Latachie: Not Even Noticed

The idea that the abortion researchers at the Centers for Disease Control actually care about women's deaths from safe, legal abortion should be blown out of the water by looking at how they dealt with the death of Latachie Veal.

Latachie was 17 years old, and 22 weeks pregnant, when Robert Dale Crist performed an abortion on her at Houston's West Loop Clinic November 2, 1991. According to Latachie's family, she bled heavily at the clinic, and cried out to the staff for help. They told her that her symptoms were normal, and sent her home. Several hours later, Latachie stopped breathing. Her brother-in-law called 911 while her sister did CPR, to no avail. Latachie was dead on arrival at Ben Taub Hospital.

If Latachie's death certificate had been filled out properly, with the notation of the abortion in the proper box, using the proper ICD-9 code, then theoretically the National Center for Health Statistics would spot the abortion code and report it. But most states send only a statistical sample of their death certificate data to the NCHS. So the CDC would be notified of Latachie's death through the NCHS only if the death certificate was properly filled out, and Latachie's death certificate was among those abstracted and sent to the NCHS.

But still, according to abortion defenders, Latachie's death would nevertheless be automatically reported to the Centers for Disease Control. They're not clear on who is supposed to report the death. Was West Loop Clinic supposed to report it? Was Crist supposed to report it? Was Ben Taub Hospital supposed to report it? Was the medical examiner supposed to report it? Was the Texas Department of Health supposed to report it? The CDC says it gets abortion death information from abortionists, abortion facilities, hospitals, and state health departments, but it does not mention that the reporting is not mandatory.

This does not mean that Latachie's death went utterly unnoticed.

Latachie's family filed suit, retaining the flamboyant "Racehorse" Haynes as their attorney. The case was highly publicized, both in Texas and in Missouri, where Crist had performed a fatal abortion on Diane Boyd, a 19-year-old developmentally disabled woman who had been raped in the institution where she'd lived.

The mainstream publicity went beyond the usual newspaper articles, with Crist giving television interviews calling the publicity "media hype" and "a political event." Haynes retorted, "I wish he would have a copy of the 911 tape.... If he would talk to the parents, if he would talk to the sister as she gave her CPR or talk to the brother-in-law as she was breathing her last breath and see then if he thinks it's a media event."

With all this mainstream publicity in two states, prolife organizations picked up the story, and it was reported in prolife newsletters around the nation.

A lot of people very quickly found out about the abortion death of 17-year-old Latachie Veal. But did the CDC?

At the 1992 National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar in Dallas, Crist spoke openly of Latachie's death. (He did not, of course, mention her name; I've concluded that he's discussing Latachie's death, since there's been no evidence of any another 17-year-old abortion patient of his who died in 1991.) Crist blamed the death not on malpractice, but on disseminated intravascular coagulopathy -- a clotting disorder that can be triggered during an abortion.

Present at that Risk Management Seminar, where Crist chattered about Latachie's death, were two -- count 'em -- two-- staffers from the Centers for Disease Control's abortion surveillance activities area: Stanley Henshaw and Lisa Koonin. Henshaw's presence isn't quite as remarkable as Koonin's. It was Lisa Koonin, specifically, whose job it was to "verify" abortion deaths, and obtain copies of death certificates. These she was to pass on to a research fellow, Clarice Green, who would then gather the full information about the case.

In spite of all the publicity, in spite of the lawsuit, in spite of the prolifers shouting from the rooftops, in spite of the abortionist discussing the death at an event attended by the very woman whose job it was to notice abortion deaths, the Centers for Disease Control did not notice Latachie's death. Their 1991 Abortion Surveillance Report, published in May of 1995, did not even make any mention of abortion mortality. And when we at Life Dynamics filed a request for information about abortion deaths, we found that the CDC counted zero -- count 'em -- zero -- abortion deaths among women of Latachie's race in the 15 - 19 age range. In other words, they didn't even notice.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if the CDC failed to notice this highly-publicized death, discussed openly at an event attended by two of their abortion surveillance staffers, exactly what does it take to get them to notice an abortion death? And how can we even pretend to believe that any serious attempt to accurately count abortion deaths was being made?

Deadly Abortions in Different Circumstances and Centuries

Chicago, 1899: Perpetrator's Profession Unknown

On April 25, 1899, Sarah Messinger, age 30, died in St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed by Marie Kampfer. Sarah died on the day the abortion was performed. Kampfer, whose profession is not listed, was held for $5,000 bond by Coroner's Jury. Most Chicago abortionists of that era were physicians or midwives.

New York City, 1902: Most Likely a Physician

In January of 1902, Abraham Conheim promised marriage to 19-year-old Harriet "Hattie" Larocque, originally of Canton, New York.  According to Hattie's father, Leon, Hattie was the seventh of his nine children, and was "previously chaste and of good reputation." With the promise of marriage, Hattie became sexually involved with Conheim, who had hired her to work for him as a cloak model. 

In April of 1902, about 18 months after moving to New York City, Hattie discovered that she was pregnant. Conheim reneged on his promise of marriage. Instead he and his friend, traveling salesman Leo Asher. There they arranged a criminal abortion for her.

At some point, Hattie was attended by Dr. Mary J. McCleery in the McCleery home. Martha Collier, who was a boarder at the McCleery home, said that Harriet had arrived there on April 9. Dr. McCleery said that she had only given Hattie simple medications.

Hattie took ill after the abortion and was admitted to New York Hospital as "Hattie Bailey," a name she was using while in New York. She was visited at the hospital by the coroner, and again gave her name as Hattie Bailey. She told the coroner conflicting stories. First she said that she was secretly married to Abraham, but later she denied that she was married to anybody. Of Conheim and Asher, Hattie said that "both had wronged her" and that Asher had promised her marriage but had instead sent her to "Dr. McCleery." 

Hattie's mental state deteriorated and she began speaking to Asher as though he was present in the room. She died at the hospital of peritonitis on April 25. 

Hattie's father sued Conheim for seducing and debauching his daughter, impregnating her, and causing her death. There were never any arrests to hold anybody else accountable, largely because Hattie's statements at the hospital were never formally taken down as an ante-mortem statement.

Chicago, 1908: A Midwife's Fatal Work

On Thursday, April 23, 1908, 32-year-old homemaker Annie Johnson was taken by private ambulance to Wesley Hospital in Chicago, suffering form complications of a criminal abortion. She died on Saturday night, April 25. Albert Stevens, age 39, was arrested as an accomplice to the fatal abortion. Mrs. Laura R. Flinn, one of Annie's friends, was held as a witness. Laura, who said that the abortion had been performed over her protests, identified midwife Augusta Heiderich as the abortionist. Heiderich was arrested and held by the grand jury.

Oklahoma City, 1932: A String of Deaths by an Osteopathic Physician

Dr. Richard Thacker

Dr. Richard E. Thacker, an osteopath, maintained an office and operating rooms in the Terminal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He fled the state but was eventually captured and put on trial for the April 25, 1932 death of 17-year-old co-ed Nancy Joe Seay Lee, who had recently entered into a secret marriage with University of Oklahoma football player Frank Lee.

Thacker met Frank some time about noon Saturday, April 23, 1932. Frank brought his wife to the office about 2 o'clock that afternoon. Thacker had asked for $75, but Frank had bargained down to $30. Thacker did not examine Nancy prior to the abortion, and did not ask Frank to leave the room while it was perpetrated.

After the abortion, Frank went back to classes. He was notified that Nancy had taken ill and been taken to Oklahoma City General Hospital. Frank rushed to her side, but she was already dead. She had implicated Thacker before her death.

Nancy was one of a string of abortion deaths attributed to just Thacker and one additional Oklahoma City osteopath, John Eisiminger in the spring of 1932. The others were Geraldine Easley, Ethel Hestland, Isobabell Ferguson, Ruth Hall, Robbie Lou Thompson, Virginia Lee Wyckoff and Lennis May Roach.

Missouri, 1997: A Doctor's Third Patient Death

Robert Crist

Twenty-two-year-old Nichole Williams was the third patient known to have died of safe and legal abortioncomplications under the dubious care of Dr. Robert Crist. The others were Latachie Veal and Diane Boyd. Nichole, a mother of three (ages 7, 3, and 1), lived with her boyfriend and after an abortion at Reproductive Health Services, run by Planned parenthood, in St. Louis, MO. Some of the cost of Nichole's $550 abortion came from a national foundation which Planned Parenthood refused to name.

Crist started the first-trimester abortion at 2:00 on Friday, April 25, 1997, administering lidocaine and vasopressin for a procedure expected to last about five minutes. "Seconds" before finishing the abortion, he noticed that Nichole had breathing problems, finished the abortion, and instructed staff to call 911. RHS staff began resuscitation, but Nichole was in full cardiac arrest when medics arrived fifteen minutes later. Efforts to revive her continued in the ambulance and at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, to no avail, and she was pronounced dead at 3:12 p.m. Nichole's death was officially attributed to disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC), a clotting disorder that can be triggered by trauma, illness, or foreign material in the blood stream. 

Reproductive Health Services, a National Abortion Federation member facility, is operated by Planned Parenthood of St. Louis. The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is an organization of abortion facilities and practitioners, and promises that its members adhere to the highest standards of care. This claim seems remarkable when one considers that Dr. Abu "The Butcher of Avenue A" Hayat was an active NAF member when he performed the abortions that killed Sophie McCoy and maimed Ana Rodriguez. Other dubious NAF members include Family Planning Associates Medical Group, a clinic chain with at least sixteen dead abortion patients to its discredit, and Abraham Alberto Hodari, whose Detroit clinic is responsible for at least three abortion deaths including an illegal third-trimester abortion on an underage girl at the behest of her abuser's sister. 

Teen's Death Highlights CDC'S Lackadaisical Attitude Toward Abortion Mortality

Claims about the safety of legal abortions rest upon the presumption that the Centers for Disease Control keep track of abortion deaths. The case of Latachie Veal should lay that presumption to rest.

Robert Crist

Latachie was 17 years old, and 22 weeks pregnant, when Robert Dale Crist (pictured) performed an abortion on her at Houston's West Loop Clinic November 2, 1991.

According to Latachie's family, she bled heavily at the clinic, and cried out to the staff for help. They told her that her symptoms were normal, and sent her home. Several hours later, Latachie stopped breathing. Her brother-in-law called 911 while her sister did CPR, to no avail. Latachie was dead on arrival at Ben Taub Hospital.

If Latachie's death certificate had been filled out properly, with the notation of the abortion in the proper box, using the proper ICD-9 code, then theoretically the National Center for Health Statistics would spot the abortion code and report it. But most states send only a statistical sample of their death certificate data to the NCHS. So the CDC would be notified of Latachie's death through the NCHS only if the death certificate was properly filled out, and Latachie's death certificate was among those abstracted and sent to the NCHS.

But still, according to abortion defenders, Latachie's death would nevertheless be automatically reported to the Centers for Disease Control. They're not clear on who is supposed to report the death. Was West Loop Clinic supposed to report it? Was Crist supposed to report it? Was Ben Taub Hospital supposed to report it? Was the medical examiner supposed to report it? Was the Texas Department of Health supposed to report it? The CDC says it gets abortion death information from abortionists, abortion facilities, hospitals, and state health departments, but it does not mention that the reporting is not mandatory.

This does not mean that Latachie's death went utterly unnoticed.

Latachie's family filed suit, retaining the flamboyant "Racehorse" Haynes as their attorney. The case was highly publicized, both in Texas and in Missouri, where Crist had performed a fatal abortion on Diane Boyd, a 19-year-old developmentally disabled woman who had been raped in the institution where she'd lived.

The mainstream publicity went beyond the usual newspaper articles, with Crist giving television interviews calling the publicity "media hype" and "a political event." Haynes retorted, "I wish he would have a copy of the 911 tape.... If he would talk to the parents, if he would talk to the sister as she gave her CPR or talk to the brother-in-law as she was breathing her last breath and see then if he thinks it's a media event."

With all this mainstream publicity in two states, prolife organizations picked up the story, and it was reported in prolife newsletters around the nation.

A lot of people very quickly found out about the abortion death of 17-year-old Latachie Veal. But did the CDC?

At the 1992 National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar in Dallas, Crist spoke openly of Latachie's death. (He did not, of course, mention her name; I've concluded that he's discussing Latachie's death, since there's been no evidence of any another 17-year-old abortion patient of his who died in 1991.) Crist blamed the death not on malpractice, but on disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, a clotting disorder sometimes triggered by injury or infection.

Present at that Risk Management Seminar, where Crist chattered about Latachie's death, were two -- count 'em -- two-- staffers from the Centers for Disease Control's abortion surveillance activities area: Stanley Henshaw and Lisa Koonin.


Henshaw's presence isn't quite as remarkable as Koonin's. It was Lisa Koonin, specifically, whose job it was to "verify" abortion deaths, and obtain copies of death certificates. These she was to pass on to a research fellow, Clarice Green, who would then gather the full information about the case.

Lisa Koonin does what they pay her to do.

In spite of all the publicity, in spite of the lawsuit, in spite of the prolifers shouting from the rooftops, in spite of the abortionist discussing the death at an event attended by the very woman whose job it was to notice abortion deaths, the Centers for Disease Control did not notice Latachie's death. Their 1991 Abortion Surveillance Report, published in May of 1995, did not even make any mention of abortion mortality. And when we at Life Dynamics filed a request for information about abortion deaths, we found that the CDC counted zero -- count 'em -- zero -- abortion deaths among women of Latachie's race in the 15 - 19 age range. In other words, they didn't even notice.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if the CDC failed to notice this highly-publicized death, discussed openly at an event attended by two of their abortion surveillance staffers, exactly what does it take to get them to notice an abortion death? And how can we even pretend to believe that any serious attempt to accurately count abortion deaths was being made?