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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