ClinicQuotes

From the article “When Abortion Becomes Birth: A Dilemma of Medical Ethics Shaken by New Advances” by Dena Kleiman published Feb. 15, 1984. It was published in the New York Times.

“Told about the subject of this article, many doctors declined to return telephone calls. In one case, the director of obstetrics at a major New York hospital spoke in detail of an aborted infant’s survival last year, and the impact this event had on the hospital’s staff. The next day, he called back to deny the incident had ever occurred.”

…..

“While publicly the great majority of hospitals agree that any infant that survives an abortion or miscarriage should be kept alive, doctors acknowledge privately that the practice varies widely from hospital to hospital.”

”It’s necessary to remember that these days abortion is done on request and therefore not a procedure you undertake in the interest of the fetus,” said Dr. Gordon W. Douglas, the chief of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University Medical Center…”

”It makes us all schizophrenic,” said Dr. Richard Hausknecht, an associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Mount Sinai Hospital who specializes in high risk pregnancies. ”Nowadays we are asked to terminate a pregnancy that in two weeks doctors on the same floor are fighting to save.”

The article then goes on to discuss how the new procedure, D & E (discussed elsewhere on this site) eliminates the possibility of live births, but is very upsetting to the doctors. It goes on at length in this vein.

In his book Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery (New York: Simon & Shuster) 1976, author Richard Selzer describes watching a saline abortion. He says that after seeing this abortion, the abortionist took him aside.

“Later, in the corridor, the doctor explains that the law does not permit abortions beyond the 24th week. That is when the fetus may be viable, he says. We stand together for a moment, and he tells me of an abortion in which the fetus cried after it was passed.

“What did you do?” I asked him.

“There was nothing to do but let it live,” he says. “It did very well. A case of mistaken dates.”

 

This exchange was also quoted in Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum The Ethics of Abortion: Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice. (New York: Prometheus Books 2001) p 24

Dr. David A. Grimes, veteran Planned Parenthood abortionist, was quoted saying that

“From 500 to 3,000 babies survive prostaglandin and hysterotomy abortions every year.”

David A. Grimes. “Second-Trimester Abortions in the United States.” Alan Guttmacher Institute, Family Planning Perspectives, November/December 1984.

Note: live births are more rare now than they were in the 1980s due to increased use of the D&E abortion procedure. However, they still happen – read more.

Abortionist Enrique Gerbi of Detroit Memorial hospital performed an abortion in October 1984 which resulted in the live birth of a 29-week girl. He shrugged and said that

“It happens all the time. This is not the first time, and it won’t be the last. It happens all the time.”

 

Note: while live births from abortion or less, now than they were in the 80s, due to the increased use of the D&E procedure rather than the saline or prostaglandin procedures, they still happen. Go here to learn more.

“For the most part, the abortion industry stopped using saline and prostaglandin procedures because of the number of live births. A live birth means you have to let the baby die, or dispose of it in some distasteful way. Most second and third trimester abortionists use the D&E method, (dilation and evacuation) The abortionist uses large forceps to crush the baby inside the mother’s uterus and removes it in pieces. The side effects of live births and the mother going through labor are avoided. But it is a horrible procedure in which the baby must be re-constructed outside the uterus to be certain all the parts have been removed.”

Carol Everett, former owner of 2 abortion clinics and director of 4, on the procedures for second and third trimester abortions.

Quoted in an interview with her in the “Human Life Alliance Advertising Supplement” 1994.

 

“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)