy and found that Helen's small bowel had been perforated and her abdominal cavity was full of infected material. Helen had severe peritonitis. She was put on a breathing tube.
That evening Helen's temperature rose to 108 degrees and her pulse was racing at 170. She had reduced output of urine. Dr. Phillips called in an internal medicine specialist, Dr. William Baker, to assist in Helen's treatment. This doctor noted that Helen's blood pressure was 144/76, her respirations very rapid at 48, her pulse racing at 168, and her fever 104. She had received 2000 cs of fluid but had only put out about 131 cc of urine. She had no bowel sounds and her abdomen was swollen and tender. She was still alert enough to respond to the doctors as they spoke with her.
Between the examination and the lab work it was clear to Helen's doctors that she was in septic shock and showing signs that she was going into kidney failure. She was given IV antibiotics and a blood transfusion.
The doctors continued their efforts over the next few days. Around 3:00 pm she went into ventricular tachycardia (dangerously high pulse). The doctors tried desperately to save her with advanced cardiac care, to no avail. Even with an internal pacemaker put in, Helen's heart simply could not beat effectively to save her life. She was pronounced dead at 3:43 pm.
The Autopsy Confirmed The Sad Truth
An autopsy found feces and feculent fluid in Helen's abdominal cavity from a hole in her intestines. Her cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest due to septic shock due to the perforated uterus. Helen's mother, Inez Herron, sued Stanley on behalf of her two surviving children, and Stanley settled out of court for $200,000.
When a local pro-life group wrote to Stanley to chastise him for his treatment of Helen, he wrote back, saying, "Elective abortion refers to termination of a live viable pregnancy upon the request of the mother. I have never performed this service or even offered it." He asserted that he was merely performing a D&C on Helen after a miscarriage.
As a young Black woman, Helen was at higher risk of abortion death than a white woman.
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Sources: Kern County (CA) Death Certificate No. 2665; Kern County Superior Court Case No. 85936
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Veteran pro-life investigator Kevin Sherlock asks people of good will to help him have Planned Parenthood prosecuted for profiteering from the rapes and incests of underage girls many thousands of times each year.
Sherlock has pulled the police records of hundreds of cities and has pulled the child protective services records of multiple states to prove Planned Parenthood staffers are violating mandated reporting laws designed to protect girl victims. But there is more to be done. Sherlock will make sure more and more evidence gets to federal and state prosecutors who care about protecting girls from abusers and profiteers.
If you would like to help, please click the following link:
Sherlock has talked to many girls and young women who trust him. Their stories and the forensic evidence shows most of them undergo pill abortions or humiliating invasive surgical abortions due to fear or ignorance or pressure or coercion. He treats the girls or women carrying children or devastated from their abortions as friends and neighbors in his home town, not afterthoughts.
Thank you for doing what you can to help girls and fight sexual predators and rape profiteers.
NOTE: A previous researcher evidently became confused when reading the name "Moris" on the lawsuit filed by Helen's mother, Inez. Therefore, some reports of this case mistakenly identify the dead woman as being named Inez Herron. Helen's Social Security records also show her name listed as Marsh Helen Herron. The US Social Security Applications and Claims Index shows Helen has having been born in Clarkesdale, Mississippi and having used the Marsh Herron as well as Moris Helen Herron. As a Black woman, Helen would have been twice as likely to die from abortion complications as a white woman.
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