3rd trimester abortion to save a woman’s life?

Dr. Anthony Levantino, former abortionist, explains how abortion in the third trimester is never needed to save a woman’s life. He explains that abortion this late requires three days to perform- the cervix must be dilated over a period three days. He explains:

“In cases where a pregnancy places a woman in danger of death or grave physical injury, a doctor more often than not doesn’t have 36 hours, much less 72 hours, to resolve the problem.

Let me illustrate with a real-life case that I managed while at the Albany Medical Center. A patient arrived one night at 28 weeks gestation with severe pre-eclampsia or toxemia. Her blood pressure on admission was 220/160.

A normal blood pressure is approximately 120/80. This patient’s pregnancy was a threat to her life and the life of her unborn child. She could very well be minutes or hours away from a major stroke.

This case was managed successfully by rapidly stabilizing the patient’s blood pressure and “terminating” her pregnancy by Cesarean section. She and her baby did well. This is a typical case in the world of high-risk obstetrics.

In most such cases, any attempt to perform an abortion “to save the mother’s life” would entail undue and dangerous delay in providing appropriate, truly life-saving care. During my time at Albany Medical Center

I managed hundreds of such cases by “terminating” pregnancies to save mother’s lives. In all those cases, the number of unborn children that I had to deliberately kill was zero.”

Testimony of Anthony Levatino, MD, JD before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives on The District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803) May 17, 2012

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Planned Parenthood medical director: Mother’s life “hardly ever” threatened by pregnancy

Mary Calderone, medical director of Planned Parenthood, said the following in 1960:

“Medically speaking, that is, from the point of view of diseases of the various systems, cardiac, genitourinary, and so on, it’s hardly ever necessary today to consider the life of the mother as threatened by a pregnancy.”

Mary Calderone “Illegal Abortion As a Public Health Problem,” American Journal of Pub. Health 50 1960): 948 – 949 Quoted inClarke D Forsythe Abuse of Discretion: the inside Story of Roe Versus Wade (New York: Encounter Books, 2013)

In 1960, Mary Calderon was campaigning to make abortion legal. The fact that even in a work dedicated to promoting abortion, she admits that pregnancy was very rarely a danger to a woman’s life is very telling. It is very rare for a situation to arise where abortion is needed to save a woman’s life – it was rare in 1960, and it’s even more rare today. While very few pro-lifers would say that a woman should not be allowed to have an abortion in such a case, the argument “to save the life of the mother” should not be used as a wedge for abortion on demand.

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Doctor: in 50 years of practice, I never had a case where abortion was needed

“I have delivered babies for over 50 years.  I have never encountered a pregnancy where an abortion would have “saved the life of the mother.”

Dr. John F. Brennan, memo to Judie Brown, April 8, 1996

Judie Brown “The Facts about Abortion: The Life Guide Volume 3 (Stafford, Virginia: American Life League, Inc., 1998) 36

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Doctor Says that Abortion is Not Needed to Save a Woman’s Life

Dr. Roy S Heffernan of Tufts University said to the Congress of the American College of Surgeons:

“Anyone who performs a therapeutic abortion is either ignorant of modern methods of treating the complications of pregnancy or is unwilling to take the time to use them.”

A “therapeutic” abortion is one done due to threat to a mother’s health or life. Keep in mind that this quote is from 1971- medical advances since then make an abortion to save the mother’s life even more unnecessary.

see here for more information

John R Rice The Murder of the Helpless Unborn… Abortion (Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1971) page 30

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Well Known Abortionist Discusses Abortions To Save a Woman’s Life

Abortionist Don Sloan, who has performed abortions for decades, says that a situation where the mother’s life is endangered by her pregnancy is extremely rare:

“If a woman with a serious illness- heart disease, say, or diabetes- gets pregnant, the abortion procedure may be as dangerous for her as going through pregnancy … with diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis, even breast cancer, the chance that pregnancy will make the disease worse is no greater that the chance that the disease will either stay the same or improve. And medical technology has advanced to a point where even women with diabetes and kidney disease can be seen through a pregnancy safely by a doctor who knows what he’s doing. We’ve come a long way since my mother’s time….The idea of abortion to save the mothers’ life is something that people cling to because it sounds noble and pure- but medically speaking, it probably doesn’t exist. It’s a real stretch of our thinking.”

Don Sloan, M.D. and Paula Hartz. Choice: A Doctor’s Experience with the Abortion Dilemma. New York: International Publishers 2002 P 45-46

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Abortion Unnecessary to Save a Woman’s Life

An American medical journal, after polling 40,000 American physicians about abortion in 1967 quoted Dr. David Decker of the Mayo Clinic saying that there were “few, if any, absolute medical indications for therapeutic abortion in the present state of medicine.”

“Abortion: the Doctors Dilemma” Modern Medicine 35 no. 9 (24 April 1967): 14 – 16.

know how much science and medicine have advanced since 1967, over 40 years ago

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American Medical Association (1971) On Abortion to Save a Woman’s Life

The following was said at an American Medical Association meeting way back in 1971. Keep in mind how much medicine has advanced in the past 40 years.

“Few abortions need to be performed [due to] organic disease in a well conducted contemporary practice if the traditional demand of hazard to life is followed. Cardiovascular disease, for example, has long been known to increase the risk of maternal health during pregnancy. Yet recent research has shown that nearly every pregnancy of a cardiac patient can be completed successfully with little risk of maternal health… A small number of pregnant patients with severe renal disease and decompensating renal failure seem truly threatened by pregnancy. Even in this instance, however, heroic measure such as the use of a dialysis unit may see these women through severe life-threatening episodes…Neurologic disease is an occasional indication for abortion. The patient with multiple sclerosis, for example, sometimes is, indeed, made worse by pregnancy. The effect in this instance is unpredictable, however, and the condition of some patients actually improves. The effect of pregnancy on epilepsy is equally uncertain pregnancy itself does not increase the risk of death for the pregnant women… Tuberculosis accounts for nearly all of the pulmonary conditions thought to indicate therapeutic abortion. But with the advance of drug therapy, abortion really seems necessary for this disease… Malignancy is occasionally an indication for legal abortion. There is little convincing evidence, however, that pregnancy in any way adversely affects the outcome of neoplastic disease. Even with cancers known to be endocrine dependent, such as cancer of the breast, the survival seems unaffected by pregnancy interruption.”

K. R. Niswander, “Indications and Contraindications,” Highlights from the 1971 AMA meeting in Abortion – a Legal Fact, Audio Digest, Obstetrics and Gynecology 17 (3 August 1971) quoted in Thomas W Hilgers and Dennis J Horan, editors Abortion and Social Justice (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1972) P 38 – 39 Also quoted in James Tunstead Burtechaell, C.S.C. Rachel Weeping: the Case against Abortion (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row Publishers, 1982)

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