Thursday, January 08, 2015

Clearly Illegal vs. Clandestinely Illegal

Today we have two deaths from the Cemetery of Choice: a mysterious illegal abortion death and a technically illegal legal abortion death.

On January 8, 1918, 20-year-old newlywed and homemaker Margaret Balch died in a Chicago home from hemorrhage caused by an abortion perpetrated by a person who was never identified.

Fast forward to the days of presumably safe legal abortion.
 
Tamiia Russell
Taisha Glenn, the sister of 15-year-old Tamiia Russell's 24-year-old "boyfriend", Stacy Glenn, arranged for an abortion on January 7, 2004 without notifying Tamiia's family. Glenn, according to Frances Russell, Tamiia's mother, is a reputed drug dealer who has not been located since Tamiia's death. He paid $2000 for the abortion. Tamiia was at least six months pregnant.

 Taisha took tamiia to five different Detroit area abortion facilities, and was turned away from all five because of how far advanced Tamiia's pregnancy was. One facility reportedly even offered prenatal care and vitamins.

Abraham Alberto Hodari
Finally Taisha found an abortionist willing to proceed -- WomanCare, a Winthorop Village abortion facility run by abortionist Abraham Alberto Hodari. Despite the fact that the pregnancy was the result of statutory rape, and despite the fact that he had no permission from Tamiia's parents or guardian, as required by Michigan law, the clinic agreed to take the case. Tamiia used an identification card with another woman's picture to claim that she was 19, but according to Tamiia's cousin, the woman in the picture ID looked nothing like Tamiia. Thus, Tamiia's abortion was actually illegal.

Tamiia's abortion was begun on January 7, when laminaria was inserted. Laminaria are sticks of seaweed used to dilate the cervix. Once home, Tamiia confessed to her aunt and mother that she was pregnant and she had begun an abortion. Mrs. Russell said that she called the clinic, and staff told her that the abortion must be carried out once the laminaria are inserted. This is not true; laminaria can be removed and the pregnancy continued with medical supervision. In fact, many crisis pregnancy centers offer laminaria removal for women who have changed their minds after beginning an abortion procedure. The lie isn't surprising coming from a clinic run by Alberto Hodari, who told a group of Medical Students for Choice that he has "a license to lie" in order to get patients to do what he thinks is good for them.

Based on the false claim that Tamiia had no choice but to go through with the abortion, her mother drove her to WomanCare on January 8 for the actual abortion procedure. Tamiia bled heavily after coming home from the abortion -- so heavily that the blood soaked a mattress. Her mother called WomanCare, where staff told her that such bleeding was normal and instructed them not to bring Tamiia to a hospital. Mrs. Russell ignored this advice and called an ambulance, which rushed the girl to Sinai-Grace Hospital, where she was dead on arrival.

Dr. Leigh Hlavaty, who performed the autopsy on Tamiia, told a local pro-life activist who contacted LifeSiteNews.com that the girl's death was caused by "uterine infarction with sepsis due to status second trimester [sic] abortion."

Because Tamiia resided in Wayne County, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office has jurisdiction over the statutory rape case. However, as the family apparently did not know Russell was pregnant until the day before she died, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said that there may not be a case -- the parents or guardians must make the complaint, and once the minor is dead, the complaint of statutory rape cannot be filed.

Dr. Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-life Society, reports that there have been 23 lawsuits in the past 20 years against WomanCare facilities and Alberto Hodari, for abortion injuries including complications resulting on hysterectomies on 19, 22, and 23-year-old women. All were dismissed, with many referring to undisclosed settlements.  Hodari was also implicated in the deaths of Chivon Williams and Regina Johnson.

 At the time of Tamiia's death, Womancare was a member of the National Abortion Federation.

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