Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Anniversary: Staff blow off concerned boyfriend, teen bleeds to death

Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Suddeth underwent a safe and legal abortion performed by Frank Robinson on June 30, 1982.

On the drive home, Jennifer bled heavily, alarming her live-in boyfriend, John Fredzess. Fredzess called the clinic repeatedly over a period of four hours after their return home, but staff would not put the call through to Robinson. One nurse admonished Fredzess to "be realistic" about how severely Jennifer was bleeding. By that time, Jennifer had bled through two pairs of sweat pants, two blankets, and a towel. At last the hysterical young man was able to contact Robinson, who insisted that the bleeding was normal and instructed Fredzess to stop calling.

When Jennifer went into convulsions, Fredzess called an ambulance. Parmedics arrived at the home to find Jennifer already dead. Police interviewed the weeping and hysterical Fredzess, then pressed charges against Robinson for involuntary manslaughter in Jennifer's death. Although Robinson beat the rap, the state of California nevertheless counted Jennifer's death as due to illegal abortion.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Anniversary: Mother of two bleeds to death

Kendra McLeod, mother of two, underwent an abortion at a clinic in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on June 12, 1998.

She bled heavily after the abortion. The day after her abortion, she sought help at an emergency room. She had fainted three times by the time she got into the ER.

Doctors at the hospital transfused Kendra with nine units of blood and performed surgery to try to save her life, to no avail. She died on June 30, at the age of 22.

Her family lost a lawsuit against the hospital. Documents do not note if the family sued the abortion provider.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

1900: Abortion by midwife proves fatal

On June 28, 1900, Mrs. Andre Jorgenson died on the scene from an illegal abortion. Mrs. Anna Pihlgren, whose occupation is listed as nurse or midwife, was arrested and held by the Coroner's Jury. Andre Pihlgren was held as an accessory.

Note, please, that with routine public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Anniversary: Two doctors, one dead woman

On June 24, 1929, 19-year-old Winifred Garner underwent an abortion at the office of Dr. Anna Schultz, aka Rollins. Schultz was assisted by Dr. James White. Winifred died on June 27.

On June 27, both physicians were held by the coroner. Schultz was indicted for felony murder by a grand jury on October 6, 1930.

Winifred's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Michael Jackson Moonwalk Tribute



Rest in peace.

Michael Jackson 911 call makes doc look questionable

Transcript of the call

Here's what leaps out at me: The doctor was attempting CPR on the bed; the medic had to tell the caller that the patient belonged on the floor.

Anybody who has had professional grade CPR training is taught that the patient needs to be on a firm surface. If a patient needs CPR, he will usually be put on a spine board before being put on the gurney in order to give a firm surface to perform CPR.

There are other aspects of the situation I find very fishy. Jermaine Jackson said that the doctor worked on Michael for about fifteen minutes before having somebody call 911. But somebody who has been trained will call 911 first, if a phone is at all available, because CPR only helps the patient hold on until he can be defibrillated.

Also, he said that medics worked on Michael for about 45 minutes prior to transport. Again, that's weird. With a cardiac arrest -- or even suspected heart attack -- you load and go. You don't dick around for three quarters of an hour.

I have serious suspicions that the doctor in question is the key to why Jackson is dead.

What if the government ran health care?

Which death outraged the champions of women's lives?

Pamela Colson, age 31, was 12 weeks pregnant when friends drive her to Women's Medical Services in Pensacola, Florida, for a safe and legal abortion on June 26, 1994.

Pamela bled heavily during the drive home. According to her friends, Pamela became unresponsive, so they stopped at a motel. Two passers-by did CPR while Pamela's friends called for an ambulance. Pamela was taken to a hospital where she died after an emergency hysterectomy.

Her autopsy showed: bloodstained fluid in chest and peritoneal space, and "extensive hematoma formation in the pelvic area with the peritoneum denuded from the left gutter area caudually." The surgeon who performed an emergency hysterectomy, trying to save Pamela's life, had removed her uterus at the site of the laceration "so that the laceration was a portion of the incision made to remove the uterus." Her uterus showed extensive hemorrhage and blood clots. Her uterine artery was also injured. Several of Pamela's ribs were fractured, apparently during attempts to resuscitate her; this is common in even properly performed CPR.

The cause of death was given as "irreversible shock from blood loss due to a perforated uterus occurring at the time of an elective abortion." William Keene was tentatively identified as having performed the abortion.

Pamela's fatal abortion was performed at the clinic where abortionist David Gunn was shot dead. But unlike Gunn's death, Pamela's death didn't raise so much as an eyebrow among the champions of women's lives. It took the death of a man to do that. Along with the fact that a dead abortionist is a "Man bites dog" story, whereas abortionists killing women is considered just part of the business.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Anniversary: Woman dead, doctor shunned

On June 25, 1911, 20-year-old Mrs. Anna L. Mueller died from a criminal abortion performed by Dr. George Lotz. Lotz was arrested July 5. He was indicted for felony murder.

There is no record that he served time for the crime, but Leslie Reagan indicates that he was expelled from the Chicago Medical Society after admitting guilt in Anna's death.

Anna's abortion was typical of pre-legalization abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Upping the Creepy Ante: God "rejoices" over abortion

God “Rejoices” over Abortions Says Episcopal Priestess

I think she's pushing it.

Swedish parents experimenting on child

Swedish parents keep 2-year-old's gender secret

Pop's parents decided that societal influenced gender roles would be a drag on their child, so they're raising Pop as an it, rather an a he or a she:

“We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,” Pop’s mother said. “It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.”

The child's parents said so long as they keep Pop’s gender a secret, he or she will be able to avoid preconceived notions of how people should be treated if male or female.

Pop's wardrobe includes everything from dresses to trousers and Pop's hairstyle changes on a regular basis. And Pop usually decides how Pop is going to dress on a given morning.

Although Pop knows that there are physical differences between a boy and a girl, Pop's parents never use personal pronouns when referring to the child – they just say Pop.

"I believe that the self-confidence and personality that Pop has shaped will remain for a lifetime," said Pop's mother.


I doubt that people will have no preconceived notions about Pop because of what his or her parents are doing. They're going to have one serious preconceived notion: That Pop is a freak. Better to avoid the child altogether than get into all sort of clumsiness.

But Pop's parents are right about one thing: Treating their kid like a sociological experiment will no doubt shape the kid's personality for a lifetime.

A lifetime of therapy.

So what do you think? Do parents have an inherent right to treat their kid like a lab rat just to try to prove a point?

Which abortions were unsafe abortions?

Today is the anniversary of three abortion deaths that I know about.

Johanna died at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Chicago, from complications of an abortion performed that day.

Annie traveled from New Jersey to New York for a first-trimester abortion. Shortly after she was given anesthesia, Annie went into cardiac arrest, and attempts to revive her failed. She left behind three children.

Thirty-six-year-old Lillie died in Dr. Albert C. Davis's Chicago office from compliations of an abortion that had been performed on June 20.

  • Which of these deaths were from "unsafe abortion"?
    All of them.
    One of them.
    Two of them.
    None of them.

    For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
  • Comment abortions

    I've become annoyed with a couple of the people who are commenting here, so until I decide otherwise, I'm just going to nuke anything they say without reading it. It's my blog. It's my right.

    Tuesday, June 23, 2009

    "But they've already made up their minds"

    Supposedly there's no need for informed consent prior to an abortion because women who come in for abortions have already made up their minds.

    Now, just imagine for a moment a plastic surgeon. Mary comes in asking for breast enhancement. The doctor just hands her a bunch of paperwork to sign, "Here are the risks, swelling, infection, yada yada yada", then does the breast enhancement. Has he done his job?

    Isn't it his responsibility to find out why the patient thinks that this surgery is what is right for her? Maybe she thinks her husband will stop cheating on her with his large-breasted secretary if Mary gets her breasts made as big. Maybe Mary is having bad luck on the dating scene and she's convinced that larger breasts will help her find true love. Maybe Mary's boyfriend taunts her for being "flat chested" and she thinks that this surgery will win his respect. Mary can have any of a number of unrealistic expectations about what this surgery will mean for her. Isn't it the doctor's responsibility to make sure that Mary's expectations about this surgery are realistic? That she really understands what she's getting into? Doesn't she need to know the downsides? And I mean fully know them -- not just be handed a list of possible complications.

    A plastic surgeon who just operates on all comers would be considered a quack. It's his job to make sure the patient's expectations about what this surgery will do for her are realistic.

    Not so with abortion. She asked for it and that's all he needs to know.

    Nobody assesses her for risk factors for poor psychological adjustment and informs her if she is at high risk for being traumatized by the abortion experience. The risk factors are well known; but nobody screens for them and nobody informs the woman of what risk factors she has and what the possible negative outcomes may be.

    Nobody informs her of the risk that she might not be able to carry a future pregnancy to term -- despite decades of evidence linking abortion to future pregnancy complications. Instead, she's assured repeatedly that she can have a baby later, when the time is right.

    And nobody tells her that ambivalence, even rejection of the pregnancy, are normal early on and that they pass when the mother has a chance to bond with the unborn baby. This used to happen at around "quickening", when the mother felt the baby move. Now it often happens earlier, with an ultrasound or a chance to hear the baby's heartbeat. She's not told that her feelings of being unable to cope are normal and typically self-limiting.

    Imagine if any other surgery was being performed, on a self-referral basis, on patients suffering from a temporary condition that they're not told is temporary. And I don't mean that women don't know pregnancy is temporary. I mean they don't know that the feeling of being unable to cope -- which is why they're seeking abortion -- is temporary.

    If a patient stung by a stone fish begged a doctor to amputate his arm, and the doctor complied without telling that patient that the pain of a stone fish sting will fade in time and he'll be glad to still have his arm, that doctor would probably not only have his license yanked, he'd probably be charged with assault against the patient.

    But doctors, 4,000 times a day in the United States alone, let women think that their normal and self-limiting distress is permanent and that the only way to escape it is abortion. They perform irreversible surgery which can do the patient real, lasting harm.

    And this is considered somehow noble and responsible.

    Monday, June 22, 2009

    Don't they mean, "Trust abortionists"?

    Got this email from NARAL:

    You've heard of wearing your heart on your sleeve. Well, in honor of Dr. George Tiller's work, we want you to wear yours on your wrist.

    Dr. Tiller often wore a button that simply read, “Trust Women.” To honor his message and as a symbol of your pro-choice values, NARAL Pro-Choice America is launching a “Trust Women” wristband campaign.

    Donate today and get your “Trust Women” wristbands.


    Aside from the very fact that abortion is proof positive that some women can't be trusted, at least not with the lives of their unborn children in times of stress, is NARAL's real agenda about trusting women?

    NARAL doesn't trust women at all. They don't trust that women are strong enough to handle information about the unborn children they're carrying. They don't trust that women are strong enough to cope with the stresses of pregnancy and motherhood. (They seem to think that the moment a woman is in a less-than-ideal situation she'll turn into Susan Smith, strap her kids into the carseats and push them into the lake.) They don't trust the women who regret their abortions and try to warn others that it's not the simple, put-it-all-behind-you solution. They don't trust the women who run prolife pregnancy centers.

    Who they really are about trusting is abortionists. Trust abortionists to judge how much information a patient can handle. Trust abortionists to judge whether a minor's parents should be notified. Trust abortionists to decide when to protect patient safety and when to protect the bottom line, cutting corners and endangering women's lives and health.

    I wish the abortion lobby would be honest about whose interests they're really protecting. And it's not the interests of stressed out, frightened, pregnant women in crisis.

    Anniversary: Doc ignores allergy, kills patient

    Thirty-two-year-old Kelly Morse of Vermont traveled with her husband to Hillcrest Women's Medical Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for an abortion on June 19, 1996. 

    Dr. Delhi Elmore Thweatt, Jr., performed the abortion. 

     Five days earlier, Kelly had come to Hillcrest and had been evaluated by Dr. Earl McLeod, who had diagnosed her as eight weeks pregnant. 

     Because the waiting room of the clinic was so crowded, Kelly's husband waited for her outside. 

     Even though Kelly had notified Hillcrest staff that she had asthma and was allergic to the "caine" medications, including Lidocaine, Thweatt administered 12 cc's of 1 percent Lidocaine to Kelly at about 11 a.m. Kelly immediately had trouble breathing. A licensed practical nurse got Kelly's inhaler from her purse and helped her to use it, but Kelly reported that it was not helping. She became very agitated because of her difficulty in drawing breath. 

    Thweatt continued with the abortion, completing it in about four minutes, and spent some time providing ineffectual care to Kelly before having an ambulance summoned. 

    The suit filed by Kelly's husband noted, "As Mrs. Morse's dyspnea (difficulty breathing) and cyanosis [turning blue due to lack of oxygen] continued to worsen, Defendant Thweatt improperly administered Epinephrine subcutaneously instead of intravenously...." This measure would do nothing to assist a patient in Kelly's condition. 

    "No one started an IV. No respiration rate was recorded, no pulse was checked and no blood pressure was measured. No EKG was applied. No cardiac monitoring was conducted. No pulse oximeter was applied. No intubation or emergency tracheotomy was performed. No oxygen was administered. Kelly continued to agitate in fear, desperately gasping for air, and remained blue in color. Defendant Thweatt just stood there with a stethoscope in hand and listened to Kelly's breathing and wheezing progressively worsen." 

    "As Plaintiff choked and gasped for air, none of the Defendants, took steps to immediately dispatch an ambulance. In fact, the ambulance was not summoned until 11:24 a.m., or 10 minutes after Plaintiff violently choked, gasped, wheezed, and discolored to a blue-black appearance from respiratory arrest and hypoxia." 

    Paramedics arrived within five minutes of the call, just as a staff member was running outside to summon Kelly's husband. Kelly's husband reported that he went in with the ambulance crew to find his wife, naked and blue-black from lack of oxygen, lying on a table that was halfway out of the examination room into the hallway. The paramedics put a breathing tube into Kelly, properly administered medications, and performed CPR as they transported Kelly to nearby Polyclinic Medical Center, where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. 

    Her condition continued to deteriorate, and she was pronounced dead on June 22. 

    Court documents in the case indicate that Hillcrest advertised Thweatt as being a Board-certified ob/gyn, yet "Defendant Thweatt failed the Ob/Gyn Board certification examination not once, not twice, but on three consecutive attempts...Defendant Thweatt failed his Board certification exam even after a fourth attempt, following his deposition of July 27, 1997." 

    On April 20, 1999, Thweatt and Hillcrest settled out of court with Kelly's husband. Her two children, a boy and a girl, were left motherless. The Pennsylvania Medical Board and Maryland Medical Board show no disciplinary actions against Thweatt, who lives in Maryland. For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice: To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    1928: Abortion in doc's office proves fatal

    On June 22, 1928, 31-year-old Rose Hannover died at the office of Dr. Lester I. Ofner from complications of an abortion performed there that day. Ofner was held by the coroner on July 28. On November 28, he was acquitted. The source doesn't indicate why.

    Rose's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was attributed to a doctor.

    Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.



    For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    Sunday, June 21, 2009

    What late abortion supporters hope you never know

    Is Late-Term Abortion Ever Necessary

    Mary L. Davenport, M.D., FACOG (Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) reiterates what I've been saying:

    1. The Supreme Court invented post-viability abortions in Roe and Doe.

    2. Most late abortions are done for the same reasons as earlier abortions; they're just done later.

    3. A lot of doctors are referring women for abortions without telling the women that there are other, less drastic treatment options.

    4. If you do need to end a pregnancy after viability, the standard of care is to do it by delivering a live baby, either by inducing labor or via c-sections.

    5. A lot of parents are given incomplete information when being urged to abort after a prenatal diagnosis.

    6. Even a lethal condition in an unborn baby can leave the possibility of live birth and a meaningful, if short, time with the child.

    Saturday, June 20, 2009

    Anniversary: Erstwhile back-alley butcher kills patient

    Milan Vuitch was a hero among abortion advocates. He had deliberately been arrested performing criminal abortions so that he could challenge the Washington, DC abortion law, and he succeeded in changing the way the law was enforced, effectively nulifying it.

    On June 15, 1974, seventeen-year-old Wilma Harris of West Virginia went to Vuitch's Laurel Clinic for a safe and abortion. Five days later, she was dead.

    During interrogatories, Vuitch said that anesthesiologist Strahil Nacev described Wilma as "so quiet" during the abortion. Although he had begun a vacuum abortion, Vuitch said that the fetus had been too big to pass through the suction tube. He said he used instruments to remove the remaining fetal parts.

    Although the abortion was done at around 2:00 PM, Vuitch didn't trasfer Wilma to a properly equipped hospital until after midnight. Wilma's family sued, claiming that Vuitch and his staff had allowed Wilma to lapse into a coma and lie unattended for 12 hours before transferring her to the hospital. The suit also claimed that Vuitch and his staff falsified records to cover their tracks.

    The family won a judgment on December 23, 1976, but the settlement was sealed by court order.

    Georgianna English also died after an abortion by Milan Vuitch.

    Vuitch isn't the only aborionist who kept his nose clean as a criminal abortionist, only to kill two patients after legalization. Jesse Ketchum managed to kill Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner in a four-month period after New York put out a welcome mat for carpetbagging abortionists in 1970. Benjamin Munson of South Dakota killed Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth.

    For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    Anniversary: Midwife's skill leaves woman dead

    On June 20, 1929, 28-yaer-old Jennie Kuba died at Chicago hospital from an abortion performed there that day by midwife Mary Zwieniczak.

    Zwienczak was arrested July 13. The grand jury handed down an indictment of homicide.

    The coroner also recommended the arrest of Dr. Joseph Mienczak, who assisted Zwieniczak, as an accessory. It was common for non-physician abortionists to have a doctor who provided training, equipment, and medications, and who would provide aftercare if a woman suffered complications -- much like the arrangement that the abortion lobby is currently pursuing of allowing non-physicians to practice abortion as long as they have physician back-up.



    For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    Thursday, June 18, 2009

    Sorry, Tlaloc, this guy screwed up. As did the jury.

    Benjamin Munson was tried for manslaughter in the abortion death of 28-year-old Linda Padfield in 1973. Munson had performed the safe and legal abortion on Linda on June 15 at his South Dakota abortion facility. He discharged her, and she later was hospitalized. She finally died of massive infection on June 18.

    A pathologist found the remains of a five-month fetus in Linda's uterus, missing a leg, arm, part of its skull and part of its torso. The retained fetus caused the massive infection that had killed Linda.

    Munson sued to enjoin prosecution, but the case went to court nevertheless.

    The prosecution focused on the fact that infection will inevitably result from that much retained tissue. The Attorney General commented, "You take a three-inch leg off something, you have to know that there's more in there than just the leg."

    The defense, however, argued that infection is an accepted risk of abortion, and that the state couldn't prove that Munson meant to harm Linda. The jury bought it, and Munson was aquitted. He later became a member of the National Abortion Federation (NAF). In 1985, he sent a teenage patient, Yvonne Mesteth, home with retained tissue. She, like Linda Padfield, died of infection. Again Munson was prosecuted for manslaughter, and again he beat the rap.

    For the benefit of those readers who happen to be Tlaloc, here's one where I think the jury had their heads right up their asses -- just like the Tiller jury. As the prosecutor said, "You take a three-inch leg off something, you have to know that there's more in there than just the leg." Munson left more of the fetus in Linda's body than he took out. And it wasn't like this was a tiny first-trimester fetus that gets pureed in the process of being removed, where it might be tough to tell if a part you can't find in the petri dish is still in the uterus, or was shredded beyond recognition while being removed. Given the condition and age of Linda's fetus, this was a D&E abortion, where you reach in and grab parts and pull them off. If you've pulled off one arm and one leg, logic tells you there's still another arm and another leg in there. If you only get a chunk of skull and torso, logic tells you there's got to be more of the skull and torso still in there. Munson had to have known he was leaving more fetus in there than he was taking out. And he had to have known he'd taken off enough of the fetus that it was quite dead and going to rot, with the attendant risk to Linda of infection and hemorrhage.

    What reason could Munson have had for leaving the bulk of the mutilated fetus in Linda's uterus? It does say in every text and article about performing abortions that you're supposed to make sure you get the entire fetus, along with all of the placenta, out of the uterus, because of the risk of potentially fatal infection and hemorrhage, so this isn't like Tiller where there's really no book that specifically says, "Three days in a motel room with a rotting fetus in your uterus isn't recommended for women suffering X complication of pregnancy." The books were all on the prosecutor's side here. The medical journals were all on the prosecutor's side here. But evidently Munson got a jury of people disposed to forgive reckless endangerment. Maybe they were habitual drunk drivers themselves and figured it'd be bad karma to slap somebody else for being reckless with somebody else's life. Maybe they were all, like Tlaloc, inclined to figure that whatever an abortionist does, since he's an abortionist he must have had a very good reason for doing it. Whatever the case, their failure to hold Munson accountable for what he did to Linda Padfield left him free to kill Yvonne Mesteth. Nice work, jurors.

    On another tack, Munson is the third former criminal abortionist I've learned of who had a clean record -- no patient deaths -- as a criminal abortionist, only to go on to kill two patients in his legal practice. The others are Milan Vuitch (Georgianna English and Wilma Harris) and Jesse Ketchum (Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner).

    For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    1972: A flukey thing? Malpractice? We don't know.

    "Sara" underwent a second trimester abortion in New York City in May of 1972. She was 18 weeks pregnant.

    She had problems with retained tissue, so three weeks after the abortion she had a D&C to remove the tissue.

    Sara had developed infection from the retained tissue, and on June 18, 1972, the infection took her life. She left one child motherless.

    For the benefit of those readers who happen to be Tlaloc, note that I am not asserting that Sara's doctor did anything that constituted malpractice or lawbreaking. If we give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he really did think a dead baby is a good thing, we don't have enough information to say he went about killing Sara's baby in a particularly inexcusable way. We don't even know which technique he used to pass judgment on that decision. We don't know why he didn't get all of the tissue out of Sara's uterus. We don't know why he didn't notice that he hadn't removed the entire fetus and all of the placenta. We don't know why it took three weeks for anybody to notice the retained tissue. We don't know why the attempts to correct the problem were ineffectual. And, Tlaloc, you will note that in all the years that I've blogged Sara's death on the anniversary of that sad event, I've not called her doctor a quack or a butcher, I've not demanded that his license be yanked, I've not said he belongs in jail.

    Evidently, Tlaloc, I'm capable of giving even an abortionist the benefit of the doubt if I don't have evidence that he did anything wrong other than make the perfectly legal judgment that a dead baby is a good thing. And I've conceded that there are no doubt some doctors that really do agree with you that dead babies are just as good as live ones, and often far superior.

    For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    Wednesday, June 17, 2009

    Those "life saving" Tiller abortions of "fetuses with fatal abnormalities"

    I've spent a little more time looking at the Kansas abortion reports Kathy provided links to in a response to a post. Now, not all of these abortions were Tiller abortions, because in two reported cases, a doctor in another state did a post-22 week abortion on a Kansas woman and reported it to the Kansas health department. These doctors gave no reason for stating that the patient's baby wasn't viable. But since Tiller was The Late Abortionist, it's a pretty safe bet that by far the bulk of the reported post-22-week abortions were his.

    First, let's look at the claim that Tiller was doing abortions to save the woman's life. I went through all the data, from 1998 through 2008. In exactly ZERO cases did a Kansas doctor, including Tiller, report doing an abortion after 22 weeks because the woman's life was in danger. Not a single one of these third trimester abortions was done even ostensibly to save the mother's life. Which, of course, makes sense, since it's nonsensical to check a moribund woman into a motel rather than a hospital.

    There was room on the form to indicate what the mother's health condition was. There is no indication that any doctor, including Tiller, ever reported a specific reason for believing the mother was in danger of an "irreversible impairment" of a bodily function. The only reason ever given was a generic one, "Gestational and diagnostic information provided by the referring physician and other health care professional(s) as well as examination and interview of the patient by attending physician." Not once did any doctor, including Tiller, ever indicate "diabetes" or "cancer" or "toxemia" or "pre-eclampsia" or any other medical condition giving him a reason to believe that the patient was in danger.

    In the case of an admittedly viable fetus, the form also asks if the risk of "irreversible impairment" to the mother was physical or mental. There is no record that any reporting doctor classified the risk of "irreversible impairment" to be either physical or mental. The closest any doctor, including Tiller, ever came to giving a condition that the woman was suffering was "medical emergency", which was reported on 1 of 301 abortions in 1999. This might have actually been an emergency abortion performed in a hospital, either in Kansas, or on a Kansas resident in another state.

    The question about how it was determined that the fetus was non-viable was open-ended. It appears that if a doctor listed a reason once, that reason would remain as a possibility on future reports, even if doctor reported zero in subsequent years.

    In that 11 year period, doctors reported that 2,968 of the third-trimester fetuses aborted were viable. They reported that 181 of them were too young to be viable. They reported specific diagnoses as to why 15 fetuses weren't viable. And they just used "professional judgment" with no diagnosis to state that 1,894 of those third-trimester babies were "not viable".

    So, of 5,058 third trimester abortions in that 11-year period:

    2,968, or 59%, were admittedly viable babies.
    15, or .3%, had some specific condition that would make a doctor believe they weren't viable.
    181, or 3.5%, were too young to be viable
    1,894, or 37%, were just in the doctor's "professional judgment", not viable. Not that there was anything specific wrong with the baby. Not that the baby had immature organs, a genetic abnormality, or something serious wrong with heart or lungs or kidneys.

    And of the 15 babies where a doctor, possibly Tiller, actually reported an unfavorable prenatal diagnosis, the reasons were:

    "Ultrasound -- Extreme immaturity of heart and lungs" - 1 in 1999 (Could this baby's heart and lungs have matured if given more time to gestate?)
    "Hypoplastic Left Heart, Chromosome abnormality" - 1 in 1999, 1 in 2002, 1 in 2004 (Hypoplastic left heart is treatable with surgery, though pretty intensive and risky surgery; The doctor(s) didn't indicate what the concurrent chromosome abnormality was)
    "0 Apgar score; mother had severe oligohydramnios; fetus had poly/multicystic kidney disease" - 1 in 1999, 1 in 2005 (The polycystic kidney disease is typical fatal, but how he could say a fetus has a 0 Apgar score is mystifying, since this is a measure of a newborn's wellness)
    "Diagnosis by genetic specialist with no amniotic fluid and other abnormalities" - 1 in 1999 (No amniotic fluid typically is indicative of severe kidney problems)
    "Extreme Immaturity of Organs" - 3 in 2001 (Could these babies' organs have matured if they'd have been given more time to gestate?)
    "Anencephaly" - 1 in 2002
    "Hypoplastic L Heart determined by Level 2 ULS and perinatology consultation" - 1 in 2002
    "Trisomy 22 Hydrocephaly" - 1 - in 2002
    "Not Stated" - 1 in 2003, 1 in 2004 (Performed out of state on Kansas resident)

    Why were there specific diagnoses only give for 15 babies? Were these aborted by other doctors who were filling out their forms honestly? Were they the only cases in which Tiller had a patient with a patient whose baby actually did have a condition considered "incompatible with life" rather than Down syndrome or other "quality of life" diagnoses, for which he'd just make a vague statement about "professional judgment"?

    Tiller took these answers to his grave.

    A maternal-fetal specialist comments on Tiller's practice

    Kathy fetched this statement as a response to a troll who has been defending Tiller's practice of keeping his supposedly deathly ill third-trimester patients in a motel room for three days with their recently-killed babies rotting inside them. Thanks, Kathy!

    1) Dr. George Tiller was a family practice doctor. He had NO training in high risk pregnancies, fetal or maternal problems.

    2) There is no need after 23-24 weeks to ever perform an abortion in the way that Dr. Tiller did, to save or protect maternal life or health in any way. If life or health is threatened all trained obstetricians and maternal-fetal medicine physicians can and would simply deliver the baby and place the baby in a neonatal intensive care unit. It happens every day, many times, all over the United States .

    3) Sometimes before 23-24 weeks (rarely) a pregnancy has to be delivered because the mother’s life is clearly in danger. In this case, the labor can be induced, the baby delivered and the baby will not survive because of the early gestational age, but this can be done without intent of killing the baby.

    4) The only reason abortions were done by Dr. Tiller was because the mother did not want a LIVING baby born. He induced their labor and delivered the baby, almost always killing the baby first, before inducing the labor, to achieve the real purpose for which woman came to him: they did not want to deliver a living baby.

    5) If a mother’s life or health was really at risk from her pregnancy it would at least border on malpractice, if not be frank malpractice, for a family practice doctor without any special training in high risk obstetrics to induce the labor in such a woman in the outpatient setting. This alone should make it clear to anyone familiar with medical practice that none of the abortions he did were MEDICALLY necessary, at least not with the need to kill the baby before delivery.

    You won’t find any “authoritative” voice that will say exactly what you are looking for. It would be like looking for an authoritative source that says if you jump out of an airplane and want to survive you need a parachute. In other words, it is so obvious, and there is no other way it is normally done, that you don’t need an authoritative source to state this in so many words. Any one in medicine who works in obstetrics would have to admit this.

    On the other hand, every single text book on obstetrics or maternal-fetal medicine can be scoured and you will not find any description stating that killing a fetus before delivery is necessary to save the life or health of the mother, in any circumstance. This should be evidence enough. . ...

    Nathan Hoeldtke, MD for the Pro-Life Maternal-Fetal Medicine Group.


    Dr. Hoeldke's credentials:

    Dr. Hoeldtke is a physician with Mid-South Perinatal Associates who specializes in caring for women with a high-risk pregnancy.

    He received his fellowship training in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and completed residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington.

    He received his medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine and a bachelor’s degree from Seattle Pacific University.

    Most recently, he held the position of Medical Director, Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii.

    He is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a member of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

    Dr. Hoeldtke has published numerous articles and abstracts relating to the field of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.


    You can search Dr. Hoeldke's mentions in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology compared with Dr. Tiller's.

    Dr. Hoeldtke's Tennessee physician profile. Hawaii doesn't give as much information.

    ADDENDUM: Kathy also graciously provided this link to the Kansas health department's abortion report. If you scroll down on the 2008 report, for example, you'll find 192 of these abortions after 22 weeks were done on fetuses the doctor (presumably Tiller, since he was the guy who did them) determined were viable, compared to 131 in which he said they weren't viable. If you look at how it was determined that the fetus was not viable, Tiller always just checked ""It is the professional judgment of the attending physician that there is a reasonable probability that this pregnancy is not viable." A reasonable probability. In not a single case did he check "Ultrasound - Extreme immaturity of heart and lungs". In not a single case did he check "Hypoplastic Left Heart, Chromosome abnormality". In not a single case did he check "0 Apgar score; mother had severe oligohydramnios; fetus had poly/multicystic kidney disease". In not a single case did he check "Diagnosis by genetic specialist with no amniotic fluid and other abnormalities". In not a single case did he check "Extreme Immaturity of Organs". In not a single case did he check "Anencephaly". In not a single case did he check "Hypoplastic L Heart determined by Level 2 ULS and perinatology consultation". In not a single case did he check "Trisomy 22 Hydrocephaly". NOT ONE TIME IN 2008 did Tiller even determine that there was anything specific wrong with one of the third-trimester babies he aborted that gave him any reason to believe the baby had no chance of survival. He just generically checked off that in his "professional judgment" there was "a reasonable probability that the pregnancy is not viable".

    That needs to be said again: The vast majority of third-trimester fetuses are viable. Tiller did not check at ANY time in 2008 that there was a SPECIFIC DIAGNOSIS that led him to believe that ANY fetus he was aborting wasn't viable. And in 192 of 323 third trimester abortions (59% - over half) he flat out admitted flat out that he knew the fetus was perfectly viable.

    It's as if he flipped a coin to decide if he'd check the box for "fetus viable" versus "fetus not viable". When he checked "not viable", he never, never once, gave a specific reason that a baby of viable gestational age was, in his "professional judgment", not actually viable.

    What about 2007? He thought 6 fetuses were too young to be viable. For the remaining 119, he gave no reason for thinking they weren't viable. And not a single "life of the mother" abortion.

    In 2006, six too young, the remaining 141, he gave no specific reason to think they weren't viable. Not a single "life of the mother" abortion.

    I need to leave for work now. I will definitely revisit this later.

    Tuesday, June 16, 2009

    Anniversary: Erstwhile back-alley butcher kills patient

    Twenty-five-year-old Margaret Louise Smith traveled from Michigan to New York for a safe and legal abortion because she had been exposed to rubella. Her abortionist, Jesse Ketchum, had run a criminal abortion practice in Michigan, before carpetbagging to Buffalo when New York legalized abortion on demand.

    Ketchum performed a vaginal hysterotomy on Margaret at 10:30 the morning of June 16, 1971. Margaret was then left virtually unattended until her boyfriend retured at 2:00. He found Margaret unresponsive, and begged Ketchum and his staff to do something.

    Paramedics were summoned, but they were unable to revive Margaret. She was taken to a hospital across the street from Ketchum's office, where she was pronouced dead on arrival.

    Margaret's vagina had been sutured, but a laceration in her uterus and cervix had not been repaired. She had bled to death.

    Ketchum was charged with criminally negligent homicide in Margaret's death. Before his case went to trial, he performed a similar abortion on Carole Schaner of Ohio. Carole suffered similar injuries had bled to death in her motel room after Ketchum discharged her.

    Ketchum was convicted on October 26, 1973, despite the fact that renouned abortionist Milan Vuitch (who had challenged the District of Columbia abortion law) testified on his behalf.

    Vuitch himself, like Ketchum, had kept his nose clean as a criminal abortionist, then gone on to kill two legal abortion patients. Wilma Harris and Georgianna English both died under Vuitch's care. Benjamin Munson, likewise, had a clean record in his criminal abortionist then went on to kill two women in his supposedly safer legal practice -- Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth.

    For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    Anniversary: Young wife leaves child motherless after abortion

    On June 16, 1989, 19-year-old Margaret Paula Clodfelter died in a Virginia hospital from complications suffered during a safe and legal abortion. Dr. William Fitzhugh had done the abortion at Richmond Medical Center For Women on June 2, 1989.

    After she was discharged from the clinic, Margaret had pain and bleeding. She called the facility to consult with them, but they did not tell her that she needed any further care.

    On June 4, she sought treatment at a hospital, where she was diagnosed with retained fetal tissue and a perforated uterus. She underwent a D&C.

    She developed infection, so doctors performed a hysterectomy. Their efforts were in vain.

    Margaret left behind a husband and a one-year-old son.

    For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    Anniversary: Newark woman bleeds to death

    A 20-year-old Newark college student, identified in prolife sources as "Jane Doe of Newark", underwent a safe and legal abortion by Dr. Steven Berkman at Metropolitan Medical Associates on June 16, 1993. She was in the second trimester of pregnancy.

    Jane reportedly felt dizzy in recovery. Berkman examined her, noted that she had a perforated uterus, and had her taken to a hospital by ambulance. She died in surgery, leaving her four-year-old son motherless.

    "We are intensely investigating this matter," said an attorney for Jane's family. "We know something occurred that shouldn't have. We had a healthy 20-year-old go into that clinic and not come out. And I think a delay had something to do with it." Her medical chart showed the injury occurring at 10 a.m., but the ambulance wasn't summoned until two hours later.

    Berkman said that there was no delay in transporting Jane to the hospital. He also said he did not believe she died from blood loss. The Bergen County Medical Examiner found that Jane had died from hemorrhage from a perforated uterus. He ruled the death accidental.

    Jane Roe is "Tracy" on Life Dynamics' "Blackmun Wall".

    For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    Monday, June 15, 2009

    Searches

  • Third trimester abortions -- Probably everything you wanted to know, including why women are having them.

  • Abortion in the 1950s -- with an emphasis on mortality, since that's the focus of the blog. Also abortion in the 1930s and the 1940s.

  • Abortion videos -- quite a collection

  • People wanted fetuses at six weeks, 18 weeks, and 20 weeks; I included information about aborting them as well.

  • Abortion deaths of all sorts

    And finally --

  • Self-induced miscarriage -- which is a conscience-salving way of saying "self-induced abortion"
  • Anniversary: Mom finds teen dead on bathroom floor

    On June 15, 1984, 14-year-old Germaine Newman's mother found her lying dead on the bathroom floor.

    Germaine had undergone a safe, legal abortion at 22 weeks of pregnancy the day before, at the hands of Dr. E. Wyman Garrett in Newark, New Jersey. After returning home, Germaine had suffered from vomiting, abdominal pain, and a high fever.

    An autopsy found that Germaine's abdomen was full of pus and adhesions. The cause of death was abdominal infection and perforation of the uterus.

    When the New Jersey medical board investigated Dr. Garrett, they noted that he had illegally altered Germaine's medical records.

    For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    Sunday, June 14, 2009

    Hydatidiform mole

    Somebody came to the blog looking for information about hydatidifom mole. So this seems like a good time to bring up an old post. This can perhaps clarify to some people that yes, it really is about preventing the deaths of fetuses, and not about preventing women from evacuating unwanted tissue from their wombs.

    Two common prochoice euphamisms for the fetus destroyed by abortion -- "products of conception" and "pregnancy tissue" -- realy do accurately apply in those unusual circumstances when there is no fetus present in a pregnancy. The two conditions in which a woman shows all the symptoms of pregnancy but is not sheltering a new human being are gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) and blighted ovum.

    In GTD, the conception results in what is called a "hydatidiform mole." This is a cluster of tissue with an appearance somewhat similar to a bunch of grapes. Researchers aren't 100 percent in agreement as to what causes hydatidiform moles, but the current theory is that they are caused by double genetic input from the male. There are three basic ways hydatidiform moles are believed to form:
    • A sperm fertilizes an ova with no genetic material in it, so the sperm reproduces its chromosomes, making a mole that has two identical sets of haploid chromosomes from the male.
    • Two sperm fertilize an ova with no genetic material in it, producing a diploid mole with two different sets of chromosomes from the male.
    • Two sperm fertilize an apparently normal ova, causing a mole with three sets of chromosomes in stead of two. This produces a "partial mole," with molar tissue and a fetus with lethal abnormalities.

    As an aside, it is the formation of molar pregnancies that makes geneticists, such as Jerome Lejeune, believe that plans to enable two homosexual men to have biological children by replacing the genetic material in an ova with the genetic material from their sperm are doomed to failure.

    Hydatidiform moles usually are expelled naturally by the mother's body before twenty weeks of pregnancy. Sometimes they will cause potentially life-threatening symptoms and need to be removed by suction. Also, sometimes the abnormal cells can invade the uterus, causing hemorrhage. They can also become cancerous.

    In blighted ovum, a placenta and amniotic sac form, but there is no fetus in the sac. Some researchers seem to believe that a blighted ova is caused by the same abnormal conception process that causes hydatidiform moles. Others say that they are two different kinds of abnormalities.

    A blighted ova tends to be expelled naturally by the mothers body in the very early weeks of pregnancy. I've not seen any indication that they become invasive or cancerous, like hydatidiform moles.

    For a while there was a trend among abortion defenders to claim that the existence of hydatidiform moles proves that life can not begin at conception. After all, they argue, here's a hydatiform mole, with its own genetic makeup, and it's not a person. So since conception sometimes produces this blob of tissue that is obviously not a person, life can't begin at conception. We could use the same logic (if you can call it logic) to disprove the prochoice claim that life begins at birth. Some babies are stillborn. So sometimes at birth you don't get a live person; you get a little corpse. Does this prove that babies aren't alive? Hardly.

    More to the point, you can ask an abortion advocate when his life began, and when he says, "At birth," you can point to the existence of six billion other people on the planet and say that his life can't have begun at birth if birth can produce six billion currently living entities that are not him. An entity's existence begins when that entity comes into existence, and at conception we have either a blighted ovum, a hydatidiform mole, or a new human being.

    (And let's not squabble about twins. Conjoined twins Abby and Britty Hensel have just one body, but are two people, so I see no reason one body can't be two people before birth as well -- or why we can't recognize twinning as a form of asexual reproduction, which human beings are capable of doing only at a very early age.)

    Actually, the existence of hydatidiform moles underscores the prolife position. One need only compare a fetus with a molar pregnancy of the same gestation age to see very clearly the difference between "pregnancy tissue" and a viable embryonic human being. In fact, even in a partial mole, there is a clear difference between the doomed fetus, which is recognizably a fetus, and the molar tissue, as in this illustration:

    For those of you with a strong stomach, here are a removed mole and an aborted fetus, for your comparison:


    You can see that the mole really is just a blob of tissue, but that no matter how throughly shredded the embryo is, you can still see recognizable human body parts, such as arms, legs, hands, feet, and face. And even more to the point, if you leave the hydatidiform mole to itself, it will never develop into an organism, because it never was an organism to begin with. It will not differentiate into organs and organ systems. It has no capacity to do so. An embryo does.

    Nowhere is the difference between a hydatidiform mole and a viable fetus more vividly demonstrated than in those rare pregnancies in which a woman has a twin pregnancy -- one hydatidiform mole and one normal fetus. So far, there seem to only have been about 30 of these cases reported. The mole is much larger than the fetus, and of course has no organs, limbs, or behaviors. Sadly, although some doctors have tried to manage these pregnancies in ways that save the fetus, they tend to miscarry before the fetus is old enough to live outside the womb. Some do carry to viability, and are not associated with a high number of birth defects.

    Now, if prolifers really just had their knickers in a twist about what was being done to women's bodies, we'd object just as much to the destruction of hydatidiform moles as we do to the destruction of fetuses. We'd be just as outraged if a woman took chemicals to expel a blighted ovum as if she was taking them to cause the death of an embryo. But we're not. We're simply not interested. It's a medical matter, between a woman and her doctor, to decide how best to deal with a molar pregnancy or a blighted ovum, just as it's a medical matter, between a woman and her doctor, to decide how to deal with a fetus or embryo who has died but has not been naturally expelled.

    It's the killing of a new human being that we object to, not the removal of unwanted tissue from the uterus.

    Pressing charges was a mistake

    This kid provided them with the world's most awesome mascot for a measly $360 worth of materials and no charge for labor. They should have simply slapped a trademark on it and thanked the kid.

    And I bet he's gonna end up with job offers out of this.

    (And yeah, he should have BOUGHT some barrels, or asked for some, but still...)

    Protect children from needless suffering: Winds of Hope

    Winds of Hope is a Swiss organization founded by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, who had completed the first successful round-the-world nonstop balloon journey. They chose as their cause the prevention and treatment of something I'd never heard about until today: noma.

    Noma is a true horror of a disease. It's no longer seen in the developed world, but plagues the poverty stricken villages of west Africa. Caused by poor nutrition and inadequate hygiene, noma attacks the soft tissues of the face. It is most commonly seen in small children between the ages of 2 and 6.

    If identified quickly, noma can be treated with a simple disinfecting mouthwash, preventing disfigurement and death. If caught in a more progressive stage, it can still be treated with the sort of antibiotics we in the developed world take for granted. If allowed to progress, it is fatal in up to 80% of cases, and leaves the survivors with devastating facial disfigurement.

    The goal of Winds of Hope is to train local health care workers so that they in turn can educate parents. In this way, noma can be prevented by improved oral hygiene, or identified and treated before it causes damage to the child's face.

    Saturday, June 13, 2009

    How to fry your brain

    Okay -- here's one where the sound does NOT go with the visuals. Not that there's a mixup or the sync is off. It's just -- well, a bunch of middle-aged white guys playing to THAT audience can NOT sound that cool. Not in this universe.



    I'd never seen so much as a picture of these guys before today. As God is my witness, I always thought they were black.

    A Tiller patient expresses her regret

    My Darkest Hour

    We already had a son. He was almost two years old. We were ecstatic to be having another baby. The whole time I was pregnant I was envisioning what it would be like to have 2 beautiful babies. I couldn’t wait!

    ... When I was about 31 weeks pregnant, my obstetrician sent me for a series of tests. .... Finally, after about two weeks we were told the most devastating news. Our precious daughter had a chromosomal abnormality and would probably not live long, if she lived at all. If she did survive, she would suffer terribly and need numerous surgeries to correct the muscular and skeletal problems she would inevitably have. She would also be severely mentally disabled.

    We were devastated. I was totally numb. I believe that I went into shock. I distinctly remember the perinatologist wanting to discuss our “options”. I thought she would tell us what doctors needed to be in the delivery room. Instead she suggested a “choice” I didn’t even know existed. She proposed that we go to Kansas to terminate the pregnancy. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. My first reaction was “noooooo!!!!!!!”. Of course I didn’t speak this out loud- I couldn’t speak at all. I just sat there with this evil seed planted in my brain.

    It was quite plain to infer what the doctors wanted us to do. .... They couldn’t answer with certainty what exactly was in store for our little girl; they just knew it would be a life filled with pain. Did we really want this kind of life for our cherished little girl? Time was of the essence. You see I was due any day and we had to make a decision immediately. I can hardly remember any details from the moment we left the doctors’ office until the fateful flight to Kansas where our beloved daughter was destroyed. ....

    .... I have no doubt that those two doctors who sent me to Kansas felt they were doing what was best. .... While I was in Kansas I came in contact with Evil. Everything about the clinic was deceptive. The pictures they take and the way they try so hard to make what you’re doing seem like your losing your baby naturally. ....


    A similar story of regret from the UK is here.

    Cara chose an induction abortion because she believed the doctors when they told her there was no chance of her baby surviving.

    No way to treat a human being

    Prostitute Dies After Being Held in Scorching Outdoor Prison Cell

    I don't care if she was a serial murderer or a drug kingpin, you simply don't do that to people. The fact that she was serving a short sentence for non-violent charges, was not causing problems, and had mental illness that made her more vulnerable only makes an already unacceptable situation even more appalling.

    This is an example of what Wolf Wolfensberger calls "deathmaking". When devalued people are put in situations that make them likely to die.

    Late abortions: A retrospective of posts

    A lot of folks are being drawn to my blog looking for information on third-trimester abortions in the wake of the murder of George Tiller.

    This is a topic I've blogged a lot about, so for your convenience I'll pull together a retrospective of those posts. I'll also bring in posts about Tiller. They're grouped by topic, with posts in multiple categories if they fit in more than one.

    TILLER:

  • What proportion of Tiller's late abortions were for fetal indications?: Tiller himself indicated that the number was 8%.
  • An analysis of those "medically necessary" Tiller abortions: Dr. Paul McHugh is interviewed about his review of Tiller's patient files.
  • The measure of a "hero": An overview of Tiller and the late abortions he did.
  • The Death They Didn't Mourn: Christin Gilbert, mentally disabled teenager, loses her life thanks to Tiller's bad habits and worthless staff.
  • Which is safer for the mother?: A side by side comparison of late abortion versus obstetric care for pregnancy complications
  • Which is safer for the mother?: A side by side comparison of a Tiller late abortion versus obstetric care for pregnancy complications
  • Tiller's Defense: Larry Said I Could: A look at what Tiller admitted on the stand in his trial
  • Tiller Trial: The Plot Thickens: Words from Kristin Neuhaus, the disgraced erstwhile abortionist who rubber-stamped post-viability abortions for Tiller
  • Tiller Getting Favorable Jury: Jurors were dismissed for being "too prolife" but not for being "too prochoice"
  • A Credible Claim?: A complaint filed by a Tiller patient
  • One That Got Away: A child that had been scheduled to die at Tiller's facility returned to plead for other children's lives
  • Them mean old prolifers help woman avoid unwanted abortion: Prolifers brought Tiller patient next door for real help
  • Read Complaints Against Tiller and Associates: Including a summary of the 30 illegal abortion charges based on his own patient records

    REASONS THIRD TRIMESTER ABORTIONS ARE DONE:
  • Why are women having third trimester abortions?: Examples of women facing pressure from health care professionals to abort when the women themselves don't want to.
  • An analysis of those "medically necessary" Tiller abortions: Dr. Paul McHugh is interviewed about his review of Tiller's patient files.
  • Examples of late abortions: Mostly fatal cases from my files.
  • What proportion of Tiller's late abortions were for fetal indications?: Tiller himself indicated that the number was 8%.
  • Obama, McCain, and "Health": A look at the real "health" reasons behind most late abortions

    WHO DOES LATE ABORTIONS:
  • Post Viability Abortions in Your State: A look at who is advertising late abortions online
  • Planned Parenthood Admits to Live Births: Which means they're doing post-viability abortions
  • 1988: NAF Member Kills Teen: Note Karpen's response to the fact that the prolifers outside were helping patients who'd changed their minds
  • Accountability at Last for Pendergraft?: Florida's notorious late term abortionist faced criminal charges
  • Parents Lied to Save Preemie: With list of abortion mills that would gladly have killed a baby that age or older
  • New (to me) Article on Midtown Hospital: An infamous Georgia abortion hospital with a history of routinely performing illegal third trimester abortions

    ON VIOLENCE AGAINST ABORTIONISTS:
  • Response to the Tiller Murder: Is somebody who kills an abortionist being "wise as serpents, innocent as doves"?
  • Abortion Vigilantism Worksheet: Link to an excellent teaching tool in Biblical ethics

    REJECTING LATE ABORTION:
  • Excellent article, sure to send the kind and loving abortion fanatics into an apoplexy: Link to an article about women who rejected abortion after a grave prenatal diagnosis
  • Why are women having third trimester abortions?: Examples of women facing pressure from health care professionals to abort when the women themselves don't want to.
  • 93 Days of Love: Link to the story of Baby Faith, a little girl with anencephaly
  • One That Got Away: A child that had been scheduled to die at Tiller's facility returned to plead for other children's lives
  • Them mean old prolifers help woman avoid unwanted abortion: Prolifers brought Tiller patient next door for real help
  • Joyful Anniversary for a Happy Mommy: It wasn't the end of the world after all
  • Parents had to Fight for Baby's Short Life: The gymnastics of avoiding an unwanted abortion

    HOW LATE ABORTIONS ARE DONE:
  • Which is safer for the mother?: A side by side comparison of a Tiller late abortion versus obstetric care for pregnancy complications
  • Applauding a Child's Death: Audio from Dr. Martin Haskell's presentation on how he does late abortions, with video by Priests for Life illustrating what he's describing
  • Tools of the Trade: Sopher Forceps: A description of a specialized tool for taking apart fetuses in the second and third trimester, and how that tool is used by guys including Tiller abortionist LeRoy Carhart
  • Too Cruel for Killers, Just Right for Babies: A drug used by many late term abortionists is considered "cruel and unusual" when used to execute murderers
  • Just For Comparison: VERY GRAPHIC, with photos of a living preemie, then aborted babies of similar size

    LIVE BIRTHS FROM LATE ABORTIONS:
  • This Baby Won't Stop Breathing: William Waddill strangles a baby in front of multiple witnesses -- then beats the murder rap
  • Why the Sudden Interest: The killing of a liveborn infant after an abortion seizes public attention
  • Planned Parenthood Admits to Live Births:
  • A Fetus With Attitude: A survivor of a late abortion speaks out
  • A Question About Born Alive Babies and Criminal Charges: Why aren't these cases always prosecuted?
  • Another Born-Alive Baby: A baby was injured for life by a post-viability abortion attempt
  • Another Fetus With Attitude: Melissa Ohden tells her story
  • More Born Alive Babies: Links to stories about abortion survivors
  • More Born Alive Babies and their Fates: Further examples of babies that survived attempts to kill them in-utero
  • Obama and the Born Alive Babies: A graphic look at live births following late abortions
  • More on Baby Rowan: His mother's story

    MISCELLANEOUS LATE ABORTION LINKS:
  • Shanda's Abortion Nightmare: Sent to the hospital in a car with her fetus hanging out of her vagina
  • Data Collection Suggestion: How to fill in the gaps in our knowledge about post-viability abortions
  • Can We Really? Tell Me the Truth: Reflecting on a Dostoyevsky quote and third-trimester abortions
  • Obama Comments, I Respond: A response to Obama's contention that late term abortionists simply never make mistakes
  • Third Trimester Abortions and the Law: Where they're legal and for what reasons
  • Answering a Question: A reminder that Martin Haskell made a video of himself doing a partial-birth (D&X) abortion, and that Mark Crutcher will pay any disgruntled abortion clinic employee big bucks if they fork one over
  • Where Does Obama Say He Supports 3rd Trimester Abortion?: At Planned Parenthood
  • Jill Stanek and FactCheck's Faulty "Facts": Was FactCheck ill-informed, or deliberately misleading>
  • Search: Abortions for Health Reasons: Explores how ill-defined "health" is in statistics about why women abort
  • Obama, Babies, and the Benefit of the Doubt: A look at Obama's assumption that late term abortionists never make mistakes
  • Who Needs Hope When You Have These Guys?: Abortion for "fetal indications" -- shutting the door on all hope
  • One That Got Away: A child that had been scheduled to die at Tiller's facility returned to plead for other children's lives">Astonishing new levels of abortion advocacy cluelessness

    Finally, courtesy of Spanish TV, see what these late abortions look like in real life:

    The difference between these abortions and Tiller abortions is that Tiller's staff chased the patient off to the bathroom to push her baby into a toilet and leave it there for staff to either clean up for photos, or dispose of in the crematorium that Tiller had on site. Or both.
  • 1925: Two docs, dead woman

    On June 13, 1925, 24-year-old Betty Fisher died in the Chicago office of doctors August Goetz and Henry Gautsen from an abortion performed that day.

    The doctors were acquitted on October 16. The source does not indicate why.

    Betty's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was attributed to a physician.

    Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.



    For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    Friday, June 12, 2009

    1922: Abortion by midwife kills Chicago woman

    On June 12, 1922, Mrs. Louise Huse, age 30, died at Chicago's Mid West Hospital from a criminal abortion performed there that day.

    On June 16, midwife Agnes Tholl was arrested on the recommendation of the coroner.

    Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.



    For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

    1902: Journey to death

    In June of 1902, Irene Wengel traveled to Tampa, Florida, where she was met by her cousin, J. Carl Christian. Christian had arranged for her to stay at the home of Dr. Frederick N. Weightnovel for an abortion. Christian visited Irene many times during her stay at Weightnovel‘s home. Two days after her arrival, Irene asked Christian to telegraph to Waycross for her trunk.

    Testimony about days and dates is evidently jumbled. The abortion was reportedly performed June 6, which was a Friday. But Irene‘s cousin reported that he visited her on a Wednesday, about a week before her death, and she‘d told him that Weightnovel had performed the abortion the previous night, and that she‘d be ready to go home the following Tuesday. The only date we can perhaps rely upon is the date of Irene's death: June 12.

    Dr. B. G. Abernathy was called in to attend to Irene after the abortion. Abernathy testified that Irene told him she‘d come to Weightnovel about two weeks earlier, that she did well the first day or two after the abortion, but that she became very sick and rapidly declined.

    Abernathy diagnosed her Irene suffering from blood poisoning caused by retained placenta. Abernathy asked Weightnovel for a curette so that he could perform a D&C, and Weightnovel provided one. Abernathy also returned to his own house to get some other instruments. At some point Weightnovel asked Abernathy to send a telegram to Irene‘s parents.

    State‘s witness Frank Middaugh testified that on the night Irene died, he‘d heard the cries of a girl calling, "Doctor, doctor," from Weightnovel‘s house. Middaugh also testified that he saw Weightnovel sitting in a lighted window, fanning himself.

    An undertaker testified that he‘d been summoned to remove Irene‘s body, and was asked to do so quietly and discreetly to keep the news of Irene‘s death secret.

    Officer Carter, who arrested Weightnovel, testified that when he made the arrest, Weightnovel picked up a bundle of women‘s clothing, which he rolled up and tried to toss under a table. Carter saw that the clothing was stained and took the clothing into evidence.

    Weightnovel was convicted of manslaughter in Irene‘s death.

    Irene's abortion was typical of pre-legalization abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

    Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.



    For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

    To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.