Category: Legal Abortion Deaths

A lawsuit filed by the father of Barbara Dillon, a 22-year-old college student, alleged that Barbara underwent a safe and legal abortion performed by Dr. Mark Silver at Long Island Gynecological Group April 18, 1981.

Barbara’s father said that the pathology report identified placental tissue, but no fetal parts. This meant that something had gone wrong, and that Barbara needed medical care, but nobody contacted her to tell her this.

Barbara suffered pain and bleeding from May 5. She went to the emergency room and was treated with antibiotics and advised to see her family doctor. She was in severe pain later that day, so her roommates called the emergency room again. They were told to give the antibiotics more time.

Barbara’s pain did not abate. On May 10, her roommates got a neighbor to take Barbara to the university health center. Barbara was unconscious upon arrival, with no respiration, blood pressure, or pulse, and was rushed to the emergency room. There were delays finding a doctor from the clinic who would aid the emergency room physician in addressing Barbara’s symptoms. She went into irreversible shock and died on May 11. It turned out that Barbara had an ectopic pregnancy which the clinic had failed to detect. Barbara’s father also sued Silver over his daughter’s death.

Even though, in theory, women who choose abortion should be less likely to die of ectopic pregnancy complications, experiences shows that they’re actually more likely to die, due to sloppy practices by abortion practitioners.

Source: Dillon v. Silver, New York Appellate Court 134 A.D.2nd 159

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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Rudy Alston, stage name Floss, got the page as he sat in the waiting room of Brooklyn Women’s Medical Pavilion on December 1, 1998. Tommy Boy Records had just signed the young rapper to a contract. Alston never got to share the news with his fiance, 22-year-old Tamika Dowdy. She was dying from complications of her abortion.

Staff at the clinic summoned emergency care for a woman with difficulty breathing. Police arrived first, followed by paramedics at 6 P.M. The medics worked to save Tamika, performing CPR, as Alston waited. He’s been waiting since noon.

Alston, age 22, reportedly told the New York Post that a doctor had kept walking in and out of the waiting room, “sweating real fierce and pacing. He did that several times, and then he finally came up to me and said that her heart had stopped. Alston rode by her side to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead the following day.

Alston and Dowdy had lived a floor apart, planning to be married in January or February of 1999. They’d decided on abortion because Dowdy wanted to go to a two-year school to learn accounting so she could handle the finances of Alston’s band, Council. Dowdy had been four months pregnant.

The facility had been in trouble earlier, after an incident on November 14 in which a woman suffered a perforated uterus. The Health Department lost that woman to follow up after she left the hospital. Dowdy’s death was under investigation as of the publication of the New York Post story.

Alston rode by Dowdy’s side in the ambulance from the clinic to the hospital.

Tamika’s 18-year-old brother, Darrel Dowdy, told the Post, “I want that place closed down. I want that doctor arrested for murder.” He described his sister as active in her church. Dowdy and her brother had lost their mother to a heart attack almost a year to the day before Tamika’s death.

When the Post sent a reporter and photographer to Brooklyn Women’s Health Pavilion, they reported, the woman who answered the intercom called security to have them removed.

The Post also noted that the police officials daily report mentioned only the address where the incident had taken place, without mentioning the name of the facility or that a medical procedure had been involved.

According to the NAF web site, Brooklyn Women’s Medical Pavilion was a member facility.

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Carolina Gutierrez died six weeks after her safe and legal abortion. An infection set in from her perforated (cut) uterus. Her gangrenous legs were amputated during that time in an effort to save her life, but she did not survive.

Carolina, who had come to the United States as a refugee from Nicaragua at age 13, was 20 years old when she went to Maber Medical Center in Miami for an abortion on December 19, 1995.

Carolina’s husband did not want her to have the abortion, so Carolina got a friend to drive her back and forth to the clinic.

The evening after her abortion, Carolina had pain in her chest and abdomen. She called the clinic for help, but whoever answered the phone hung up on her.

Over the next two days, Carolina left messages on the clinic answering machine, but nobody returned her calls.

On December 21st, she could hardly breathe, so her family called 911. She arrived at the emergency room already in septic shock.

Carolina underwent an emergency hysterectomy at the hospital to try to halt the spread of infection from her perforated uterus.

Carolina was put into the intensive care unit, where she battled for her life against the raging sepsis. She was on a respirator, with her fingers and feet going black with gangrene.

Relatives cared for her children, a five-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy, while Carolina’s husband spent as much time as he could by her side. “I can’t sleep. I try to take my mind off it, but it’s impossible,” he told the Miami Herald.

Carolina’s 21st birthday came and went as she lay in the ICU. Doctors fought to help the young woman to gain enough strength to undergo amputation of her gangrenous limbs. But despite the hysterectomy, the amputations, and all their other efforts, Carolina died on February 5, 1996.

According to the Miami Herald, abortion clinic regulations were in affect in 1980, but were later thrown out as being “too restrictive.” A less strict code was passed in 1988. According to the Miami Herald, at the time of Gutierrez’s death “Annual inspections for Florida’s 65 licensed clinics [consisted] of six questions — all answered from paperwork, not examination of medical equipment or operating practices or staff training.” Pro-choice groups such as Planned Parenthood typically oppose these regulations and are instrumental in their defeat and repeal

While investigating the clinic, officials noted that although Carolina could not read English, her only consent form was in English — and the line for her signature was blank. She had paid $225 in cash for the abortion that took her legs and her life.

Sources: Miami Herald: “Abortion patient critically ill; state investigates clinic,” January 26, 1996; “A tragic consequence,” February 9, 1996; “Regulate abortion clinics better,” March 1, 1996, “Unsafe but legal,” Newark Star-Ledger, March 14, 1996

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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On November 1, 1991, 21-year-old Anjelica Duarte underwent an abortion by Dr. Larry Thompson at Women’s Place Clinic in Las Vegas, Nevada.

According to one of Anjelica’s friends, Anjelica had sought an abortion because a doctor had recommended that she delay having another baby for five years due to health problems. Anjelica already had a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old daughter.

After the abortion, Anjelica was kept under observation for several hours, but was not given any care.

She was rushed to the hospital by paramedics at 7:30 that evening, but she was dead on arrival.

A hospital spokesman said that she had lost 90 percent of her blood; her uterus had been perforated.

In reviewing the case, the medical board noted that Thompson did not have adequate equipment for post-operative care, and revoked his license.

Anjelica’s was not the only tragic death caused by doctors who recommended (or excused) abortion as a life-saving or health-preserving option for the mother:

* Allegra Roseberry was pushed into an abortion in order to obtain experimental cancer treatment.
* Barbara Hoppert died after an abortion recommended due to a congenital heart problem.
* Christin Gilbert died after an abortion George Tiller holds was justified on grounds of maternal health.
* Erika Peterson died in 1961 when her doctors obtained her husband’s permission to perform a “therapeutic” abortion.
* “Molly” Roe died in 1975 when her doctors made the dubious decision to perform a saline abortion to improve her chances of surviving a lupus crisis.

Sources: “Vegas abortion death investigated,” San Francisco Examiner, November 4, 1991, A-7; “Woman dies after abortion at NLV clinic,” The Las Vegas Review-Journal, November 1, 1991; “Answers sought in abortion,” November 2, 1991; Las Vegas Review-Journal 12-10-91; Washington Times 11-21-91;

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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Former criminal abortionist Milan Vuitch had been operating his clinic without a license for two years when 32-year-old Jeannie English came to him for a safe and legal abortion on January 12, 1980.

Vuitch administered general anesthesia for Jeannie, and she never woke up. She was transported to a nearby hospital where she died. Vuitch settled with Jeannie’s family for $150,000. When Vuitch was investigated, it was discovered that he kept patients overnight in his home (an unlicensed facility) which he designated “The Annexe.” Inspectors also noted repeated violations of medical standards regarding sanitation and anesthesia. Vuitch also admitted during another case that he had lacked hospital admitting privileges since 1963.

Vuitch was also responsible for the 1974 abortion death of 17-year-old Wilma Harris.

Vuitch is one of three abortionists I know of who started out as criminal abortionists with clean records — no patient deaths attributed to them — who went on to kill two patient by performing the supposedly safer legal abortions. They are Jesse Ketchum (Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner) and Benjamin Munson (Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth).

Sources: Washington Times 4/19/84; Washington Post 4/29/86; Washington DC Court of Appeals Case No. 82-1077

By Christina Dunigan

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Suit by survivors of Marla Anne Cardamone, age 18, mother of 1, alleged that Marla became pregnant while on Tegretol and Elavil for depression.

Marla’s mother, Deborah Cardamone, commented:

“Originally, she had planned to put her baby up for adoption, since she already had a toddler to take care of, but a medical-social worker at the hospital strongly urged Marla to have a safe and legal abortion.

The social worker argued that Marla had damaged her baby because of medication she had taken. Statistics gave a 92% chance that the baby was fine, but Marla had a sonogram to be sure. After the sonogram, that social worker kept pressuring Marla to have an abortion. Finally, Marla gave in.”

Marla was admitted to Magee Women’s Hospital for the abortion August 15, 1989.

Although the urea induction technique was contraindicated due to Marla’s medical history, Michael W. Weinberger injected urea into Marla’s uterus.

Either an error during this injection or some other mishap caused generalized necrosis of Marla’s uterine wall. The laminaria were also inserted by Weinberger in a manner resulting in septicemia, and massive cortical necrosis of the kidneys.

Marla became ill during the night, with nausea, vomiting, urinary incontinence, and dried blood on her teeth. Her pulse and temperature were severely elevated.

At 6:30 AM the charge nurse contacted a the first of several doctors to treat Marla, but no were cultures taken.

By 7 AM Marla was “increasingly disoriented and speaking inappropriately.”

By 7:15, her blood pressure had fallen to 80/40, her pulse had shot up to 144, and she was “unresponsive, grunting loudly, and having seizures.”

At 10 AM, intravenous antibiotics were administered. Marla was dead from septicemia at 12:15 PM.

Her mother describes seeing her daughter for the last time:

“Finally, they allowed me to see Marla’s body. When I entered the room, I could hardly believe what I saw. There was my beautiful daughter so horribly disfigured that she was almost unrecognizable. A tube was still protruding from her mouth and I could see that her teeth and gums were covered with blood. Her eyes were half opened and the whites of her eyes were a dark yellow. Her face was swollen and discolored a deep purple. The left side of her face looked like she had suffered a stroke. All I wanted was to hold her. I managed to get an arm around her and kissed her good-bye.”

The suit filed by Marla’s family noted failure to notify them of her deteriorating condition. Marla’s mother and quadriplegic father, who Marla had helped to care for, adopted Marla’s child.

The suit faulted the doctor and hospital with performance of a psychiatrically contraindicated abortion, failure to evacuate the dead fetus, administering an overdose of Pitocin, and failure to consult qualified doctors.

Marla’s mother adds bitterly:

“I had to file a lawsuit to get any answers. Marla had died of septicemia–a massive infection from the abortion. I also learned that the social worker had never seen Marla’s sonogram or discussed the results with her. Marla never saw the words on the sonogram report that would have changed everything: No abnormalities detected. My daughter was pressured to have an abortion, and there had been no reason for it, no reason at all.

I’ve often wondered why pro-choice women’s groups have never expressed any sympathy or concern over Marla’s death. Why aren’t they demanding justice? Why aren’t they concerned that Marla was lied to about the condition of her baby and wasn’t shown the sonogram results? Why aren’t they concerned that proper treatment was delayed because Marla was misdiagnosed by a resident who was only two months out of medical school? Why are they so quiet?

I believe it’s because pro-choice groups don’t want women to read or hear about abortion injuries and deaths. Bad publicity hurts their cause. That’s why they prefer that Marla and her baby remain hidden statistics.”

Regarding the cause of Marla Cardamone’s death, the following quotations were reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on January 14, 1997:

“The parents of an 18-year-old Mt. Lebanon woman who died while having an abortion in 1989 have settled their lawsuit against Magee Womens Hospital and six doctors. The agreement concluded more than five years of litigation…Terms of the agreement were not revealed.”

The paper also reported, “Expert witnesses were to be called during the trial to testify that inexperienced physicians made numerous errors in the abortion procedure, then failed to promptly recognize the symptoms of the infection and arrest it.”

Sources: Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Case No. G.D. 91-14565; American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology Vol. 14, No. 2, 1993; Marla’s Tragic Death

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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Abortionist Raymond E. Showery was out on bail appealing a murder conviction when he performed the safe, legal abortion that killed 28-year-old Mickey Apodaca.

Mickey, a divorced mother of four, went to Showery’s Southside Medical Center in El Paso for an abortion April 11, 1984. Showery’s defense team said that Mickey was not bleeding excessively immediately after her abortion, but that a nurse discovered the hemorrhage, and Mickey was taken into the operating room for a transfusion. However, Showery would not provide Mickey’s records to the Grand Jury on the grounds that they might incriminate him.

It turns out that during the abortion, Showery had torn a hole in Mickey’s uterus and severed a uterine artery.

Mickey hemorrhaged for two hours before she was transferred to a hospital, where she died during an emergency hysterectomy.

The prosecution charged that Showery used inadequately trained staff, failed to properly treat the injuries he’d caused Mickey, delayed treatment, and delayed transfer to a hospital.

Showery performed Mickey’s fatal abortion while out on bail pending appeal for his murder conviction. Several of Showery’s employees had gone to the police and reported that Showery had drowned a baby girl who had survived a 1979 abortion.

Showery was held pending $1 million dollars bail while awaiting trial for manslaughter in Mickey’s death. While he was in prison, local prochoicers rallied outside with signs asserting that Showery was “a good man” and that he “helps the poor.” The fact that he helped Mickey Apodaca straight into an early grave was lost on them.

Sources: New York Times 9-29-83; New York Times 4-29-84; Des Moines Register 5-5-84; El Paso Times 4-26-84, 6-5-84, Dallas Morning News 4-18-84, 4-20-84, 5-3-84, Longview Morning Journal 5-6-84, Dallas Times-Herald 4-14-84

Thanks to Christina Dunigan

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Legend has it that the Centers for Disease Control keep track of abortion deaths. The case of Latachie Veal should lay that legend to rest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources: Houston Chronicle 11-3-91, 11-6-91, 11-11-91; Kansas City Star 11-6-91; Springfield News-Leader 11-24-91; Houston Post 11-7-91, 11-12-91; Washington Times 11-21-91; CDC Abortion Surveillance 1991; National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar tape 1992

Credit; Christina Dunigan

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On January 24, 1987, 37-year-old Belinda Byrd had a safe and legal abortion performed by Stephen Pine at Inglewood Women’s Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Belinda was left unattended for three hours after the abortion, and was found unresponsive. Staff at Inglewood delayed an additional two hours before transferring her to a hospital with appropriate emergency services.

Belinda was one of 74 women who had abortions in Inglewood’s single operating room that day, and one of 24 whose abortions were performed in the final two hours of the day. Belinda remained comatose until her death on January 27.

Belinda’s mother wrote to a Los Angeles district attorney:

“I am the mother of Belinda Byrd, victim of abortionists at [Inglewood]. I am also the grandmother of her three young children who are left behind and motherless. I cry every day when I think how horrible her death was. She was slashed by them and then she bled to death … and nobody cares. I know that other young black women are now dead after abortion at that address. … Where is [the abortionist] now? Has he been stopped? Has anything happened to him because of what he did to my Belinda? Has he served jail time for any of these cruel deaths? People tell me nothing has happened, that nothing ever happens to white abortionists who leave young black women dead. I’m hurting real bad and want some justice for Belinda and all other women who go like sheep to slaughter.”

In the wake of the series of abortion deaths at Inglewood, the authorities inspected the place. Among other things, they caught an abortionist writing post-operative examination notes without even examining the patients. When the state closed Inglewood for numerous violations, the facility simply re-opened as Inglewood Women’s Clinic; as a clinic rather than a hospital they were no longer subject to the same intense scrutiny and were able to remain in business.

Other women known to have died after abortions at the Inglewood facility include Kathy Murphy, Cora Lewis, Lynette Wallace, and Elizabeth Tsuji.

Sources: LA County Superior Court Case No. SWC90298, California Department of Health Services Case No. 8-0001 Accusation, Los Angeles Times 12/3/87 and 8/12/89, Associated Press 7/15/89, and letter from Mattie Byrd included in Amici Brief by Christine Smith Torre filed in support of Appellants in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services No. 88-605

Credit to Christina Dunigan

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On March 1, 1989, Erica Richardson, a 16-year-old Maryland resident, bled to death from a punctured uterus only hours after undergoing an abortion. During the next five months, two adult women, Gladys Estanislao and Debra Gray, also died from abortion complications. They too were residents of Maryland.

Shockingly, none of these three women was even granted that smallest of recognitions–becoming a statistic. The official statistics issued by Maryland public health officials showed that there were no deaths from abortion in 1989. Indeed, Maryland only reported a single abortion-related death for the entire decade of 1980 to 1989.(1)

There was actually a fourth maternal death related to a 1989 abortion in Maryland. In this case, Susanne Logan fell into a coma during her abortion and awoke four months later as a quadriplegic, unable to talk. She survived for three years, dying in 1992. Since Susanne’s death was not an immediate result of her abortion, it has not been counted in any of the official abortion mortality statistics.(2)

These are four deaths that occurred in one small state that reported no abortion deaths for 1989. For that same year, the Abortion Surveillance Unit of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported only 12 deaths for the entire country. But, as we will see, the CDC doesn’t look very hard.

Covering the Abortionists’ Tracks

In the late 1980’s, Kevin Sherlock, an investigative reporter who specializes in public document searches, undertook an extensive review of death certificates for women of reproductive age in Los Angeles County. Looking for indications of “therapeutic misadventure,” he pulled autopsy reports and was able to find 29 abortion-related deaths in L.A. County alone between 1970 and 1987. Four of these deaths occurred during a one-year period for which the CDC reported zero abortion-related deaths for the entire state of California and only 12 deaths for the whole country.

Using a similar technique, Sherlock eventually documented 30 to 40 percent more abortion-related deaths throughout the country than have been reported in the “official” national statistics published by the CDC. Furthermore, Sherlock accomplished this without any assistance from the CDC, which obstructed his every effort to examine their records. Sherlock admits–and even insists–that with his limited resources and the tendency of abortionists and state health authorities to minimize or obscure the paper trail surrounding abortion-related deaths, he has documented only a fraction of the deaths that are actually occurring as a direct result of abortion.(3)

The scope of the coverup is hinted at in a memo from Steven C. Joseph, M.D., the Commissioner of Health for New York City, to all of his city’s abortion providers. Dated June 5, 1987, the friendly memo simply cautioned against the overuse of general anesthesia, stating: “During the period between 1981 and 1984, there were 30 legal abortion-related deaths in New York City . . . one-third of these (10) were due to general anesthesia, whereas in the rest of the United States less than 10 percent of abortion-related deaths were due to general anesthesia (12/146).”(4)

While not intended for release to the general public, this memo is clear evidence that public health authorities know far more about abortion-related deaths than is being shared in the “official” statistics. For this same time period (1981-1984), New York’s top health official had identified 30 deaths in New York City alone, while the CDC’s official report shows only 42 abortion-related deaths during this period for the entire nation.

In addition, the memo also suggests that the Commissioner of Health had access to unpublished information identifying another 146 abortion-related deaths for that same time period outside of New York. Combined with the 30 deaths in New York City, that is 176 abortion-related deaths in all–419 percent higher than was reported in the official CDC numbers.

Similar admissions of cover-up have been made by other public health authorities.(5) For example, following the death of Barbara Lee Davis from hemorrhage after a routine first-trimester abortion, the chief of the Illinois Department of Public’s Division of Hospitals and Clinics admitted to reporters, “It’s unfortunate, but it’s happening every day in Chicago, and you’re just not hearing about it.”(6) Just one year later, during an investigation of only four Chicago-based abortion clinics, investigative reporters for the Chicago-Sun Times identified twelve abortion-related deaths that had not been reported in the state’s official statistics.(7)

How can there be such an extensive cover-up of abortion-related deaths? Prior to legalization, abortion-related deaths were carefully and accurately reported because these deaths resulted from an illegal activity.(8) But today, abortion is not only legal but is politically protected. Indeed, the CDC’s abortion surveillance unit is not only run by abortion advocates, it has regularly employed practicing abortionists! This is like putting consultants for Phillip Morris’ cigarette manufacturing division in charge of the CDC’s lung cancer surveillance unit. Clearly, the CDC’s abortion surveillance unit is more interested in protecting the health of the American abortion industry than in protecting the health of American women.(9)

Furthermore, the cover-up of abortion-related deaths has actually been furthered by the World Health Organization’s coding rule number 12 of the International Classification of Diseases. This rule requires that deaths due to medical and surgical treatment must be reported under the complication of the procedure (embolism, for example) and not under the condition for treatment (elective abortion). According to researcher Isabelle Bagin:

In effect, this makes the “abortion” category a “ghost” category under which it is simply impossible to code a death due to abortion. Medical coders have in fact relayed that any attempt to code a death due to abortion under abortion yields a “reject message” from the computer programs provided by the National Center for Health Statistics of Washington D.C., a division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. Only a minute number of abortion-related deaths actually qualify to be declared under abortion, i.e. those for which the medical certificate of death categorically and unequivocally gives abortion as the underlying cause of death.(10)

Racial Minorities at Risk

One final note. Both the “official” statistics on abortion-related deaths of women and the findings of private investigators have found that non-white women are two to four times more likely to die or suffer serious injury from an abortion than are white women. The best explanation for this discrepancy would appear to be that non-white patients are at greater risk of suffering from negligence, or even hostility, that is rooted in racial bias. This is because many abortion providers believe that abortion is essential for “suppressing poverty, crime, and other problems of society.”(11)

In an unguarded moment, Dr. Edward Allred, owner of the largest chain of abortion clinics in California, made his racist attitudes frighteningly clear:

“Population control is too important to be stopped by some right-wing pro-life types. Take the new influx of Hispanic immigrants. Their lack of respect for democracy and social order is frightening. I hope I can do something to stem that tide; I’d set up a clinic in Mexico for free if I could . . . The survival of our society could be at stake . . . When a sullen black woman of 17 or 18 can decide to have a baby and get welfare and food stamps and become a burden to all of us it’s time to stop.”(12)

Four years after Allred made these comments, Patricia Chacan, a sixteen-year-old Hispanic girl, and Mary Peta, a 43-year-old married Hispanic woman, both bled to death after having abortions performed by Allred. The autopsy reports do not disclose whether either woman was “sullen.”(13)

Other known deaths at Allred-owned clinics are those of Deanna Bell, a 13-year-old black girl; Josefina Garcia, a 37-year-old Filipino woman; Laniece Dorsey, a 17-year-old black girl; and Joyce Orenzio, a 32-year-old Hawaiian woman.(14) Clearly, Dr. Allred has contributed more than his share to suppressing the population of minority women and their children.

Originally published in The Post-Abortion Review, 8(2), April-June 2000. Copyright 2000, Elliot Institute. See also:

Notes:

1. Kevin Sherlock, Victims of Choice, (Akron, OH: Brennyman Books, 1996) 134-135.

2. James A. Miller, “‘Safe and Legal’–Back in New York and Maryland,” HLI Reports, 11(2):8-9, Feb, 1993.

3. Sherlock, Victims of Choice, 115-117.

4. Sherlock, Victims of Choice, 165-167.

5. For a more complete discussion with additional examples, see Reardon, Aborted Women Silent No More, 109-113, 282-293.

6. Ann Saltenberger, Every Woman Has a Right to Know the Dangers of Legal Abortion (Glassboro, NJ: Air-Plus Enterprises, 1982, 27.

7. Pamela Zekman and Pamela Warrick, “The Abortion Profiteers,” Chicago Sun-Times, special reprint 3 December 1978 (original publication 12 November, 1978)

8. Reardon, 282-293.

9. For a more extensive review of CDC complicity, negligence, and conflicts of interest, see Mark Crutcher, Lime 5, (Denton, TX: Life Dynamics, 1996), 135-170.

10. Isabelle Bagin, “World-wide Abortion Statistics Scam Exposed,” Reality, Oct. 1999.

11. See also the interview with abortionist Edward Allred in the film A Matter of Choice (New Liberty Pictures)

12. “Doctor’s Abortion Business Is Lucrative”, San Diego Union, Oct. 12,, 1980 B1:1.

13. Sherlock, 13-14.

14. Sherlock, 172.

Elliot Institute, PO Box 7348, Springfield, IL 62791-73480

Additional material is posted at www.afterabortion.org

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