Sunday, November 15, 2026

November 15, 1972: A Journey to Death

Twila Coulter
On November 14, 1972, 21-year-old Twila Jeanne Coulter died in a hospital in Torrance, California. 

A Bright Future

Judging by her Springfield High School 1968 yearbook, Twila was a very promising young woman. She was in the pep club, the band, the class play, and chorus. She twirled fire baton and was a candidate for Valentine Queen. She showed up regularly in the local paper for making the honor roll and for her community activities. 

According to her obituary, Twila was active in Rainbow for Girls and 4-H, and graduated from Blair Business College in Colorado Springs. She took work as a legal secretary in Denver and Springfield before taking a job at the Otero County Welfare Office in February of 1971.

Twila had traveled from her home in Colorado to California for what she no doubt assumed would be a safe, legal abortion. She checked into Bon Air Hospital.

A Deadly Decision by Doctors

What Twila couldn't have known was that her doctor was about to subject her to an abortion procedure so risky to mothers that it had been abandoned in Japan, Sweden, and the Soviet Union: saline instillation abortion, typically referred to as just a saline abortion.

In a saline abortion, the doctor uses a large syringe to remove as much amniotic fluid as possible, replacing it with a strong, sterile saline (salt) solution. The unborn baby breathes in and swallows the fluid, which causes massive organ damage resulting in death. The saline could also get into the mother's bloodstream, causing organ damage and even death.

Two Japanese doctors, Takashi Wagatsuma and Yukio Manabe, tried to warn the West. Wagatsuma wrote, "It is, I think, worthwhile to report its rather disastrous consequences which we experienced in Japan." Manabe wrote, "It is now known that any solution placed within the uterus can be absorbed rather rapidly into the general circulation through the vascular system of the uterus and placenta. Thus any solution used in the uterus for abortion must be absolutely safe even if given by direct intravenous injection. ... A solution deadly to the fetus may be equally toxic and dangerous to the mother. ... In spite of the accumulating undesirable reports, the use of hypertonic saline for abortion is still advocated and used ... in the United States and Great Britain. I would like to call attention to the danger of the method and would predict the further occurrence of deaths until this method is entirely forgotten in these countries."

A Predictable Outcome

In spite of these warnings, whichever doctor was entrusted with Twila's care injected saline into her uterus at 10:00 pm on November 13. She expelled her dead 16-17 week fetus and the placenta the following day, about 14 hours after the saline injection. 

Only 15 minutes after delivering the dead baby, Twila started turning blue from lack of oxygen. She had trouble breathing and her heart started racing. She was bleeding from her vagina, bladder, and IV sites, indicating a potentially fatal clotting disorder. She was given oxygen and three units of blood and transferred to LA County Harbor General, a fully-equipped hospital. 

Upon arrival at around 1 pm, Twila was still bleeding heavily. She was already showing signs of brain damage -- completely unresponsive, with her body stiff on one side and limp on the other. Her eyes were drifting left, and she showed a blurred optic disc in her left eye, indicating early brain swelling. Bloodwork confirmed the dreaded clotting disorder -- disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. 

A hospital counselor contacted Twila's family. They had been unaware of the pregnancy, the trip, or the abortion. They rushed to the Denver airport to get a flight to Los Angeles to be at their daughter's side.

Continued Efforts

Doctors performed a D&C to scrape out some 20-30 ccs of retained pregnancy tissue. They gave Twila medications to treat the clotting disorder along with two units of blood.

By around 2:30 pm, Twila's left pupil was enlarging. Her breathing was in what's called Cheyne-Stokes pattern -- where the breathing starts shallow, grows deeper and faster, then becomes slower and more shallow, stops for up to half a minute, before resuming. This was a sign that Twila's brain stem was failing. They gave her medications to try to shrink the brain swelling, but her left pupil became fixed and her right pupil started dilating as well. Her eyes began moving independently of one another, and she showed decerebrate posturing -- straight arms and legs, curled fists, and arched back and neck. These were more signs of brain injury. 

A neurosurgical consult concluded that the bleeding was diffuse throughout Twila's brain and could not be corrected surgically. 

Final Hours

Grok AI illustration
As midnight passed and November 14 rolled into November 15, Twila was breathing regularly, but tests of her reflexes indicated that her brain stem was failing. At around 1 am her blood pressure dropped to 70/50 and her pulse to 54. She was given fluids and medications to bring her vitals back up to a more normal range.

Her parents arrived at around 3:00 am and began their vigil as the doctors continued their efforts to save their daughter.

At around 4:45 am, Twila's breathing became fast and irregular. A breathing tube was inserted and she was put on a ventilator. But all these efforts were futile. Twila was pronounced dead from cerebral hemorrhage at 7:00 am on November 15.

Confirmed at Autopsy

Twila's brain had likely been beyond repair by the time she arrived at Harbor General. The autopsy found fresh blood all over the surface of her brain and around the spinal cord. There were large fresh clots disrupting the brain structure and her midbrain was pushed off to the side. This midbrain compression was the final blow that caused Twila's death. 

There were no signs that the saline used to kill the baby had gotten into Twila's bloodstream. It's more likely that pregnancy tissues from the placental attachment made their way into Twila's bloodstream as she was expelling the baby. These tissues triggered the cascade of clotting problems that caused the fatal brain damage.

Despite the fact that her doctor had chosen an antiquated, dangerous abortion method, nobody was prosecuted in Twila's death. After all, her abortion was legal. There was no longer any call to hold anyone accountable for her death.

Learn more about the kind of abortion that killed Twila in her story on YouTube.

Sources: 

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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.

at 12:00 AM

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