A 13-year study of pregnancy-associated deaths, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that the maternal mortality rate associated with abortion is 2.95 times higher than the maternal mortality rate associated with pregnancies carried to term.
The study included the entire population of women 15-49 years of age in Finland, 1987-2000. The researchers linked birth and abortion records to death certificates.
The annual death rate of women who had abortions in the previous year was also 46% higher than that of non-pregnant women.
Women who carried to term (gave birth) had a significantly lower death rate than non-pregnant women.
Non-pregnant women had 57.0 deaths per 100,000, compared to only 28.2 for women who carried to term (gave birth), 51.9 for women who miscarried, and 83.1deaths for women who had abortions.
[Gissler M, Berg C, Bouvier-Colle MH, Buekens P. Pregnancy-associated mortality after birth, spontaneous abortion or induced abortion in Finland, 1987-2000. Am J Ob Gyn 2004; 190:422-427. Finland National Research and Development Center]
October 2010: Abortion
FIND PAST HOMEPAGE TOPICS UNDER "CURRENT HEADLINES" IN THE LEFT MENU...
New Jersey Yanks Abortionist Brigham's License
Silence Rocked Thousands of
Campuses on 19 October 2010, While Students Protested Abortion as
Part of the 7th Annual Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity, at least 32 Babies Saved --
www.silentday.org
Later Abortions Linked to Psychological Problems: Study
UN: Maternal Mortality Declines by One-Third Despite No Abortion Legalization / UPDATE: Critics Call New Maternal Death Report Faulty
Maternal Deaths Decline Sharply Across the Globe
Global Maternal Deaths Drop By 33%
Doctors to UN: Reduce Maternal Mortality by Helping Women, Not Backing Abortion
Infant Found Dead At Planned Parenthood
Three Michigan Abortion Businesses
Guilty of Patient Records Abuse: Guilty of Violating HIPAA in Dumping
Hundreds of Patient Records
Abortion Business in MD Run by Ferrer Who Killed Woman in Botched Abortion, Halts Abortions / UPDATE: Office Appears Closed & Space for Lease
Suspended Abortion Practitioner Riley Putting Women at Medical Risk in Utah / UPDATE:Brigham's Abortionist Riley (Now in Utah) Did Federal Prison Time, Public Records Show
Abortion Doctor Sentenced to Jail in Abortion Death Case
Investigative Report Reveals Scandalous Details of Elaborate Illegal Late-Term Abortion Ring of Brigham / UPDATE: Abortion Practitioner Brigham Accused of More Violations by New Jersey Officials
New Jersey Right to Life Had Warned of Unlicensed "Interstate Abortionist" Brigham Caught after Severely Botched Abortion
Board Upholds License Suspension of Practitioner Who Injured Teen in Abortion
Practitioner Now Faces Lawsuit, Woman Committed Suicide After Abortion
Planned Parenthood TELEMED Abortion Safety Claims Cast into Doubt by Data, Informant
Amnesty Int'l Demands Abortion Decriminalization in Latin America
FORCED ABORTION Commentary: Abortion Backers Ignore How Unsafe Abortions, "Clinics" Are Hurting Women
Is This What "Freedom of Choice" REALLY Looks Like? Ohio Man Forced Girlfriend into Abortion Facility at Gunpoint
Abortion is Not a Right, but a Crime, Say Mexican Women's Groups
Text Messaging Prevents Coerced Abortion at Planned Parenthood
Shooting Threat Outside Abortion Business Raises Concerns About Forced Abortion: Apparent Epidemic of Unwanted and Coerced Abortions
CONSCIENCE Conscience Breakthrough: Pro-life Lobby Soundly Defeats EU Attack on Conscience in Dramatic Reversal...UPDATE Historic Turnaround in Europe Preserves Conscience Rights
Judge Allows Louisiana Abortion Facility That Does Not Meet Safety Standards to Reopen
CHEMICAL ABORTION Study: Women Who Use Abortion Drug Mifepristone Experience More Pain, Emotional Distress
New Video Clip Has Doctor Explaining How Ella Drug Causes Abortions
After 10 Years, RU 486 Abortion Drug Hasn't Helped Women as Promised
Australia Report Shows Abortion Drug Failing, Women Suffering Health Problems
Planned Parenthood's Cash Cow, the "Abortion Pill", Produced $48 Million for PP in 2008
Chemical and Surgical Abortions Increased in Wisconsin in 2009, State Report Shows
Women Who Have Had Abortion Pill Mifepristone Complications Asked to Tell Their Stories of Complications
CDC: Two More U.S. Women Have Died From Using Mifepristone, the RU 486 Abortion Drug
RU-4Death?
Commentary: Tea Party Activists Who Are Worried About the Economy Should Consider the Cost of Abortion...
New Jersey Yanks Abortionist's License
New Jersey's Board of Medical Examiners has suspended the license of abortionist Stephen Brigham after concluding that he had seriously endangered patients by illegally ferrying them mid-abortion into Maryland to evade New Jersey law.
Brigham, 54, was found to be "a clear and imminent danger to the public health and safety" following a hearing on Wednesday night that lasted nearly nine hours.
The board found not only that the abortionist began abortion procedures in New Jersey and lead a caravan of patients to Elkton, Md., but also that the patients themselves were not aware of where they were being taken, or who would perform the abortion. Brigham, who kept accomplices on hand who also performed abortions, is not authorized to perform abortions later than 14 weeks in New Jersey and is not licensed to practice medicine in Maryland.
Brigham's attorney Joseph Gorrell asked that the case be appealed to an administrative law judge and expedited, but there are conflicting reports as to whether the board granted the expedition request. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that as the decision was being pronounced at 10pm., Brigham was scribbling rapidly and a faint smile appeared on his lips for a moment.
Earlier this week, the New Jersey attorney general's office called Brigham's attempt to justify his actions "ludicrous." The abortionist had claimed that because the board had allowed him to keep his license in a similar case in the 1990s, it was no longer able to penalize him.
At the hearing Wednesday, Brigham argued that he was merely "consulting" at the Maryland clinic, and therefore did not need a license; however, he admitted that he "did the care" of the patient. Brigham said that an 88-year-old disabled OB-GYN named George Shephard would come into the operating room and "consult" with Brigham as he performed the abortion. "He would ask me questions so we were engaging in consultation," said Brigham, who admitted that Shephard lost the use of one arm following a stroke.
Brigham said that he has killed unborn children as old as 36 weeks, and would only kill late-term children on account of a significant health defect. Clinic records, however, show that he aborted the 25-week twins of a woman who was embarrassed that they had been conceived from donated sperm, reports the Inquirer.
Two fellow abortionists, Gary Mucciolo of New York City and Rengan Rajan from Philadelphia, defended Brigham's scheme at the hearing, even supporting his decision to transport a patient with severe internal injuries to the hospital by car rather than by ambulance.
The Inquirer reports that, towards the end of the hearing, Brigham asked the board not to allow their feelings on abortion sway them, calling it "a very incendiary issue." "I would just ask you to recognize the efforts I've made over 24 years to comply with the board's rules," he said.
The board concluded that Brigham "has consistently and repetitively engaged in manipulative and deceptive behavior designed to circumvent the requirements of the board’s termination of pregnancy regulation and to eviscerate the protections that those regulations seek to afford to New Jersey patients.”
Operation Rescue president Troy Newman noted that performing the procedures in Maryland without a medical license constitutes a felony. He called for criminal charges against the abortionist, saying that "criminal charges are necessary because traditional discipline does not work on Brigham."
Brigham has lost his medical license in California, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and New York over the course of his two-decade abortion career.
"The only thing that will stop his crime spree is to put him in jail where he belongs," said Newman. "In addition, his abortion mills need to be closed in the interest of public safety. As long as they remain open, women remain at risk from Brigham’s dangerous and deceptive business practices.” [October 14, 2010, Kathleen Gilbert, TRENTON, New Jersey, http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10101405.html ]
Silence Rocked Thousands of Campuses on 19 October 2010, While Students Protested Abortion as Part of the 7th Annual Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity -- www.silentday.org
Tomorrow morning students from thousands of schools around the world will refuse to speak as a protest against the killing innocent children. Every day in America almost 4000 human persons are killed by surgical abortion.
The Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity, a project of Stand True, is observed by hundreds of thousands of students who will lose their voice in solidarity with their brothers and sisters who will never have a voice.
Last year Stand True heard back from participants about over 80 girls who canceled their abortions on the day of the event due to the efforts of the students.
"By refusing to speak the students create a huge buzz and abortion will be the most talked about subject on campus," said Bryan Kemper, President of Stand True Ministries. "This generation is fed up with the senseless violence of abortion as is determined to bring an end the abortion holocaust."
Students will not only remain silent; they will also wear red armbands and/or red duct tape on their mouths, and distribute educational flyers to anyone who asks why they are silent.
Many home-schooled students will also participate in the event by visiting local malls and other public areas to distribute flyers.
Students are instructed to be respectful to teachers and other officials and to speak with them when required.
"Students for Life is proud to co-sponsor the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity. It is critical that we, the pro-life generation, take a stand for Life in our society, and I can think of no better way than standing in silent solidarity with the millions of pre-born Americans who do not have a voice. We stand in silent solidarity with them so that through our silence, they may have a voice."
"As a father, youth leader and national pro-life leader, I believe we must give young people the tools to stand up for their faith and convictions," said Jeff White, founder of Survivors. "The pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity is one of the most effective avenues for young people to take a stand for the most important cause of their generation: the fight for life."
Over the past few years many schools have tried to stop students from participating and have tried to quash their First Amendment rights. Every year, attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund defend these students and file lawsuits to protect their rights.
There is no cost to participate in the event. Flyers are available for download in PDF format at www.silentday.org. Students can also follow the event on twitter at www.twitter.com/prolifeday
Legal help for students involved is available from the Alliance Defense Fund (1-800-TELL-ADF).
The Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity is a Project of Stand True and co-sponsored by Students for Life of America and Survivors.
[MEDIA ADVISORY, 18Oct2010, Christian Newswire, Bryan Kemper is available for comment at 540-538-2581; PharmFacts E-News Update -- 18 Oct 2010]
Later Abortions Linked to Psychological Problems: Study (JP, 8/2010)
A study of women who had abortions has found that women undergoing later abortions face increased psychological risks, are more likely to be ambivalent about having an abortion and are more likely to need counseling and support.
The study, “Late-Term Elective Abortion and Susceptibility to Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms,” was published in the August 2010 issue of the Journal of Pregnancy.
[http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/aug/10083007.html ; PharmFacts E-News Update, 13 Sept 2010]
THIS IS A VERY MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH...Well, Maybe Not... UN: Maternal Mortality Declines by One-Third Despite No Abortion Legalization
UN agencies and pro-abortion groups have told women and governmental bodies across the world that the only way to reduce maternal mortality is by legalizing abortions. Even though abortion has not been made legal in a slew of new nations, the UN today reports maternal mortality has declined by one-third.
The number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth has decreased by 33%, a new report shows.
The report is titled "Trends in maternal mortality" and released by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank. Those are all agencies that have come under fire for promoting abortion as the solution for cutting maternal mortality figures.
Their report shows 546,000 women died in 1990 during childbirth and 358,000 died in 2008, without a corresponding legalization of abortion in countries on continents such as Africa and South America.
"The global reduction in maternal death rates is encouraging news," says Dr Margaret Chan, the Director-General of WHO. "Countries where women are facing a high risk of death during pregnancy or childbirth are taking measures that are proving effective; they are training more midwives, and strengthening hospitals and health centers to assist pregnant women."
The report appears to highlight how better access to medicine and medical technology is responsible for improving maternal mortality numbers, not abortion.
The risk of a woman in a developing country dying from a pregnancy-related cause during her lifetime is about 36 times higher compared to a woman living in a developed country, the report noted.
The report shows 10 countries with maternal mortality ratios equal to or over 100 in 1990, are on track with an annual decline of 5.5% between 1990 and 2008.
The study shows progress in sub-Saharan Africa where maternal mortality decreased by 26% in nations that are almost all pro-life. In Asia, the number of maternal deaths is estimated to have dropped from 315,000 to 139,000 between 1990 and 2008, a 52% decrease.
Scott Fischbach, director of the MCCL Global Outreach program, told LifeNews.com today in response to the study: "It is a big step in the right direction to have the UN acknowledge progress on maternal mortality. The facts are clear that we can protect women and their babies with adequate health care, not abortion."
The new WHO numbers follow a seminal report in the British medical journal The Lancet in April showing a dramatic decline in maternal deaths worldwide. [see article directly below this one]
The Lancet reported 526,300 maternal deaths worldwide in 1980 and 342,900 deaths in 2008, a reduction of 35 percent.
“This new study is further proof that it is clean water, clean blood and adequate access to health care—not abortion on demand—that will help pregnant women and their babies globally,” Fischbach told LifeNews.com at the time.
“For years the advocates of abortion have used the maternal mortality issue to overthrow pro-life laws in country after country,” Fischbach continued. “Without the maternal mortality argument, another gaping hole exists in their push for abortion on demand.”
The solution to illegal abortions and high maternal mortality rates is very simple Fischbach explains: provide hope, opportunity and support for pregnant women by ensuring a clean water supply, clean blood supply and adequate health care. Statistics confirm that these save women’s lives -- not the legalization of abortion.
Ireland, a country with pro-life laws in place, has the lowest maternal mortality rate in the world, and Nepal, a country with abortion on demand, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates at 830 deaths per 100,000 live births.
According to the new study, maternal mortality increased in the United States by 42 percent from 1980 to 2008. Abortion was legal in the U.S. throughout all nine months of pregnancy during this 28-year period.
The Lancet researchers were surprised that three of the richest countries in the world actually showed increased maternal morality; the United States, Canada and Norway were three countries with the most liberal abortion laws in the world.
The Lancet’s editor Dr. Richard Horton told the New York Times he was pressured “by advocacy groups” to delay publication of the report until later this year.
Related: (see article directly below)
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life - http://www.mccl.org
[September 15, 2010, Ertelt, New York, NY, http://www.lifenews.com/int1645.html]
UPDATE: The report that covers the period from 1990 to 2008 also highlights the following.
* Ten out of 87 countries with maternal mortality ratios equal to or over 100 in 1990, are on track with an annual decline of 5.5% between 1990 and 2008. At the other extreme, 30 made insufficient or no progress since 1990.
* The study shows progress in sub-Saharan Africa where maternal mortality decreased by 26%.
* In Asia, the number of maternal deaths is estimated to have dropped from 315 000 to 139 000 between 1990 and 2008, a 52% decrease.
* 99% of all maternal deaths in 2008 occurred in developing regions, with sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia accounting for 57% and 30% of all deaths respectively.
from WHO, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2010/maternal_mortality_20100915/en/index.html
UPDATE: Critics Call New Maternal Death Report Faulty
A UN report has rankled experts for promoting abortion while also obscuring its research methods.
"The fact that maternal deaths have been declining is a very good thing.
"It is also a good thing that the UN finally used better methodologies to get correct figures after years of poor research and flawed data.
"It was bad that it took getting embarrassed by an independent research team this year to force the UN to accept the new methodologies and new findings.
"And it is very bad that the report still includes a push for abortion when there is absolutely no evidence to back it."
The new maternal health report endorses a UN strategy that recommends “safe” abortion services and family planning [while it also endorses beneficial] antenatal care and skilled attendants at birth.
That strategy was based on previous UN reports that said 536,000 women died yearly from pregnancy-related causes, 78,000 from illegal abortion. The new report slashes the total to 358,000 and did not offer any data regarding abortion.
The report says that only 63 of 173 countries studied had complete records on a cause of death. Twenty-four had no records at all.
Critics say the UN issued the report because of a recent independent study that showed previous UN data suspect and its research methods flawed.
That independent study [in The Lancet] found that better education, economics, and healthcare, along with lower fertility rates, led to better maternal health.
[The Lancet study] did not mention abortion or family planning.
At a conference in June, International Planned Parenthood’s Sharon Camp asked one of the authors of the independent study if abortion and family planning contributed to lower maternal deaths.
The author, Dr. Christopher Murray, replied that it would be hard to find evidence to support that belief.
While the most recent UN report found the same lower number of maternal deaths as the independent study, its research methods remain murky.
While the UN report includes a comparison of study methods, Chireau said it leaves readers more confused about the UN's approach.
“They talk about process. What process? Where are the additional data sets?”
A former UN reproductive health official said promoting abortion services stems from a belief by most UN staff that legalizing abortion makes it safer and does not increase its incidence.
Dr. Guiseppe Benagiano, formerly of the World Health Organization, acknowledged that abortion rates have increased after legalization in a number of countries.
Complete data is available for countries where abortion is illegal and maternal deaths low, such as Chile, Ireland, Malta, and Poland.
Pro-life analysts say the research links tighter abortion laws (few abortions) with better maternal health.
The new UN report, meanwhile, shows maternal deaths are higher than previously estimated in India, where abortion is legal and widespread.
Sixty-five percent of all maternal deaths occur in 11 countries, including India, according to the report. Three states with the highest rates
of maternal death rates are torn by war or suffer from failed governments.
While it does not offer an evidentiary link, the new UN report says that higher contraceptive prevalence “may have contributed to improved outcomes.”
Chireau called that misleading because a decrease in HIVAIDS-related deaths is a big factor behind lower maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.
The UN report puts HIVAIDS-related maternal deaths at 21,000, one-third the number found by the independent researchers.
It acknowledges that the figure was “difficult to estimate directly from available study data.”
[30 Sept 2010, Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D., Friday Fax, Volume 13, Number 42, New York, September 30, http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1709/pub_detail.asp]
Maternal Deaths Decline Sharply Across the Globe
[ED. COMMENT: The pro-abortion industry has promoted the half-million deaths for many years in an attempt to force nations to legalize "safe" abortions. However, objective investigation of actual deaths has uncovered this more accurate number. IF women were given basic cleanliness and skilled delivery technicians during their labor and delivery, the number of maternal deaths would drop even more dramatically. Instead, women are not offered help to have safe deliveries; they are only offered birth control and abortion paraphenalia...]
For the first time in decades, researchers are reporting a significant drop worldwide in the number of women dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth, to about 342,900 in 2008 from 526,300 in 1980.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
The findings, published in the medical journal The Lancet, challenge the prevailing view of maternal mortality as an intractable problem that has defied every effort to solve it.
“The overall message, for the first time in a generation, is one of persistent and welcome progress,” the journal’s editor, Dr. Richard Horton, wrote in a comment accompanying the article, published online on Monday.
The study cited a number of reasons for the improvement: lower pregnancy rates in some countries; higher income, which improves nutrition and access to health care; more education for women; and the increasing availability of “skilled attendants” — people with some medical training — to help women give birth. Improvements in large countries like India and China helped to drive down the overall death rates.
But some advocates for women’s health tried to pressure The Lancet into delaying publication of the new findings, fearing that good news would detract from the urgency of their cause, Dr. Horton said in a telephone interview.
“I think this is one of those instances when science and advocacy can conflict,” he said.
Dr. Horton said the advocates, whom he declined to name, wanted the new information held and released only after certain meetings about maternal and child health had already taken place.
He said the meetings included one at the United Nations this week, and another to be held in Washington in June, where advocates hope to win support for more foreign aid for maternal health from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Other meetings of concern to the advocates are the Pacific Health Summit in June, and the United Nations General Assembly meeting in December.
“People who have spent many years committed to the issue of maternal health were understandably worried that these figures could divert attention from an issue that they care passionately about,” Dr. Horton said. “But my feeling is that they are misguided in their view that this would be damaging. My view is that actually these numbers help their cause, not hinder it.”
He said the new study was based on more and better data, and more sophisticated statistical methods than were used in a previous analysis by a different research team that estimated more deaths, 535,900 in 2005. The authors of the earlier analysis, published in The Lancet, in 2007, included researchers from UNICEF, Harvard, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The World Health Organization still reports about half a million maternal deaths a year, but is expected to issue new statistics of its own this year.
The new report comes from the University of Washington and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and was paid for by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
A spokesman for UNICEF said it had no comment on the new findings, and there was no response to messages that were left late Tuesday for W.H.O. officials.
Dr. Christopher J. L. Murray, the director of the institute for health metrics and evaluation at the University of Washington, in Seattle, and an author of the study, said, “There has been a perception of no progress.”
But, he said, “some of the policies and programs pursued may be having an effect, as opposed to all that effort with little to show for it.”
“It really is an important positive finding for global health,” he said.
Dr. Murray said no one had approached him directly about delaying the release of his findings; he heard about those efforts from The Lancet, and described them as “disappointing.” He said, “We believe in the process of peer-reviewed science, and it’s the proper way to pursue these sorts of studies.”
The researchers analyzed maternal mortality in 181 countries from 1980 to 2008, using whatever information they could glean from each country: death records, censuses, surveys and published studies. They ultimately gathered about three times as much data as the previous researchers had found.
Among poor countries with longstanding high death rates, progress varied considerably. For instance, from 1990 to 2008, the maternal death rate dropped 8.8 percent a year in the Maldives, but rose 5.5 percent in Zimbabwe. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest maternal death rates. Brazil improved more than Mexico, Egypt more than Turkey. Six countries accounted for more than half of all the maternal deaths in 2008: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But India has made steady progress, and because its population is so large, its improvements have helped considerably to decrease the worldwide rate of maternal deaths. China has also made considerable progress. In India, there were 408 to 1,080 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 1980, and by 2008, there were 154 to 395, the new study found. In China, there were 144 to 187 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1980, and 35 to 46 in 2008.
Dr. Murray said the findings came as a surprise. What also surprised him and his colleagues, he said, was the number of pregnant women who died from AIDS: about 60,000.
“Really to a large extent that’s why maternal mortality is rising in eastern and southern Africa,” Dr. Murray said.
“It means, to us, that if you want to tackle maternal mortality in those regions, you need to pay attention to the management of H.I.V. in pregnant women. It’s not about emergency obstetrical care, but about access to antiretrovirals.”
Dr. Horton contended that the new data should encourage politicians to spend more on pregnancy-related health matters. The data dispelled the belief that the statistics had been stuck in one dismal place for decades, he said. So money allocated to women’s health is actually accomplishing something, he said, and governments are not throwing good money after bad.
An advocate for women’s health, Dr. Flavia Bustreo, director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, said the improvements described in the new report represented “hope at last.” She said her organization, affiliated with the World Health Organization, was not one of those that tried to delay release of the findings.
She said the report was well done and called The Lancet a “scrupulously” edited journal. She said the findings made sense and were consistent with other reports from large countries like India, which can drive global figures.
“For 20 years, the safe motherhood movement has been conveying an impression of no progress,” Dr. Bustreo said. “To hear confirmation of improvements is good news. To us, the good news will maintain the interest of investors. If you don’t show results, that’s the worst position you can be in. The evidence and scientific truths have to be put in the open and discussed.”
Her group issued its own report on Tuesday, noting improvements that were saving the lives of women during pregnancy and birth in various countries. For instance, India pays women to get prenatal care and skilled care for delivery. Nepal provides home visits for family planning. Malawi is training nonphysicians to perform emergency Caesarean sections. Brazil has set up a health system that provides free primary care and skilled attendance at birth for all. [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/health/14births.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2]
[13 April 2010, DENISE GRADY, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/health/14births.html?_r=2 and http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/health/14births.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2 ; ALL Pro-LIfe Today, 16 Sept2010]
Global Maternal Deaths Drop By 33%
Is legalizing abortion a way to reduce the incidence of maternal deaths around the world? For years, the World Health Organization, Planned Parenthood and the Guttmacher Institute have claimed between 68,000 and 78,000 women die annually as a result of the abortion procedure.
They’ve based their figures on a rule of thumb that 13% of illegal and unsafe abortions end in death.
This year, two reports have revised the estimates of maternal deaths radically downward by a third. One of the reports was released just last month by WHO itself.
But, so far, no pro-abortion groups have re-estimated abortion deaths to match.[http://www.ncregister.com/register_exclusives/global-maternal-deaths-drop-by-33/ ; PharmFacts E-News Update -- 18 Oct 2010]
Doctors to UN: Reduce Maternal Mortality by Helping Women, Not Backing Abortion
Medical experts blasted the UN’s “abortion-first” approach in a maternal-health presentation to UN delegates last week. Coming on the eve of a UN summit on development issues, the expert panel urged governments to focus on basic medical care rather than abortion to reduce pregnancy-related deaths.
“It is egregious to suggest to mothers that the only way to save their lives is to kill their babies," said Dr. Robert Walley, head of MaterCare International. "They have the right to health care. They have no voice when they are dead."
Controversy has dogged the maternal health goal since heads of state established it at the Millennium Summit in 2000. The heads of state explicitly rejected language used by many Western countries to mean abortion, despite intense lobbying for its inclusion at that time and at the subsequent 2005 follow up summit. Even so, subsequent UN-sponsored meetings like the Women Deliver conference in May focused almost exclusively on access to abortion as the way to improve maternal health.
Panelists last week criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for insisting that as long as an abortion is legal, it would always be considered "safe”.
The WHO definition of abortion as unsafe or safe is not a medical but legal definition, said Dr. Donna Harrison, an OB/GYN. By contrast, if a country prohibits abortion, any abortions or related complications are automatically categorized as "unsafe," Harrison said.
Harrison, president of the American Association for Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said WHO and other UN bodies are being dishonest in campaigning for legalized abortion worldwide by hiding behind the pretext of "safe" abortion.
In another blow to the argument that abortions help reduce pregnancy-related deaths , Dr. Elard Koch concluded from government data going back 100 years that Chile’s maternal-death rate continued to fall even after the government banned abortion.
Increasing education levels, maternal literacy rate and maternal health services appear to be the most important factors in lowering maternal deaths, said Koch, an epidemiologist at the University of Chile. Legal access to abortion is not important, as advocates have claimed.
Health systems in developing countries are failing because the focus has been shifted to “reproductive health,” according to Dr. Obi Ideh, an OB/GYN practicing in Nigeria. The failures can be linked to corruption, lack of community-based healthcare, and incomplete medical data that prevent women from getting the care that they require.
Ideh emphasized the need to strengthen family, community and cultural factors as the first-line support for poor mothers and to increase training and staffing of health facilities to combat maternal deaths.
In a passionate account of his work with MaterCare, Dr. Walley described a post-earthquake Haiti where mothers were forced to give birth to their babies “in a toxic soup of rainwater and sewage.” Walley called for the international community to meet its responsibilities to poor mothers in emergency situations in the developing world.
The panel was organized by a coalition of pro-life advocacy groups and hosted by the governments of the Philippines and Malawi.
[September 23, 2010, Samantha Singson, New York, NY LifeNews.com/CFAM, http://www.lifenews.com/int1651.html ;
LifeNews.com Note: Samantha Singson writes for the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. This article originally appeared in the pro-life group's Friday Fax publication.]
Infant Found Dead At Planned Parenthood
Police found an infant dead inside a storage bin at the Planned Parenthood building in Winston-Salem Saturday morning. According to WITN's sister station, WXII, officers arrived at the facility at 3000 Maplewood Ave. for a security check at about 7 a.m. Members of Criminal Investigations were contacted and detectives responded to assume the investigation. Police said the baby was a white newborn baby girl. The cause of death remained under investigation and an autopsy will be performed at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, police said. [http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/102699339.html, WITN; ALL Pro-Life Today, 13 Sept 2010]
Three Michigan Abortion Businesses Guilty of Patient Records Abuse: Guilty of Violating HIPAA in Dumping Hundreds of Patient Records ... CITED BY THE OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AS VIOLATING FEDERAL HIPAA LAWS -- PRO-LIFE LEADER'S ALLEGATIONS ARE SUPPORTED
Woman Care, Sharpes Family Planning and Women's Advisory abortion businesses were all found to be violation of Federal HIPAA statutes in the improper disposition of patients' health care records. The Chicago Office for Civil Rights began an investigation of the three facilities after a formal complaint was filed by Monica Migliorino Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-life Society.
In February, March, and April 2008, members of CPLS conducted searches of the trash dumpsters used by these clinics. The clinics repeatedly dumped whole patient records, including intake forms, abortion appointment schedule sheets, recovery room reports, lab reports, insurance forms, photo-copied driver's licenses, applications for financial aid to off-set the cost of the abortion and other documents that revealed personal health care information.
Hundreds of patient records were recovered, the largest share from the Woman Care clinic, located in Lathrup Village, MI, and owned by Alberto Hodari. In addition to the patient records, extensive bio-hazard waste and the remains of aborted unborn children were also discovered at the clinic dumpsters.
Sharpes Family Planning is located in Detroit with its sister clinic, Women's Advisory, located in Livonia, MI. The latter clinics are operated by Reginald Sharpe. Miller filed the HIPAA complaints in September 2008 and OCR notified the clinics of its federal investigation in December of that year. A fourth investigation is still pending regarding Eastpointe Gynecology, owned by Jacob Kalo--another Detroit abortion [business].
Two years after Miller filed her complaints, the OCR sent letters to Miller, dated September 28 and 29, 2010, informing her that the OCR supported her allegations. Sharpes Family Planning and Women's Advisory "acknowledged that the disclosures occurred as alleged. "Woman Care clinic offered an explanation that a janitorial service, contracted by the clinic, was responsible for the violations."
Miller states: “When the discovery was first made public, Hodari told Michigan authorities that poorly trained clinic staff was responsible. However, we found numerous patient records several weeks in a row along with all of the horrid bio-hazard waste.
"I believe that this was the usual Hodari protocol and that he was dumping patient records, bio-hazard waste and fetal remains into that trash dumpster for years. (see video of CPLS discoveries at www.prolifesociety.com).
"There is no way that such complete disregard for medical standards and disrespect for those women occurred without Hodari and these other abortionists knowing about it!"
In its letters to Miller the OCR states that the clinics [sic] have complied with their directives and put into place policies and practices to ensure that future HIPAA violations do not occur.
Miller states: "I'm glad that the OCR took these complaints seriously; but I have to say, the clinics [sic] are getting off with just another slap on the hand.
"Where are the real penalties for the flagrant violations they committed?
"Where's the justice for the women whose rights and dignity they violated?
"The OCR should have made these abortionists pay heavy fines and retribution.
"These are serious violations of HIPAA law and after two years of waiting, the outcome is rather disappointing. The OCR could have sent a real message to other abortion providers and that opportunity was missed." [4 Oct 2010, Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph.D. Director of CPLS www.prolifesociety.com]
Michigan Abortion Centers Guilty of Violating HIPAA in Dumping Patient Records
The federal government has found three Michigan abortion businesses guilty of violating the HIPAA statutes as a result of their illegally dumping patient records in trash bins outside their facilities. Local pro-life advocates found the records in the dumpsters at the abortion centers.
The Chicago Office for Civil Rights began an investigation of the WomanCare, Sharpes Family Planning and Women's Advisory abortion centers after receiving a formal complaint filed by Monica Migliorino Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-life Society.
In the early months of 2008, members of CPLS conducted searches of the trash dumpsters used by these abortion centers. They repeatedly dumped whole patient records, including intake forms, abortion appointment schedule sheets, recovery room reports, lab reports, insurance forms, photo-copied driver's licenses, applications for financial aid to off-set the cost of the abortion and other documents that revealed personal health care information.
Hundreds of patient records were recovered, the largest share from the WomanCare abortion center located in Lathrup Village and owned by troubled abortion practitioner Alberto Hodari. In addition to the patient records, extensive bio-hazard waste and the remains of aborted unborn children were also discovered at the abortion center upstairs.
Miller filed the HIPAA complaints in September 2008 and the Office for Civil Rights notified the abortion businesses of its investigation in December of that year.
Miller tells LifeNews.com a fourth investigation is still pending regarding Eastpointe Gynecology, the abortion center owned by Jacob Kalo in Detroit.
Related: Citizens for a Pro-Life Society - http://www.prolifesociety.org
[October 4, 2010, Detriot, MI, http://www.lifenews.com/state5513.html]
Abortion Business in MD Run by Doctor Who Killed Woman in Botched Abortion, Halts Abortions
[27 September 10 development: Ferrer has apparently closed his Gynecare office when his replacement quit last week. The office space is listed for lease.]
The abortion business run by Maryland-based abortion practitioner Romeo A. Ferrer, who has been under fire involving a case of a woman he killed in a failed abortion, has at least temporarily halted abortions and may close.
Ferrer is perhaps closing his Severna Park, Maryland, abortion center after a 10-year campaign from dedicated pro-life organizations.
The Maryland Board of Physicians suspended his medical license but pro-life advocates were hoping for more.
They got a partial answer when they learned yesterday that the Gynecare Center is not scheduling new appointments and does not have an abortion practitioner to replace Ferrer.
Defend Life Director Ames told LifeNews.com staff there indicated they are closing the facility.
Ferrer had recruited another Maryland physician, Ghevont Wartanian, to continue abortions but he has been sued over 18 times for malpractice and negligence for incidents ranging from the death of newborn babies to causing brain damage and a host of other medical mistakes.
Ames says it appears Wartanian, a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology, has abandoned the idea of supplementing his income by doing abortions.
Wartanian contacted Gynecare one day after the 40-Day for Life vigil was moved to his Glen Burnie, Maryland, OB-GYN medical practice. Ames indicates Wartanian instructed Gynecare to cancel all of his existing appointments, and informed them he would not be returning to the facility.
"We are grateful for the news that Gynecare has closed its doors and will no longer be murdering innocent babies in their mothers' wombs. This is a great first step regarding abortionist Ferrer; we now have to continue to pressure the Maryland Board of Physicians to permanently revoke Ferrer's license," Ames told LifeNews.com.
Ames says local pro-life advocates are anxiously awaiting news whether Gynecare is closed for good or just temporarily until Ferrer can find another abortion practitioner.
The complaint against Ferrer revolves around a February 2006 abortion he did on a 21-year-old African-American woman, Denise Crowe, at Gynecare Center in Severna Park. The woman sought a second trimester dilation and evacuation abortion procedure but it eventually claimed Crowe's life and left her three-year-old son without a mother.
Ferrer is accused of failing to properly administer pain medications, failing to monitor the patient’s respiration and ventilation, and failing to employ standard methods of care to resuscitate the patient. He is accused of giving her a fatal overdose of meperidine, a narcotic also known as Demerol.
The case was stagnant for years until the Maryland Board of Physicians, in April, filed a petition against Ferrer for "failure to meet the standard of quality care" in his negligent treatment of Crowe that resulted in her death. That case is still under consideration and could take months to resolve. [[September 24, 2010, Ertelt, Severna Park, MD, http://www.lifenews.com/state5487.html ]
Suspended Abortion Practitioner Riley Putting Women at Medical Risk in Utah
Earlier this month, the Maryland Board of Physicians suspended the medical license of abortion practitioner Nicola I. Riley. Riley was a staff abortion practitioner of embattled abortion business owner Steven Chase Brigham but following the suspension, Riley has returned to her Utah home to do abortions there.
Riley was involved in the botched abortion in Elkton, Maryland, that led to the discovery of Brigham's scheme to circumvent late-term abortion laws.
She is accused of aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine whereby Brigham and his staff begin abortions at his New Jersey centers, which don't meet state health and safety laws to make them eligible to do later-term abortions, then transporting the women to Maryland for completion of the abortion. Brigham has been found to have injured women in two other similar abortions.
Christopher C. Brown, one of Riley's lawyers, told a newspaper that "She's going to fight to keep her license."
In the meantime, the pro-life watchdog group Operation Rescue informed LifeNews.com today that Riley is now back in Utah doing abortions. The organization says more research it conducted into her background shows she is a shoddy physician who is likely putting women's health at risk.
"Despite her Maryland suspension, Nicola Riley continues to quietly do abortion in Utah, raising concerns about the safety of women in that state," the group said.
Operation Rescue has obtained additional open record documents showing Riley has a history of criminal problems that earned her a year at the U.S. Military Prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, and a dishonorable discharge from the U.S. Army... Later, Riley eventually returned to school and obtained a medical degree from the University of Utah in 2002.
The group received a redacted copy of Riley's Utah medical license application from the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing through an open records request. The 37-page document reveals that Riley submitted her application for a medical license in Utah on June 10, 2004, and was granted a license on July 14 of that same year.
Transcripts show that Riley failed the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 three times, finally passing with only five points to spare in 2002 after nearly two years of trying. It took her an additional 15 months to pass steps two and three.
Translating her scores into letter grades, she would have passed with a D grade overall, the records show. In 2004, Riley passed her Utah Controlled Substances Law and General Law exam, with just two points above a failing score.
"In Riley, we are looking at a convicted felon who barely is qualified to practice medicine," said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman. "It is not surprising that she became an abortionist. She may have not have possessed the competency for any higher calling."
Newman says Riley appears to have gone directly into the abortion business upon licensure.
"She told the Maryland Board of Physicians that she trained with abortionists for a year after her licensure before taking a position as Medical Director at SMP Family Medicine, PC, where she worked under the radar for the past five years doing abortions up to 14 weeks gestation," he explained.
Riley was trained to do abortions through twenty weeks gestation at Planned Parenthood in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado. She also trained with abortion practitioners Regula Burki during her Residency at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City and Madhuri Shah, who does abortions to 20 weeks at the Utah Women's Clinic in Salt Lake City.
Riley also told the board that she trained under another male abortionist, whose name she could not remember, at a place she referred to as "Mount Olympus" even though Newman says there are not any abortion centers in Utah with that name.
Newman says family considerations took her to Maryland where Riley interviewed with four abortion businesses and took a job as a contract employee at Brigham's troubled American Women's Services doing first and second trimester abortions, while training to do risky third trimester abortion procedures.
She admits she participated in the abortion of a 33 week baby on her first day on the job at Brigham's Elkton abortion center. That abortion was started by Brigham in New Jersey the previous day. When police raided the Elkton mill, remains of aborted babies were found the remains of 35 aborted babies in a freezer. Clinic logs seized from the clinic indicated that the gestational ages ranged as high as 36 weeks.
OR says Riley also has an open medical license application pending in Virginia.
With the troubles in Maryland, Riley is now reportedly doing abortions at the Wasatch Women's Center in Salt Lake City.
"If Riley is not fit to practice in Maryland, she isn't fit to practice anywhere," said Newman. "How many abortion injuries and deaths do we have to hear about before the authorities put their foot down on these abortion quacks and force them into another line of work that does not include maiming and killing people?"
He told LifeNews.com: "We plan to make sure the Medical Boards in Utah and Virginia understand the horrific nature of Brigham and Riley's illegal late-term abortion racket by sending them the records we obtained from New Jersey detailing patient D.B. abortion nightmare. Riley's license needs to be suspended in Utah and denied in Virginia to make sure no one else suffers harm at her hands again."
Related: Operation Rescue - http:/www.operationrescue.org
[September 24, 2010, Ertelt, Salt Lake City, UT, http://www.lifenews.com/state5485.html ]
UPDATE:
Brigham's Abortionist Riley (Now in Utah) Did Federal Prison Time, Public Records Show
Despite her Maryland suspension, Nicola Riley continues to quietly do abortion in Utah, raising concerns about the safety of women in that state
Operation Rescue has obtained additional open record documents that show abortionist Nicola Riley, an employee of the notorious Stephen Chase Brigham, has a history of criminal problems that earned her a year at the U.S. Military Prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, and a dishonorable discharge from the U.S. Army.
Riley made headlines when the State of Maryland suspended her medical license after a botched late-term abortion exposed her part in Brigham's illegal scheme to circumvent abortion laws in two states.
She is also accused of aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine by helping Brigham do abortions at a secret late-term abortion clinic in Elkton, Maryland, where Brigham has no medical license.
Brigham's New Jersey medical license has since been suspended for illegally starting abortions as late as 36 weeks at his Voorhees, New Jersey office, then transporting his patients across state lines to Maryland where the abortions were completed.
Earlier in life, Riley appeared to have a bright future ahead of her. She attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1987. She was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army and posted to Ft. Carson, Colorado.
In June, 1991, two soldiers under her command were convicted of credit card fraud and criminal impersonation. Riley admits she knew about the criminal activity, but did not report it in a timely manner. The delay was long enough for authorities to charge as an accessory, but it is unclear just how deeply she was actually involved in the scam.
Riley pled "no contest" and was sentenced to serve one year at the Ft. Leavenworth military prison after which she received a dishonorable discharge from the Army.
After her discharge, Riley eventually returned to school and obtained a medical degree from the University of Utah in 2002.
Operation Rescue received a redacted copy of Riley's Utah medical license application from the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing through an open records request. The 37-page document reveals that Riley submitted her application for a medical license in Utah on June 10, 2004, and was granted a license on July 14 of that same year.
Transcripts show that Riley failed the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 three times, finally passing with only five points to spare in 2002 after nearly two years of trying. It took her an additional 15 months to pass steps two and three.
Translating her scores into letter grades, she would have passed with a D grade overall.
In 2004, Riley passed her Utah Controlled Substances Law and General Law exam, with just two points above a failing score.
"In Riley, we are looking at a convicted felon who barely is qualified to practice medicine," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "It is not surprising that she became an abortionist. She may have not have possessed the competency for any higher calling."
In fact, Riley appears to have gone directly into the abortion business upon licensure. She told the Maryland Board of Physicians that she trained with abortionists for a year after her licensure before taking a position as Medical Director at SMP Family Medicine, PC, where she worked under the radar for the past five years doing abortions up to 14 weeks gestation.
Riley was trained to do abortions through twenty weeks gestation at Planned Parenthood in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
She also trained with abortionist Regula E. Burki during her Residency at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City, and with abortionist Madhuri Shah, who does abortions to 20 weeks at the Utah Women's Clinic in Salt Lake City.
Riley also told the board that she trained under another male abortionist, whose name she could not remember, at a place she referred to as "Mount Olympus" even though there are no known abortion clinics in Salt Lake City with that name. (Riley-MDBP Interview, p. 51)
In 2002, Riley had married fellow medical student Dustin Eric Coyle, an anesthesiologist ten years her junior. Sometime later the couple divorced. Seeking full custody of her children, Riley sought to establish a work history in the Virginia-Maryland area where she hoped she could eventually move her family. (Riley MDBP Interview, p.3)
She interviewed with four abortion businesses and in a decision that reflected extremely poor judgment, she took a job as a contract employee at Brigham's troubled American Women's Services doing first and second trimester abortions, while training to do risky third trimester abortion procedures.
She admits she participated in the abortion of a 33 week baby on her first day on the job at Brigham's secret abortion clinic in Elkton, Maryland, on July 30, 2010.
That abortion was started by Brigham in New Jersey the previous day. When police raided the Elkton mill, remains of aborted babies were found the remains of 35 aborted babies in a freezer. Clinic logs seized from the clinic indicated that the gestational ages ranged as high as 36 weeks.
Details of Brigham's late-term abortion scheme and the botched late-term abortion of a young woman that exposed it can be read in Operation Rescue's investigative report "Botched Abortion Nightmare: 'I wish I never heard of them.'"
Riley has an open medical license application pending in Virginia, where she would stay with relatives when working for Brigham every other weekend.
Currently, Riley's SMP Family Medicine abortion clinic in Utah is not taking abortion patients. However, Operation Rescue has learned that she continues to quietly do abortions at the Wasatch Women's Center in Salt Lake City.
"If Riley is not fit to practice in Maryland, she isn't fit to practice anywhere," said Newman.
"How many abortion injuries and deaths do we have to hear about before the authorities put their foot down on these abortion quacks and force them into another line of work that does not include maiming and killing people?
"We plan to make sure the Medical Boards in Utah and Virginia understand the horrific nature of Brigham and Riley's illegal late-term abortion racket by sending them the records we obtained from New Jersey detailing patient D.B. abortion nightmare. Riley's license needs to be suspended in Utah and denied in Virginia to make sure no one else suffers harm at her hands again."
View Riley's entire Utah Medical License Application -- http://operationrescue.org/brigham/Utah%20Records%20for%20Dr.%20Riley.pdf
[Personal information has been removed.] Note: Documents supplied under open records laws are public. Medical licensing applications are open records and available to the public in order to insure full disclosure and accountability. Reprinting such records is a completely legal right of citizens who are granted documents under open records laws.
[September 24, 2010 (from OR reports), Salt Lake City, UT; PharmFacts E-News Update -- 27 Sept 2010]
Abortion Doctor Sentenced to Jail in Abortion Death Case
The doctor who performed an abortion on Laura Hope Smith of Sandwich three years ago and admitted that his actions led to her death was escorted out of Barnstable Superior Court in handcuffs yesterday.
Rapin Osathanondh, 67, will serve at least three months in jail as a result of a plea negotiated Monday between his attorneys and Cape and Islands First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny. Osathanondh will serve that time in the Dukes County Jail in Edgartown, according to the plea agreement. He was sentenced to a 2½-year jail term with six months to serve. However, the plea agreement allows him out on parole after serving three months.
Osathanondh also settled a civil suit, agreeing to pay the victim's parents, Tom and Eileen Smith of Sandwich, $2 million. "Nobody won. Laura got justice, but it's a tragedy all the way around," Eileen Smith said.
Tom Smith said that despite Osathanondh's affiliation with Harvard University he had "practiced Third World medicine" on patients like his daughter. Osathanondh was a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health at the time of Smith's abortion.
Family reacts to sentence
After yesterday's sentencing hearing, Osathanondh said nothing to reporters or to several of Smith's cousins who had gathered outside the courthouse, watching in tears as the man responsible for her death was driven away in a Dukes County Sheriff's car.
"He stole a life," said one of the cousins, who declined to identify herself. "He took her away from us."
The 22-year-old Sandwich resident never regained consciousness after undergoing an abortion on Sept. 13, 2007, in Osathanondh's Cape practice at the now-closed Women's Health Center in Hyannis. Monday, on the third anniversary of her death, Osathanondh pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, admitting he was reckless and negligent in Smith's treatment. He was allowed 24 hours between his plea and the sentence hearing yesterday to make arrangements for the terms of the civil settlement.
Lawsuit alleges cover-up
According to documents filed in the civil suit, Osathanondh failed to monitor Smith after she underwent her abortion procedure. Additionally, neither Osathanondh nor his assistant had CPR certifications, nor did they call 911 after attempts to revive Smith failed.
The civil suit documents also state that when the state Board of Registration in Medicine began an investigation of Smith's death, Osathanondh falsified CPR certification cards, bought new equipment, and changed the configuration of his Hyannis office to make it appear that a defibrillator and oxygen were within easy access of where he performed medical procedures.
Osathanondh feels the "most profound remorse and regret for Laura Smith's death," said his attorney, Paul Cirel.
However, David Angueira, an attorney who represented Smith's family in the medical malpractice lawsuit, pointedly said that Osathanondh's negligence caused Smith's death and "ripped a piece of her parents' heart out."
Smith was born in Honduras and spent the first three years of her life in an orphanage. She was adopted by an American family, but was rejected. She finally arrived on the Smith's doorstep at age 4½, "with a black eye and dirty clothes," Tom Smith said yesterday.
Osathanondh is originally from Thailand and was licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts beginning in 1974. He gave up that license in 2008.
According to Cirel, Osathanondh was among a group of Harvard University researchers in the 1970s who developed a ground-breaking technique for inducing early labor in women whose fetuses had died. Prior to this technique, the women were forced to continue with their pregnancies, knowing they would give birth to a dead child.
In addition to the jail time, Osathanondh's sentence includes nine months of home confinement, during which he must wear an electronic monitoring device and cannot leave his house except in emergencies or for a pre-approved medical appointment. He also cannot practice medicine, cannot teach anything having to do with medical science, and cannot contact the Smith family.
The sentence also prohibits him from commenting on the case in any Internet social networking site, with Facebook specifically mentioned.
Serving sentence on island
Instead of going to the Barnstable County Correctional Facility in Bourne, Osathanondh is going to the Dukes County House of Correction on Martha's Vineyard. The island jail houses about two dozen inmates.
The Bourne jail has about 450 inmates.
The island jail has been criticized in the past for being luxurious compared to others in the state, a description Dukes County Sheriff Michael McCormack has disputed. The jail is housed in a shingled 1873 building and has been nicknamed the Gray Bar Inn.
[Sep 15, 2010, Karen Jeffrey,
, Barnstable, http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100915/NEWS/9150327 ; [ple-news] Digest Number 724, 16 Sept 10]
Massachusetts Abortionist Sentenced to Jail for Abortion Death
Abortionist Rapin Osathanondh, 67, was sentenced to six months in jail today after pleading guilty yesterday to one count of manslaughter in the 2007 abortion-related death of 22-year old Laura Hope Smith.
Osathanondh will serve three months in a county jail after which he will likely be paroled. He must then serve nine months under home confinement with an electronic monitoring device, and three years of probation. In addition, Osathanondh is barred from practicing medicine and teaching, according to a plea agreement that was reached after a day of in-court negotiations.
Also settled was the civil suit filed by Smith's mother, Eileen Smith. Osathanondh agreed to pay the family a substantial sum of money as a punitive measure.
"Today, justice was done," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, who helped advise Eileen Smith after her daughter's death and encouraged her to file complaints with the medical board and prosecutors. "Our condolences and prayers continue to be with the Smith family, who showed such an amazing strength of faith and courage throughout this ordeal."
"This conviction is an object lesson to prosecutors across the nation that abortionists can and should be held criminally accountable to the law for the sake of justice and public safety. There are abortionists out there right now who are endangering the lives of women who should be joining Osathanondh in jail. We hope today's sentencing will encourage prosecutors to file criminal charges against abortionists who are breaking the law. Leaving these kinds of cases to the medical boards and civil courts is simply not good enough."
Osathanondh admitted in court to behaving in a wanton and reckless manner that endangered Smith's life. He failed to properly monitor Smith while under anesthesia and did not call for emergency assistance in a timely manner when she suffered complications. He was also found to have lied to cover up his negligence by claiming he administered emergency care that was never done.
"Osathanondh lawyers need to stop saying that he gave Laura 'good care' because he has now admitted in court that he did not, and she died as a result. It doesn't get any worse than that," said Newman.
Earlier, Osathanondh surrendered his medical license and closed his two abortion offices. A sign from his Hyannis office where Laura died now hangs as a memento at Operation Rescue's national headquarters in Wichita, Kansas. [BARNSTABLE, Mass., Sept. 14, 2010, http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/517514985.html]
Abortion Doctor Pleads Guilty in 2007 Abortion Death
On the third anniversary of her death, the doctor who performed an abortion on Laura Hope Smith admitted that his actions led to her death while she was under his care.
Yesterday in Barnstable Superior Court, with Smith's parents looking on, Dr. Rapin Osathanondh, 67, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
He is scheduled to be sentenced today in Superior Court. Smith, 22, never awoke after undergoing the procedure at the Women's Health Center in Hyannis on Sept. 13, 2007. [http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100914/NEWS/9140320, Cape Cod Online; ALL Pro-Life Today, 14 Sept 2010]
Investigative Report Reveals Scandalous Details of Elaborate Illegal Late-Term Abortion Ring
Press conference to be held Wednesday in Maryland asking for criminal charges against recently suspended abortionists
Operation Rescue has released an investigative report that contains shocking details of an elaborate late-term abortion scheme operated by the notorious abortionist Stephen Chase Brigham that landed one woman in the hospital and resulted in the license suspensions of three abortionists in two states.
The report is largely based on 302 pages of documents released to Operation Rescue by the State of New Jersey through an open records act request and includes redacted medical records and interviews with those involved in the botched 22 week abortion that was started in Voorhees, New Jersey, and continued at a secret abortion clinic in Elkton, Maryland.
The report reveals:
**The two-state late-term abortion scheme violated NJ and MD laws.
**Shows discrepancies in the abortionist's story compared to hospital records and other testimony.
**Reveals the horrific ordeal endured by the abortion patient and her family.
**Shows that abortions as late as 36 weeks were being started in NJ and ended in MD.
**Reveals how evasive abortionists described their suspicious "secret abortion clinic" to stunned emergency room staff.
**Details an encounter with the Elkton police where abortionist Brigham fled the scene to avoid questioning.
**Details a police raid on Brigham's Elkton clinic where Utah abortionist Nicola Riley slipped away to warn Brigham's caravan of women evade police by diverting to a Baltimore [site], where four late-term abortions were completed.
Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, will be in Annapolis, Maryland on Wednesday, September 15, at noon for a press conference outside the Maryland Attorney General's office where he and other pro-life leaders will remark on this evolving story concerning Brigham and the three other Maryland abortionists whose licenses were suspended this week.
The group of pro-life/pro-family leaders will call for criminal charges against four abortionists in New Jersey and Maryland.
OR's investigative report: "Botched Abortion Nightmare: 'I wish I never heard of them'"
[ANNAPOLIS, Md., Sept. 13 /Christian Newswire; http://www.operationrescue.org/archives/botched-abortion-nightmare-i-wish-i-never-heard-of-them/ ; PharmFacts E-News Update, 13 Sept 2010]
UPDATE: Abortion Practitioner Brigham Accused of More Violations by New Jersey Officials
New Jersey officials are accusing embattled abortion practitioner Steven Chase Brigham of more violations. He is already under the microscope in three states for putting women at risk with botched legal abortions and taking women from one state to another to avoid health and safety regulations.
He is not allowed to do late-term abortions in New Jersey, one of the four states in which he owns an abortion business, because he doesn't meet the state's medical requirements.
As a result, he has started late-term abortions for women there and transported them via rental care to his Maryland abortion centers to complete the abortions. Brigham severely injured a teenage girl in a botched abortion.
One abortion using this method went so poorly, Brigham was forced to take the teenager to a local Maryland hospital -- and she eventually had to be airlifted to Johns Hopkins Medical center because the abortion caused a perforated uterus and it required immediate surgery.
Now, the New Jersey attorney general's office has accused Brigham of violating standards of care for two additional women seeking abortions at his centers. One case involves a woman from Canada whose Down syndrome child was killed in a late-term abortion.
An Associated Press report indicates the new concerns revolve around an August abortion Brigham did on a 35-year-old Canadian woman who was 33 weeks pregnant at the time. The unborn child was healthy in all respects, medical records show, and was targeted for an abortion only because of the Down syndrome.
Brigham employed his technique of starting the abortion in New Jersey and he then instructed the woman to drive to Maryland herself to complete the procedure.
The medical records do not say who completed the abortion in Maryland, where Brigham is not licensed to practice medicine.
AP indicates Dr. Gary Brickner wrote an expert opinion in the investigation saying the abortion procedure "seriously violated medical standards of care and, to my knowledge, is not sanctioned by any statute or regulation." He said the abortion "did not involve a fetus with a lethal defect or a condition dangerous to the mother's health."
The document AP cites also mention another case involving a woman who was in the 24th week of pregnancy. She was slated to complete her abortion in Maryland but began experiencing heavy bleeding while staying in a New Jersey hotel room and she eventually delivered a stillborn baby in a local hospital.
Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, a trade group of abortion businesses, was forced to admit to AP that Brigham's actions violated the standards of care, though she tried to dismiss the concerns by saying that only a physician seeing a woman for an abortion could know if the abortion was right for her and the baby.
Officials want Brigham's license suspended or revoked and Brigham has agreed to stop practicing medicine in New Jersey until the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners holds a hearing in his case.
The hearing on Brigham's suspension is now scheduled for October 13.
New Jersey Right to Life tells LifeNews.com that it is glad the state is pressing Brigham because it warned of problems related to his abortion practice weeks ago.
New Jersey Right to Life executive director Marie Tasy wrote a letter to New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow on July 23 urging her to investigate Brigham and his six state abortion centers following news that Pennsylvania had started probing his abortion facilities there.
Meanwhile, Maryland officials have told Brigham to stop doing abortions in the state.
And Pennsylvania officials told him to close his abortion businesses there after he was found to be employing unlicensed staffers and putting women's health at risk. [September 23, 2010, Ertelt, Trenton, NJ, http://www.lifenews.com/state5477.html]
New Jersey Right to Life Had Warned of Unlicensed "Interstate Abortionist" Caught after Severely Botched Abortion
After a botched abortion in Maryland revealed the illegal interstate practice of a New Jersey abortionist, New Jersey officials have filed documents to suspend the medical license of a man whose suspicious activities New Jersey Right to Life had warned about weeks ago.
In a July 23 letter, New Jersey Right to Life executive director Marie Tasy requested that New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow investigate Steven Chase Brigham's six New Jersey abortion facility following news of a crackdown on Brigham's four Pennsylvania clinics. In that state, Brigham's business came to an abrupt end after the Pennsylvania Department of Health discovered he had repeatedly employed unlicensed medical caregivers.
But the abortionist's latest run-in with the law came one month later, August 25, when Maryland health officials ordered him to cease his frequent practice of initiating abortions in New Jersey, telling clients to drive to Elkton, Maryland, and completing the procedures there. Brigham is not authorized to perform second or third-trimester abortions in New Jersey; however, neither is he licensed to practice medicine in Maryland.
The scheme was discovered after one such procedure, performed on an 18-year-old, resulted in the laceration of her bowel and vagina and required the bleeding patient to be flown to Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore. A Hopkins doctor filed a complaint against the abortionist following the incident, which New Jersey's attorney general decried as constituting "gross negligence."
Abortionists Nicola Riley of Utah and George Shepard of Delaware also had their licenses suspended in Maryland for assisting Brigham, who Maryland officials said performed the procedures as many as four to six times per week.
Paul Loriquet, a spokesperson with the New Jersey Attorney General's office, told LifeSiteNews.com Friday that Tasy's letter had been forwarded to the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners. The board, he says, was "about to respond" to the Pennsylvania allegations when the Maryland case arose, prompting the attorney general's cease and desist order. Loriquet said that Brigham has complied with the order, and that a board hearing is scheduled for October 13.
In 1996 Brigham lost his license in New York for "inexcusably bad judgment," in the words of health officials there, following two botched late-term abortions. New Jersey also considered penalizing Brigham, but he fought the charges and won full reinstatement.
The abortionist's record is filled with other violations, including failing to file business taxes in New York, and failing to disclose the tax trouble in Florida, where his license was banned. He was placed on probation in California, but allowed his license to lapse there as well as in Georgia, according to Operation Rescue and the Philadelphia Inquirer. New Jersey, according to OR, was the last state in which Brigham was allowed to practice medicine.
Police raiding the abortionist's Elkton office stumbled upon a gruesome display of almost three dozen frozen fetuses, some only a few weeks away from full term. [11 Sept 2010, Kathleen Gilbert, PISCATAWAY, New Jersey, September 10, 2010, http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10091010.html ]
Board Upholds License Suspension of Practitioner Who Injured Teen in Abortion
The Maryland Board of Physicians today upheld the suspension order it put in place against an abortion practitioner who injured a teenage girl in a botched abortion. The Maryland medical licenses of George Shepard, Jr., of Delaware and Nicola I. Riley of Utah, were suspended last week.
They are employees of the troubled abortion business Steven Chase Brigham runs in four states, including Maryland.
The abortion practitioners were involved in the botched abortion in Elkton, Maryland, that led to the discovery of Brigham's scheme to circumvent late-term abortion laws by beginning the abortions at his New Jersey centers, which don't meet state health and safety laws to make them eligible to do later-term abortions, then transporting the women to Maryland for completion of the abortion.
Shepard, who is 88, oversees the five abortion centers Brigham runs in Maryland and the Baltimore Sun newspaper said neither he nor his attorney showed up for the medical board decision announcement today. There. they heard evidence presented against Shepard related to the teen's abortion.
Two lawyers for Riley, who is 45, asked for a continuance saying they did not have enough time to prepare her defense before the board.
"She's going to fight to keep her license," Christopher C. Brown, one of Riley's lawyers, said, according to the Sun.
C. Irving Pinder Jr., the executive director of the physicians' board, said during the hearing that Brigham could be fined $50,000 for every incident of malpractice. The newspaper also quoted him as saying officials were looking into charging him with felonies related to the incident.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the suspensions last week and noted Brigham led a car caravan of women from his Vorhees, Pennsylvania abortion center to his Maryland one after one of the patients was critically injured during the abortion at his Pennsylvania abortion business.
Brigham put the semiconscious, bleeding woman in the back of a rental car and drove her to a nearby hospital instead of calling for an ambulance and drawing attention to problems at his abortion center, American Women's Services.
A surgeon at a local Baltimore hospital was forced to perform an emergency operation on the young woman to repair the damage to her because of the botched abortion at the Elkton facility.
The Maryland Board of Physicians and Elkton police compiled documents unveiling the problems and later conducted a raid of his Maryland abortion facility. Authorities who raided Brigham's abortion center discovered the remains of 35 late-term aborted babies in jars.
Brigham is not licensed to practice medicine in Maryland and never has been. The state issued a cease and desist order to Brigham on August 25 for him to stop doing abortions.
The order to stop Brigham from doing abortions in Maryland says indicates that Brigham has been practicing illegally in Maryland since January, 2010.
"The health of Maryland patients is being endangered by the Respondent's unlicensed practice of medicine in this State," the order read.
In Pennsylvania, in July, the Pennsylvania Department of Health ordered Brigham to shut down four of his abortion centers for reportedly employing medical staff who were not properly licensed with the state -- and potentially putting women's health at risk.
Brigham also has had problems with the IRS, where officials have filed a lien on him for failing to pay payroll taxes from 2002 to 2006 for the employees of his American Women's Services abortion centers in Pennsylvania and the six he runs in New Jersey.
Brigham was forced to give up his license to practice medicine in Pennsylvania some years ago because of botched abortions. Brigham has also lost his license in other states. He had medical licenses revoked in New York and Florida, and received disciplinary action in California and New Jersey. He served 120 days in jail in 1998 for Medicaid fraud.
He was also taken to task for employing Harvey Walter Brookman, who did abortions at a State College abortion facility known as State College Medical Services and at the Erie abortion center known as American Women's Services under Brigham's employ.
Brookman, was only permitted to treat himself and his family because he holds what is called an "active-retired" medical license in Pennsylvania.
Brookman has also had trouble maintaining a valid medical license in other states.
His New York license was revoked in December of 1996. His New Jersey license was temporarily suspended in December of 1994. In February of 1996, Brookman "voluntarily surrendered his New Jersey license to practice medicine and surgery with a prejudice to his right to apply for reinstatement."
The Pennsylvania state health department took its latest action on July 7, according to the newspaper, when Deputy Secretary of Health Robert Torres permanently banned Brigham and any corporation he owns or runs from doing abortions in the state.
That could allow for a significant reduction of abortions in Pennsylvania as American Women's Services does about 3,600 abortions annually at its centers in Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, and State College.
[September 8, 2010, Ertelt, Annapolis, MD, LifeNews.com, http://www.lifenews.com/state5434.html ]
Practitioner Now Faces Lawsuit, Woman Committed Suicide After Abortion
Abortion business owner and practitioner Steven Chase Brigham already faces legal troubles in three states over botched abortions and his avoidance of state health and safety laws. Now he faces a lawsuit from the family of a woman who committed suicide after suffering depression following an abortion.
Brigham faces a lawsuit from an aggrieved family, whose youngest daughter committed suicide after an abortion his performed on her and her baby.
Operation Rescue notified LifeNews.com today that George Zallie Sr. claims that neither Brigham nor his staff warned his daughter, Stacy, of the facts about abortion. A wealth of research data shows women who have abortions are have higher rates of depression, PTSD, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide ideation than women who keep their baby.
Zallie says that his daughter tried to commit suicide four times after her abortion by Brigham in July 2001, and she ultimately took her own life in October 2002.
"We lost our youngest child and our first grandchild," Zallie told reporters. [5 Oct 10, Trenton, NJ, http://www.lifenews.com/state5520.html ]
Planned Parenthood TELEMED Abortion Safety Claims Cast into Doubt by Data, Informant
New data released in the United States and Australia concerning complication rates for the abortion pill RU-486 point to a possible cover-up of the true complication rate for “telemed abortions” done by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH) in Iowa, reports Operation Rescue.
On September 30, 2010, the Centers for Disease Control revealed in the New England Journal of Medicine that two more deaths linked to RU-486 (also known as Mifepristone or Mifeprex) were reported: one in 2008, and one just last year, bringing the number of known RU-486 deaths to ten in the U.S., since the FDA approved the drug in 2000.
Meanwhile, the Australian reported on October 2, 2010 that complications related to usage of RU-486 in Australia are causing concern.
Between December of last year, when restrictions on the abortion pill was relaxed, and July of 2010, three thousand medical abortions have been reported in three Australian provinces. This number can be generally compared to Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s figure of 1,900 medical abortions done through their remote-controlled, push-button, abortion pill distribution scheme known as telemed abortions.
In Australia, the drugs completely failed in 14 cases. Another 110 cases reported “adverse effects” such as retention of the placenta and retention of aborted baby remains, conditions that require emergency surgery.
This represents a 4.1% complication rate requiring surgical abortion or emergency surgery – and this is with the benefit of the oversight of licensed physicians. This figure is reflective of the reported complication rates elsewhere in the world.
Meanwhile, PPH has reported no complications in their nearly 2,000 remote-controlled telemed abortions, where a licensed physician speaks with the patient for a few minutes over an Internet video connection, then never sees the patient again. The pills are distributed when the abortionist pushes a button in his or her office, opening a drawer containing the pills at the office where the patient is located.
“The numbers simply do not add up. Either Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is engaging in an intentional cover-up of telemed abortion complications or it is an indication that they provide essentially no follow-up for patients once they load them on abortion pills and send them out the door,” said Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger. “Either scenario would be gross misconduct on PPH’s part that further endangers the lives of women.”
Operation Rescue said today that a confidential informant with first-hand knowledge of the inner workings of PPH has come forward to tell them that the telemed abortion scheme shows a “revolting lack of concern” for the lives and health of women. The informant insisted that the scheme was developed with a high profit margin in mind, not the best interests of women.
According to the informant, who spoke to OR on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals, PPH has traditionally attempted to distance the organization from any abortion complications, having a “Hear-no-evil, See-no-evil” attitude.
“Planned Parenthood doesn’t deal with complications,” said the informant. “They send the women to the ER.”
OR’s Sullenger said in response, “Why would Planned Parenthood of the Heartland engage in a cover-up about the true dangers of their push-button abortions? Perhaps it is to conceal their negligent lack of follow-up care and protect their profit potential.”
“This is an unethical and outrageous exploitation of women. Their dishonesty on this matter presents an immediate danger to the public.”
The Iowa Board of Medicine (IBM) is currently investigating complaints filed by Operation Rescue and others against abortionists involved in the push-button pill scheme. Pro-life groups assert that the telemed abortion process is illegal since Iowa law mandates that abortions can only be done by licensed physicians, who are never present at any time during the remote abortion pill process.
The IBM has made it clear, however, that they lack the oversight to stop the procedure and can only discipline licensed physicians if the standard of care has been violated.
However, the IBM can produce public policy guidelines concerning the use – or misuse – of telemedicine in Iowa. An Ad Hoc committee has been appointed to look into the use of telemedicine, including PPH’s push-button abortions. A public hearing to discuss public policy guidelines has been scheduled for October 22, 2010.
Operation Rescue and other pro-life groups say that they plan to be in attendance.
“We must hold the Board accountable to the law and demand an end to this illegal and dangerous practice of distributing abortion pills over the Internet without the presence or oversight of a licensed physician,” said Sullenger. “Planned Parenthood has already admitted that they want to expand their telemed abortion system into every state, and that would represent an unprecedented danger to women and their babies. For the sake of vulnerable women, we must stop this dangerous remote controlled abortion scam here and now.”
To find out more, go to: http://www.operationrescue.org/
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
Pro-Life Leaders Vow to Fight Iowa 'Telemed' Abortions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/aug/10082411.html
Former Planned Parenthood Director: Stop Dangerous Telemed Abortions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10060301.html
Criminal Complaint Against Telemed Abortions Filed With Iowa Attorney General
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10062514.html
Planned Parenthood Reveals 5-Year Plan to Expand Abortion through Telemed Scheme
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10052507.html
[6 Oct 2010, DES MOINES, Iowa, http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10100607.html]
Amnesty Int'l Demands Abortion Decriminalization in Latin America
A leading human rights group last week stepped up its promotion of abortion, targeting Latin America and particularly Nicaragua.
Amnesty International demanded that governments decriminalize abortion immediately in a statement released to coincide with the Sept. 28 “Day for the Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Amnesty specifically targeted Chile, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, saying it is “disgraceful” these countries have laws criminalizing abortion in all circumstances.
The once abortion-neutral Amnesty International—founded by a Catholic convert in 1961—has emerged as a vocal proponent for abortion. The human rights group received a $1,000,000 grant in 2009 from the Ford Foundation, a long-time proponent of population control that funds organizations that promote abortion and contraception in developing countries.
In its release last week, Amnesty reserved its harshest critique for Nicaragua. Amnesty said Nicaragua has “gone backwards” because the country recently criminalized abortion in all circumstances. Amnesty and its Nicaraguan partners sent 37,000 signatures to President Daniel Ortega to demand the repeal of his country's abortion laws.
Amnesty’s release appears calculated to cause alarm, saying that prohibitions on abortion encourage both suicide and self-abortion. Amnesty said that in those countries where abortion is criminalized, “if a woman or girl is raped by a relative, the State obliges them to give birth to their own sibling or cousin.”
The statement praised Cuba, which decriminalized abortion several decades ago, as well as Mexico City, which decriminalized abortion in 2007.
Amnesty’s release said international and regional human rights agreements demand the decriminalization of abortion in all Latin American and Caribbean countries. However, no right to abortion exists in any UN human rights treaty. The American Convention on Human Rights, which is ratified by Nicaragua, instead specifically enshrines the right to life from the moment of conception.
Amnesty has a history of targeting Nicaragua’s pro-life laws. Amnesty claimed last year that Nicaragua’s laws give rise to torture or at least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and therefore violate the UN Convention Against Torture.
The Ford Foundation last year designated its million-dollar grant to Amnesty's Global Dignity campaign. That campaign strives to consider the “the impact of the denial of human dignity on people’s health and home.”
Amnesty’s promotional brochure for the Global Dignity campaign put the focus on maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS and human rights. The brochure claimed that maternal mortality is caused by unsafe abortions, and that those living in poverty do not have sufficient access to sex education and other “essential health services,” which “denies them the right to control their reproductive lives.”
The campaign aims to promote a “global agenda of advocacy and activism.” Yet, Amnesty claims independence from any “government, political ideology, economic interest or religion.”
As recently as 2005, Amnesty publicly stated, “There is no generally accepted right to abortion in international human rights law.” Its switch in 2007 to pro-abortion advocacy caused many Catholic leaders and institutions to withdraw their support. [October 7, 2010, Friday Fax, Volume 13, Number 43, Seana Cranston, J.D., New York, http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1713/pub_detail.asp ]
FORCED ABORTION
Commentary: Abortion Backers Ignore How Unsafe Abortions, "Clinics" Are Hurting Women by Denise Burke, AUL
“Practitioner Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter, Killed Woman in Failed Abortion,” “Abortionist Agrees to Suspended License,” and “Abortion Clinic Closed After Regulators Find Aborted Baby Parts in Jars” – these are just a few of the recent headlines that have Americans rightly questioning the safety and legitimacy of abortion practice in this country.
Abortion advocates have consistently argued that legalized abortion is beneficial to women’s health. When abortion is legal, women are not supposed to be at the mercy of unskilled and incompetent butchers and unsanitary and unsafe clinics.
All too often, however, today’s abortion clinics [sic] have become the true “back-alleys” of abortion mythology.
Imagine walking into a Kansas abortion [facility] in 2003 and finding fetal remains stored in the same refrigerator as food, a dead rodent in the hallway, overflowing and uncovered disposal bins containing medical waste, improperly labeled and expired medicines, and visible dirt and general disarray throughout the [abortion building].
Or imagine finding out that your daughter has died from “cardiac pulmonary arrest” during an abortion and that the abortion provider did not have the necessary equipment to monitor her vital signs, did not have oxygen or a functioning blood pressure cuff, "failed to adhere to a basic cardiac life support protocol," and refused to call 911 in a timely fashion.
This is the horror that one Massachusetts family faced in September 2007, and which led to the abortion provider being convicted of manslaughter just this month.
Consider the implications of a Philadelphia abortion [business] where, in March 2010, state inspectors found “deplorable and unsanitary” conditions, including blood on the floors and parts of aborted children stored in jars. State inspectors also discovered that the clinic’s director sanctioned the performance of gynecological exams and the administration of controlled substances by non-licensed clinic [sic] staff.
Sadly, these incidences are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Cases of substandard abortion practice have arisen in states from coast to coast and each year brings new outrages over appalling patient care.
So, what is being done about this persistent problem? Surely, given their self-touted concern for women’s health and safety, abortion advocates must be leading the charge to ensure that abortion [facilities] are properly regulated and inspected and that all necessary steps are being taken to protect women.
If this is what you think and hope, you would be wrong. Rather, pro-life advocates and like-minded state officials are the ones who work tirelessly to remedy the epidemic of substandard conditions at the nation’s abortion clinics, promoting medically-appropriate and comprehensive health and safety regulations for these [businesses].
They also defend these regulations when they are challenged in court by abortion providers more concerned with plying their trade without legitimate oversight and protecting their “bottom-line” than with safeguarding women’s health and safety.
Just over a decade ago, in response to well-publicized cases of substandard abortion care, a handful of states including South Carolina, Texas, and Arizona began enacting comprehensive abortion clinic regulations based, in large part, on the abortion industry’s own standards. Legislators in these states used practice guidelines obtained from Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation to craft rules and regulations designed to help ensure that women receive medically-appropriate care at abortion clinics.
How were they rewarded for their efforts? Abortion providers immediately filed federal lawsuits vociferously complaining about the costs of complying with the new laws and arguing that they should not be required to comply with their industry’s own standards.
Abortion advocates are not the protectors of women’s health that they so publicly hold themselves out to be. Nor can they be counted on to police themselves.
Disturbingly, while virtually every state heavily regulates the provision of veterinary services, only 27 states regulate – to widely-varying degrees – abortion [facilities]. However, only about a dozen states have implemented comprehensive, abortion-specific regulations requiring that medically-appropriate standards for clinic staffing, equipment, sanitary conditions, and patient care are implemented and enforced.
It is a sad state of affairs when the family pet is protected more than a woman entering an abortion [business], but that is the alarming reality of abortion practice today.
And for the sake of American women, it is a reality that must be confronted and transformed through the implementation of stringent and medically-appropriate standards for abortion patient care.
[October 12, 2010, Denise Burke, http://www.lifenews.com/state5537.html ; Note: Denise Burke is the Vice President for Legal Affairs for Americans United for Life, a pro-life group, in part, that works with state legislators to pass pro-life laws.]
Police: Ohio Man Forced Girlfriend into Abortion Facility at Gunpoint
An Ohio man has been charged with kidnapping after police say he tried to force his girlfriend into having her unborn child killed through abortion after she had resisted undergoing the procedure.
Columbus police say that Dominic L. Holt-Reid drove his girlfriend, Yolanda Burgess, to Founder's Women's Health Center Wednesday morning while holding her at gunpoint. Holt-Reid allegedly became angry with Burgess after she refused to go through with the procedure scheduled for 9 a.m. that morning.
According to police, after Holt-Reid and Burgess dropped off their 4-year-old son at school, Hold-Reid pulled the handgun from the glove compartment of Burgess' vehicle. Police were notified by an abortion clinic worker to whom Burgess had slipped a note indicating her distress.
Holt-Reid, who was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon, is being detained in the Franklin County jail and is scheduled to appear in Franklin County Municipal Court Thursday morning. [7 Oct 2010, Kathleen Gilbert, COLUMBUS, Ohio, www.LifeSiteNews.com]
Abortion is Not a Right, but a Crime, Say Mexican Women's Groups
A coalition of Mexican women's organizations and other NGOs issued a communiqué Tuesday denouncing the promotion of abortion as a "right," a claim made with increasing frequency in the nation's media.
According to Mexico's El Universal newspaper, the organizations decry the use of maternal mortality statistics as a "pretext" to pressure officials to legalize abortion, pointing out that the World Health Organization attributes only 13 percent of such cases to unsafe abortions.
Claudia Perez of Codigo Mujer (Women's Code) observed that the major causes of maternal mortality are not being addressed, and that poor women often don't have access even to antibiotics to treat hemorrhages or infections, a violation of their constitutional right to health care.
For many politicians and organizations, it is cheaper "to kill her child before it is born and even when it is born" than to provide a woman with the maternal health care she needs, remarked Patricia Lopez Macera of the Center of Integral Formation and Study for Women - Cancún, who added that abortion is not only not a "right" but continues to be a crime according to Mexican law, and is only depenalized in some circumstances.
In addition to the above-named groups, the organizations Sé Mujer (Be a Woman) and the Center for Studies and Reflection of Veracruz were also among the authors of the communiqué, which was issued following two months of increasingly intense activity by pro-abortion organizations in the country. [7 Oct 2010, Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent, MEXICO CITY, http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10100713.html]
Text Messaging Prevents Coerced Abortion at Planned Parenthood
The seventeen-year-old teen sat nervously in the waiting room of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Thursday, October 7, 2010. She was six weeks pregnant and did not want to have an abortion, but her mother had insisted.
Suddenly, her phone alerted her to an incoming text message.
“Jane, [not her real name] you are a mom! Please choose life for your baby, we want to help you! Tara”
That began a texting conversation that ultimately led to the young mother leaving the abortion clinic with the firm decision to keep her baby.
Tara, a pro-life activist and sidewalk counselor... had received a call from a woman named Gloria, who told Tara that her grandson’s girlfriend was being pressured into an abortion she did not want.
...Tara answered Jane’s questions and even texted her a picture of a baby at 6 weeks gestation, the same age as Jane’s baby, and told her to ask to see her ultrasound images. “Can i see an ultrasound an still tell them i dont want it done?” texted Jane.
“Yes you dont have to do anything you dont want … you can leave now and go next door they will help you just leave now,” replied Tara.
“my parents wont let me,” responded Jane. Tara assured Jane that she did not have to do anything she did not want to do.
She encouraged her by telling her that her grandparents and boyfriend did not want her to have the abortion and that they would be supportive of her and the new baby. Jane asked her if Tara could help with an adoption, and Tara assured her that she could. Tara encouraged Jane to come outside and talk to her.
“I am coming over there to meet u! Lets talk before u make your final decision, there's no hurry,” texted Tara.
Jane replied, “please come now.” “Will be there in a few minutes go outside,” texted Tara.
Finally, Tara was able to meet with Jane and get her the help she needed. Jane’s father came to the clinic to pick up Jane and take her home. Tara will follow up with Jane to make sure she gets the support she needs.
Tara’s last text message to Jane was poignant. “We are so proud of u! You are my hero, your baby is so proud too!”
“This incident highlights the epidemic of coerced and forced abortions that occur with alarming frequency in this nation,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
“Abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood are all too willing to exploit women in vulnerable circumstances in order to make a buck. More must be done to inform and protect women from being coerced into abortions they do not want...”
[October 8, 2010, Albuquerque, NM, http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10100804.html]
Shooting Threat Outside Abortion Business Raises Concerns About Forced Abortion: Apparent Epidemic of Unwanted and Coerced Abortions
Pro-life groups are raising concerns about coerced and forced abortions after a shooting threat outside an abortion business that performs late-term abortions in New Mexico.
Operation Rescue reported that a man who was escorting his 16-year-old daughter for an abortion at Southwestern Women's Options, which performs late-term abortions, flashed what appeared to be a gun at pro-life sidewalk counselors and threatened to shoot them if they tried to speak to his daughter. Police reportedly confiscated a loaded gun from the man and discovered other weapons in his car.
“This raises an important question of whether or not this young lady held any fear for her armed father, and whether she was seeking an abortion of her own free will,” Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, said in a news release. “We know that there is a silent epidemic of coerced abortions and even forced abortions going on in this country.”
A similar case occurred in Florida when a woman was sentenced to two years' community service for taking her 15-year-old daughter to an abortion business at gunpoint. Police said the woman told clinic workers that if her daughter didn't have an abortion, "I'm going to blow her brains out," and told them to perform the abortion even if the teen was "a little teary."
Most Abortions Are Unwanted or Coerced, Report Says
While the clinic workers in Florida called the police, other women and girls have not been so lucky. There have been numerous reported incidents of threats and attacks -- some of them deadly -- against pregnant women and girls in order to prevent them from continuing their pregnancies.
Research suggests that most abortions are unwanted or coerced, with one survey of women who had abortions finding that 64 percent said they felt pressured by others to abort and nearly 80 percent said they did not receive the counseling they needed to make a decision -- even though more than half felt rushed or uncertain about the abortion.
The Elliot Institute's special report, Forced Abortion in America, documents cases of women and girls being attacked or killed for refusing to abort and exposes the widespread epidemic of unwanted, coerced and forced abortions taking place in the U.S.
"Our files contain hundreds of stories from women and girls who were attacked or killed with the intent of getting rid of the pregnancy," said Elliot Institute spokesperson Amy Sobie. "We've been collecting these stories for more than six years through mainstream media sources and pro-life organizations who have been diligently reporting on these kinds of cases. The information is out there, but many people aren't aware of what might be going on in their own communities."
Sobie said that people might not immediately connect this with abortion because in many cases the woman or girl never makes it to an abortion clinic -- she's attacked or killed before she even gets there.
"In our opinion, the availability of abortion makes it easier for those around her to think that she shouldn't be having this baby, and gives those with an interest in getting rid of the unborn child a justification for doing so," she said.
Teen, Late-Term Abortions More Likely to Be Unwanted
A recent study of women who had later abortions found that nearly 40 percent said they desired the pregnancy and only 30 percent said both they and their partner supported the abortion, while less than 14 percent said they received adequate pre-abortion counseling or information on alternatives or physical and emotional risks.
"In general, these results are indicative of more ambivalence and conflict surrounding the decision and the likelihood of less stable partner relationships among women who obtain later abortions," the researchers wrote. "Logically, women who are unsure about how to proceed with an unplanned pregnancy are more likely to put off the decision to abort, perhaps hoping their circumstances will improve and enable them to carry to term."
Research on teens who have had abortions also found that teens are more likely to feel pressured into abortion, to report being misinformed in pre-abortion counseling and to experience more severe psychological stress after abortion, along with other physical and psychological problems.
~~~
Learn more: Read more about the Forced Abortion in America special report, and download a copy of the report -- http://www.theunchoice.com/News/forcedabreportrelease.htm
Forced Abortion in America Special Report --
http://www.theunchoice.com/pdf/FactSheets/ForcedAbortions.pdf
[Springfield, IL (Sept. 17, 2010)]
Conscience Breakthrough: Pro-life Lobby Soundly Defeats EU Attack on Conscience in Dramatic Reversal
An attempt to erase the conscience rights of EU health care workers has been soundly defeated at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) this evening. In a vote of 56 to 51, the PACE rejected the proposal of Christine McCafferty, a British politician and abortion activist, to “regulate” conscientious objectors to abortion across Europe.
The McCafferty Report, titled “Women’s access to lawful medical care: the problem of unregulated use of conscientious objection,” had been identified by pro-life advocates as the latest in a string of EU and PACE efforts to establish abortion as a universal human right.
As of tonight, Resolution 1763, re-titled “The right to conscientious objection in lawful medical care,” instead of creating a requirement for doctors to participate in abortion, actually affirms their right to refuse. The provisional edition published tonight reads, “No person, hospital or institution shall be coerced, held liable or discriminated against in any manner because of a refusal to perform, accommodate, assist or submit to an abortion, the performance of a human miscarriage, or euthanasia or any act which could cause the death of a human foetus or embryo, for any reason.”
Irish senator Ronan Mullen and Luca Volonte of Italy, led the assembly in passing a series of amendments which totally reversed the thrust of the report. The changes forced McCafferty and other pro-abortion Assembly members to vote against their own proposal.
Sophia Kuby, a pro-life advocate and head of the group European Dignity Watch that has been lobbying hard against the McCafferty Report, told LifeSiteNews.com tonight that the surprise turn-around “is a victory for common sense and for freedom” and “a great victory for Europe.”
“Europe has made clear tonight that freedom of conscience constitutes a pillar of a democratic society that needs to be defended, at times also against a radical minority that wishes to limit freedom and impose a unique pro-abortion thinking in Europe,” Kuby said.
“It is a great sign of hope that a majority has clearly voted against a radical pro-abortion, anti-freedom, anti-diversity lobby that tries to establish unhealthy and suffocating legislation.”
The Resolution’s second paragraph affirms the universal right to freedom of conscience, saying, “The Parliamentary Assembly emphasizes the need to affirm the right of conscientious objection together with the responsibility of the state to ensure that patients are able to access lawful medical care in a timely manner.”
It says that the PACE is “concerned that the unregulated use of conscientious objection” may affect low income women or those living in rural areas, but went on to affirm that “in the vast majority of Council of Europe member states, the practice of conscientious objection is adequately regulated.” It “invites” the 47 member states to “develop comprehensive and clear regulations” that protect the right to freedom of conscience.
Anthony Ozimic, communications manager for the London-based Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said, “This evening witnessed an incredible victory for the right of staff in medical institutions to refuse to be complicit in the killing of unborn children and other unethical practices.
“SPUC is immensely grateful to the large number of our supporters who lobbied the assembly in recent months, as well as to Senator Mullen, Mr. Volonte and the assembly-members who supported them.”
A the World Prayer Congress for Life in Rome SPUC's John Smeaton announced the result of today's vote one-half hour after it had taken place. The message was greeted with loud cheers by conference participants, a number of whom, including Smeaton, who had been key players in efforts to defeat the McCafferty Report.
Canadian gynecologist Dr. Robert Walley, who conducts international medical aid projects and networks with international pro-life physicians, told LifeSiteNews, "tell your readers that there are two gynecologists here who will sleep much better tonight." Walley and many of the Rome conference participants have been very anxious about today's vote.
See the final amended resolution as passed 7 October 2010 -- http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/APFeaturesManager/defaultArtSiteView.asp?ID=950
[7 October 2010, Hilary White, ROME, http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10100709.html ]
AAPLOG COMMENT:
Oct 6, 2010
Dear ProLife Colleague,
You remember the ACOG Ethics Committee Opinion #385, The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine, November 2007. It told us an ethical doctor would not refuse to refer for abortions, and would even locate his/her practice in proximity to an abortion clinic for the convenience of his patients. No kidding. Read it.
But where did this all come from, and, more importantly, where is it going? The Europeans were there before us, and here is where Europe is now. It is chilling, and it will come this way. Note particularly the establishing a "list of objectors"—that would be you and me in this country.
The following is a petition by the French Alliance for Life objecting to the proposal to "regulate the right of conscience objection:" (to read it in French, go to http://www.adv.org/appel-objection-de-conscience/appel-en/european-appel/
English version follows:
On 7th October 2010; the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which groups 47 countries, will debate and put to vote a resolution to "regulate the right to conscientious objection" in the field of health care.
We, citizens of a Member State of the Council of Europe,
We do not accept that the right to consciencious objection for healthcare providers being put into question;
We reaffirm our attachment to the right of all professionals to not be obliged to collaborate in a procedure that his or her conscience condemns;
We reject any idea of a list of objectors, which would open the door widely to vexations and professional discriminations.
In the name of freedom of conscience, such as it is recognized in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, we solemnly demand that the members of the Parliament representing our countries at the Council of Europe oppose this serious attack on freedom.
The text puts into question healthcare providers who do not wish to participate in acts contrary to their conscience: abortion, sterilisation, techniques of medical assistance for reproduction, even euthanasia in the Member States where it would be legal.
The draft resolution is an attack on the right to conscientious objection which would suffer 3 serious encroachments:
1/ The obligation to perform the procedure "in case of emergency";
2/ The prohibition for persons participating "indirectly" in the performance of the procedure to exercise their right to conscientious objection;
3/ The establishment of an official list of conscientious objectors;
The French Alliance pour les Droits de la Vie (Alliance for the Right to Life), member of the European Union fundamental rights platform, will address this appeal to the members of the Council of Europe Parliamentary assembly prior to 7th October 2010.
AAPLOG NOTE: Don't miss "The establishment of an official list of conscientious objectors." If this happens here, and it may well happen here, Hippocratic doctors all need to plan to proudly be on that list.
We are in the majority, probably a large majority, and we need to prepare to stand for what we believe. (It is virtually impossible to seriously discriminate against a large majority. But the government could do it. Do you remember the motto from U.S. colonial times: We must hang together, or we will most certainly hang separately.)
[6 Oct 2010, email]
Historic Turnaround in Europe Preserves Conscience Rights
A dramatic legislative reversal reaffirmed the conscience rights of medical professionals and institutions in Europe last week.
The Council of Europe’s legislature considered a resolution calling for onerous restrictions on conscientious objection, including stripping protections for doctors who object to performing abortions.
Led by two politicians from Italy and Ireland, a coalition of legislators secured the passage of 29 amendments that transformed the resolution into one that upheld universally recognized rights to freedom of conscience.
The original resolution, known as the McCafferty report, sought to punish medical professionals for refusing to perform procedures against their conscience. It even called for a new registry of conscientious objectors.
Christian McCafferty, a British politician and main author of the original resolution, said during deliberations that she sought to force private and religious hospitals and clinics to perform abortions.
A committee voted for McCafferty’s original resolution, but was overruled by the final legislative vote. Most observers assumed the draft resolution would pass in substantially the same form, and the final resolution shocked nearly everyone, especially McCafferty. She ended up voting against her own resolution.
The adopted resolution says that no “hospital, institution or person may be subject to pressures, or be held liable or suffer discrimination of any kind for refusing to perform, allow or assist an abortion…”
“This resolution will have a real impact on case law of the European Court of Human Rights,” said Gregor Puppinck, Director of the European Centre for Law and Justice. He said the court often quotes resolutions of the European legislature as a reflection of opinion in the continent’s broader society.
Puppinck told the Friday Fax that the legislature often holds votes on the most contentious issues on Thursday evening or Friday.
As more conservative members tend to live further than liberals from the Strasbourg meeting site, travel arrangements often make it more difficult for them to stay for votes late in the week. Puppinck credited much of the success of the final resolution to efforts to keep the conservative members in the room for the Thursday evening vote.
The amendments’ backers widely credited the final result to the leadership of Sen. Luca Volonte of Italy, chairman of the European People’s Party, and Sen. Ronan Mullen of Ireland.
“Mrs. McCafferty and her supporters should ask themselves why so many healthcare professionals object to being involved in abortions in the first place,” said a press release from Mullen. “It’s because they regard abortion itself as a breach of human rights, and not part of responsible medical treatment.”
Several binding international agreements guarantee the right to conscientious objection, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
A number of medical associations, including the French National Medical Council, condemned the original McCafferty report.
Prominent figures, including a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights and a former professional conduct chairman of the United Kingdom’s chief medical council, spoke out against the original resolution at an event held the day before the vote.
[October 14, 2010, Friday Fax, Volume 13, Number 44, Terrence McKeegan, J.D., STRASBOURG, http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1718/pub_detail.asp ]
Judge Allows Louisiana Abortion Facility That Does Not Meet Safety Standards to Reopen
A state judge has lifted the emergency suspension order issued by the Louisa Department of Health and Hospitals closing a Shreveport abortion center that failed to meet state health and safety standards.
State officials said after an investigation that the Hope Medical Group for Women had violations posing "significant health and safety risks to clients."
The suspension of the abortion center's license to operate came under a new abortion regulation bill pro-life Governor Bobby Jindal signed giving the state health department more authority to suspend licenses when abortion centers run afoul of state health laws.
But State Judge District Judge R. Michael Caldwell ruled the abortion business can reopen for business even though it has not fixed the problems that made it a danger to the public and calls to the abortion center from Operation Rescue reveal it is now taking appointments for abortions.
Bruce D. Greenstein, Health Secretary for the State of Louisiana, told reporters he is disappointed by the ruling.
"The findings of the Department's survey included several egregious safety violations and at least one resulting in immediate jeopardy. The Department's conclusion was that women visiting this facility would have their health and safety compromised," he said in a statement.
He said he is upset the judge did not seek any input from his department or those who found the violations of state standards.
"So, today, we are very disappointed that the judge would put the special interests of this abortion facility over the health and safety of women. This order was signed without any notification to us and without any effort to hear from medical professionals about the risk to the facility's clients posed by the violations our inspectors found," he said. "We will continue to fight to protect Louisiana residents and to shut down activities that put women in harm."
Benjamin Clapper of Louisiana Right to Life informed LifeNews.com: "There is an injunction hearing on Tuesday a week from today."
He said news reports on the judge's decision "make it more final than the situation is."
A hearing is scheduled for September 21, when a decision will be made on whether to uphold the abortion center's suspension.
"We are not looking great, but still have a shot. I do not think it is coincidental that all the kick off rallies [for the next 40 Days for Life campaign] will be on the same day as the hearing in Baton Rouge," Clapper said.
Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger also commented on the decision.
"Judge Caldwell showed a gross disregard not only for the law, but for the lives and safety of women by allowing this abortion clinic to reopen under conditions that the health department has already said presents an immediate health and safety threat," she said. "This ruling is a betrayal of his oath to uphold the laws of Louisiana."
The health department said it found the Hope Medical Group for Women abortion center failed to ensure a physician performed a physical exam of the mother prior to the abortion and failed to properly monitor vital signs of patients under anesthesia.
It also did not have proper procedures in place for administering anesthesia and failed to have properly trained medical professionals administering anesthesia and engaging in other medical procedures related to it.
The suspension was the first case of a Louisiana abortion center closed under the legislation, authored by Representative Fred Mills (D-Parks) and strongly supported by Louisiana Right to Life Federation, which was inspired by then DHH Secretary Alan Levine.
The Louisiana health department shut down a New Orleans abortion center in January for putting women's health at risk. http://www.lifenews.com/state4743.html
Related web sites:
Louisiana Right to Life - http://www.prolifelouisiana.org
40 Days for Life Shreveport-Bossier - http://www.40DaysforLifeSB.com [September 15, 2010, Ertelt, Shreveport, LA, http://www.lifenews.com/state5461.html ]
The Truth Behind Abortion Pills
The abortion industry is in celebratory mode these days. They are rapidly achieving a long hoped-for goal of making chemical abortions more acceptable and easily accessible. The problem is they are resorting to profound and dangerous deception to get what they want.
On Friday, August 13 – after 5 p.m., when most of the nation’s capital had left for a lazy summer weekend – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly announced approval of “ella,” a new and more effective “Emergency Contraceptive (EC).”
Although the drug is officially categorized as an EC, if you read the enclosed label closely, you will read that “alterations to the endometrium that may affect implantation may also contribute to efficacy.” That’s a scientific, confusing and perhaps less jolting way of saying “ella can abort an already implanted baby.”
On further investigation of ella’s label, you will find that in studies done involving pregnant animals, all the baby rats and half of the baby rabbits were aborted as a result of the drug.
This information comes as no surprise given that ella has an almost identical chemical makeup as the one FDA approved abortion drug in the United States, mifepristone, popularly known as RU-486.
Ella and RU-486 are both selected progesterone receptor modulators (SPRM). Ella is the first ever SPRM to be approved as an EC. SPRMs block progesterone which a developing baby needs to survive its first weeks of life. In essence, ella and RU-486 “starve” a baby of necessary nutrition, thereby causing its demise.
Unfortunately, the average woman taking ella will not know about the drug’s abortifacient capacity because frankly, the label doesn’t make it easy to understand this particular mechanism of action.
This is a serious violation of a woman’s right to informed consent.
The difference between preventing and destroying life is hugely significant. Women deserve to know what drugs are doing to their bodies and their babies. Studies show that as many as 40 percent of women would not use a form of contraception if they learned that it worked after implantation.
In early August, 91 members of Congress, including fourteen Democrats, sent a letter to FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg expressing serious concerns that ella not be approved unless there was evidence it would not cause an abortion before and after implantation. According to the letter, “If ella will be marketed as an EC, women deserve to see evidence demonstrating that ella will not destroy or harm an unborn child.”
The letter raised critical questions about the similarities between ella and RU-486, and the lack of research conducted to show that ella will not cause abortions. The letter also addressed the very likely dangers of off-label drug use, as well as ella’s potential health risks for women.
RU-486 has been known to suppress a woman’s immune system, making her more prone to infection and bleeding. Evidence of this includes the over 1000 adverse event reports submitted to the FDA in the few years following the approval of RU-486, including six deaths. Because of the chemical similarity between ella and RU-486, there are serious concerns that ella will have similar side effects.
Ignoring these concerns demonstrates that the FDA is motivated by advancing an abortion agenda more than providing Americans with the necessary information for informed consent. This, from an Administration that has repeatedly promised a commitment to “transparency” and “science.”
Interestingly, the FDA recently issued a warning letter to the company Novartis about false labeling of a cancer drug. Sadly, the same labeling standards are not applied to drugs that can cause abortions.
There is another grave component to this discussion that one need consider: Approval of ella might open the back door to taxpayer funding of abortion.
Due to annual appropriations restrictions on funding abortion, Congress does not allow Medicaid and certain other government programs to pay for abortions (except in the case of life, rape and incest).
These abortion funding restrictions apply to the abortion drug RU-486. However, the government does pay for ECs. Therefore, since the FDA has categorized ella as an EC, rather than as an abortifacient, it is very likely that the government will begin paying for ella.
The truth is that abortion drugs are not about women’s health but are really a seemingly innocuous means of advancing a radical agenda. Little pills, given by a doctor, seem both easy and reassuring.
For both women and their unborn children, they can be deadly. The FDA owes the American people the honesty to admit it.
[Congresswoman Virginia Foxx represents the fifth District of North Carolina. Editors' note: this piece is co-authored by Jeanne Monahan. 15 Sept 2010, http://townhall.com/columnists/VirginiaFoxx/2010/09/15/the_truth_behind_abortion_pills/page/full/ ]
Warning Pharmacists that Ella Causes Abortions
As U.S. pro-life advocates launch a campaign to warn pharmacists about the newly-approved abortion drug ella [http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10I20.pdf], the marketer of the so-called "emergency contraceptive" pill says it does not cause abortions. The new drug ulipristal is billed as a more effective morning after pill but its chemical makeup is similar to the [abortifacient] RU 486 abortion drug, mifepristone.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly announced approval of ella in August allowing Watson Pharmaceuticals to market the drug as an emergency contraception. [This is very deceptive and false advertising.]
The FDA and Watson are able to call the drug non-abortifacient because they have redefined the beginning of pregnancy -- changing the date from conception to implantation [in the uterus, a full 5-10 days later].
This verbal spin tries to make it appear that an unborn child who was actually conceived (fertilized), does not really lose his/her life with the use of ella, even though testing in animals and humans makes it clear that ella does cause abortions.
But, since the drug is "effective" up to five days following intercourse, there is clearly sufficient time for conception to occur and for a unique human being's life to be destroyed via use of the ella drug.
The FDA approval requires the ella drug to be sold with a prescription requirement in the same manner as the RU 486 abortion drug, known as mifepristone [Mifeprex] which has killed at least 13-50 women worldwide.
That means pharmacists will be involved in dispensing the drug to women who present valid prescriptions for it.
The Family Research Council has launched a campaign designed to get pro-life advocates to inform their pharmacists that ella causes abortions and to urge them to refrain from dispensing it -- http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10I20.pdf
"Due to the FDA's approval of 'ella' as an EC, pharmacists may believe they must cover ella as a prescription drug," FRC president Tony Perkins said in a recent email to the group's members. "However, many pharmacists do not know about the dangers of this drug or that it functions like an abortifacient. Many pharmacies may not know ella can cause an abortion, and need to be aware of these concerns before they begin stocking this abortion drug."
"To educate pharmacists around the country about this new abortion drug and shed light on its dangers, we ask you to download this informational flyer, http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10I20.pdf, take it to your local pharmacy, and respectfully ask your pharmacist not to offer the ella abortion drug," he added.
But, Charlie Mayr of Watson Pharmaceuticals emailed the Washington Post today to defend the drug against the charges that it causes abortions.
"Watson recognizes and respects that there are varying opinions concerning contraception and emergency contraception. However, Watson believes that ella® represents an important additional emergency contraceptive option for women who elect to use emergency contraception to prevent unintended pregnancy following a contraceptive accident or incident of unprotected intercourse," Mayr said.
Mayr added that "ella (ulipristal acetate) 30 mg tablet is not an abortifacient and the product is not RU-486."
Perkins, in his email about the new campaign, disagrees.
"Ella is similar in its chemical make-up to RU-486 and therefore can destroy an implanted embryo, in addition to other such effects as preventing fertilization or preventing implantation," he said. "Until now, the FDA has drawn the line between EC and abortion based on whether a drug prevents or ends an established pregnancy. Therefore, approving ella as an EC even under its own definition of an abortifacient is doubly misleading."
Ella is the first selective progesterone receptor modulator (SPRM) available in the United States for the indication of “emergency contraception (EC).” According to the European Medicines Agency, SPRMs block progesterone which is necessary to maintain a pregnancy. This effectively deprives the unborn child in the womb of the nutrients he or she needs to live.
During the FDA advisory committee meeting, Americans United for Life and the American Association of Pro Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists told the FDA [http://www.lifenews.com/nat6383.html] about a study in England that confirms the pro-life perspective that ulipristal [ella] acts as an abortion drug.
Anna Glasier, of NHS Lothian in Edinburgh, led a study of more than 5,500 women in the UK published online in The Lancet medical journal. It found fewer pregnancies among those women given the ellaOne [European name] drug within five days of intercourse.
And for women who took the drug between 3-5 days after having sex, only women taking the traditional morning after pill became pregnant. That's because all of the women using ulipristal [ella] during that time period actually had [chemical] abortions.
Related web sites:
Ella Causes Abortions - http://www.ellacausesabortions.com
FRC pharmacists flier - http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10I20.pdf
FRC - http://www.frc.org
[September 21, 2010, Ertelt, Washington, DC, http://www.lifenews.com/nat6711.html ]
PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Planned Parenthood Drastically Increases Abortions Performed, Decreases Adoption Referrals in 2008
American Life League has revealed that Planned Parenthood Federation of America committed 324,008 abortions in 2008 – a 6.1% increase over 2007, reported ALL vice president Jim Sedlak.
The total number of abortions committed by Planned Parenthood since it first began in New York state in 1970 is now 4,987,817 (PFLI note: this would not include most, if not all, chemical abortions).
While abortions are on the rise at Planned Parenthood, adoption referrals declined to just 2,405 – a staggering 51% drop since 2007. Thus Planned Parenthood now commits 134 abortions for every adoption referral.
“Keep in mind that Planned Parenthood is a business making a very clear business decision,” said Rita Diller, national director of ALL’s Stop Planned Parenthood International (STOPP) project. “Abortion is its most lucrative ‘service,’ and like all businesses, Planned Parenthood is simply maximizing its profits from its primary moneymaker. This becomes macabre when one stops to consider that Planned Parenthood is in the business of killing preborn children. Each one of those 324,008 abortions took the life of a unique, innocent and unrepeatable human person.”
Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest single abortion provider – committing 26.8% of the estimated 1.21 million abortions in the United States in 2008. Planned Parenthood also runs the nation’s largest abortion chain, with over 300 medical and surgical abortion facilities across the country.
Despite the increase in abortion, Planned Parenthood showed a decline in a number of other areas, including a drop of 4% (almost 100,000 visits) in its primary customer base – female birth control customers.
While Planned Parenthood often emphasizes that it is the only provider of health care in many areas of the nation, primary-care patients accounted for only one-tenth of 1% of its business in 2008.
The latest Planned Parenthood data are in keeping with the testimony of former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson, who has publically testified that Planned Parenthood is intentionally trying to increase its abortion business.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: American Life League: STOP Planned Parenthood -- http://www.stopp.org/
Planned Parenthood Federation of America: Fact Sheet
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPFA/fact_ppservices_2010-09-03.pdf
[ALL, Washington, DC (10 September 2010); PharmFacts E-News Update, 13 Sept 2010]
STOPP's Special Report on Planned Parenthood's 2008 So-Called "Service" Statistics
Planned Parenthood Abortion Numbers and share of abortion market reach all time highs
Although it has still NOT released its 2008-2009 annual report to the public, Planned Parenthood Federation of America recently quietly posted its 2008 "service numbers" on its website, hidden under the "History of Planned Parenthood" on its newsroom page.
Almost 5 million babies have been aborted by Planned Parenthood over the last several years.
As expected, Planned Parenthood's abortion numbers reached an all-time high. The abortion mammoth admitted to committing 324,008 abortions in 2008. That represents a 6.1 percent increase over the 2007 figure of 305,310.
STOPP calculates that at an average of $470 per abortion, Planned Parenthood affiliates brought in $152,283,760 in 2008 by way of abortion income.
Nationwide, abortion numbers began falling in 1990 from an all time high of 1.6 million per year and declined through 2006, when they reached 1.2 million. However, while nationwide figures were declining dramatically, Planned Parenthood's abortion numbers continued to increase steadily.
In 1990, Planned Parenthood's share of the abortion market was 8 percent.
By 2008, its share of the abortion market had catapulted to 26.8 percent, proving beyond a doubt that the focus of Planned Parenthood's business is increasing abortions, and that Planned Parenthood's mantra that it is decreasing abortions through its salacious sex education and birth control is patently false.
The 2008 abortion figure of 324,008 brings the total number of abortions committed by Planned Parenthood to 4,987,817. [15 Sept 2010, Wednesday STOPP Report]
Planned Parenthood's Huge Deception: "Abortion is 3 Percent of Our Business"
Planned Parenthood continues its attempts to deceive the American people in order to increase its government funding and abortion business in the face of growing opposition to abortion and to Planned Parenthood in our nation.
By playing games with the numbers, Planned Parenthood claims once again in this 2008 service numbers "Fact Sheet" that abortion is 3 percent of its business.
It arrives at that number by dividing the number of abortions it commits by the total number of "services." In 2008, that would be 324,008 divided by 10,943,609.
To illustrate the absurdity of such a statistic, we could say that if Planned Parenthood hands out 97 condoms, it would count that as 97 "services." Then it does 3 abortions, and claims that, because it also handed out 97 condoms, abortion is 3 percent of its business. This is a dastardly display of deception, specifically designed to lead the American people and the legislators who continue to give government money to Planned Parenthood to believe that a very small portion of Planned Parenthood's business is abortion-related.
A better way to illustrate Planned Parenthood's abortion-centered business model would be to see what percentage of its total clinic income is attributable to abortion. When we do the math, we see that Planned Parenthood's estimated $152,283,760 2008 abortion income amounts to 40.6 percent of its 2007-2008 clinic income.
If Planned Parenthood wanted to accurately portray the extent of its abortion business, it would use the 40.6 percent figure instead of the deceptive 3 percent figure that it constantly regurgitates. [15 Sept 2010, Wednesday STOPP Report]
Abortion is 96.5 Percent of Planned Parenthood's Maternity-Related "Services"
Planned Parenthood claims it is all about "choice," but a look at its maternity-related services to pregnant women paints a horrific picture of death and destruction inside the innocuous looking facilities.
The 2008 service figures show that 96.5 percent of pregnant women who received maternity-related "services" from Planned Parenthood aborted their children, with only 3.5 percent receiving prenatal care or adoption referrals. With these kinds of figures being presented, it is clear what kind of "counseling" goes on at Planned Parenthood. [15 Sept 2010, Wednesday STOPP Report]
Planned Parenthood Adoption Referrals Drop 51 Percent
Adoption is so far down on Planned Parenthood's list of options that it is almost non-existent. The 2008 service numbers show that Planned Parenthood adoption referrals dropped 51%, down to 2,405 from 4,912 in 2007. This means that for every adoption referral at Planned Parenthood, 135 children suffered a grisly death by abortion. [15 Sept 2010, Wednesday STOPP Report]
Planned Parenthood's Primary Customer Base Declines
Planned Parenthood's primary customer base is comprised of its female birth control customers. In 2008, Planned Parenthood recorded a four percent loss (almost 100,000 customer visits) among its female birth control customers.
This is consistent with an ever-growing lack of trust of Planned Parenthood, as women come to understand the truth about its deadly agenda. It is also consistent with Planned Parenthood's continuing move to concentrate on its most profitable area of operation, abortion. [15 Sept 2010, Wednesday STOPP Report]
Planned Parenthood Sex Education Adversely Affects 1.2 Million Young People; Millions More Impacted by Sexually Explicit Websites and Literature
Planned Parenthood affiliates' sexually explicit, salacious sex education programs impacted 1.2 million young people in 2008. In addition, Planned Parenthood reports 18 million annual visits to its website, www.plannedparenthood.org.
Planned Parenthood sexualizes young people through its programs, websites and literature, and then profits monetarily from the contraceptives, STD treatment and abortions it sells them. Planned Parenthood fights abstinence-until-marriage programs tooth and nail, because sexually abstinent young people obviously produce no income for Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood generally lists "abstinence" first in the list of items presented in its sex education forays. However, a look at its websites for teens, http://www.plannedparenthood.org/teen-talk/index.htm, along with other Planned Parenthood websites such as Take Care Down There, its educational brochure Healthy, Happy and Hot, and its recommended resource It's Perfectly Normal, reveal the truth about Planned Parenthood sex education.
Planned Parenthood's claim of providing primary care is a ruse
When clamoring for more funding, Planned Parenthood often claims to be the only source of health care for people in many rural areas. Planned Parenthood's numbers betray that claim. Primary health care accounted for only one tenth of one percent of its services in 2008. [15 Sept 2010, Wednesday STOPP Report]
Fraud Charges Plaguing Planned Parenthood
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is forcing Planned Parenthood to defend itself against a whistleblower’s allegations of fraudulent overbilling of the federal government. The whistleblower’s attorneys contend that if the abortion industry’s leading player loses the case, the defeat would reinforce perceptions of a pattern of fraudulent billing in other states, raising the possibility that Congress eventually might cut off federal funding for the organization. The appeals court on Aug. 24 rejected Planned Parenthood’s motion to dismiss a former employee’s lawsuit alleging that the organization fraudulently overbilled the government for services provided in California. Planned Parenthood will have to defend itself in trial court against the suit.
[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=198841; PharmFacts E-News Update, 13 Sept 2010]
Planned Parenthood Considers Expanding to Coastside
[http://hmbreview.com/articles/2010/09/08/news/doc4c87d81c672c5241163384.txt , Half Moon Bay Review; PharmFacts E-News Update, 13 Sept 2010]
In the wake of Friday’s announcement that Planned Parenthood Federation of America revoked the Golden Gate branch’s affiliation, the reproductive health organization will expand its Mar Monte division services to San Mateo and Alameda counties. This new assignment has set Mar Monte representatives on the prowl to scout out underserved locations. Half Moon Bay is under consideration for new outreach efforts.
Renewed Call to Defund: Planned Parenthood Expenses Fall Dramatically; Will Not Disclose Income
In addition to its Fact Sheet containing 2008 "service" numbers, PPFA posted another Fact Sheet on its website called Planned Parenthood by the Numbers.
While revealing an expense figure of $863,900,000 for the 2008-2009 fiscal year -- $90 million less than the previous year - it did not post an income number.
The last time PPFA had an expense number less than $900 million was in its 2005-2006 fiscal year when it reported total expenses of $847 million.
There has been much conjecture as to why PPFA has failed to release its 2008-2009 annual report, which would reveal its income. Making public this total expense figure gives credence to those who maintain that Planned Parenthood has not released the report because it shows the organization is in decline. Such a drastic reduction in spending is normally the result of a major decrease in an organization's income.
Planned Parenthood has been rocked by internal and external scandals over the last few years. It has seen three affiliates - in South Palm Beach, Florida; El Paso, Texas; and San Francisco, California - collapse due to financial issues. It has seen dedicated pro-life groups release tape recordings and videos shedding light on what really happens in its facilities. It has seen the African-American community rise up a loud voice against its operations because of its racist roots and current practices.
This lone expense number makes us believe that Planned Parenthood is not releasing its annual report because it wants to weather the storm until the expected millions of dollars from Obamacare start flowing into its coffers. But, the American people are tired of the lies. We call on Planned Parenthood to publicly release its 2008-2009 annual report NOW! Americans want to see the financial health of the organization into which we are pouring millions of dollars each year.
Because Planned Parenthood refuses to release the data, every level of government should immediately shut off all taxpayer funds to the organization. [15 Sept 2010, Wednesday STOPP Report]
Commentary: Obama Must Back Down From Ignoring Doctor's Conscience Rights on Abortion
by Dominique Monlezun and Kristan Hawkins September 15, 2010
LifeNews.com Note: Dominique Monlezun is entering Tulane School of Medicine. He is the National Coordinator of Medical Students for Life, a division of Students for Life of America. Kristan Hawkins is the Executive Director of Students for Life of America.
Get the pitchforks out --America is hunting physicians. Instead of calling off the dogs, President Obama is leading the charge.
In March of 2009, Obama called to rescind the conscience protection clause that was implemented by Health and Human Services on January 20, 2009. Then he adamantly backed the passage of the healthcare reform law, which leaves physicians’ conscience rights open for attack from nearly all sides.
Why should you care about the conscience rights of doctors? Because whether doctors have conscience rights may determine whether you have a doctor.
The sacred doctor-patient relationship is based on the assumption that patients and their doctors share similar moral beliefs. Patients want doctors who can help them make informed decisions within our moral frame of reference because they share our values. And physicians want to be able to follow their consciences when they practice medicine and have the power to say “no” to certain medical procedures without having to fear being reprimanded or losing their jobs.
That’s not a hypothetical situation.
The Washington Post noted that Obamacare does not protect medical professionals opposed to a procedure like abortion from discrimination by federal, state, and local governments, nor from hospitals and clinics. This means that if a physician refuses to perform an abortion because it violates her conscience, she could lose her job and have no recourse.
Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo knows this all too well.
This New York nurse was forced by her supervisors to help abort a 22-week-old pre-born baby at Mount Sinai Hospital, despite her long-standing agreement with the hospital allowing her to opt out of abortion procedures. She states, “It felt like a horror film unfolding … I felt violated and betrayed.”
Starting in 2009 and continuing until today, polls have shown that most Americans oppose abortion. Amid the growing pro-life atmosphere in America, Obama supports a double standard that tells pro-life medical professionals that they cannot exercise their free will and conscience rights, while patients desiring abortions can.
But isn't America just catching up to the times and is this not the situation across the world? No.
For example, the Irish Medical Council’s 2004 Guide to Ethical Conduct and Behavior states: “Medical care must not be used as a tool of the State, to be granted or withheld or altered in character under political pressure. Doctors require independence from such pressures in order to carry out their duties.”
The nation is already facing a shortage of doctors and nurses. Because of Obamacare, millions more patients will be flooding the system in coming years. In an online survey of nearly 3,000 faith-based physicians, 95% of them said they would stop practicing Medicine rather than violate their conscience. And the New England Journal of Medicine published a survey that said one-third of all physicians would stop practicing if Obamacare was passed.
Where will patients go when doctors are forced out of their profession?
We must tell President Obama to call off the dogs. He preaches tolerance but does not tolerate medical professionals who decline procedures on religious or moral grounds. As long as these physicians are portrayed as inhuman monsters, government agencies and organizations will hunt them down with the pitchforks of lawsuits.
http://www.lifenews.com/nat6695.html
Microbiologist: Hundreds of Studies Confirm Abortion-Breast Cancer Link
A microbiologist says there are so many published studies confirming the link between induced abortion and breast cancer that he plans to publish one every day on his blog [ http://gerardnadal.com/ ] until he's mentioned them all. It will take Dr. Gerard Nadal so many weeks to cover them all, the blogging will continue until early next year.
Nadal, who has a has a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from St John's University in New York, has spent 16 years teaching science, most recently at Manhattan College.
He will report on one abortion-breast cancer study daily until he has exhausted all of the abortion-breast cancer studies and he anticipates he may be reporting on these studies as late as January or February of 2011.
"Today begins the inexorable presentation of the scientific literature on the abortion/breast cancer link," Nadal writes. "Women’s lives depend on us getting the truth out to them. In short order we'll generate plenty of pros armed with the simple truth of science!"
His first article reviews a 1997 epidemiological study by Julie Palmer, Lynn Rosenberg and their colleagues, "Induced and spontaneous abortion in relation to breast cancer," published in the journal, Cancer Causes and Control.
Palmer and Rosenberg are not unbiased researchers, which makes their findings even more relevant for women. Instead, they are abortion advocates who have testified as expert witnesses on behalf of abortion businesses in lawsuits challenging the states of Alaska and Florida because of their parental notice or consent laws.
Their study, supported by U.S. National Cancer Institute grants, examined 1,835 women ages 25-64 years with pathologically confirmed, invasive breast cancer and 4,289 women aged 25-64 admitted for nonmalignant or malignant conditions.
Nadal says the study found women who had never had children and who had one case of an induced abortion raised their abortion breast cancer risk by 40 percent.
"So in plain English, women who had one induced abortion, regardless of ever having had a child, had a 40% increased risk of developing breast cancer over women the same age, with the same parity status who never had abortions, and the authors are 95% certain that there is no other explanation," he said.
Nadal says the study further showed that for women who had a child previously, "there is a 30% increased risk of cancer" and it "may well be explained by additional stimulation of the lobules by estrogen in the aborted pregnancy, without the benefit of lactogen at the end."
Nadal says observers of the debate about the abortion and breast cancer link should pay attention to another part of the study where the authors attempt to undermine their own results in an effort to downplay the abortion-breast cancer link.
The authors claim their own study suffers from a form of recall bias -- despite their assertion that they were 95% certain that the results could not be due to chance. The authors believe women with breast cancer are less likely to hide their abortion from the health questioners compiling the data than women without breast cancer.
"They offer no proof of this phenomenon other than the same assertions made by other breast cancer researchers with similar data. In other words, the phenomenon is a baseless assertion reverberating in the pro-abortion echo chamber," Nadal writes.
"Are we really to believe that breast cancer brings women closer to telling the truth of their previous abortions? Why the acuity of memory in a breast cancer patient vs. the control patients? The abortion question was just one in a long, detailed history taken during the study," Nadal continues. "There is no rational basis for believing that women with breast cancer are more apt to recall and report an abortion than any other women."
Despite that, the authors conclude in their study: “The small elevations in risk observed in the present study and in previous studies are compatible with what would be expected if there were differential underreporting by cases and controls.”
Nadal says that doesn't pass the scientific straight face test.
"If I had pulled that crap during my dissertation defense, my committee would have laughed me out of the room," he said.
However, as Nadal blogs about the abortion-breast cancer studies, he says this is a recurring theme.
"But, as we shall see over and over on a daily basis for months to come, this is what happens when ideology (and not physiology) becomes the prism through which data are filtered," he says. [http://gerardnadal.com/ ; http://www.lifenews.com/nat6718.html , Life News; 23 September 2010, ALL Pro-Life Today]
BREAST CANCER AWARENESS: AN OUNCE OF "PREVENTION" IS WORTH A POUND OF "CURE"
Posted: Friday October 1, 2010 at 11:37 am EST by Judie Brown
Send an e-mail to a friend about this article!
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time that we turn our attention to a devastating disease that strikes one out of every nine of our mothers, aunts, wives, sisters, cousins, daughters, and friends.
Naturally as we focus on this terrible disease we concern ourselves with raising money to fund research for a cure. This is as it should be.
However, precious little attention is paid to getting out the word on what the scientific community has already discovered relative to prevention.
We know with absolute certainty that oral contraceptives (OCs) and abortion both raise a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.
Renowned breast surgeon Dr. Angela Lanfranchi of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, along with City University of New York Professor of Endocrinology, Dr. Joel Brind, explain the mechanism:
Prior to a first full term pregnancy (FFTP) the cells that comprise the lobules of the breast are immature and cancer-prone Type 1 and Type 2 cells. Under the influence of the high levels of estrogen in OCs and during pregnancy, the lobules of the breast roughly double in number. This results in a doubling of the number of cancer-prone Type 1 and Type 2 cells. In pregnancy, it isn’t until the third trimester under the influence of the hormone human placental lactogen that the immature cells mature into cancer-resistant Type 3 and Type 4 cells.
Read the details in this stunning pamphlet -- http://www.bcpinstitute.org/reproductive.htm
The science is clear that the earlier a woman bears children, and the more she nurses, the greater her protection from breast cancer. The science of the past fifty years is also abundantly clear that having an abortion prior to a FFTP allows for the proliferation of the cancer-prone Type 1 and Type 2 cells, while terminating the pregnancy prior to the onset of the third trimester’s protective mechanism that converts these cells to the cancer-resistant Type 4 cells leads to increased incidence of breast cancer. The risk of breast cancer in women having an abortion prior to a FFTP ranges from 40% to 90% in most cases. In girls under the age of 18 with a family history of breast cancer, the risk becomes incalculably high.
Other institutes devoted to getting the word out about breast cancer in relation to OCs and abortion are the Polycarp Research Institute, under the direction of Chris Kalenborn, M.D.; and The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, under the direction of Ms. Karen Malec. Malec’s web site is loaded with links to the scientific data and refutations to the lies told by pro-abortion apologists such as Dr. Louise Brinton of the National Cancer Institute whose own research through the years has shown the link between abortion and breast cancer, and who convened a panel in 2003 to deny the validity of fifty years of research showing that link.
The full story on Brinton’s duplicity is here.
Were all of that not enough, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has been donating millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions and OCs in the nation. Their claim is that PP provides mammograms (which aid in diagnostics but not the “Cure”). In funding PP, Komen is contributing to new cases of breast cancer, a fact they steadfastly refuse to acknowledge. The truth, however, is that PP dispenses OCs like candy. They encourage a lifestyle of delaying childbirth while pumping young girls and women full of the OCs that raise their risk of developing breast cancer. Their services and the concomitant oncological sequellae consistently described in the scientific literature are completely at odds.
Though I quote statistics, these are just numbers that do not truly convey the gravity of Dr. Brinton’s duplicitous behavior, behavior that is nothing less than a betrayal of women by denying them the truth that needs to inform their informed consent to abortion and the use of OCs.
Therefore, in honor of women, in honor of the hundreds of researchers who have been besmirched by Brinton and her cronies, I shall publish the results of one research paper/editorial per day beginning tomorrow and will do so every single day until I have exhausted my library of papers sometime in December or January. I shall publish the complete reference including researchers’ names and affiliated institutions, a synopsis of what they did, the hard numbers from the results and the authors’ conclusions. They will all be stored in the “Breast Cancer” folder in the “Categories” panel to the right.
I am deeply indebted to Ms. Karen Malec, President of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer for her generous time and efforts at bringing me up to speed on this topic, both in long telephone conversations and in sharing with me her library of scientific literature, which has saved me over a hundred hours of research and library time.
As ... October [arrives], the pro-life community can do much by spreading the word about Dr. Lanfranchi’s and Karen Malec’s institutes that aim at prevention, and can do much by helping to fund their efforts at that ounce of prevention which is worth a pound of (Komen’s) “cure.” This year, please encourage all whom you know to help fund these two great institutes in their efforts to prevent this scourge in women, rather than forever mopping up Planned Parenthood’s mess.
As the reader will see daily in the months to come, Malec and Lanfranchi [-- women!! --] hold the key to this scourge.
Dr. Gerard M. Nadal holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Philosophy, Master of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Master of Philosophy in Biology, and Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from Saint John’s University, New York City. Dr. Nadal has taught Microbiology, Immunology, Genetics, Anatomy and Physiology, and Molecular Biology for sixteen years and is a frequent speaker on life issues and hosts a pro-life science blog, Coming Home.
Reprinted with Dr. Nadal’s permission from his blog, Coming Home [http://gerardnadal.com/ ]
http://gerardnadal.com/2010/09/19/breast-cancer-awareness-an-ounce-of-%E2%80%9Cprevention%E2%80%9D-is-worth-a-pound-of-%E2%80%9Ccure%E2%80%9D/ (some of the Responses are very informative, regarding past studies on the ABC link)
[1 Oct 2010, Judie Brown, http://www.all.org/newsroom_judieblog.php?id=3145 -- visit actual article for several imbedded links]
Commentary: THE DEADLY POLITICS OF BREAST CANCER
The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is encouraging a special project for BCAM. The group encourages women to send anti-cancer groups the links to two YouTube videos that expose the cover-up of two breast cancer risks—abortion and hormonal contraceptives (those containing estrogen and progestin). The videos reveal the cruel impact that the cover-up has had on women.
The first video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2KrbM5x2kk] features Charnette Messe, who talks about her own suffering because of the lies she was told about the connection between abortion and breast cancer. As someone who has met Charnette and heard her testimony, I can attest to the fact that those who are promoting BCAM are doing an immense disservice to women of all ages by their persistent denial that such connections actually exist.
The second video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSmma0COO1E] discusses a national study on the link between abortion and breast cancer. This study was conducted by Dr. Jessica Dolle of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The evidence exposing the connection is irrefutable.
But video commentator Karly Houldsworth points out that those national organizations professionally involved in “finding a cure” for breast cancer—including the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Cancer Institute—have never issued warnings to women instructing them on the dangers of obtaining an abortion and subsequently suffering from breast cancer, nor have these groups mentioned the connection between the pill and breast cancer.
As a matter of fact, they have spent donor dollars denying these facts.
This is why attorney Andrew Schlafly wrote about the successful lawsuits brought against doctors who failed to provide all the facts to patients. Every woman victimized by the lies perpetrated by the abortion and birth control cartels in America should be suing—that is, if she survived.
In June of this year, a team of scientists published an article in the journal Cancer Epidemiology in which they documented a link between abortion and breast cancer, reporting that abortion “triples breast cancer risk.”
When the study was published, Professor Jack Scarisbrick, chairman of the British pro-life pregnancy agency, LIFE, asked when the medical establishment would pull its head out of the sand. He pointed out that the abortion lobby has been downplaying this evidence and denying the link for years!
Most recently Slate published an article on a study linking the pill to a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. The lead researcher, Lynn Rosenberg, established the fact that African American women who use the pill have an increased risk of contracting the disease.
When Rosenberg testified in a Florida courtroom regarding the findings, Dr. Joel Brind, world renowned expert on the abortion and birth control pill/breast cancer connections wrote,
The first aspect of the link is actually not disputed by those who deny a connection, but it has been covered up by clever wording, with statements such as: “It’s not the abortion that increases the risk of breast cancer, it’s just that the woman does not get the protective effect of the full term pregnancy that the woman would have gotten had she had a full term pregnancy.”
Can you imagine a skydiver’s widow suing the guy who folded the parachute that didn’t open, and the attorney for the parachute-folder trying to tell the court: “He didn’t get killed because the parachute didn’t open; he got killed because he jumped out of the plane!”?
Indeed! It’s time to take a stand—to expose the lies and to spread the word that during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, not to mention every day of the year, clinical researchers and anti-breast cancer charities should take a vow to either provide all the facts or stop raising money under false pretenses.
Women are dying for the full truth.
[30 September 2010, Judie Brown, http://www.all.org/newsroom_judieblog.php?id=3144]
Another Planned Parenthood Abortion Business Built Next to a Black Neighborhood
A new Planned Parenthood abortion building is under construction in Virginia Beach, right next to the Lake Edward neighborhood, a predominantly black community. Of course, this is business as usual for the group which many black leaders say is responsible for carrying out genocide against black babies. [http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-virginia-beach/another-planned-parenthood-abortion-clinic-built-next-to-a-black-neighborhood The Examiner; 23 September 2010, ALL Pro-Life Today]
Florida Abortionist Whitney Arrested on Warrant; Held Without Bond
Central Florida prolife activists initiate call to Orlando Police. Abortionist surrounded by cops at Orlando Women’s Center and held without bond. Whitney screams profanities at activists and threatens to sue. Whitney also charged with resisting arrest without violence. Stunning eyewitness account details results of prolife activism. [http://prolifeflorida.com/2010/09/23/abortionist-whitney-arrested-on-warrant/ ;Pro-Life Florida; 23 September 2010, ALL Pro-Life Today]
Commentary: Abortionists in the News
By Tom Grenchik
Abortionists have been getting some well-deserved press lately. These are usually not the stories that make the national news.
Take Massachusetts abortion doctor Rapin Osathanondh, who was recently sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter in the abortion-related death of a 22-year-old woman. Prosecutors alleged that he failed to monitor her while she was under anesthesia, delayed calling emergency services when her heart stopped, and later lied to try to cover up his actions.
Then there is Dr. Andrew Rutland who, according to the California Medical Board, “committed repeated negligent acts in his care and treatment” of a patient who died after being given drugs in preparation for a second trimester abortion at a California facility.
What about Dr. Kermit Gosnell of Philadelphia, who gave a patient two separate doses of pain killers plus anesthesia, before her abortion? Her death led agents to raid his facility where they found “blood on the floor, and parts of aborted fetuses were displayed in jars.” The Pennsylvania Department of State’s Board of Medicine described his continued practice as “an immediate and clear danger to the public health and safety.”
And the Maryland Board of Physicians recently suspended the license of Dr. Romero Ferrer, while investigating the death of a 21-year-old mother of a toddler. Ferrer is alleged to have given the woman an overdose of pain medications during her abortion.
Have you heard about Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, who owned of a chain of abortion centers in California? She is currently serving a prison sentence of three years and four months, convicted of pretending to be a physician and doing abortions without a medical license. She pleaded “no contest” to seven felony counts for having placed more than a dozen women at risk by doing surgical abortions or giving them the abortion drug RU-486 without medical training.
Dr. George Shepard, Jr., of Delaware and Dr. Nicola I. Riley of Utah just had their Maryland medical licenses suspended for helping another notorious abortionist, Steven Brigham, to skirt the law. Brigham runs a chain of 15 abortion facilities, under the name of “American Women's Services.” He is not permitted to practice medicine in Maryland. So he reportedly initiated late-term abortions at his facility in New Jersey, which was not licensed to do abortions past 14 weeks, and then had the women drive in a caravan to Maryland, where the other two doctors finished the abortions, under his direction.
Authorities say that when one of these women was seriously injured recently during the abortion, Brigham put the semiconscious, bleeding woman into the back of a rental car and drove her to a nearby hospital, rather than call an ambulance. Police later raided his Elkton, Maryland facility and seized 35 frozen late-term fetuses and fetal parts.
Promoters of abortion once argued that it should be made legal to protect women from notorious “back alley” abortionists.
“Safe and legal” was constantly repeated as though these two words mean the same thing.
In reality, abortionists simply moved from back alleys into storefronts, and some of them still retained their alley character. Enjoying the protection of law, while being virtually unregulated, the U.S. abortion industry continues to harm countless women while destroying more than a million children each year.
Now that our new health care law is slated to help expand insurance coverage that includes abortions, we should probably expect to see more abortionists in the news, and more mothers and children suffering the consequences. We will need to amend that law, so the destructiveness of abortion will not be sold as routine “health care” to more and more women in our country.
[[1 Oct 2010, LIFE ISSUES FORUM, For Immediate Release, Tom Grenchik is Executive Director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, USCCB, www.usccb.org/prolife ]
Texas AG Tightens Licensing/Informed Consent Requirements for Abortion Businesses
The Attorney General of Texas released an opinion tightening the licensing requirements for clinics that dispense abortion drugs, as well as the state’s informed consent laws for women seeking an abortion.
Responding to a request from Texas Rep. Franke Corte jr. (R- San Antonio) for clarification, AG Greg Abbott declared that abortion facilities must stop using prerecorded phone calls or one-way conference calls to inform women of the risks of abortion in order to comply with the state’s Woman's Right to Know Act.
Abbott said that in order for a woman to have voluntary and informed consent to a surgical abortion under Texas statute, either the abortionist or a referring physician must give the information required by law in person.
“While the meaning of the statutory text is ambiguous,” wrote Abbott, “it is more likely than not that a court would construe the phrase ‘orally by telephone or in person’ to mean that an abortion facility may not use either a prerecorded telephone message or a one-way conference call to furnish the information required to be provided to a patient by section 171.012 of the Health and Safety Code.”
Abbott said the legislature’s intent appears to “require a live conversation between physician and patient, whether the conversation takes place by telephone or in person.” He added that if the legislature intended to mean prerecorded calls or one-way conference calls, it “could have easily provided for them in the statute. It failed to do so here.”
In a second opinion, Abbott responded to another of Corte’s concerns, and stated that a clinic dispensing drugs for chemical abortions must be licensed as an abortion facility under the Health and Safety Code.
He added that the “plain language of the definition of abortion does not distinguish between the termination of a pregnancy through surgical or medical means.”
However, Abbott made clear that he could not rule on whether the “prescribing or providing of any particular drug is an abortion,” since some drugs with abortion uses, such as Methotrexate, are also used to treat other medical conditions such as cancer.
The ruling does not make clear whether a physician dispensing RU-486 would have to follow the same licensing requirements as clinics, an ambiguity likely to be settled by guidelines from the state health department.
Corte had also asked whether abortifacients may be dispensed without the prescribing physician present, an apparent reference to so-called “telemed” abortions. But Abbott did not address the legality of dispensing the drug remotely, saying only that consuming the drug remotely was legal.
Abbott said that the statutes Corte cited, which allow only an attending physician to administer RU-486, do not require a patient to “ingest such drugs in the presence of the physician.” "Rather, it appears generally that a patient may consume prescribed drugs away from the physician's office,” Abbott wrote.
Kathi Seay, spokeswoman for Rep. Corte, told LifeSiteNews.com that Abbott indicated the legality of the telemed scheme would have to be settled by the Texas Department of State Health Services, which establishes guidelines for abortion in the state and defines what constitutes an abortion under the statute.
“To my knowledge there is nothing in the rules that discuss the telemedicine concept,” said Seay, adding that she was not sure whether telemed abortionists would try to bend existing rules or approach the health department for a clarification on the question first.
Read Rep. Corte's requests for the AG opinions here:
· http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/50abbott/rq/2010/pdf/rq0858GA.pdf
· http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/50abbott/rq/2010/pdf/rq0859GA.pdf
Read Attorney General Abbott's opinions here:
· http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/50abbott/op/2010/pdf/ga0802.pdf
· http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/50abbott/op/2010/pdf/ga0803.pdf
[29 Sept 2010, Peter J. Smith, AUSTIN, Texas, http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10092910.html ]
New Initiative Offers Help to Girls Facing Pressure to Abort
Pregnant teens often face pressure to undergo an abortion from parents or others - but a new resource soon to be distributed around the country will offer such young women hope and legal recourse in a seemingly hopeless situation.
While many may think of coerced abortion as a phenomenon found only in countries such as China, pro-life sidewalk counselors across America testify to routinely witnessing young girls being practically dragged into abortion clinics by fathers or mothers unwilling to handle their daughters' pregnancies.
Eric Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League said that, from his experience as a sidewalk counselor outside abortion clinics, coerced abortion is an all-too-frequent phenomenon.
"From what I've seen outside abortion facilities, many women -- especially young women -- are being coerced into aborting their unborn babies," Scheidler told LifeSiteNews.com. "Often the young woman will clearly want to come over and talk to a pro-life sidewalk counselor, only to have her boyfriend, husband or parent push her on into the clinic, sometimes forcibly.
"Again and again, women will tell our counselors, 'I have no choice,'" he continued. "They're threatened with being abandoned or kicked out of the house. Sometimes they're even threatened with murder."
Scheidler said he expected that efforts to end such coercion, if successful, would make abortion rates "plummet."
A project of the Justice Foundation, the Center Against Forced Abortions (CAFA), hopes to put an end to forced abortion by empowering young women with their legal rights. CAFA has already found success saving lives by offering young women a letter drafted by Justice Foundation attorneys that outlines to parents the legal rights of their daughters to carry their child to term.
Justice Foundation President Allan Parker said the experience of helping teenage girls escape pressure from parents to abort provided the inspiration to draft a letter informing those who are unaware of their rights.
"What's the basic premise of Roe v Wade? It's the woman's choice ... [and] choice implies being able to say yes or no," said Parker.
The letter informs parents - or any other "concerned persons" - that, "even though abortion may be legal, you do not have any right to force, coerce, exert undue influence, or pressure your daughter to have an abortion," citing the 1979 U.S. Supreme Court case Bellotti v. Baird.
Such force, they note, may "subject you to reporting and prosecution for child abuse. Besides possible criminal prosecution, if you force, coerce, or exert undue pressure, then both you and the abortionist could be held liable for various civil torts, such as battery, negligence, false imprisonment, or other claims."
Parker said that the letter could prove lifesaving to the children of young mothers unaware of their legal rights.
"Knowledge is power, and there are legal rights that they have," he said.
But not only teenage girls should receive the information in the letter, he said. The pro-life leader urged the letter to be distributed to pregnancy centers, police stations, government offices such as child protection services, and school counselors.
Jeanneane Maxon, general counsel for Care Net, said that she was "shocked" at the lack of awareness not only among ordinary citizens, but even active members of the pro-life community. Maxon told LifeSiteNews.com that Care Net "often" receives questions from pregnancy centers unaware "that parents and others cannot force their children to have an abortion." [September 24, 2010, Kathleen Gilbert, SAN ANTONIO, Texas, http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10092409.html ]
Commentary: Right to "Privacy" Has Men Hurting, Killing Women Who Refuse Abortions
by Maria Vitale
It’s the dirty little secret the abortion industry doesn't want you to know about.
Under the cloak of the so-called “right to privacy,” women are being bullied into abortions.
Take the case of a woman from Pennsylvania, who refused her boyfriend’s demands that she abort her child. His response? He began hitting her in the back. As she tried to block his punches, his hand bruised her arm.
But the violence did not end there. He struck her with his closed fist, telling her that if she screamed, he would “give her something to scream about.” According to police, the victim, who was five months pregnant, said her assailant said “she was forcing him to have this baby and she should respect that he wants her to have an abortion. Since she won't respect his request to have an abortion, he won't respect her.”
This is what Roe v. Wade has wrought—disrespect for women, both inside and outside the womb.
The West Pottsgrove man is now in jail, charged with first-degree felony charges of aggravated assault of an unborn child, harassment, terroristic threats, recklessly endangering another person, and other charges.
But the question is: How many more men like Roderick Douglas Gaines are using violent means to attempt to force women into abortions they do not want? And why aren't we hearing an outcry from so-called women’s rights groups about such atrocities?
Abortion is a human rights issue—not only for the vulnerable unborn child, but also for the mother. All too often, abortion is prescribed as a solution to the problem of domestic violence when, in fact, it is another expression of abuse. If a father has no respect for the life of a child, how can a woman expect him to respect her, body and soul?
Research has indicated that more than 60 percent of abortions are coerced, with women being forced into abortions they would not have chosen on their own. In the wake of an abortion, they are left to suffer from someone else’s choice.
How many abortion centers screen for domestic violence? How many report suspicions of abuse to police? How many times is abortion being used as a cover-up for crime—the crime of violence against women?
In news story after news story, we read of assaults on pregnant women—such traumatic incidents seem to have reached epidemic proportions. The widespread availability of abortion has obviously not curtailed domestic violence. When an unborn child becomes a target, her mother can easily become a target too.
This is one reason why choosing life for an unborn child can be so empowering for a mother. She may not be willing to leave her abuser to protect herself. But she just might in an effort to save her baby from harm.
For an abused woman, that someone [to help her] just might be her unborn child.
[October 1, 2010, http://www.lifenews.com/state5509.html ; LifeNews.com Note: Maria Vitale is an opinion columnist for LifeNews.com. She is the Public Relations Director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation and Vitale has written and reported for various broadcast and print media outlets, including National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and AP Radio.]
CHEMICAL ABORTIONS
Study: Women Who Use Abortion Drug Experience More Pain, Emotional Distress
The abortion drug mifepristone (more commonly known as RU 486) was
supposed to be a panacea for women -- allowing them to have safer
abortions in the privacy of their own home. But a new study out of
England finds women who had the drug-induced abortions preferred the
surgical abortion procedure.
They complained of more medical problems and more mental health issues
following the use of the abortion drug and the passing of the body of
the dead baby.
More than half the women who took the abortion drug (53 percent) told researchers their experience was worse than expected.
Teresa Kelly and colleagues at Newcastle University followed 122 women
who had either the surgical abortion or used the mifepristone pill in
the second trimester of pregnancy and published their findings in the
obstetrics journal BJOG.
They found all of the women in the surgical abortion group would decide to have a surgical abortion again.
The women who used the abortion drug reported more pain and more vaginal
bleeding and, two weeks after the abortion, they were much more likely
to report "intrusive" psychological symptoms ranging from unwanted
thoughts to nightmares of killing their unborn child.
The authors of the study acknowledged its limitations, according to a
Reuters report, saying they had a hard time finding women willing to be
randomly assigned the abortion drug or having the surgical abortion
procedure. And only 60 percent of women returned the follow-up
questionnaire.
"The results therefore need confirming in a much larger study before the
real clinical impact can be determined," Kelly told Reuters Health in
an email.
Still, the results show some interesting information -- such as how 37
percent of women taking the abortion drug said they experienced much
heavier bleeding than their menstrual period.
Kelly said the research shows the abortion drug should not "replace" the
surgical abortion procedure and she noted the study found women who
were later in pregnancy were less interested in the abortion drug than
those earlier in pregnancy.
The report follows news in the United States that two more women than
originally thought had died from using the abortion drug and developing
severe infections from it.
The two women died after developing a Clostridium sordellii infection
after using the abortion drug. Two separate studies -- conducted by the
University of Michigan and a Brown University researcher -- showed that
off-label use of the drug caused the infections in the women who took it
and the infections led to septic shock that claimed their lives.
The two new cases include the 2008 death of a 29-year-old Hispanic woman and the 2009 death of a 21-year-old Caucasian woman.
Just weeks ago, Americans pro-life advocates were distressed to mark the
10th anniversary of the FDA approval of the abortion drug.
In January 2008, RU 486 maker Danco Laboratories announced approximately
13 percent of all abortions in the United States involve mifepristone
-- a number that may seem low but it is double the number of women who
used the abortion drug in 2001.
The report also showed 57 percent of places that do abortions now have the abortion drug, compared with just 33 percent in 2001.
Ultimately, Danco indicated that 840,000 women in the United States have
had abortions with its dangerous drug - a number that is very likely
over one million in the two and a half years that have passed. Reuters
estimates the number of abortions involving RU 486 has now reached 1.4
million.
[October 12, 2010, London, England, http://www.lifenews.com/int1664.html]
New Video Clip Has Doctor Explaining How Ella Drug Causes Abortions
The Family Research Council is recommending a just-released video clip of Dr. Donna Harrison, OB-GYN and president of AAPLOG (American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists).
In the video, Dr. Harrison is explaining the medical perspective on how newly-approved ella drug can cause an abortion.
Ella, misleadingly labeled as an Emergency Contraceptive, was quietly approved by the Food and Drug Administration on August 13th. Watson Pharmaceuticals, the drug company manufacturing ella, will distribute the drug as early as October.
In this two minute clip, Dr. Harrison explains from a medical perspective how ella can cause an abortion in a pregnant woman.
See the video at -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo2fY0N-OKE
Visit -- www.ellacausesabortions.com
[24 September 2010, Washington, DC, LifeNews.com, http://www.lifenews.com/state5489.html ]
After 10 Years, RU 486 Abortion Drug Hasn't Helped Women as Promised
After 10 Years, RU 486 Abortion Drug Hasn't Helped Women as Promised
Two women have written editorials about the tenth anniversary of the RU 486 abortion drug, which has been responsible for the deaths of dozens of women and injuring thousands more across the globe. They say the abortion pill was supposed to help women but can't find any evidence of that.
Jeanne Monahan of the Family Research Council, and formerly an employee at the Health and Human Services Department writes in a column at Human Events that the drug has been entirely unsafe for women during the 10 years.
"Chemical abortions, while indeed legal, have over the last ten years posed major safety concerns including infection, life-threatening bleeding and even maternal death," Monahan writes. "Despite this dubious safety record, it appears to be a major goal of the abortion industry to increase the number of chemically induced abortions."
Monahan says the Food and Drug Administration approval process made it clear the Clinton administration, which approved the drug, had no interest in helping women.
"Looking back at the spring and summer of 2000, the FDA approval process of RU-486 was flawed, rushed, politicized and deviated from the FDA norm in a variety of ways, including the use of inferior clinical trials to support its safety," she noted. "For example, when the FDA’s advisory panel voted to approve RU-486 in 1996, American trial data was neither finished nor sufficient, so the FDA relied on French data primarily, which is atypical."
The pro-life writer says the FDA said the same data had been found by the FDA to be marked by “carelessness,” “fraud” and “evidence tampering.”
Monahan points to the death of Holly Patterson, an 18-year-old from California, who died after getting the abortion drug and bad instructions to take it vaginally from Planned Parenthood. That, she says, proves allowing sales of the abortion drug in the name of women was a fraud.
"As RU-486 celebrates its ten-year anniversary, one thing is ironic. The abortion movement promised decades ago that women having abortions would have the best medical attention—no more unsupervised, lonely abortions with women bleeding away in back alleys," she writes.
"Well, now with chemical, and especially with telemed abortions, women have less medical attention and still bleed away, having a lonely, unsupervised abortion over a toilet. Progress for women’s health? No," Monahan concludes. "Instead, pursuing an agenda of increasing chemical abortions at all costs, the abortion industry is reverting women’s health back to the Dark Ages."
Meanwhile, Anna Franzonello of Americans United for Life also condemned the abortion drug in terms of its adverse impact on women.
"A look at the facts surrounding the FDA approval of the drug and its 10 years of use in the U.S. is sobering. Women’s health has been sacrificed and countless lives have been taken to advance the agenda of the abortion industry," she writes.
"RU-486 was not adequately tested for its safety and effectiveness and it does not provide any meaningful therapeutic benefit over surgical abortions already available. In one study, RU-486 failed in 18.3 percent of patients, while surgical abortions failed in only 4.7 percent of patients," Franzonello notes. "Taken alone, RU-486 fails in one-third of cases, so the regimen includes a second drug – a prostaglandin – that must also be taken."
Franzonello accuses the FDA, under the Obama administration, of continuing to ignore women's health with its approval of the ella drug, which causes abortions but is billed as a morning after pill.
"In August 2010, the FDA approved the drug ella. Like RU-486, ella is a selective progesterone receptor modulator (SPRM). By blocking progesterone, an SPRM can either prevent a developing human embryo from implanting in the uterus, or it can kill an implanted embryo by starving it to death," she says.
"In addition, there are serious concerns about the lack of studies regarding the drug ella. The FDA’s prescribing instructions for ella note among the things that have not been studied are: the safety and efficacy of repeated use of ella, how ella may interact with hormonal contraceptives, the effects of ella on minors, the risks to a fetus when ella is administered to a pregnant woman, and risks to an infant when ella is taken by a nursing mother," he explained.
Franzonello says ella, like RU 486, subjugates women's health to a second class status.
"September 28, 2010 is a somber anniversary. Ten years ago today the FDA put politics above women’s health. Unfortunately, it was not an isolated incident. The approval of ella demonstrates that when it comes to chemical abortion, advancing the abortion industry’s agenda is more important to the FDA than protecting women’s health," she concludes.
[September 29, 2010, Washington, DC, http://www.lifenews.com/nat6737.html, Steven Ertelt, (LifeNews.com), 30 Sept 10. #4991]
Australia Report Shows Abortion Drug Failing, Women Suffering Health Problems
A new report issued by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Australian agency that monitors the approval and usage of drugs in the island nation, shows usage of the abortion pill has shot up following its approval. The report indicates the drug has failed frequently and put women's health at risk.
TGA data indicate usage of the abortion drug shot up following the authorization during the second half of 2009 for a company to distribute the drug nationally.
Since the RU 486 abortion drug was initially approved four years ago, there have been more than 3,000 abortions associated with it, though most of the abortions occurred in the latter half of last year. Figures covering 2010, once they are released, could show the percentage of abortions using the drug increasing further as it becomes more mainstreamed.
There are currently 81 physicians who have signed up to disseminate the two-part abortion drug commonly known as RU 486, including Marie Stopes Abortion centers throughout the country.
The Australian newspaper indicates there were 1,154 unborn children who were killed using the abortion drug in New South Wales, Queensland saw 323 abortions involving the pill and there were 412 in Victoria.
However, the usage of the abortion drug did not come without medical problems for women.
The newspaper indicates the drug failed in 14 cases, requiring women to go to a local clinic for a followup surgical abortion procedure.
In another 110 cases, TGA received reports of "adverse effects" -- with complications and problems ranging from retention of placenta or parts of the deceased baby's body remaining inside the uterus to a need for medical care for other reasons relate to bleeding or incomplete abortions.
The new TGA data, which The Australian says was released by the agency to Tasmanian Liberal senator Guy Barnett, shows there are about 100,000 abortions annually in Australia.
He told the newspaper the cases of women facing medical problems "should raise serious questions about the ethicacy and appropriateness of" the abortion pill.
The new data comes at the same time as a new report showing two more American women have died from using the mifepristone abortion drug. [October 1, 2010, Washington, DC, http://www.lifenews.com/int1658.html ]
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Planned Parenthood's Cash Cow, the "Abortion Pill", Produced $48 Million for PP in 2008
Tuesday, Sept. 28, marked the 10th anniversary of the approval of the only pill ever approved specifically for use in the U.S. for the purpose of killing a preborn baby - formerly known as "RU-486", now marketed as Mifeprex, and having the generic chemical name Mifepristone.
A July 2009 Planned Parenthood study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that in 2008, a total of 96,738 medical (abortion pill) abortions were committed by Planned Parenthood in the U.S., representing 32% of first-trimester abortions in Planned Parenthood facilities. [http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0809146#t=articleDiscussion]
Planned Parenthood's website reports that an abortion-pill abortion costs between $350 to $650, so at an average cost of $500 per abortion, that means Planned Parenthood took in over $48 million in 2008 from abortions by pill. And all Planned Parenthood had to do to "earn" its blood money was to dispense a pill and send the women home to deal with extended profuse bleeding, sometimes horrific pain, and the emotional turmoil that comes with killing a child and then delivering the dead baby.
[PFLI note: PP routinely buys Mifepristone for pennies on the dollar due to federal tax subsidies as well as what is known in the trade as preferred "340B pricing" for alledgedly "closed" specialized "pharmacies" and "clinics"]
The study says that in 2008, abortion-pill abortions were committed in 300 of Planned Parenthood's 880 facilities. 78 of Planned Parenthood's 97 affiliates (80 percent) were involved in the abortion pill business in 2008.
With the advent of Planned Parenthood's telemed abortions, where the pill is dispensed vending machine style by a doctor who pushes a button from a remote location, Planned Parenthood is moving toward providing even less support to the women whose rights they say they champion.
Telemed abortion takes the "right" to "safe, legal abortion" to a new level, denying the woman the right to a personal consult with the abortionist and extending its "compassion" via the image of an abortionist on a monitor screen, asking the woman if she is ready to begin the abortion process. [STOPP Wednesday Report, 9/29/10]
Planned Parenthood Committed 21,702 Late Term Abortions in 2008
Planned Parenthood often brags that it commits abortions early - as if that makes killing the child any less egregious - and has been known many times to say that what it is aborting is just tissue.
Though Planned Parenthood doesn't report the number of late term abortions it commits, STOPP researchers did the math and found that the abortion giant committed 21,702 late term abortions in 2008. Here is how we arrived at that number.
In 2008, Planned Parenthood Federation of America reports that it committed 324,008 abortions. The abortion giant also reports in its New England Journal of Medicine study cited above that it committed 96,738 medical (abortion pill) abortions representing 32% of first-trimester abortions in Planned Parenthood facilities. That means it committed 302,306 first trimester abortions in 2008.
When we subtract the number of first trimester abortions committed at Planned Parenthood in 2008 (302,306) from the total number of abortions (324,008) we see that 21,702 late term abortions were committed by Planned Parenthood in 2008.
Pro-life advocates have responded in so many heroic ways to lend real support to women so that they will not feel forced into abortion and are turning out in droves at Planned Parenthood facilities to pray and bear witness to the Gospel of Life. These are essential elements to stopping Planned Parenthood.
But until we cut off Planned Parenthood's ever increasing sources of government funding, the abortion giant will continue to grow fatter and fatter as it gorges itself on the money it absorbs from the government, using that money to promote itself in the community and sexualize our children so that it can gobble up the money it generates by killing preborn children - including second and third trimester children -- at the apex of its business day.
Visit the new STOPP website to find information on stopping government funding of Planned Parenthood [http://www.stopp.org/main/G], and please act now to implement the plan. [Wednesday STOPP Report, 29 Sept 2010]
Chemical and Surgical Abortions Increased in Wisconsin in 2009, State Report Shows
The state of Wisconsin Department of Health Services recently released its annual report on induced abortions in Wisconsin. The total number of abortions in Wisconsin in 2009 was 8,542, up from 8,229 in 2008.
This is the first increase in the number of abortions since 2003.
Statistics show the use of Mifepristone/misoprostol [trade names Mifeprex and Cytotec, respectively] has risen while surgical abortions have declined. This drug regimen, formerly known as RU-486, results in a chemical abortion. Both chemical and surgical abortions are reported to the state of Wisconsin and are covered by the statistics.
“With the rising use of mifepristone/misoprostol, increasing numbers of women are left to abort their babies alone in their homes, without any medical care or emotional support,” stated Virginia Zignego, communications director. “This is not progress for Wisconsin women; it is a tragedy.”
Of the 8,542 reported abortions in 2009, 72 percent were surgical, 27 percent were chemically induced, and 0.6 percent were surgical procedures following a failed or incomplete chemically induced termination of pregnancy. In 2008, these proportions were 80 percent, 19 percent, and 0.4 percent, respectively.
According to a LifeSiteNews article [http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09071003.html], one out of four babies aborted early in the United States is killed by these abortion pills rather than a surgical procedure.
The chemical abortion method consists of first administering mifepristone, which kills the child before misoprostol is given two days later, a drug that induces the mother to expel the dead baby’s corpse.
These numbers of chemical abortions do not include the use of the morning after pill and other forms of hormonal birth control, which can cause a pre-implantation abortion, and are sold over the counter.
Click here to read the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services report on 2009 abortions in Wisconsin. -- http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/stats/pdf/itop2009.pdf
Operation Rescue Seeks Women Who Have Had Abortion Pill Mifepristone Complications
Ten years after the abortion pill, formerly known as "RU 486", also known as Mifeprex or Mifepristone, was approved by the FDA, questions about its safety remain, especially in Iowa, where Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is dispensing an abortion drug combination via a remote controlled vending machine scheme known as telemed abortions that prevents patients being examined physically by a licensed physician or receiving adequate follow-up care.
Because of this, Operation Rescue is asking women who have suffered complications from medical abortions, especially in Iowa, to tell their stories.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which is the first in the nation to employ the remote-controlled abortion pill distribution system, incredibly has told media that after 1,900 telemed abortions, there have been no complications.
"We know that is simply impossible. All this statement shows is that Planned Parenthood supplies such abysmal follow-up care that they are completely ignorant about what happens to women after they load them up with abortion pills and send them out the door to deal with the aftermath on their own," said Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger. "Planned Parenthood's emergency plan is to tell the women to go to the emergency room if complications arise, then wash their hands of them."
According to Planned Parenthood's own statistics, 3-4% of women taking the abortion pill will suffer incomplete abortions that require surgery.
The UPI reported on September 28, 2010 [http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/09/28/RU-486-used-in-20-of-US-terminations/UPI-90591285716204/, "RU-486 used in 20% of U.S. terminations"], that the abortion pill's incomplete abortion rate is actually eight percent.
That means out of 1,900 telemed abortions done by Planned Parenthood, there should be approximately 60-150 women who have suffered incomplete abortions requiring surgical intervention. Those numbers do not even take into consideration other known complications, such as excessive bleeding requiring surgery and serious infections that require immediate emergency care.
In addition, Planned Parenthood is prescribing Mifeprex through 9 weeks of pregnancy, two weeks beyond the safety limit set by the FDA. Along with Mifeprex, women are given a drug called Misoprostol, also known by its trade name Cytotec, a drug originally developed to treat ulcer conditions. The manufacturer of Cytotec has warned women not to take the drug to induce abortions [http://www.drugdanger.com/Cytotec/SearleWarning.htm], a warning cavalierly disregarded by Planned Parenthood. These factors increase the risks of serious complications.
Operation Rescue has filed a complaint against Planned Parenthood's telemed abortion scheme with the Iowa Board of Medicine. An investigation is underway. The IBM is scheduled to discuss public policy on telemedicine at a meeting on October 22.
"It is time for women who have suffered these complications to come forward and tell their stories so other women won't have to suffer as they have. If necessary, we will protect the identity of anyone who wants to speak with us about their abortion pill experience," said Sullenger.
Contact Operation Rescue at 316-683-6790 ext. 112 or send an e-mail to contact(at)operationrescue.org.
[September 29, 2010 Des Moines, IA]
CDC: Two More U.S. Women Have Died From Using Mifepristone, the RU 486 Abortion Drug
The Centers for Disease Control has reported that two more women in the United States than previously thought have died from using the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug. The news comes just days after the 10-year anniversary of the FDA's approval of the abortion drug.
The new information comes from a CDC report issued September 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The two women died after developing a Clostridium sordellii infection after using the abortion drug. Two separate studies -- conducted by the University of Michigan and a Brown University researcher -- showed that off-label use of the drug caused the infections in the women who took it and the infections led to septic shock that claimed their lives.
The two new cases include the 2008 death of a 29-year-old Hispanic woman and the 2009 death of a 21-year-old Caucasian woman.
The early deaths of women from the RU 486 abortion drug included four California women who all died within a week of using the abortion drug they received from Planned Parenthood abortion businesses. Planned Parenthood had been telling women to use the abortion drug vaginally, even though the FDA indicated oral use is safer. The abortion business ultimately changed its policy to conform to the FDA protocol.
The women's deaths brings the total number of deaths in the United States from the abortion drug to eight [ed. that are known and have been reported.]
On an international level, one woman died in Canada, two have died in England, one died from using the abortion pill in Sweden, and the maker of the abortion drug in Europe confirms there are dozens more women who have died form using the abortion drug whose deaths have largely gone unreported.
Monte Patterson, whose daughter Holly Patterson died after using the abortion drug she received from a San Francisco-area Planned Parenthood, said he is disappointed by the news.
He said the deaths of nine women from the abortion pill "can't be ignored" and called on the FDA to review the safety of the mifepristone pill.
"The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health. They need to reevaluate the risk, safety and efficacy of the drug they approved 10 years ago," he said.
Patterson believes the FDA also needs to step up its process for learning about and conveying to the public information about women who have died from or been injured by the RU 486 drug.
"Reporting of death and serious side effects from medical abortion drugs is voluntary for doctors. These newly reported deaths could represent just a small fraction of women injured by the drug. The FDA estimates only about 10% of problems with drugs are reported," he told LifeNews.com.
Patterson also says Planned Parenthood's change of protocol doesn't necessarily make the abortion drug safer for women -- and pointed out that one woman died from using the abortion drug orally instead of vaginally.
"There is no proof or evidence in scientific literature of the safety of this new regimen," he says. "Since 2001, there have been eight reported deaths with the use of vaginal misoprostol. However, an 18 year old woman died using the buccal misoprostol administration of the drug."
Although Planned Parenthood changed its protocol on the administration of the abortion drug, it still uses the drug in a smaller dosage than the FDA recommends in order to safe money, which upsets the California father.
"The National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood do not use the approved FDA regimen. The FDA does not comment or recommend any other regimen except the one which they have approved," Patterson said.
When women get the abortion drug RU 486, they take two pills. One, mifepristone, essentially deprives the growing unborn child of food and water and the second, misoprostol, causes contractions allowing women to give birth to the dead baby.
In animal and cell culture studies, the University of Michigan researchers found that misoprostol, when given directly in the reproductive tract, suppresses key immune responses and can allow a normally non-threatening bacterium, Clostridium sordellii, to cause deadly infection.
According to post-mortem reports on the women who died from the abortion drug, this vaginal use allowed the bacteria to cause the fatal infections.
Dr. Randy O'Bannon, the director of research for National Right to Life, told LifeNews.com previously that earlier studies showed the mifepristone drug also caused problems.
"Authors of this study claim that vaginally administered misoprostol may suppress the body's immune response, making infection more likely. Earlier studies have suggested that RU 486, or mifepristone, the first drug used in the chemical abortion process, may itself have immunosuppressive qualities," he explained.
O'Bannon said he's not convinced the University of Michigan study is the final chapter in the story of the women's abortion drug deaths.
"As long as both of these drugs are being used as abortifacients, it will be important to try and nail down how one or both of these drugs contributed to eight known infection deaths among women to took the two drug regimen," he said.
[visit http://www.lifenews.com/nat6743.html for many imbedded links; October 1, 2010, Ertelt, Washington, DC, LifeNews.com]
RU-4Death?
RU-486 always produces at least one victim, but according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the abortion drug has done more than kill the unborn.
Last Friday, the agency confirmed two new maternal deaths as a direct result of the drug. The announcement, which brings the total number of RU-486-related deaths to 12, comes almost 10 years to the day after the Food and Drug Administration approved the pills for widespread use.
According to the CDC, both women died from complications with c. sordelli, the bacteria linked to a number of RU-486 casualties from 2000-2006.
As FRC has said from the very beginning, the FDA's approval process for RU-486 was significantly flawed.
Since then, more than 1,300 women have reported adverse effects from using the drug--including 336 hospitalizations, 172 blood transfusions, and now 12 deaths.
RU-486 continues to sit unopposed on pharmacy shelves, while women pay a severe price. Other drugs with less extreme effects have been pulled from the market--but the FDA seems intent on pushing a reckless abortion agenda.
What's worse, it recently approved a similar drug, ella, as an "emergency contraceptive," despite the fact that it shares an almost identical chemical makeup with RU-486. Considering the similarities, there's reason to believe that the side effects will be just as dangerous. [4 Oct 2010, FRC.org]
Commentary: Tea Party Activists Who Are Worried About the Economy Should Consider the Cost of Abortion
Abortion is a moral and spiritual issue. It is an intense political and social issue. It is also a constitutional and legal issue that has divided the nation, splintered political parties, and emotionally devastated millions of people, both men and women.
Abortion is also an economic issue. The economic crisis we now face is caused by numerous factors that all relate to flawed governmental policies. However, the current economic crisis and, indeed, our economic future as a nation are impacted by the very uncomfortable fact that since 1973 (when the Supreme Court gave us constitutionally mandated abortion-on-demand) more than 52 million unborn children have been killed by abortion.
What impact has this massive destruction of human life had on our current economic situation?
A very interesting study called "The Cost of Abortion" (www.thecostofabortion.com) gives some insight to this question. The conclusions of this study are staggering and should be taken into consideration by all political leaders who see the state of the economy as the primary issue motivating voters in the upcoming election.
This study begins with the figures for the total numbers of surgical abortions carried out in the United States from 1973 to 2007. An assumption is made that one-half of these aborted children would be female and, based upon figures from the Centers for Disease Control, each female – at age 25 – would have an average of a single child.
The study then combines these calculations to generate a number of “missing persons” from the USA from 1973 to 2007. The Gross Domestic Product per capita for each year is then multiplied by the number of “missing persons”. Accordingly, the sum of lost GDP from 1973 to 2007 due to surgical abortion is nearly $37 trillion.
It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that a loss of $37 trillion to our economy since 1973 has taken a big toll. Because of abortion, we have 52 million fewer taxpayers, who would have provided a strong economic foundation for the nation.
Because of abortion, we have lost millions of successful entrepreneurs, inventors, business owners, physicians, lawyers, teachers, venture capitalists , investors, artists, and, of course, mothers and fathers who would have birthed children whose descendants would have become productive citizens contributing to a robust economy.
Abortion is an economic issue. America’s most valuable natural resources are human beings who through the creative genius of the human spirit create innovative ways to overcome problems. Abortion has destroyed a large portion of this natural resource.
Today the state of the economy is a major issue of concern. As our national debt skyrockets and increased taxation and regulations are placed upon small businesses our unemployment rate rises.
These economic concerns have fueled the Tea-Party movement, which has galvanized grass-roots political protest against our current political leaders who want to impose bigger government, higher taxation and restricted freedom. The political polls indicate that this protest movement is gaining strength and is expected to have a major impact in this next election upon the political direction of the country.
There is a raging debate among Tea-Party leaders regarding the role social issues, such as abortion, should play in their agenda. Many argue that these issues are divisive and should be downplayed in order to attract the broadest coalition possible to bring about economic change.
While most participants in the Tea-Party movement express pro-life sentiments, they do not apparently make the connection between abortion and our economic plight -- but they should.
The next two election cycles will determine the ultimate fate of our nation. Our elected representatives will make decisions on the critical issues of taxation, individual liberty, and the role of government.
In making these decisions they must understand that abortion is an issue that cannot be ignored.
If we truly want to restore economic health to the nation, then this wanton destruction of innocent human life must end.
[September 23, 2010, Tom Glessner, http://www.lifenews.com/nat6722.html
LifeNews.com Note: Tom Glessner is a pro-life attorney who is the president of NIFLA, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. NIFLA is an organization with more than 1,200 affiliated pregnancy centers that provides legal, medical and practical help for pregnancy centers across the country.]
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