Author: Tech

 

“For the second time in two days, [Madison, WI] University Hospital and Clinics officials have reported that an aborted fetus was delivered alive…the fetus, determined by doctors to be 22 weeks old…had been delivered…and then resuscitated, placed in the hospital’s pediatric unit and transferred…to Madison General. Tim Harper, spokesman at Madison General, said the baby died today at 1:30 a.m. of respiratory failure and other problems. University Hospital officials said an aborted fetus delivered Tuesday had been revived and survived nearly a day before dying Wednesday…Hospital officials would not reveal…what type of abortion was performed.”

Tacoma [WA] News Tribune, May 6, 1982, p. B6

Here is one mention of a saline abortion live birth in a book by a pro-choice author. Magda Denes, PhD, wrote the book In Necessity and Sorrow: Life and Death in an Abortion Hospital published by Basic Books Inc. in New York, 1976.

Here she quotes a clinic worker.

“The only time I thought about abortion in terms of religion was when I saw fetuses and one was born alive. I saw one of them, in fact, I even felt the heart beat. I touched it. It looked like a baby, but it was very tiny. It was real cute. Very quiet. In fact, it was starting to die. The heart beat was getting very low. It was going to Bellevue Hospital and the guy was saying “Oh, I don’t see why we have to take it over there, because it’s going to die anyway. Why go through all the trouble?”

–Miss Teresa Etienne, Counselor (pg 39)

In ‘Pro-Choice 1990: Skeletons in the Closet” by David Kuperlain and Mark Masters in Oct “New Dimensions” magazine Dr. David Brewer talks about witnessing a late term abortion for the first time.

“I remember an experience as a resident on a hysterotomy. I remember seeing the baby move underneath the sack of membranes, as the cesarean incision was made, before the doctor broke the water. The thought came to me, “My God, that’s a person” Then he broke the water. And when he broke the water, it was like I had a pain in my heart, just like when I saw that first suction abortion. And then he delivered the baby, and I couldn’t touch it… I wasn’t much of an assistant. I just stood there, and the reality of what was doing on finally began to seep into my calloused brain and heart. They took that little baby that was making little sounds and moving and kicking, and set it on that table in a cold, stainless steel bowl. Every time I would look over while we were repairing the incision in uterus and finishing the Caesarean, I would see that little person moving in that bowl. And it kicked and moved less and less, of course, as time went on. I can remember going over and looking at the baby when we were done with the surgery and the baby was still alive. You could see the chest was moving and the heart was beating, and the baby would try to take a little breath, and it really hurt inside, and it began to educate me as to what abortion really was.”

One common type of abortion practiced up until the early nineties was a saline abortion. In these second and third trimester abortions, a salt solution would be injected into the mother’s womb.

Protected from her uterus by the amniotic sack, this caustic solution would poison the baby and burn his or her skin. In a few hours, the baby would die and labor would begin. The mother would then give birth to a dead baby.

Besides causing many live births, this type of abortion tended to be dangerous to the woman involved.

Other methods of abortion that cause live births are prostaglandin, in which a strong drug causes the uterus to contract violently and expel a severely bruised (but sometimes alive) baby; and hysterotomy (seldom used) in which the aborted baby is removed in a procedure similar to a C-section.

Here are some accounts of abortion live births.

“But one night, a lady delivered and I was called to come and see her because she was uncontrollable. I went in the room and she was going to pieces. She was having a nervous breakdown, screaming and thrashing. The nurses were upset because they couldn’t get any work done and all the other patients were upset because this lady was screaming and I walked in, and here was her little saline abortion baby. It had been born and it was kicking and moving for a little while before it finally died of those terrible burns. Because the salt solution gets into the lungs and burns the lungs too.”

From the workshop “Meet the Abortion Providers” held in Chicago, former abortion provider David Brewer, M.D.

“Since hypertonic saline was so toxic if it was injected into the uterine wall instead of the amniotic sac; there was a constant search for the ideal drug. Prostaglandin has now become the drug of choice, but one of the early experiments was with hypertonic urea. The major disadvantage in using it, was the problem of live births. I remember using it on a patient that the psychiatric residents brought to us from their clinic from an institutionalized patient who really was crazy. I’ll never forget delivering her nearly two pound baby, and hearing her screams, “My baby’s alive, my baby’s alive.” It lived several days.”

–Dr. Paul Jarrett (Meet the Abortion Providers)

This incident comes from England.Office manager Julie Robb, 38, was admitted to Queen’s Park Hospital for a “therapeutic termination” after a scan revealed that her 23-week-old foetus could have serious abnormalities, (cerebral palsy, water on the brain, or downs’ syndrome)… A team of medics induced Mrs Robb who gave birth to Elizabeth, weighing 696 grams (1 lb 8oz), at 2.25am on December 7 of 1994.

A lawsuit was filed because the baby was born alive and no effort was made to give her medical care.

According to the testimony of medical experts, the baby “gasped” after it was born and showed signs of life. She also had hearbeat. The team (2 midwives and 2 specialists) decided not to revive the baby. The death certificate showed that the baby was alive for 90 minutes, Medical personnel testified it was less than 35 minutes.

Verdict was in favor of hospital.

“My ‘beautiful’ abortion baby” Lancashire Evening Telegraph Nov 1, 1995

An incident at the Florida Hialeah abortion clinic has attracted attention in the mainstream press. The Miami Herald ran an article about an eighteen-year-old woman who claimed to have given birth to a living baby at the clinic.

Other witnesses confirmed the story. From the article:

“She told police she went for an abortion on July 19 and clinic employees gave her drugs to begin dilation. The next day, the teen said, she went to the clinic to complete the procedure. When she told the clinic staff she wasn’t feeling well, they put her in a recovery room while she waited for the doctor to arrive.

In the recovery room, she said, she suddenly gave birth. She told detectives she saw the baby gasping for five minutes as clinic staffers began shrieking, according to a search warrant.

On July 22, detectives searched the clinic — but did not find the baby. Five days later, a source told police the baby had been tossed on the roof of the one-story strip mall.

On July 28, investigators raided the clinic again. This time, they found the baby inside a red biohazard bag in the clinic.”

In an autopsy the age of the baby was estimated at 22 weeks after conception. One week older than this premature baby who survived:

It was later determined that the living baby had been stuffed into a plastic bag by Belkis Gonzalez, co-owner of the clinic.

Detective Tony Rodriguez, the lead investigator on the case, was quoted saying:

“In 24 years of law enforcement, I have never seen a case like this.”

In November an autopsy on the aborted baby girl revealed that she had indeed been born alive. She had black hair and brown eyes. The baby was named Shaunice Denise Oshbourne. According to a spokesman for Operation Rescue, who obtained the autopsy:

“Once she [Shaunice] was born, she was deserving of the same protections under the law as the rest of us….Shoving her into a plastic bag and tossing her onto a roof to die is just unconscionable.”

Despite the undisputed fact that a baby was born alive, no charges have been filed, and none are foreseen since the baby would not have officially been considered ‘viable’ for another week.

Sources:

“Fetus’ Age Key to Possible Charges Against Hialeah Abortion Clinic: Procecuters Looking into a Case at a Hialeah Abortion Clinic Where a Baby was Born Alive are Weighing Whether to File Criminal Charges” Susannah A. Nesmith, David Ovalle and Jacob Goldstein, The Miami Herald Sep 17, 2006

“Autopsy Confirms that ‘Aborted’ Florida Baby was Born Alive” OR Press Release

“Dead Baby Found in Abortion Clinic: Clinic Closed” by Dave Malkoff

Dr. Martin Haskell was at the center of another live birth controversy. In the National Review article “Dismemberment and Choice” by Michael R. Heaphy, a possible live birth is described by University of Cincinnati student Yvonne Brower. Brower called up Dr. Haskell for permission to witness abortions because she was working on a term paper. She witnessed these abortions on September 21, 1989.

Later, she filed a complaint with police.

The following is an excerpt from the police report:

She stated that by 11 o’clock she had already observed two “D&E” three-day procedures on two patients. She stated on the third patient, however, the abortion was different …. The patient’s water was already broken and she spontaneously gave birth prematurely before the proper D&E procedure could be done. She stated that the baby was delivered feet first very quickly through the birth canal. The head was on its way out when Dr. Haskell reached over and got his scissors and snipped the right side of the baby’s common carotid artery.

Even then, the report reads, the baby wasn’t dead.

The complainant stated that the baby was still moving when she looked at it once again …. it was breathing shallow breaths, as was evidenced by the chest moving up and down. She stated that she could also observe the baby’s hand having slow, controlled, muscular movements, unlike the short jerky twitchy motions she had seen and learned to expect when the baby was already dead before it came out of the birth canal.

Dr. Martin Haskell described the abortion (in The Dayton Daily News) as follows:

“it came out very quickly after I put the scissors up in the cervical canal and pierced the skull and spread the scissors apart. It popped right on out …. the previous two, I had to use the suction to collapse the skull.”

It was Brower’s word against the abortionist’s. No charges were filed.

Jill Stanek, R.N., who first brought the issue of “live birth abortions” to the public and legislators, discusses  cases of infants refused medical care after being born during abortions- well after the Born Alive Infant Protection Act was passed.

“When President Bush signed the Born Alive Infants Protection Act into law two years ago this month, I thought the practice of aborting babies alive would end.

It hasn’t.

Because I travel the country and speak about my experience as a nurse who witnessed babies being aborted alive, I am occasionally approached by nurses who relate similar stories.

And when I am interviewed on the radio, nurses will invariably call in and tell about them, too. Kentucky, California, Pennsylvania, everywhere.

The following came to me via email from a nurse just a few months ago. The hospital where this took place is in the Columbus, Ohio, area:

A woman without prenatal care arrived at the hospital at 22 weeks [gestation] with twins. She had no insurance. On assessment she was found to have a heart problem and very high blood pressure. She was seen by our high-risk perinatologist, who recommended delivery for her health. She was placed on I.V. Magnesium Sulfate and monitored. In the morning, while I was caring for her, her blood pressures were stable, and her life did not seem in imminent danger. I even discussed the possibility of turning the Mag off with her doctor.

The residents then went in to her room. I remember one of them saying, “We can’t make her out as some sort of monster because she does not want these babies.” I believe if the patient had wanted the babies, every effort would have been made to keep her pregnant until they were viable.

However, since this was an unwanted pregnancy and “her life was in danger,” approval was given to induce labor. The twins were born. No measures were made to resuscitate the infants. They were not assessed by anyone but the RN caring for the mother. They died shortly afterward. The weights were not taken until the babies died. It was absolutely horrible.”

 

A nurse in Florida sent this to me:

“I came to work one morning to find myself assigned to a 25-week termination. At 25 weeks, a baby’s organs are all formed, the eyelids open, and the baby has the potential for survival outside the mother. This baby was being aborted because he had a genetic abnormality called Trisomy 18.

When I said I didn’t want to do this, I was told I had a responsibility to care for the patient.

I was called to the room by my patient when she felt the baby coming. The obstetrician was not in the hospital.

The baby delivered quickly, totally encased in the amniotic fluid- filled sac. When I broke the bag of water, the baby began breathing. I never expected the baby to survive, and I immediately panicked, because everything in me said I needed to resuscitate this baby.

I called the neonatal nurse practitioner to the room. She said I could do nothing but monitor for the time of death. I can’t even begin to convey to you the overwhelming emotion that came over me – fear, anger, grief. I sat on the patient’s bed sobbing as I waited for the heartbeat and respirations to cease. The baby died in approximately one hour. I immediately resigned.”

Another nurse related the following story to Jill Stanek:

The mother was expecting to deliver a baby with severe interior anomalies and external defects. Instead, the baby came out alive-with no signs of the external defects that should have been immediately obvious.

“The mother freaked out and started screaming, ‘Someone help my baby!’ ” Stanek recalled being told. “At the parent’s insistence, a neonatalogist was summoned who told the parents there was nothing he could do because the baby was born too early. The baby was wrapped in a blanket and given to the grandparents to hold until it died. The mother was so traumatized she had to be sedated.”