In July of 1992, a patient identified only as “J.K.” went to Steven Chase Brigham’s New Jersey abortion facility. She requested treatment for the demise of her 22-23 week fetus. To avoid depersonalizing her, I’ll call her Jessie.
According to medical board documents, Brigham failed to perform even routine testing in this high-risk patient. Instead, he inserted laminaria, and sent Jessie to her home over an hour away, instructing her to return next day.
He inserted new laminaria the next day, rupturing Jessie’s membranes. He sent Jessie home again, with instruction to take oral antibiotics and go to his New York facility next day to complete procedure. The medical board faulted Brigham with failure to admit Jessie to a hospital due to the risk of infection or life-threatening disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. Not surprisingly, Jessie developed a fever and was admitted to a hospital via the emergency room.
Board documents also say Brigham claimed that if Jessie had been adequately dilated, he would have accompanied her to his NY office to complete the abortion. The board noted of Brigham, supposedly an expert in such cases, “He claimed to have performed the abortion as a ‘charity case’ and was ‘surprised’ … that a patient presenting with an intrauterine fetal demise at 23 weeks would have received appropriate care at any area hospital without regard to her ability to pay.” Nevertheless, Brigham “acknowledged that he charged J.K. a ‘small fee,’ ‘$200, $300, $400.'”
Brigham testified that he did not feel Jessie suffered “a significant complication” in that she was hospitalized only two days and did not require a transfusion.
Source: New Jersey medical board Interim Decision and Order
A woman identified in New Jersey medical board documents as “A.W.” (identified in New York documents as “Patient B”) was referred by Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania for an abortion by Brigham at his Flushing Women’s Center May 7-9, 1992. To avoid depersonalizing her, I’ll call her Anne.
The pregnancy was estimated at 24.5 weeks, past the legal limit for elective abortions in Pennsylvania. A D&E was initiated with the insertion of laminaria (dialators).
The following day, the abortion procedure was initiated under ultrasound. Brigham removed a fetal arm and part of the placenta, then detected a perforation. Although he was reaching for bony parts of the fetus and instead grasping soft tissues, he continued to grasp and pull with his instruments.This caused an 8-10 cm uterine laceration. Brigham perforated Anne’s sigmoid colon, and caused extensive cutting of the connective tissues of the colon.
Anne required a colostomy, and the removal of a 16 cm segment of her colon. Brigham admitted that he did not know what he was grasping with forceps, “the ultrasound picture was not consistent with what he felt,” but he “opened his forceps wider and grasped again, with force.”
Anne was transferred by ambulance to a hospital. She arrived in shock, and 3-4 units of packed cells were transfused.
In addition to the damage to her uterus and colon, Anne suffered damage to both ureters damaged. The medical board noted, “While perforation of the uterus is a known risk … and perhaps could be excused under some circumstances, the injuries caused by Respondent went far beyond perforation. … It is unacceptable for a practitioner to move his instrument in the body cavity without a clear understanding of their location. … The resultant injuries, particularly those to the bowel and ureters illustrate the point. These injuries were entirely unnecessary and caused by compounded acts outside accepted standards of medicine.” The board also noted that Brigham “portrays the very extensive injury to A.W. as a slip of the instrument.”
Sources: New Jersey medical board Interim Decision and Order; Administrative Review Board Decision and Order Number ARB No. 94-98 & No. 94-146; State Board for Professional Medical Conduct Statement of Charges; Newark Star-Ledger 1-7-94; Philadelphia Inquirer 12-15-94; Courier-Post 12-22-94; Atlantic City Press 12-15-94 Rockland Journal-News 12-10-94; New York Medical Board Statement of Charges (beginning at the bottom of page 7) and Findings (scroll to bottom of page 36)
“Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one.” If you don’t want an abortion, we’re assured, the legality of abortion will have no impact on you. Most women don’t realize the scary truth that you don’t have to want an abortion to get an abortion. Sometimes all you have to do is trust a pro-choice ob/gyn.
My own friend Laura very nearly became a victim of such an ob/gyn. She began spotting during her most recent pregnancy, and went to her doctor for an examination. He told her that she had begun to miscarry. Then he turned to his nurse and asked her to get a canula.
As a prolife activist, Laura associated “cannula” with “abortion,” so she asked the doctor what he was going to do. He explained that she had begun to miscarry, and that he was simply going to clean out her uterus to prevent infection. Laura refused, saying that if her fetus was going to die, she was going to allow nature to take its course. She would have nothing to do with the procedure he was proposing.
As it turned out, there was nothing at all wrong with Laura’s fetus, and she gave birth to a perfectly healthy little boy.
The incident shook her up, and she spoke of it to her friends. She learned that she was not the first pregnant patient whose spotting was diagnosed as a “miscarriage.” She was just the first we know of who refused the procedure.
None of the other women can ever know if they were indeed miscarrying, or if they’d been subjected to unwanted and unsolicited abortions of healthy, wanted pregnancies.
Laura’s experience underscores the importance of choosing only a prolife ob/gyn to treat your wanted pregnancy. Her experience was not unique. And her doctor was not the only ob/gyn to subject women to unwanted, unsolicited abortions.
Next, we’ll look at some of the cases that were uncovered during the research for Lime 5.
You don’t have to want an abortion to get one. All you have to do is trust your pregnancy care to an abortionist — or, as the prochoice like to say, “a doctor who performs the full range of obstetric and gynecological care.”
A patient I’ll call “Meghan” was an obstetric patient of Dr. Robert Walker in 1978. On March 9, according to a suit she later filed, Meghan was 23-24 weeks pregnant and experienced a gush of fluids. She consulted Walker, who hospitalized her and tested her for infection. On March 13, Meghan was still suffering leaking fluid, and visited Walker for an examination in his office. She told her that she had an infection “and that for her safety the pregnancy would have to be terminated.” Meghan entered the hospital as instructed, and submitted to what she thought was a procedure to induce early labor and deliver her baby prematurely. When the baby emerged, Meghan asked the nurse to do everything possible to save the baby’s life, and could not understand why nobody was caring for her child. The infant survived only six minutes due to extreme prematurity and lack of care. Meghan sued for lack of informed consent and failure to discuss alternatives. Walker testified that since Meghan had undergone a previous abortion, he assumed that she knew that “termination of pregnancy” meant an abortion and that she therefore consented to the death of her baby.
(Cite: 483 A.2d 718 (Me 1984)
Patient Patricia T. went to Dr. Ulrich Klopfer for routine obstetric care on January 29, 1981. According to the suit she later filed, Klopfer told Patricia that her 10-week fetus was dead. She consented to a suction procedure to remove what she believed was a dead fetus. Her uterus was punctured in two places during the procedure. Patricia hemorrhaged and went into shock. She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Doctors there had to remove her uterus, fallopian tube, and ovary. Patricia was hospitalized for a week. Only after her ordeal did she learn that the fetus had not been dead until Klopfer’s interference killed it.
(Source: Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 83L 1941)
An article in the April 19, 1984 Washington Post reports that prochoice icon Milan Vuitch was ordered to pay a $125,000 settlement to a 19-year-old patient who had gone to his Laurel Clinic for treatment and got an unwanted abortion performed on her instead.
I’ve covered other cases her in previous Features, telling the stories of women who were told their unborn babies were dead or dying, and tricked into unwanted abortions.
This is scary stuff. But even more scary is the fact that you don’t even have to know that you’re pregnant to be treated to an unsolicited abortion.
Roe vs. Wade has certainly made it easy to get an abortion. As these women discovered, you don’t even have to know that you’re pregnant.
A patient I’ll call “Alexis” was 17 years old when she went to Dr. Christopher Dotson to be treated for abdominal problems in December of 1979 On January 7, Dotson had Alexis admitted to Centinela Hospital for treatment of “Dermoid Cyst vs. Pelvic Inflammatory Disease.” Dotson took Alexis into surgery for a D&C and exploratory laparotomy on January 9. According to the suit Alexis later filed, Dotson did not take a proper medical history and did not wait for the results of her pregnancy test before proceeding. During the procedure, Dotson discovered that Alexis was pregnant. He did not inform Alexis or consult with her, but simply noted “unwanted pregnancy” on her chart and aborted her fetus. The suit noted that “such a subjective description of plaintiff’s condition was not reflective of [Alexis’s] position but rather that of defendant Dotson. On Alexis’s behalf, her attorney noted, “At all times prior to the death of plaintiff’s unborn child, said unborn child was viable but for defendant’s professional negligence would have been born healthy and capable of providing the plaintiff with society, comfort, attention, and support.”
(Source: LA County Superior Court Case No. C404454)
A patient I’ll call “Willa” went to Dr. E. Babaoff at Sinai hospital in Michigan for a laparoscopy and tubal ligation to be performed under general anesthesia on August 29, 1979. According to the suit Willa later filed, Babaoff discovered that Willa might be pregnant while he was performing the procedure. Rather than halt the procedure, allow Willa to regain consciousness, and consult with her about her possible pregnancy, Babaoff simply performed a D&C and ordered a pathology report, which confirmed that Willa had been pregnant. Willa was not informed about this; she found out by accident in May of 1982 — nearly three years later — when she had requested copies of her medical records for other treatment.
(Source: Michigan Court of Appeals 149 Mich.App. 140)
A patient I’ll call “Sandra” was referred to a Dr. Jordan in Georgia to be treated for lower abdominal pain. Jordan ordered a laparoscopy, and performed a D&C in preparation. He discovered the remains of a fetus in the tissues he’d removed from Sandra’s uterus. Sandra had not known she was pregnant, and would not have consented to an abortion.
(Source: Georgia Court of Appeals Nos. 61414, 61415)
Patient Mary M. sought care from Dr. Stephen Weber on December 20, 1991. Weber performed a biopsy on Mary on January 6, 1992. The report that came back from the lab indicated that there was pregnancy tissue in the specimen. Weber had an assistant call Marcie on January 16, telling her to come in due to “a problem.” Weber ordered a pregnancy test without telling Marcie. The test showed elevated pregnancy hormone level, but Weber did not think the pregnancy was still viable. He did not order an ultrasound because, he said, “It was a $175 test I did not think was warranted. Weber had Marcie return to the office and told her that he had to remove “tissue that hadn’t passed.” Marcie, still unaware that she was pregnant, consented and underwent a vacuum aspiration procedure. Weber discarded the tissues obtained with the aspiration and sent Marcie home, telling her to return in four days. Marcie began to bleed heavily and went to an emergency room for care. The doctor in the emergency room commented to Marcie about the positive pregnancy test; it was then that Marcie discovered that the D&C she’d submitted to had actually been an unauthorized abortion. Marcie had previously undergone four operations to try to overcome infertility. Weber defended his decision not to inform Marcie of the pregnancy as “an act of compassion.” He reportedly told another doctor “There’s more liability with a damaged pregnancy than with an aborted one.”
(Source: Hartford Courant 5-24-92)
Yes, Roe certainly protects abortion — at the expense of women who don’t want abortions.
Written by Christina Dunigan
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1. The rhetoric of choice hides the reality of coercion
2. Abortion is often someone else’s “choice.” 64% of American women who have had abortions felt pressured by others. (1)
3. Pressure is significant. Her “choices” may involve loss of home, family or essential support, or abuse that can escalate to violence. (2)  Homicide is the leading killer of pregnant women. (3)
4. Coercion can take many forms, including undisclosed, misleading or false information about fetal development and alternatives. (4)
5. Even though the majority felt rushed and uncertain, 67% received no counseling; 79% were not told about alternatives.(1)
6. Abortion is often a woman’s last choice, but her abuser’s first choice. (2) Teens face an especially high risk for coercsion.(5)
7. Many Americans who pushed family or friends to abort were also deceived – by experts, authorities or even pastors – about fetal development, alternatives, and risks.(4,6)
8. The overall death rate of women rises 3.5 times after an abortion.(7) Suicide rates are 6-7 times higher after an abortion.(8)
9. 65% report symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder they attribute to their abortions.(1)
10. “We were maiming at least one woman a month.” — Carol Everett, former abortion clinic operator
Learn more about abortion’s injustice and injury to women: www.unchoice.info
Footnotes
1. VM Rue et. al., “Induced Abortion and Traumatic Stress: A Preliminary Comparsison of American and Russian Women,” Medical Science Monitor 10(10): SR5-16, 2004
2. See the special report Forced Abortion in America at www.unfairchoice.info/coerced.htm
3. I.L. Horton and D. Cheng, “Enhanced Surveillance for Pregnancy-Associated Mortality- Maryland, 1993-1998,” JAMA 285(11): 1455-1459 (2001); J. Macfarlane et. al. “Abuse During Pregnancy and Femicide: Urgent Implications for Women’s Health,” Obstetrics & Gynecology 100: 27-36 (2002) 4. Melinda Tankard-Reist, Giving Sorrow Words (Springfield, IL.; Acorn Books, 2007)
5. Sobie & Reardon, “A Generation at Risk: How Pro-Abortionists Manipulate Vulnerable Teens,” The Post-Abortion Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, Jan-Mar. 2000
6. Carol Everett with Jack Shaw, Blood Money (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books, 1992) See also Pamela Zekman and Pamela Warwick, “The Abortion Profiteers” Chicago Sun Times Special Reprint, Dec. 3 (originally published Nov. 12, 1978) p. 2-3, 33.
7. M Gissler et. al. “Pregnancy Associated Deaths in Finland 1987-1994 – definition problems and benefits of record linkage,” Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavia 76:651-657, 1997. See also DC Reardon et. al. “Deaths Associated With Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of Low Income Women,” Southern Medical Journal 95(8):834-41, Aug. 2002
8. M. Gissler et. al., “Injury, deaths, suicides and homicides associated with pregnancy, Finland 1987-2000,” European J. Public Health 15(5):459-63, 2005; and M. Gissler et. al. “Methods for identifying pregnancy-associated deaths: population-based data from Finland 1987-2000,” Paediatric Perinatal Epidemiology 18(6): 44855, Nov. 2004
From www.unchoice.info
Four Washington, DC rookies in the Washington, DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department aborted their children for fear of losing their jobs after they were threatened with job termination if they became pregnant or took medical leave.
In July, 2001, Samanthia Robinson, interim assistant chief of operations for the Washington, DC fire department’s Emergency Medical Service (EMS) told about eight female medical rookies that they could not become pregnant because they were on probation for a year and have no job benefits, according to the Kenneth Lyons, chairman of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3721, five department sources and union attorney Louis Malone.
Lyons said that “The female medics were told if they get pregnant the first year, they will be fired. … This is disgusting to me … that this could happen in this day and age, in an agency that vows first and foremost to do no harm. .. This unwritten policy is one that has existed over years. … female firefighters now are saying they were under the impression, given their orientation, that this was the policy. We even have some females saying they withheld from having children for the first five years of employment because they were told this.”
One of the rookies, who was pregnant at the time, expressed concern to Robinson when supervisors were giving out ambulance assignments, the sources said. Robinson then told her she should get an abortion if she wanted to keep her job, Lyons and the sources said. So the pregnant rookie got an abortion.
Just after assignments were made to in-field units, “one of the females approached the interim chief of EMS operations, Samanthia Robinson, and informed her that she was, indeed, pregnant and she wanted to start a family,” Lyons said. “According to the young lady, [Robinson told her] that she had a choice to make and that choice will depend on whether or not you maintain your employment with this agency. She then went out and had an abortion,” he said.
Robinson “basically strong-armed her into getting an abortion,” said a fire department source who has spoken to the rookie about the problem. “Those comments are blatantly illegal,” and violate the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, said Malone, who represents AFGE Local 3721, whose members includes medics and emergency medical technicians in the department.
After having the abortion, the young lady requested time off to recuperate and was denied leave and forced back on duty, said Lyons. “She was forced to return to the street and started to hemorrhage,” he said.
The threat of job termination and Robinson’s suggestion so frightened the woman that she felt compelled to have an abortion even though she is a Roman Catholic, said sources, including one who has spoken to her about the problem. The woman got the abortion “directly as a result” of Robinson “telling her she couldn’t keep her job and be pregnant,” said a fire department source who has spoken to the woman about the situation.
The woman, 21, is trying to avoid publicity because she is still distraught, and the abortion has caused a rift with her family, several department sources said. “She is young, religious, scared and ashamed,” said one source. “She feels she has morally abused herself.”
Other department sources, including a medic who recently worked with her, echoed that characterization. “This poor girl. She’s a young girl, naive and would do anything to save her job,” said one medic who has worked with the woman. “She was given the impression that that’s what she had to do for her job, so she went out and did it.”
The woman has suffered medical problems since the abortion, according to Lyons, medics who have worked with the her and other department sources. Several department sources who have worked with the woman have described her as “distraught.”
Officials with the medic’s union have been collecting statements from the rookies who said they were threatened. Many have been hesitant to provide the written accounts because they fear retaliation, Lyons said. Lyons told The Washington Times that he raised the matter with Chief Few, and the chief later told him that Robinson denied making the statement. Malone confirmed that Lyons had brought the matter to Chief Few in the past several weeks, and that the chief issued a denial.
One source said the woman has been subject to harassment by supervisors as word of the incident has spread within the department.
Malone said at least 10 women in the department have called him in the past few weeks to recount other incidents where officials discriminated against them because of pregnancy. “When they heard about this, it has really triggered their consciousness,” he said.
Paul Strauss, shadow senator for the District, is Robinson’s lawyer. Strauss said Robinson was being “unfairly attacked,” and that the accusations against her may have been politically motivated.
A final report on the incidents by the Office of the District of Columbia Inspector General, substantiated the women’s claims and recommended “appropriate disciplinary action” be taken against Robinson. The Inspector General’s investigators interviewed the nine members of the class and “based on a preponderance of the evidence” concluded that Robinson “improperly advised EMT trainees that female EMTs could be terminated if they became pregnant during the first year of employment. … Robinson’s statements in this regard violated official District government policy prohibiting the termination of government women based solely on their pregnancy.”
Five of the nine members of the class specifically remembered Robinson telling trainees they could lose their jobs if they became pregnant. The other four class members remembered Robinson advising the new hires not to become pregnant during their probationary year because they could be fired for any reason.
Robinson denied advising the trainees they could be terminated for becoming pregnant, but the report says Robinson exhibited a “lack of candor” during her interview with investigators. It said her statements were “not credible in the face of consistent and contrary recollections of so many witnesses. Based on a preponderance of the evidence developed during the investigation, it is reasonable to conclude that Robinson improperly advised EMT trainees that female EMTs could be terminated if they became pregnant during the first year of employment.”
Fire department sources say Robinson was offered a choice between retirement and a demotion to a nonsupervisory field-medic position. She chose retirement. But Strauss said Robinson stands by her version of events and that she was not forced into retirement. Strauss did not rule out the possibility of filing a lawsuit on Robinson’s behalf, saying he will “advise her of her options.”
Some punishment! You can bet the bank that, if Robinson had been pro-life and tried to prevent an abortion-minded EMT from aborting her baby, she would have been thrown out of her job and probably jailed.
As a predictable aside, not a single pro-choice organization condemned these forced abortions and attempted forced abortions.
References: “Official Disciplined for Threatening Job Loss for Pregnancy: Government Employees Had Abortions Fearing They Would Lose Their Jobs.” LifeSite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, August 14, 2002; “EMS Supervisor Disciplined in Coercive Abortion Case.” Washington Times, August 14, 2002; Steve Ertelt’s Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, August 15, 2002; “Fearing Job Discrimination, DC Woman “Forced” to Have Abortion.” Washington Times, August 30, 2001; John Drake. “Union Backs 4 Women Who Claim Abortions Out of Fear.” The Washington Times, August 31, 2001; “More DC Medics Say They Were Forced to Have Abortions.” Washington Times, Cybercast News Service, August 31, 2001; Matthew Cella. “EMS Chief Who Coerced Medics Abortions Retires.” Washington Times, September 23, 2002; Steve Ertelt’s Pro-Life Infonet, September 25, 2002; Steven Ertelt’s Pro-Life Infonet, October 3, 2001; Ted Olsen. “Forcing Abortions: Mandated Abortions Happen in the U.S., Too.” Christianity Today Magazine, November 18, 2002 [Volume 46, Number 12], page 21.
A Michigan woman who says that an abortionist held her down on the operating table and forcibly aborted her fetus after she changed her mind has filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages.
Caitlin Bruce, of Genesee County, was 18 years old and six weeks pregnant when she went to the Feminine Health Care Clinic in 2008 in Flint for an abortion. While getting an ultrasound, the clinic worker showed her the image and said, “This is your baby. This is the heart flicker,” Bruce then says she changed her mind.
She claims that Dr. Abraham Hodari did the procedure anyway, according to WJRT-TV. “He told his assistant, ‘Hold her down.’ They had my arm pinned,” Bruce told the TV station.
Tried to Scream, “Stop”
‘His weight was all on my chest and then he took his hand and he had it so tight on my mouth that it was muffled. I was trying to scream, “Stop!”
In court documents, the abortionist claims that he had started the procedure before she changed her mind. “The surgical instrument was inside her uterus and she was already bleeding when she verbalized any misgivings.”
The case, in which Bruce is claiming $25,000 in damages, is the latest one involving women who feel they have been coerced into having an abortion by others, whether they be boyfriends, parents, or overly-persuasive or forceful clinic workers. Since 1980, mental health providers have begun treating an increasing number of women who are suffering mental and emotional difficulties as a result of induced abortions, and the experience of feeling pressured into an abortion is common, according to the Elliot Institute.
No woman should be coerced into having an abortion. It is important for women to make a free choice. The best way to make a free choice is to make sure that you have complete, accurate information about abortion procedures and their short and long-term effects. It is also important to discuss your decision in a calm, unpressured atmosphere with an unbiased professional.
Women in Berwyn, Cicero, Stickney, N. Riverside, Forest Park, Maywood and other nearby suburbs in the western Chicago, IL area who need more information about abortion procedures and the short and long-term effects should call WomanCare Services.
Women in Berwyn, Oak Park, Stickney, LaGrange, Cicero, Westchester, and nearby towns who think they might be pregnant should call WomanCare Services in Berwyn, IL. WomanCare Services offers help to women facing unintended pregnancies in the near southwest Chicago area. Go to WomanCare Services. Or call 708-795-6000.
“Angele” was pregnant and in a bad situation. She had been seeing a Christian counselor for months, and they encouraged her to have an abortion in the second trimester.
This perfectly formed 22 week old baby was aborted at Orlando Women’s Center in Orlando, Florida in April 2005. According to this child’s mother, who wishes to be identified only by her first name, Angele, he was born alive. Here is Angele’s story, told in her own words.
“I counseled with a pretty and petite younger black woman who has a small son. Her name began with an L. I do not remember her full name. She explained the process of laminaria insertion. I asked her other questions such as, will they inject saline or urea into the amniotic sac? I was concerned that it would hurt the baby as it generally (from what I’ve read) burns the skin and lungs. I expressed my concerns that he not suffer or feel anything.”
“The injection burned a lot as it went in. … The discomfort was distracting. I still felt the ‘lams’ as they were being inserted. Dr. Perper told me to relax my muscles and noted that my cervix was slightly soft. I asked him what that meant and he said it was good.”
“I wanted it to be as humane and painless as possible for my son. They told me they would guide a needle directly into his heart and it would put him to sleep, and he wouldn’t feel anything.”
However, for reasons not entirely known, the digoxin that would have stopped the fetal heart was never injected. After putting in the lamanaria, the doctor sent her to the hotel to sleep and told her to come back the following day. “My friend and I took a taxi back to our hotel. We rested up a bit, changed and walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. That night, all night off and on I could feel the baby still moving. I told my friend this worried me. I remember thinking it must take time to slow down and stop his heart. I was still a little ‘out of it’ from the medicine and just figured I must have been mistaken about how the digoxin was supposed to work. He was still moving when I went to sleep. I was concerned and started to call the after-hours line, but again second-guessed myself.” When Angele came in the next day, her contractions had already started. She was taken to a cold delivery room. “I was directed to ‘the room.’ I had been there for a moment the day before and thought it to be a waiting room for family or driving companions. It had a leather sofa and a fabric sofa, both with a white blanket stretched across the seat cushions, a small television and a few magazines.” “My contractions became stronger and more frequent very rapidly. I called for [staff member] Violene, thinking it was time to be moved into another room and wanting to know if I could have anything for pain. She said that medication would stop the contractions and for me to stay right there and again, she would be back. I told her it was almost time; I could just tell, and she told me I was not at all ready. She left. I began to bleed.”
“I came back to the sofa, (they both really smelled awful), wrapped up in the wet and sour-smelling blanket, then decided it was better without it. I rocked back and forth on my hands and knees, trying to hold the heating pad to my stomach to both relieve the pain and try to stay warm. I was looking down and saw little smears and spots of dried blood on the floor and an old cotton ball with blood on it by the fabric-covered sofa across from me. Noticing how dirty it was and how no one was in the room or even nearby in the hallway began to make me nervous and uncomfortable. I went right back to the powder room and began to try to push a lot. I thought it might help since I was told I was not nearly ready to deliver.”
“In one agonizing push, I felt and heard something come out. Then immediately another push. I was weak. I just held my head in my hands for a moment. Then I decided to stand up. I looked. There was my baby, the whitish cord and what I thought surely must be the placenta.
“I started sobbing and lay down in the floor. I stared and stared at my son. I was horrified that I had just had him in a commode.”
“His right leg moved. He curled up a bit like he was cold; I screamed for Violene! No one came. I managed to get to the doorway, pants down, blood everywhere and yelled again. I went back to my baby. I heard her say she’d be right there.
“I showed her Rowan, told her he was alive and moving and to call 911! She took a quick look, said he’s not moving now and she’d be back to take care of things while walking out. I called her again. I was touching Rowan softly and he moved again. I called her back. Rowan jumped, I think startled by the loud sound of my calling for help. I showed her that he was moving and alive. I begged her to hurry and call 911, now!
“She said for me to lie down and she would get her supervisor. No one came.
“I continued to try to caress and comfort my son by rubbing his back, tummy and chest. I stroked his precious little head and kept telling him I loved him and we would be OK. I was afraid to move him because I did not want to do anything that might end up hurting him. I pushed my pinky into his little hand and his fingers curled around me. Still no one was coming. I was terrified but trying not to let him know I was scared. I kept telling him what a beautiful son he was and that we were going to be safe soon.
“I left Rowan for two seconds, grabbed the phone, jumped back into the bathroom to be with him, calling my girlfriend ‘Sharon’ at the same time,” she wrote. “I told her Rowan was alive and no one was helping us to please call an ambulance to the clinic immediately and hung up.
“I stayed beside Rowan talking to him, telling him how strong he was being and how proud I was of him. I told him God must really want us to be together for him to make it through everything he had just been through and that Mommy was so sorry but so happy to have a chance to love him. I told him he was a strong little miracle and that I couldn’t wait for him to meet his brother and sister. I just kept touching him, trying to warm him with my hands and talking to him so he would not feel any more afraid than he already must.
“Then Rowan stopped moving.”
…
“He was perfect, slightly pale and a little translucent. His eyebrows were pale but wide and well-defined. You could see little hairs on his face and head. He had the tiniest little fingernails and toenails. I noticed they already had a little bit of growth. His mouth was lovely. He was this perfectly formed one pound, one ounce human being. He was beautiful. He had been so strong.
“I wrapped him in [a] blue pad instead of one of the wet blankets. I just kept kissing him and telling him I loved him so much. I told him I was sorry I couldn’t get anyone to help us and I was so sorry for ever coming here.”
At that point, Angele says, staff member Debbie came in a demanded to have the baby. Angele refused.
“Oddly, she came back within two or three minutes,” Angele wrote. “She was more irritated and insistent than before. I was irritated that she was rushing me and that she did not seem to be in such a hurry when Rowan was alive. Where was she when Violene was supposedly going to get her and we needed her help? She asked again to take him. I flatly refused her. I could tell she was angry. I did not care. I told her that I expected her to leave me alone so I could finish praying with Rowan and that we needed privacy.”
…
“Surprisingly, Angele said, the police came to the clinic instead of an ambulance.
…
“Angele says her friend overheard a staff member saying she did not see the baby move, a contention that angered the distressed mother.
“I saw Violene one more time, and I was furious after what ‘Sharon’ told me,” Angele wrote. “I spoke to her telling her how little I appreciated them telling the police my child was not alive. I stared hard at her and said, ‘Violene you saw him moving. That is when you were supposedly going to get your manager and “take care of it.” You stayed away until Rowan died. I don’t care what you say, you and I both know he was very much alive. We know the truth.’ She said nothing and turned away.
“They gave ‘Sharon’ a bag with my medicine and we left. Oddly enough, they no longer needed me to be seen by the doctor at 2 p.m.,” Angele wrote, saying the staff just wanted her “to leave as quickly as possible.”
“The first two times I told Violene to call 911, I thought she would. It hadn’t crossed my mind that she wouldn’t…. It finally dawned on me: They’re not going to help me save my son.”
Source: Ron Strom, “Abortion Staff Ignores Baby Born Alive?” Sunday, July 9, 2006.
The local coroner refused to autopsy the body of the baby. An autopsy performed later by Dr. Garavaglia could not conclusively verify that the baby was born alive; however, the doctor concluded that it was “probable” that the heart was still beating after the baby was born. Her report did prove that the clinic’s contention that the baby could not have been born alive because he had been injected with digoxin was false. As Angele said, the baby was never injected with chemicals prior to his birth.
(After Abortion Autopsy Can’t Rule Out Live Birth- Shows Abortion Clinic Claim False” 5/3/05 by Lifesite)
More pictures of Baby Rowan:
The article “Death By Drowning” from World by Lynn Vincent 6/18/05 referred to an interview with a paramedic who responded to the call about Baby Rowan. According to this paramedic, he and his partner were convinced not to go inside the clinic because one worker (probably Violene) told him that there had been no live birth.
“A patient had merely “passed some tissue”….and that “the physician had the situation under control.”
Paramedics had come to the clinic because Angele had called a friend on her cell phone and begged her to call 911 on her behalf. Here is a transcript of this call:
OFD: Orlando Fire Department.
(Unintelligible.)
OFD: Thank you what is the address of the emergency?
Friend: 609 West Virginia Street. The EPOC Center.
OFD: 609 West Virginia? One moment please.
Friend: Let’s see … I don’t have the address on me. A friend of mine called form the abortion clinic and her baby was born alive.
OFD: Okay. Do you know the closest intersection. Did she call you on a phone?
Friend: Right, she called me off her cell phone.
OFD: Okay. Did you ask her to call 911? Because …
Friend: She asked me to call because she was back there with no kind of … They were just telling her to leave it … this is gross but … leave it in the toilet, you know, and let it die.
OFD: Is she in a house?
Friend: She’s in the clinic, the abortion clinic.
OFD: Okay.
Friend: Correct. EPOC. Center. Oh my God! I’m freaking out!
OFD: Did she call from a cell phone?
Friend: She called from her cell phone.
OFD: Okay. What did you say? She was having … the baby just came out?
Friend: Right. She as getting an abortion and the baby came out and it was still living. And they’re wanting it to die.
OFD: Okay. And she’s inside the clinic?
Friend: Correct.
OFD: Okay. Let me give a call to the county. Hold on. Actually, do not hang up. Just hold on the line, okay?
Friend: Okay.
DISPACHER CALLS COUNTY
OCFR: Orange County Fire and Rescue
OFD: Hi can you look up a couple of addresses for me. I have a 911 caller on the line with a baby. She’s in an abortion clinic and the baby is born and it’s still alive. They don’t know for how long.
OCFR: What would we be going for?
OFD: Uh, it would be for an obstetrics. It’s a female that’s in the center, I guess for … it’s an abortion clinic but the baby was born, and it’s alive at this moment and they don’t know for how long.
OCFR: Oh!
TRANSFER TO ORLANDO FIRE DEPARTMENT
OFD: Orlando Fire Department.
Friend: I need an ambulance to 609 Virginia Drive in Orlando.
OFD: 609 Virginia Drive?
Friend: Correct.
OFD: Okay, and what going on there?
Friend: Uh, it’s the women’s clinic. Uh, my friend was having an abortion and the baby was born alive.
OFD: Okay, you said the baby was born?
Friend: Correct.
OFD: Okay, hold on one second for me.
Friend: Okay.
OFD: 609 Virginia Drive?
Friend: Correct.
OFD: What’s the business name?
Friend: Uh, EPOC Clinic for Women. E-P-O-C.
OFD: EPOC Clinic for Women? Okay. Is there a phone in the building?
Friend: Yes.
OFD: Okay, can you call me from that or just pick up that phone and dial 911?
Friend: Uh, well I’m not there. She’s there. She called me and they’re not allowing her to use the phone there.
OFD: Okay.
Friend: But they’re wanting the baby to die.
OFD: She wants the baby to live?
Friend: Correct.
OFD: Okay.
Friend: She was expecting it to not be alive, and it is.
OFD: Okay. I’m going to get help out there.
Friend: Okay.
OFD: Just stay on the line with me.
Friend: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
OFD: Okay the baby’s been born?
Friend: Correct:
OFD: How long ago, do you know?
Friend: Uh, she just called me. It wasn’t 10 minutes ago. And said that the baby was born and it was alive and they were wanting her to leave it in the toilet. And uh … just let it die. And uh … she’s not wanting that to happen.
OFD: Okay, we do have help on the way like I said. We’re going try and call the center as well as have someone on the way.
Friend: Thank you very much.
OFD: Your welcome.
DISPATCHER CALLS WINTER PARK FIRE DEPARTMENT
OFD: Hi. Can you respond with us to 609 Virginia Drive?
Ambulance: For?
OFD: Uh, this is supposed … This is the EPOC Center E-P-O-C Center for Women. We are going for a lady that is in an abortion clinic. She says that the baby has been born ten minutes ago, but the center wants to kill the baby and will not let the mother call 911.
Ambulance: Woah!
OFD: Uhm hmm! So we have a third party calling because the mother did call 911 … uh …call a family member.
Ambulance: Okay, so we are the way now. Alright. okay.
Abortion advocates ensure us that women only have abortions they “need.” How, then, can they explain why women change their minds after a failed abortion attempt? If the birth of this baby is truly going to utterly ruin the woman’s life, wouldn’t she still “need” the abortion when she learned it had failed to kill the fetus?
“Liz” has an abortion at a Planned Parenthood on September 22, 1990. As it turned out, the pre abortion ultrasound had shown a twin pregnancy, but only one twin was aborted. Planned Parenthood was short staffed when it came time for Liz’s 3-week follow-up appointment, so they canceled it. Liz repeatedly attempted to reschedule, but the phone would be busy when she called at 8 AM as instructed, and when she would call later in the morning they would tell her to call back again at 8 AM because that is their time for scheduling appointments. Liz later returned to Planned Parenthood for a counseling appointment in October, but she was not given an examination. During her annual physical in February of 1991, her doctor discovered that the surviving fetus was still gestating. Although Liz feared that the abortion attempt had harmed the surviving fetus, she continued the pregnancy. The surviving fetus was born on May 16, 1991, and named Jordan.
Source: Rhode Island Superior Court Case No. 91-7127
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“Glenda” had an abortion at a Family Planning Associates facility on August 20, 1981, and was assured that “the abortion…had been successful and that she was no longer pregnant.” The abortion had failed to kill the fetus, however, and Glenda had the baby.
Source: Orange County Superior Court Case No. 390004
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“Emily” has a suction abortion by Basil Bisca on September 24, 1983. The lab report indicated that “only a few fetal tissue were seen which was a direct indication that it was very likely that the pregnancy was not interrupted during the abortion procedure.” Emily’s pregnancy continued, and she gave birth to a full term infant on April 29, 1984.
Source: Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Case No. 84CV-11-6384
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Sixteen-year-old “Tawnya” had an abortion done by Joseph Booker at New Woman Medical Center September 29, 1990. Booker did not send the tissues to the lab, and therefore did not realize that he’d removed a portion of the placenta but had left the fetus alive and entact. Four and a half months later Tawnya gave birth by C-section to premature infant boy who died from multiple birth defects about five hours later. Tawnya sued not only for the failed abortion, but for the premature birth and death of her baby, blaming the prematurity and death on damage done by the abortion attempt. She was given a $75,000 verdict by the jury.
Source: Clarion-Ledger 5-18-94, 5-20-94
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“Lena” has an abortion by Dr. Gay Boyle at Birmingham Women’s Medical Clinic November 21, 1982. Although staff there assured her that the abortion had been successful, she learned later that the fetus had survived and that she was in the second trimester of pregnancy. When she informed the facility, they advised her to have another abortion because the fetus might have been harmed by the abortion attempt. Nevertheless, Lena chose to continue to term despite considerable emotional distress caused by worry about the baby, who was born July 23, 1983.
“Latisha” had a positive pregnancy test on December 30, 1981. The staff at Her Medical Clinic recommended an abortion, which she had that day. When she returned to Her Medical Clinic on February 22, 1982, they told her she was still pregnant. Latisha “could not bear the emotional trauma of a repeat abortion at that stage in her pregnancy,” so she had the baby.
Source: LA County Superior Court Case No. C447811
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“Kathleen” had an abortion at Women’s Health Center of West County April 13, 1984. When she reported for Army Basic Training a few weeks later, she was found to be 13 weeks pregnant. Kathleen was discharged from the Army, and gave birth to her baby on October 19, 1984.
Source: St. Louis City Circuit Court Cause No. 542086
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“Peg” had a D&C abortion at Dr. Burton Krafte’s office when she was eight weeks pregnant. Upon returning for a follow up visit, Peg was discovered to be 18 weeks pregnant. She had the baby.
Source: New York Appellate Court 98 A.D.2nd 128, January 12, 1984
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“Addie” had abortion done by Marvin K. Levin at Family Planning Centers on November 1, 1978. When she returned on December 20 for her follow-up appointment, she told them that she still felt pregnant, but they assured her that the abortion had been successful. Addie went to a clinic for a pregnancy test on January 9 of 1979, and was informed that she was indeed still pregnant. By then, Addie was 14 weeks pregnant and decided to carry to term.
Source: LA County Superior Court Case No. C309011
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If, as abortion advocates would have you believe, women seeking abortions are adamant that they “need” them, then wouldn’t women always have a second “safe and legal” abortion to kill the fetus that survived a first abortion attempt? The fact that a cursory glance through my notes found these cases, and more, should give us pause. Is abortion something women are really so sure about? Or is it something they resort to in a moment of crisis, something that they’re ambivalent enough about to change their minds even after undergoing an abortion procedure to get rid of the “unwanted” pregnancy?
LANSING, Michigan, October 27, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) Tighter legislation on the abortion industry is in the works after a local pro-life group revealed evidence of two abortion clinics having disposed aborted fetal remains with other bio-hazardous waste and medical documents in a dumpster.
According to Citizens for a Pro-Life Society (CPLS), the Michigan Attorney General and Saginaw County sheriffs concluded last Friday their 7-month investigation of two Womans Choice abortion clinics in Delta Township and Saginaw.
Back in February, local pro-life advocate Chris Veneklase confirmed suspicions that the Womans Choice abortion clinic in Delta Township was disposing bio-hazardous waste, and likely the corpses of aborted infants, along with the rest of the trash in its dumpster. Veneklase said he found the remains of 17 aborted unborn children in 17 bags marked with both the January dates of the abortions and the full names of the respective mothers.
Dr. Monica Miller, CPLS President, also investigated the Womans Choice clinic in Saginaw with Veneklase and found the same practice. Besides fetal remains, the trash bags contained bloody or soiled canulas, gloves, gauze, and surgical sheets, along with used medicine vials and urine sample cups that had women’s names written down, including some first and last names.
However the AG concludes that there are no grounds under current Michigan law to prosecute the clinics, other than that they were not properly incorporated under state law. Because the facilities were not properly incorporated, state authorities say they lack the legal grounds to discipline anyone for the improper handling of medical records.
“It is incredibly frustrating that abortion clinics continue to get away with abominations. It’s bad enough that the unborn are murdered, but their bodies are literally treated like trash,” said Miller. “Patient records are thrown away, and still nothing ever seems to happen to those who have no respect for life or for women.”
However Michigan GOP State Reps. Rick Jones, Bob Jenetsky and Joe Haveman say they intend to submit legislation that would change the law.
“I’m shocked by this dumping of 17 babies into a trash dumpster in my district, and I was further appalled that this may be a legal act under Michigan law,” said Jones, R-Grand Ledge. He called it “a sickening breach of human decency.”
The proposed law, HB 5929, would require that abortion clinics cremate aborted infants or bury them if the mother requests it. Two other bills, HB 6428 and HB 6429 would make violations of the new law a felony punishable by up to three years in jail, a maximum $5,000 fine, or both.
“I am disgusted and saddened by the actions of this clinic,” said Rep. Genetski. “Their utter disrespect for human life is abhorrent. I’m hopeful our bill package will put an end to atrocities such as this.”
Miller says that CPLS intends to have a burial service for the 17 aborted infants as soon as the opportunity arises. .
Many people have seen photographs of aborted babies. But where did they come from? The photographer of many of those pictures tells her story. This is the testimony of Monica Migliorino Miller from the Priests for Life website.
“Truth. What Does that Mean?” I think we are in rats’ alley where the dead men lost their bones.
(T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland)
When we pulled our cars slowly into the dark alley behind the Michigan Avenue Medical Center, rats scurried before our headlights, frightened by the noise of our intrusion. Our three-vehicle caravan parked in the alley off Monroe Street in downtown Chicago. We stopped in front of a loading dock upon which stood three garbage dumpsters and a filthy blue-colored trash barrel. The abortion clinic’s address, “30 So.,” was crudely painted on the barrel in white lettering. It had rained in the Loop earlier that day, causing the alley pavement to shine with a slimy oil. The filth and stench of rotting garbage nearly overwhelmed the eight of us, that included Tim Murphy, Peter Krump, Andy Scholberg, Jerry McCarthy, Joe Scheidler and a pathologist from Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke’s hospital.
We climbed onto the loading dock, opened the dumpsters, and began to search through the trash. I opened a red dumpster and yanked out one or two bags of garbage from the Michigan Avenue Medical Center. I peered into the bottom of the dumpster and saw a bag that was baby blue in color. As I hauled the bag out it was heavier than the others. I rested it on the loading dock and opened it. The top was stuffed with used and bloody surgical paper. At the very bottom was a small, heavy cardboard box. It was about the size of two shoe boxes and was sealed in silver duct tape. I carefully cradled the box in my arms and placed it in the back seat of one of the cars. Jerry, Tim and Peter put all of the other bags back into the dumpster, arranging them to look as though nothing had been disturbed. As we pulled out of the alley the rats again darted in front of our headlights.
I watched one scamper across the top of a dumpster as our car made its way down the wet and slimy path and out into the street.
We drove to Joe Scheidler’s garage to examine the contents of the box, first setting it on a table beneath a bright light. We all gathered around the table as Peter carefully peeled off the silver duct tape and opened the flaps of the box. Inside were small plastic “specimen” bags. Each bag contained the remains of an aborted baby with placenta and uterine tissue. We took the bags out and laid them on the table. There were forty-three of them in all which represented about three or four days worth of abortions at the Michigan Avenue Medical Center.
Several bags were marked with the name of the aborted baby’s mother, her age, the gestational age of the fetal child, the date of the abortion and a number. We thought the number represented the number of abortions performed at the center since January 1, 1987. On this Saturday night, March 14, 1987, the number was in the three thousands. The pathologist in our company, who had many years of experience in handling the bodies of aborted as well as miscarried fetal children, said that most of the forty-three were between six and fourteen weeks of gestation. Despite the small size of the fetal remains, their tiny arms, legs, hands, feet, rib cages, spinal columns, eyes (floating free out of their sockets) bits of skull tissue and sometimes even an intact face were plainly visible through the plastic windows of the specimen bags, looming up through their murky liquid world of formalin and blood like the inky prophecies of a Magic 8 Ball.
At the very bottom of the box lay a plastic bag that was different from the others. It was a clear plastic bag, much larger and heavier than the others. I took the oblong-shaped bag into my hands to examine it. It was stuffed full with a material I could not recognize. I turned the bag over and over in my hands, but I had no idea what my eyes gazed upon. I began to grow fearful and apprehensive about this mysterious parcel. At last my eyes made sense of a shape pressed against the plastic–a shape familiar to me yet completely unfamiliar. I saw an arm–a very large arm. Then I saw another arm and then a foot, a full inch in length.
I had looked at those arms all these many seconds but I did not see them as arms because I had no prior mental category by which my brain could recognize them. They were dismembered arms of a completely torn and mutilated body and, up until that day, my eye had never seen such a reality through which this eviscerated corpse could speak to me. It was as if an alien stranger spoke a word to me I did not at first understand until finally, after much straining to listen to the foreign tongue, I at last comprehended his message. But actually, in this case, I did not even know a language was being spoken–the silent language of this child who spoke to me the shocking word of his broken body–a language legal abortion meant to silence at the bottom of a trash container.
We took the remains out of the bag, separated the limbs that had become enmeshed in the placenta and assembled the body parts. The child, a boy, was at least six months gestational age, perhaps even older. He had been killed by the D and E (dilation and evacuation) abortion method. His body was well formed and muscular. His red and purple veins could be seen through his translucent skin. Regaldo S. Florendo, the clinic’s owner and abortionist, saw every body part as he literally tore the fetal child limb from limb and removed the parts from the womb. The clinic seemed to want to hide this child as he lay on the very bottom of the box buried beneath others who shared a similar fate. And, unlike his unwanted brothers and sisters, not a single piece of identifying information was scribbled on his plastic burial shroud. Not only was his life wiped out, but the clinic seemed intent upon wiping out his identity as well–as if, unlike the others, this one never had, a name, a mother, an age, a date of death–an existence. It is possible that Florendo felt he had blundered somehow in the performance of this abortion upon a late-term baby and in panic needed to cover it up. Perhaps he made a mistake in calculating the unborn child’s age, started the abortion, and once begun, believed he had no choice but to see, what was certainly for him, the more than usual grisly deed completed.
Andy Scholberg took photos of this fetal child. Joe Scheidler stared at the hideous corpse for a moment. He then turned around and went into his house. He said he could not look at him any more.
This was not the first night we had retrieved the bodies of aborted children from the garbage dumpster behind the Michigan Avenue Medical Center and it would not be the last. The retrieval efforts began on February 28, 1987 and lasted until April 25. In those two months we recovered about five hundred bodies. We probably missed some of the now familiar silver duct taped boxes. Tim Murphy sometimes went to the alley twice a week and came out with a box taken from the trash.
I became involved in the retrievals after receiving a call from Jerry McCarthy, who had gone on the first retrieval mission. Joe Scheidler found out about the trash dumpster babies in a most unexpected way. A man who did the advertising layouts for the abortion clinic, such as the one that appeared in the Chicago Yellow Pages, had a falling-out with the clinic management. He knew the clinic disposed of the fetal remains in the dumpster behind the building. To get back at the management, the disgruntled employee first contacted Tom Bressler, who operated a crisis pregnancy center three doors north of the abortion clinic. The clinic’s advertising man thought pro-lifers might wish to retrieve the fetal remains and do some advertising of their own–advertising that would bring negative publicity to the clinic. Tom Bressler called Joe and told him where he could find the bodies.
Week after week, I trekked from Milwaukee to the alley off Monroe Street in the dead of night to find the bodies of aborted babies. My good friend Edmund and I often went together. He and I spent hours painstakingly photographing the broken bodies with our makeshift photography studio set up either in his small apartment or mine. The powerful closeup lenses we learned to use revealed the beauty and poignancy of these fetal humans that no amount of crushing or dismemberment could entirely erase. My eyes could still behold the glory of the human being even in their crushed bodies, a glory traced within them by the creative hand of God. All of those involved with the retrieval believed it was utterly imperative that a photographic record of the aborted babies be made. We literally had in our hands the victims of a holocaust. Millions of preborn human beings had perished already since 1973, and the vast majority would never be seen. We meant for our photos to be a testimony to the humanity of the unborn killed by legalized abortion. We hoped that if we showed the photos to the public or to women headed toward the door of an abortion center, these children might save others. The photographs also were important because they proved that these children actually did live, however briefly, and were killed by a horrendous violence that literally trampled their humanity. The photos documented the brutality they had endured.
Finding the babies in the trash was like coming upon a secret. Most Americans know abortions are legal and that they occur. But for the vast majority, the fetus is a non-entity, something not real. As long as the victims are hidden, abortion remains separate from actual killing. Our photos are meant to shake people into the reality of abortion.
I was now living an unusual life, digging through trash dumpsters on a Chicago loading dock and picking the bodies of human beings out of the trash. I kept boxes of aborted children in my closet draped with a rosary. My mind was now forever etched with the memory of hundreds of torn, crushed, broken bodies–with blood, intestines, and torn skin. I came to know some of those bodies very well since I spent so much time trying to get the photographs just right. I named some of the children. David was the largest whom Andy had photographed in Joe’s garage. I had a five-month-old who, from skin tones and facial features, appeared to be black. He or she was killed by the dilation and evacuation method. Unlike most of the fetal children, the face of this baby was almost entirely intact. The baby’s lower jaw was missing; but except for one eyeball missing from the socket, this was a most beautiful, well-formed face. The eye was missing as the result of the force of the skull being crushed, something the abortionist had to do to remove the head from the womb. The back of the fetal baby’s head was totally caved in. I called this one “Baby Face.”
Perhaps more than the sight of the bodies, the smell of formalin remained in my memory. The aborted babies were packed in a twenty percent formalin solution. The odor was sharp and penetrating; it made my eyes water and irritated my nostrils. Because I often exposed myself to the bodies to photograph them, after a time the inside of my nostrils and sinuses became dry and burnt.
Tim Murphy, Peter Krump, Edmund and I would rendezvous at nine or ten o’clock on a Saturday night at Blackie’s, a bar on the south end of the Loop–a bar popular with young singles. Sometimes earlier in the week Tim would have gone by himself to the Michigan Avenue Medical Center trash dumpster and retrieved a box of babies. One night Edmund, Peter and I sat at a table at Blackies waiting for Tim to arrive. When he did, he walked into the bar carrying a large paper bag concealing the smallish, duct-taped cardboard box that contained the bodies of aborted babies.
He had found the box in the dumpster on Wednesday and brought it to the bar to give it to Edmund and me to photograph the remains.
At first we were humored by Tim’s brazenness. But then, to say the least, we all felt ill at ease with the box sitting on the table in the hip singles bar. I was also struck by something else. Young, attractive men and women professionals drank beer and Screwdrivers, played pin ball, watched sports programs, talked and laughed while in their very midst lay the hidden remains of aborted children. The tragedy of what the box contained clashed so completely with the noisy, rock music-filled, worldly gaiety of this place. The box of aborted babies thrust into the swanky bar was a kind of silent indictment of the sort of world the bar represented–the world so completely oblivious to the rejection of the aborted child
