Safe and legal -- Gaylene Golden

Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including abortions, in his filthy clinic. Reynolds' anesthetist, age 60, had originally been hired as a janitor, and an untrained orderly was acting as his nurse. The operating room was littered with dirty cups and papers. Reynolds tried to collect $500,000 on his wife's life insurance after she bled to death after he opened 25-inch incision, ostensibly for liposuction, on September 7, 1989. Reynolds was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter. He voluntarily surrendered his Oklahoma license.

Twenty-one-year-old Gaylene Golden went to Reynolds' office in Oklahoma City on September 30, 1985. Due to a cervical laceration, Gaylene developed an embolism -- both air and amniotic fluid in her bloodstream. This embolism killed her.

Gaylene left one child, a son, orphaned.

Sandra "Jane Doe" Cano asks SCOTUS to reverse decision

Plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton case says ACLU attorney pushed her to have abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to reconsider next week its landmark 1973 Doe vs. Bolton abortion decision, in response to a lawsuit brought by the case's original plaintiff, who claims she was pressured by ACLU attorneys to opt for abortion and that the case was based on fraud.

Like Norma McCorvey, the original "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade, Sandra Cano was "Mary Doe" of 1973's other historic abortion decision. Together, "Roe" and "Doe" eliminated all state laws prohibiting abortion and legalized abortion. Cano's case in particular – because of the "health exception" for the mother it created – opened the door to abortion on demand, for virtually any reason, at any stage of pregnancy up to the moment of birth.

In a nutshell, the court defined "health" to include social, family, and financial concerns. It was so loosely worded that "I don't want to risk going into labor and missing my son's Little League playoffs" would pass Constitutional muster for a third-trimester abortion. (Please note I'm not claiming that anybody's had a 3rd tri abortion for that reason! I'm just pointing out that the court defined "health" so broadly that if the woman can give a reason at all, it would suffice.) Though PP v. Casey freed the states to place some restrictions on third-trimester abortions, their performance is limited mostly by the willingness of the doctors to perform them.

I tried to find some prochoice site that has a chart of what states allow post-viability abortions and for what reasons, but to no avail. And I wonder how much the laws matter anyway, since Kansas has a ban on post-viability abortions on the books except for "life and health" exceptions, but Tiller just has another abortionist come into his building and, for a fee, give every patient a written statement that she needs the abortion. It's just a rubber-stamp thing. So how much teeth other laws have probably varies as well.

In her affidavit to the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, reports Insight, Cano claims the case originated when she approached a legal aid office in Atlanta to help her divorce her abusive husband and regain custody of her three children. However, says the report, Cano says she was taken advantage of by an "aggressive self-serving attorney, Margie Pitts Hames, the legal-aid attorney."

Cano, pregnant at the time, also says she never actually signed an affidavit saying she didn't want or couldn't care for another child. The affidavit even warned Cano might commit suicide.

"I am 99 percent certain that I did not sign this affidavit," she said, according to the Insight report. "I do not believe it is my signature on the affidavit, and Margie either forged my signature or slipped this document in with other papers while I was signing divorce papers. I never told Margie that I wanted an abortion. The facts stated in the affidavit in Doe v. Bolton are not true."

Cano is opposed to abortion and is outraged that her case and her name are being used to get away with terrible bloodshed.

Prolifers only care about fetuses, redux

Christianity Today Online is, as the Christianity would lead you to believe, prolife. It gives you, I think, a chance to see what the prolifers care about besides fetuses, because it's not a special-interest site the way the sites are that Tialoc criticizes. I have it bookmarked and check in daily to see what's new. I frequently post links to articles over at the Christian forum I frequent. Let's look at the current issue:

"They Know We Are Christians" looks at how the Christians in Lebanon are reaching out to their displaced countrymen.

Soaking in Blood - Again looks at the terrible toll of warfare in Sri Lanka.

A Hint of Peace addresses how churches are dealing with war there.

Asylum vs. Assistance holds that churches should offer asylum as a means of protecting people in danger, not as a means of making political statements.

CT's "Hot Topics" look at education, family, life ethics, money & business, persecution, politics & law, sexuality & gender, and social justice.

Illegal abortion mystery from history: Annie Allison

On September 29, 1923, 44-year-old Annie Allison of Brooklyn died at the office of chiropractor Henry Lee Mottard, who practiced under the name of Dr. Henry L. Green. Mottard alleged that Annie had died after an accidental fall down an elevator shaft at the premises. However, Annie's death certificate, signed by another physician, attributed her death to chronic cardiac nephritis.

In the wake of the autopsy's preliminary findings, Mottard was arrested on suspicion of homicide. The autopsy had shown no broken bones or other injuries consistent with a fatal fall, and therefore showed that Mottard had lied about the circumstances of Annie's death. Police, who were investigating Mottard for his suspected involvement in a kidnap/adoption scheme, were suspicious and had Annie exhumed. It was revealed that she had died from an abortion.

A Grand Jury questioned Dr. Norris, who had performed the autopsy; one of Annie's friends; the undertaker who buried Annie; Annie's brother; and the owner of the building where Annie had supposedly fallen to her death.

The kidnap/adoption scheme involved Lillian McKenzie, who as kidnapped from her baby buggy outside a store. Lillian's mother swore to police that Mildred Grofe, the adopted daughter of a New Jersey couple she'd visited, was actually Lillian. Lillian's mother evidently had been led to the Grofe family after a nurse reported having received two infants from Mottard, who instructed her to care for them. One infant was adopted out to the Grofe family. The other was sickly and was returned to Mottard's care. Upon investigation, the Grofe baby was found not to be Lillian McKenzie, because she was several months older than Lillian would have been.

During the investigation, police searched Mottard's ten-acre farm outside the city for evidence of more bodies after allegations arose that Mottard had also performed an abortion there on a young woman the previous January. Mottard admitted to having performed three abortions in the farmhouse, which was outside Long Island, but denied having performed the fatal one on Annie. The police were also searching for the remains of the sick baby the nurse had returned to Mottard's care. When questioned about the infant, Mottard was unable to give the police a satisfactory answer.

An operating room and a machine gun were found in the 14-room farmhouse. A second homicide case was filed against Mottard by officials of Suffolk County, where the farm was located. They had evidence that one of Mottard's rural abortion patients had suffered the same fate as Annie Allison.

Safe and legal anniversary: Rhonda Hess

Rhonda Hess was 20 years old when she underwent a legal abortion. After the procedure, she developed an infection. The infection led to problems with clotting of the blood. Rhonda was taken to Moss Regional Hospital in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she died on September 28, 1982.

Allegations of attempted forced abortion at NAF clinic

OR West blogged about allegations raised by a Colorado woman and her sister-in-law. Two women at Colorado Right to Life are verifying parts of the women's story. You can hear the entire radio show, in which the women tell their story, here.

The woman, Nicki, changed her mind about having an abortion after laminria had been insertec. The staff at National Abortion Federation member Mayfair Women's Center refused to let Nicki leave. They lied to her, told her that removing the laminaria would cause the baby to be deformed and to endanger her life. (Lies) When Nicki tried to leave, Kuseski (the guy who performed the abortion that left Christi Stile in a permanent vegetative state) physically restrained Nicki. The staff told Nicki and her sister-in-law that if Nicki tried to leave, they would call the police and tell them she was suicidal, and she would get put on a locked psychiatric ward for 72 hours. The staff kept insisting that having the laminaria removed was "suicidal", which is a bald-faced lie.

Douglas A. Karpen, the man who performed the fatal abortion on Denise Montoya, once lamented at a NAF seminar about women who change their minds about the abortion after the laminaria are inserted. The prolifers outside the clinic would talk to the women and would take them to obstetricians who would remove the laminaria and help them continue the pregnancies, and the women were wanting refunds. The solution proposed was to make them sign a statement prior to inserting the laminaria promising that they would under no circumstances have the laminaria removed, that they were promising to continue with the abortion even if they changed their minds. One of Karpen's patients gave birth to a premature baby who died six months later, after Karpen inserted laminaria and refused to remove it.

Ah, but it's the CPCs that are lying to women! It's the CPCs that are dangerous! It's the CPCs that do these things!

Safe-n-Legal: Lynette Wallace

On September 13, 1975, 22-year-old Lynette Wallace underwent an abortion at Inglewood Women's Hospital in Los Angeles County.

Early on the morning of September 27, Lynette went to the emergency room reporting abdominal pain. Staff reported that she became agitated and "difficult to handle." They put her in restraints, and she was pronouced dead of cardiopulmonary arrest at 10:53 AM.

The autopsy revealed what the abortionist should have detected -- the pregnancy had not been in Lynette's uterus but in her fallopian tube. The tube had ruptured, spilling blood and a 10-week fetus into Lynette's abdomen.

Women who seek abortion should be less likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. After all, the abortionist is supposed to perform an examination verifying the size of the uterus, and is supposed to visually examine the abortion tissue to be sure that the entire fetus and placenta are present. Also, a pathology examination is supposed to be done on the uterine contents to verify the presence of the entire fetal/placental unit.

However, women who seek abortion are actually more likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. The pain and nausea associated with an ectopic pregnancy are often mistaken for ordinary post-abortion symptoms, and are ignored until the tube ruptures and the woman's life is in danger.

Lynette is one of many deaths currently attributed to Inglewood Women's Hospital (aka Inglewood Women's Clinic) in Los Angeles County. The others are Yvonne Tanner, Kathy Murphy, Belinda Byrd, Cora Lewis, and Elizabeth Tsuji.

Turpentine teen pregnant by man over 30, evidently did not want abortion

Mother, Cousins Charged With Forcing Teen To Drink Turpentine For Abortion
The Ohio teenager placed in protective custody after her mother and cousin forced her to drink turpentine evidently did not want the attempted abortion, since she is continuing her pregnancy.

Authorities believe that the girl's relatives may have decided to force an abortion when they learned that the baby's father is over 30 years of age.

This report said that no charges are being filed against the man because the girl is over the age of consent. Does that mean that she wasn't legally subject to abuse, as a former report indicated, or does it just mean that the man will be charged with some sort of sexual crime not related to the victim's age? I think the former.

Teen forced to drink turpentine in abortion attempt

Police: Teen Force-Fed Turpentine in Abortion Attempt

Police have arrested the mother and two cousins of a pregnant 16-year-old who are accused of forcing the teen to drink turpentine in an attempt to induce an abortion.

The girl was likely pregnant due to a sexual assault that the police were already investigating.

Reports don't say if the girl wanted an abortion and it's just the method -- drinking the turpentine -- that was forced on her, or if the whole idea of abortion was being forced on her.

Anniversary: Sophie McCoy dies after NAF abortion

On September 17, 1990, 17-year-old Sophie McCoy went to the office of National Abortion Federation member Abu Hayat. She was accompanied by her mother and by the husband of the operator of a facility identified as "the Willoughby Avenue Clinic." She had been referred to him, but medical board documents do not say by whom.

Sophe and her mother returned to Hayat's office the next day. Sophie was given intravenous medications which put her to sleep. She was kept about four hours and discharged with another prescription for antibiotics.

That evening, Sophie was bleeding, had abdominal pain, and was having trouble breathing. The next day she was taken to a hospital and found to have a perforated uterus and a case of sepsis. She was diagnosed there with a perforated uterus. An emergency hysterectomy was performed, but Sophie developed disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and septic shock.

Sophie died on September 26 from disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and septic shock. She left a one-year-old son motherless.

After Sophie's death, Hayat originally denied having treated her at all. But Sophie's mother identified Hayat by name and from a photograph. While continuing to deny having treated Sophie, Hayat told one of the physicians who had tried to save her life that she had expelled a fetus at home and come to him for treatment, whereupon he'd sent her to the hospital. But Margie, an employee of his, recognized Sophie from a photo and said that Hayat had indeed treated the girl on two occasions. Margie added that after the second visit, Sophie's mother had called, hysterical and crying. Margie further said that she had seen medical records for Sophie at the facility, and that Hayat had argued with the referring clinic about payments for Sophie's treatment.

The case was reported to the district attorney and the New York Health Department, but nobody took any action against Hayat until he pulled the arm off an infant during an abortion attempt in 1991.

And just a reminder, the National Abortion Federation promises patients:

In order to become a member, a clinic must complete a rigorous application process. Member clinics have agreed to comply with our standards for quality and care, updated annually in our Clinical Policy Guidelines, which set the evidence-based standards for abortion care in North America. NAF periodically conducts site visits to confirm that our clinics are in compliance with our guidelines.

Which leaves the question: Are NAF standards so low that Hayat actually met them, or is the promise that they require their members to actually meet the standards just hot air?

Call for specific examples

I've got a couple of folks at a Christian forum who had been totally unaware of CPCs and The Nurturing Network and such. They simply repeated the oft-told slander that prolifers don't do anything for pregnant women or for moms, fully believing it. Because, don't you know, all prochoicers say that so it must be true.

I provided links to Birthright, CPCs Online, TNN, and other major groups, including the Feminists for Life Campus Outreach.

I need to hammer them constantly with examples, big and small. They were astonished, for example, to learn of the way Ashli of The SICLE Cell had gotten prolife bloggers moving and quickly raised money to get a pregnant woman's mortgage out of arrears and prevent foreclosure. They were stunned, unaware that prolifers ever did that sort of thing. They'd been told we do nothing and were dutifully repeating it.

So, when you notice a particular case, let me know and I'll pass it on. I think it'll take about six months to a year of constant examples to break through the prejudice. Pass on the word that I need examples.

Oh -- and get this -- they blamed the prolifers for not getting the word out! As if somehow we're responsible for the prochoice attacks on CPCs, the ACLU's efforts to squash the "Choose Life" fund raising, the "escorts" who stand between the prolifers and the women, and the abortion clinic staff who tell patients that the "informed consent" pamphlets are lies intended to frighten and intimidate them! Oh, it's our fault that prochoicers slander us, censor us, and physically impede women who are trying to come to us for help.

These are basically decent people who've just been bamboozled. Let's do some un-bamboozling.

NARAL NewSpeak

This from a "NARAL ProChoice America" email alert advertising a plan to put the abortion lobby back in control of Congress:

We've been fighting on the front lines at NARAL Pro-Choice America, doing everything we can to protect the values of freedom, privacy, and personal responsibility, and this is the next step. (Emphasis mine)

That's a hoot. You can't be bothered to take care of your kids, so you pay somebody to snuff them, and then try to pass it off an an exercise in "personal responsibility." Can anybody really claim this with a straight face?

George Orwell is vindicated yet again.

Safe and legal anniversaries

Minnie Lathan was 41 when she had an abortion and tubal ligation performed some time in September of 1978. Her uterus was perforated and her colon damaged during the procedure. She developed an infection and was hospitalized at Cleveland Clinic Hospital. She died there on September 25.

****

Twenty-two-year-old Liliana Cortez underwent an abortion by Leo Kenneally at his Her Medical Clinic in Los Angeles on September 20, 1986. Other than having asthma, Liliana was in good health when she went for her abortion. After the procedure, she went into cardiac arrest. There was a 40-minute delay until the paramedics arrived to transport Liliana to a hospital. She died five days later.

Liliana's death was ruled a "therapeutic misadventure," which a coroner's spokesman called, "a nice medical term for a mistake."

An attorney for Her Medical Clinic said, "If something like this happened at a hospital ... people would just say it was bad luck, one of those fluky things. But ... all of a sudden they make it seem like these (abortion clinics) are terrible places where terrible things happen."

Other Deaths at Her Medical Clinic include Donna Heim and Michelle Thames.

****

Debra Walton was 35 years old when she underwent an abortion in the fall of 1989. On September 24, 1989, about three weeks after the abortion, she was admitted to University Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. She was in septic shock. Despite efforts to save her, she died the next day, September 25, 1989. Her death certificate does not say where the abortion took place or who performed it.

Still powerless....

One of the other teachers is taking my power cord to Seoul today, where he thinks he can get it fixed. If not, he'll buy a replacement for me. So one way or another, by Monday evening (here in Tomorrowland) I should be back in business.

Sorry to leave y'all in the lurch so long!

Yet more internet woes

The power cord (which is attached to the voltage regulator) for my laptop is frayed and unusable, so I'm back to PC rooms! I'm going to ask my boss to please order a replacement for me. The other teachers said it ought to come in a few days.

On choosing goodness

Choose Good, Feel Great: Secrets to Living Your Best Life

The title doesn't do the essay justice. It opens with a Scripture quote:

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed.”

— Deuteronomy Deut. 30:19

Some snippets:

For there to be choice, evil has to be pretty attractive. There is no choice if we're not interested in one of the alternatives.

....

Evil and good are not always like black and white. High-grade, superclassy evil looks just like good, but it's counterfeit nevertheless.

....

We do teshuvah not because we fear punishment but because we love G-d and know that we have, so to speak, let G-d down. This realization itself brings us closer to G-d, even closer than we were before we made the mistakes. Therefore, all our offenses turn into merits. The darkness is converted into light.

....

This world was not created for what is already good in it. This world was created to be a forum for a new and higher kind of goodness — the goodness born out of overcoming evil and choosing to do good.

Whitney to stop killing in Daytona Beach

Abortions Stopped at Daytona Beach Clinic

A defiant abortionist, Randall Whitney, has stopped abortions at Family Planning Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, rather than comply with state regulations governing his abortion business.

Whitney's license had been suspended, and he was fined $2500 and prohibited from assisting at births outside a hospital. The medical board found Whitney guilty of 4 violations of state law, accused him of "gross and repeated malpractice" and "unprofessional conduct." Allegations included that he allowed employee "to buy a narcotic painkiller with presigned prescription forms" and botched three births at his childbirth clinic and botched a vasectomy. Two of the childbirth cases involved administering drug to induce labor, failure to get women to hospital in timely manner, resulting in C-sections and in one case a stillborn infant. (Daytona Beach Morning Journal 5-8-84, 6-14-84)

Whitney had also worked for Aware Woman, then set out to open a competing facility in Melbourne, but Patricia Baird-Windle leaked his plans to prolifers who alerted the landlord. The landlord hadn’t known Whitney was going to do abortions, and kicked him out for getting the lease under false pretenses.

My computer's power cord got damaged so I'm short on battery power and can't do any more research on this guy at the moment. He did, however, with this background, work for the National Abortion Federation member clinics owned by James Pendergraft.

This guy ought not to be practicing medicine at all, He even managed to kill a baby whose mother didn't want it dead. That alone ought to have the prochoice -- the truly prochoice, who think a woman has just as much right to choose a live baby as a dead fetus -- outraged.

I'm waiting....

Safe-n-legal death: Janet Foster

Eighteen-year-old Janet Foster underwent an abortion at the hands of Richard Neal at Valley Doctors; Hospital in North Hollywood, California on September 11, 1971. Janet's abortion had been a "therapeutic" abortion approved by the hospital committee, as was required at the time. Neal reported that he'd estimated the pregnancy at 12 weeks and performed what he thought was an uneventful suction abortion. 

Janet's brother-in-law reported that she was very weak and sleepy when he picked her up at the hospital. After returning home, Janet suffered abdominal pain, and called Neal on September 14. He told her he'd see her the next day. Janet felt ill, so she went to bed early. 

At around 2 a.m., Janet experienced hot and cold flashes for about twenty minutes, then went into convulsions. Her brother-in-law called for emergency services. Police and paramedics found Janet lying in bed with what appeared to be pus in her vaginal area. On the way to the hospital medics attempted attempted to revive her, to no avail; Janet was pronounced dead on arrival at 3:55 am. 

The autopsy found that Janet's heart and lung sacs contained serous fluid, and there was frothy tan fluid in her respiratory track. Her uterus was boggy and the placenta was still attached. Janet's uterus also contained "approximately 20 cc. of red-brown purulent and foul-smelling liquid with similar odor and color to an exudate on the endometrial surface."

Also in Janet's uterus was a "macerated, lacerated and purulent male fetus of about 19 weeks gestation. This fetus measures 14.5 cm. in crown-rump length, shows lacerations in the shoulder area, evisceration of the bowel through an abdominal laceration, and destruction of the skull and facial structures."  

Janet's death attributed to septicemia due to "incomplete abortion, therapeutic, septic." 

An LA County grand jury indicted Neal on a felony manslaughter charge in Janet's death. The 1976 trial ended with a hung jury.

Sources: LA County Coroner Case No. 71-9846 and LA County Superior Court Case No A310874 and Case No C34424

Rhonda Rollinson: Safe-n-Legal Anniversary

Rhonda Rollinson underwent an abortion by Dr. Jay I. Levin at Malcom Polis's Philadelphia Women's Center September 3, 1992. The abortion attempt was unsuccessful. Rhonda was then sent home, with instructions to return on September 12 to try again.

Rhonda experienced such severe pain, dizziness, fever, and discharge that on September 10 she sought emergency care at a hospital. She was suffering "severe non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema consistent with adult respiratory distress syndrome."

Doctors did a laparoscopy, dilation and evacuation, abdominal hysterectomy, and splenectomy, to no avail. Rhonda died on September 14. The autopsy revealed a perforation from her vagina into the uterine cavity, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis, pulmonary infarctions, and dysplastic kidney.

The suit filed by Rhonda's survivors also charged the facility and Polis with hiring Levin despite his lack of competence, failure to properly supervise his work, violation of applicable laws and regulations, lack of informed consent, failure to give proper post-operative instructions, and failure "to respond to the requests of [Rhonda] and her family for post-operative medical advice."

NAF clinic closed in Ohio for safety violations

Abortion Center in Ohio Forced to Close After Numerous Health Violations

State officials forced an abortion business in Cleveland to close after inspectors found numerous health and safety violations. They found more than a dozen problems at the Center for Women's Health on the city's east side, which prompted officials to reject the center's request for a new state license.

In June, the Ohio Department of Health said CWH did not have a local transfer agreement that would allow it to bring women to a local hospital in cases of botched abortions and other medical emergencies.

The state also said the abortion business failed to meet basic standards for medical care.

Roy Croy, a state health department official who works to oversee ambulatory and surgical care facilities told the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, "[There were] six to seven patients where there was no record that their temperature or blood pressure had been taken before the [abortion]."

"These are things that should be done before you start surgery," he said.

....

This isn't the first time the abortion center has run afoul of state requirements.

The abortion business let its medical license lapse in November for unknown reasons. Croy told the Cleveland newspaper that Ruddock thought the abortion center was a private medical practice that should not be regulated by the state even though its ads tout it as an ambulatory-surgical care facility.

And if you check on the NAF site, you'll find this clinic there listed as a member in good standing. So NAF is referring women to this place as a safe facility that meets their safety requirements:

Our member clinics care for more than half the women who choose abortion each year in the United States. In order to become a member, a clinic must complete a rigorous application process. Member clinics have agreed to comply with our standards for quality and care, updated annually in our Clinical Policy Guidelines, which set the evidence-based standards for abortion care in North America. NAF periodically conducts site visits to confirm that our clinics are in compliance with our guidelines.

Unexpectedly long absense

Sorry I've not been blogging. I just moved back to Korea and am having fits getting somebody from KT Telecom to come hook up my internet. I have a chance on weekends to go to a PC room near my apartment. I'll resume regular blogging as soon as I have regular hookup again.

Sign of the coming apocolypse

Abortion Advocates Finally Back Chen Guangcheng, Call for His Release

Coordinated by the pro-abortion group Catholics for a Free Choice, the letter asks national and local officials “to immediately begin investigative procedures into and launch legal supervision of the severe violations of the human rights of Chen Guangcheng.”

....

"International pressure -- especially from those supportive of reproductive health -- is essential to building Chinese resolve to respect the human rights of women regarding reproduction," Kissling added.

Signers of the letter include a who's who of leading pro-abortion organizations.

Nancy Keenan, the president of NARAL and Nancy Northup of the pro-abortion law firm Center for Reproductive Rights signed the letter. However, it appears no representatives of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business, or the ACLU attached their names.

On an international level, Leo Bryant of the British-based international abortion business Marie Stopes International, Niall Behan of the Irish Family Planning Association, and Amy Coen of Population Action International all signed the letter.