Bakersfield
Solicitation to Commit Murder
In April 1973, abortionist Xavier Hall Ramirez initiated a third-trimester saline abortion at Greater Bakersfield Hospital. The patient expelled a live 4½ pound infant. Nurses called Ramirez, who ordered them to discontinue oxygen to the baby, but another doctor countermanded this order, and the infant survived to be adopted. Ramirez was indicted for solicitation to commit murder.
Reference: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 1981.
Assault and Death Threat
This incident is one of the most astounding examples of police bias for pro-abortionists and against pro-lifers we have ever heard of.
On June 13th, 1995, Carlotta Fondrin was sidewalk counseling outside the Family Planning Clinic abortion mill in Bakersfield, California. One young man dropped off a young lady and Carlotta tried to give him some literature. He swore at her and then pulled a gun on her, then drove away. Carlotta called the police and they found the man at his home. He showed the police the gun, which turned out to be a pellet gun. He was not arrested.
Tim Palmquist, the pro-life leader in Bakersfield, went to the police station with his wife and children to ascertain why this man was not arrested. He asked for the police report and was refused because his name was not on the report. He then made it clear that there was a double standard being applied by the Bakersfield police. The District Attorney in Bakersfield had often stated that people who counsel for life at abortion mills should expect mistreatment because abortion is such a "volatile" issue.
The next thing Tim knew, the policeman had gone from around the counter and grabbed him. He threw him down on his face and handcuffed him. Tim asked, "Why are you doing this?" The policeman said, "You have a pen in your hand and you were making stabbing motions." Tim was thrown in the Bakersfield Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail and was charged with assault with a deadly weapon on an officer, disturbing the peace, and resisting arrest.
Needless to say, the charges were thrown out in court, but there were absolutely no consequences for the policeman who assaulted Tim — or for the man who made threats with his pellet gun.
Reference: Operation Rescue National Newsletter, July 1995.
Barstow
Murder, Manslaughter, Stalking and Assault (4 incidents)
Lawrence Rivera (aka Lawrence Hale) killed his pregnant girlfriend, Kristina Garcia of Leawood, whose body was found in Yermo on May 22, 2002.
Rivera's former wife, Michele Grant, described to the Desert Dispatch how he would consistently assault and stalk her. According to Grant, Rivera often choked her when he was angry while they were married. She said "His best manuver was putting his thumbs in the middle of your neck and just squeezing until you stopped breathing or he realized what he did. He would squeeze my hand so hard that the wedding bands would literally bend on my finger. Then when he hid in the trunk of my rental car in April 1996. that was really scary."
She said that once, he choked her until she passed out and went to the hospital. She also described other bizarre behavior by Rivera, including stalking. On one occasion Rivera allegedly hid in the trunk of her car to keep tabs on her while she ran errands.
When she became pregnant, Grant said Rivera was unhappy. She said that "Lawrence told me that if I didn't get an abortion that he would pull it out of my stomach."
Sergeant Gerrit Tesselaar of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department described Rivera's possible motive for killing Garcia: "She shunned him and he couldn't handle it." Tesselaar also revealed that Rivera has a manslaughter conviction on his record, involving another girlfriend. Additionally, Rivera was also implicated but never charged in the manslaughter death of a child in Germany in 1998. The child was the daughter of his live-in girlfriend, according to military records.
Rivera is still at large, the subject of an international manhunt. His former wife said "Pray for whoever crosses his path the wrong way."
Anyone with information about Lawrence Rivera, 31, who is charged with the murder of Garcia, should contact Sgt. Tesselaar at (909) 387-3589.
References: Ercum Over. "Murder Suspect's Ex-Wife Tells of Abuse." The Desert Dispatch [Barstow, Dagget, Fort Irwin, Hinkley, Lenwood, Newberry Springs and Yermo, California], June 8, 2002.
Chico
Assault (5 incidents)
The Northern California Feminist Womens Health Center (FWHC) retained the services of a contingent of "clinic escorts" — a team of activists whose sole purpose was to clear pro-lifers from the sidewalks. The "escorts" were led by Alison Gude, who at the time was associated with both the violent homosexual group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) and the Bay Area Coalition against Operation Rescue (BACAOR). The BACAOR "clinic defense handbook," written by Gude, states: "Our best work is done before police arrive, or when there are not enough police there to prevent us from doing what we have to do. ... Get in place before cops can mess with it: establish balance of power early, do key acts requiring physical contact with [pro-lifers] as much as possible before the cops have enough people to intervene."
Videotapes of BACAOR confrontations depict Gude and other activists taunting, spitting, shoving, body-blocking, and throwing punches at pro-life sidewalk counselors.
The BACAOR manual continues: "Chivalry is not dead with these people — and that means they have an inordinate sense of 'honor' about being accused of touching women. ... There are innumerable instances of clinic defenders neutralizing male [pro-lifers] by shouting 'get your hands off me, don't you dare touch me' all the while they are tugging or pushing [pro-lifers] out of line." Specialized "escorts" called "doggers" are deployed for the purpose of getting into "loud, expletive-filled physical confrontations" with pro-lifers.
Reference: William Norman Grigg. "The Abortion Underworld." The New American, January 15, 2001 [Volume 17, Number 2].
Forced Abortion and Malpractice
This pitiful case shows just how little radical feminists and other pro-abortionists care about "choice," and how much they care about performing as many abortions as possible. In 1985, they railroaded a developmentally disabled young girl into an abortion without telling anything to her mother, and without even hinting at other alternatives. This is cowardice at its worst.
The radicals at the Chico Feminist Womens Health Center even went so far as haranguing a grieving mother about "choice" while she was still in shock over her daughter's secret abortion.
Erin Preston was a developmentally disabled 14-year-old girl. She had learning disabilities, low verbal comprehension, and psychological and emotional impairment.
Due to the problems Erin had, her school had promised "to keep her [mother] informed of everything that happened relating to Erin, no matter how trivial or insignificant," and that the principal had developed a program of written daily reports to keep her apprised of Erin's school situation.
In 1985, when Erin's class was presented with sex education, the teachers learned by questioning Erin that she might be pregnant. These two teachers encouraged Erin to have a secret abortion, assuring her "that abortion was quick and easy."
Typically, they did not even mention any alternatives to Erin, and they "implied that parental involvement in the decision was unnecessary or improper and effectively prevented Erin from communicating with her parents."
The teachers arranged a pregnancy test at an off-campus center, with the knowledge and approval of the school's principal, and a teacher took Erin for the test, paying for it herself, and filling out the forms since Erin was unable to do so, and forging school documents and the report to Erin's parents to conceal the fact that the girl had been taken off the premises without her parents' knowledge or consent.
The facility that did the pregnancy test, Oroville Family Health Center, knew that the adult accompanying Erin was her teacher and that the pregnancy test was being done during school hours to avoid notifying her parents. Yet Oroville did not advise Erin to inform her parents, nor did any of its personnel inform Erin of alternatives, but instead joined the teacher in urging a secret abortion.
Oroville also urged Erin to proceed with the abortion within a matter of days or it would be too late, which was false and misleading. The teacher and Oroville staff then met to plan how to secure Erin's abortion without parental knowledge or consent. The principal and superintendent were informed that the pregnancy test was positive and supported the decision to pursue secret abortion and all steps necessary to carry out the act.
During school hours, the teacher took Erin to the welfare department and with the complicity of staff there procured a Medi-Cal card to pay for the abortion, giving a teacher's name and the school address, with knowledge that the Medi-Cal card was for use in obtaining a secret abortion. Erin's school records and daily report were falsified to appear as though Erin had attended her regular classes.
Oroville, the abortion clinic, and the school made arrangements with Rape Crisis to have Erin transported by a rape crisis counselor for pre-abortion testing. The rape crisis counselor took Erin for four and a half hours during the school day to the abortion clinic, and she presented herself to Erin as "a person experienced in and knowledgeable about gynecological and reproductive matters." She filled out the forms and read them to Erin, who was unable to do so herself, "deliberately and purposefully remained with Erin continuously throughout the entire procedure and voluntarily assumed the fiduciary role of spokesperson and advocate for Erin, effectively controlling and limiting the information Erin received and keeping Erin in a passive, non-speaking role;" she also "volunteered information and offered opinions to Erin, ... and voluntarily assisted FWHC in the explanation of the abortion procedure."
She told Erin about her own abortion and urged her to proceed. She and the clinic workers "gave Erin inaccurate, incomplete, and misleading information concerning ... the nature of the abortion procedure, the time period within which the abortion could be performed, and the inherent risks of abortion.
School records were again falsified to keep knowledge of the proceedings from Erin's parents. Erin's teacher sent a note to Erin's mother stating that she wanted Erin to baby-sit for her March 23, 1985, and that she would keep Erin at her home overnight because she would be out late. The teacher again advised the principal and superintendent of the plans, which they supported.
On March 23, Erin's teacher took her for the abortion, identifying herself as the girl's teacher and filling out forms for her because Erin was unable to do so herself. Abortionist Diane Pemberton performed the abortion on Erin.
At no time did any agents of the clinic, Rape Crisis, Oroville, or the school inform Erin of alternatives to abortion, or of the risks associated with abortion, but at all times all parties involved continued to encourage secret abortion as safe and easy.
Erin spent the night at her teacher's home, and again school records were falsified to conceal the fact that she had been off the premises. On March 27, Erin's mother was called by the school and asked to come there immediately. Upon her arrival, she was informed of the abortion and that complications had arisen. The teacher took Erin and her mother to a doctor's office, where Erin was examined and immediately rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery.
While Erin was in emergency surgery, and her mother paced the floor in front of surgery, Chris Parker from the abortion mill arrived at the hospital, "confronted [Erin's mother], explained that she was from FWHC, and repeatedly told [her] that Erin had a right to have an abortion because it was every woman's right to choose what to do with her body. [Erin's mother] repeatedly asked Parker to leave her alone, informing Parker that she was very worried about her daughter and very angry at those who had assisted in the abortion. Parker ignored [her] requests and continued harassing, haranguing, and berating her, despite [her] recent shock, obvious distress, and repeated requests to cease."
Parker simply would not let up, and finally Erin's mother finally knocked her to the floor.
Erin's parents "are informed and believe ... it is the policy and practice" of the school district to procure secret abortions for pregnant students. Erin's mother sued the school district, Oroville, Rape Crisis, the welfare department, the clinic, and their agents for deceit in leading her to unwittingly relinquish care, control, and custody of Erin to them under circumstances she never would have consented to, and for misinforming Erin about abortion and her options.
Erin's mother also found cause of action in that the parties involved refused to consider the religious and/or philosophical beliefs of the family and of Erin herself, "thus imposing the Defendants' own beliefs on the minor child and family." Erin suffered "great physical harm and injury and emotional distress," and her family over $7,000 in medical bills.
Reference: Butte County Superior Court Case No. 89930.
Fairfield
Murder (2 counts) and Suicide
Una Brady was just days from delivering a healthy baby. She had been married to Shane Brady for two years. On March 4, 2005, the couple began to argue. Then, in front of Una's two teenaged daughters from a previous marriage, Shane Brady shot his wife in the face and chest, then turned the gun on himself.
Paramedics were unable to save Una's preborn child.
Fairfield police Sergeant John, a 22-year veteran of the force, said "It's one of the worst I ever heard of. It doesn't get much worse than shooting a pregnant woman."
Reference: Demian Bulwa. "Murder-Suicide Also Claims Fetus." San Francisco Chronicle, March 8, 2005, page B-3.
Fresno
Murder (2 counts) [Del Rey]
On September 21, 2004, Richard Daniel Hernandez murdered his girlfriend America Gonzalez because she was four months pregnant with another man's child. He used a sawed-off, 12-gauge shotgun to shoot her several times as she sat in the back seat of a friend's car in an isolated spot near the town of Del Rey, California. Then the friend, Daniel Archan Jr., and Hernandez pulled America from the back seat of the car and dumped her body in a vineyard. Then they drove the car to another location and burned it.
Archan pled guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact.
America already had a six-month-old daughter by Hernandez and a six-year-old daughter by another man, and was looking forward to the birth of her son.
Her older sister, Adriana Ross, said that America "was such a happy, wonderful, kind-hearted person who had a long ways to go in her life. ... I know they [Hernandez' family] love him. At least they will be able to see him in prison. We just get to see America's [grave] stone. There's no conversation. No birthday parties. Nothing."
On April 18, 2006, a Fresno County jury convicted Hernandez of two counts of murder. Prosecutor Greg Anderson said that, since Hernandez was found guilty of multiple counts of murder, he would be sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Reference: "Man Found Guilty in Pregnant Girlfriend's Murder" KFSN Television 30 [ABC, Fresno, California], April 18, 2006; Pablo Lopez. "Man Convicted in 2004 Killing." The Fresno Bee, April 19, 2006.
First-Degree Murder
In November 1981, 27-year-old Michael Hamilton gunned down his pregnant wife Gwendolyn with a shotgun on a rural Tulare County road near Fresno. Her preborn child was killed in the assault as well. Then he tried to collect on her $100,000 life insurance policy.
In 1982, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Since that time, he has languished on death row in San Quentin Prison.
As of early 2004, Hamilton was still fighting his conviction in a lengthy appeal process.
Reference: Jerry Bier. "Valley Man Appeals Death Penalty in '81 Murder." The Fresno Bee, December 4, 2003.
Assault (4 incidents)
On March 28, 1981, at the Family Planning Associates Medical Group abortion mill, four pro-abortionists attacked pro-life picketers, wrenching picket signs away from them and beating several of them with the signs.
Reference: "Anti-Abortion Pickets Claim Signs Taken by 4 Assailants." The Fresno Bee, March 30, 1981.
Vandalism [Silver Lake]
Pro-abortionists defaced a pro-life church with red paint, red coathangers, and posters accusing the church of "crimes against women" in March 1989.
Reference: Bill Soucie, comments in personal videorecording of the incident.
Los Angeles
Murder (10 counts), Rape (11 counts), Theft and Drug Possession
Convicted rapist Chester D. Turner appears to be one of the deadliest serial killers in Los Angeles history.
On November 1, 2005, Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders ruled that there was sufficient evidence to put Turner on trial for the murders of ten women between 1987 and 1998. Two of the women were pregnant — one was 6½ months pregnant and one was between four and five months pregnant.
The 38-year-old Turner is currently serving an eight-year prison term for an unrelated 2002 rape conviction. He had also been jailed on theft and drug possession convictions.
Police scientific investigator Carl Matthies testified that Turner's DNA was matched to sperm found on the bodies of all ten victims, and said that the probability that someone other than Turner raped the victims was about one in one quintillion.
Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson said that "Clearly those kind of statistics strongly indicate not only did this defendant have sex with them, he killed them."
Medical examiner Lisa Scheinin testified that all ten women were strangled and nine had cocaine in their systems. She also said that the preborn child of one of the murdered women was viable. Prosecutors charged Turner with eleven counts of murder and added the possibility of enhanced penalties for multiple murder and murder committed during rape. The district attorney's office charged Turner with murdering Annette Ernest, 26; Anita Fishman, 31; Regina Washington, 27; Paula Vance, 31; Mildred Beasley, 45; Andrea Tripplett, 29; Desarae Jones, 29; Natalie Price, 31; Brenda Bries, 31; and one unidentified woman who appeared to be in her 20s. They also said that Turner may have been involved in as many as twenty murders.
On November 15, 2005, Turner pleaded not guilty to all charges.
References: "Rapist Accused In Murders of 10 Los Angeles Women: Two Were Pregnant When They Died." KPRC Channel 2 Television News [Houston, Texas], November 2, 2005; Associated Press. "Man Pleads Not Guilty to Murdering Women, Fetus in LA." November 15, 2005.
First-Degree Murder (7 counts), Murder, Attempted Murder, Conspiracy to Commit Murder (7 counts), Kidnapping, Armed Robbery (2 counts), Aggravated Assault, Rape, Sodomy, Prostitution, Assault, Death Threats (5 incidents), Burglary (3 incidents), Grand Theft Auto (6 incidents), Theft, Conspiracy to Distribute Narcotics, Narcotics Possession, Fraud (2 counts), Credit Card Fraud (2 incidents) and Destruction of Property
Nobody more perfectly typifies the narcissistic, selfish, "anything goes" anti-life mentality better than homosexual Charles Manson of "Helter Skelter" fame. To people like this, people are mere commodities, to be used and discarded as they see fit.
Manson had a long criminal record before his gang's spectacular murders. At the tender age of 13, he committed two armed robberies with another teenager. He repeatedly burglarized homes and stole cars. When he was 17, he held a razor blade to another teenager's throat and sodomized him, and was classified as "definitely homosexual" by a psychiatrist. In 1955, he was caught stealing a car and was sent to prison. Upon his release in 1958, he took up pimping, and a year later was arrested and sentenced to probation for two federal charges of stealing a check from a mailbox and attempting to cash a United States Treasury check. Two months later, he was arrested for stealing cars and using stolen credit cards. Late in 1959, he defrauded a young woman of $700 and drugged and raped her roommate, and was sent to prison for ten years. In 1967, he was finally free again.
Charlie was a man with a plan. A Hell of a plan, actually. With drugs and his magnetic personality, he easily gathered a number of weak-minded, mentally defective individuals around him. By 1968, these included Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan (Sadie) Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromm and Charles "Tex" Watson.
Manson's plan called for the bloody and spectacular murder of a number of famous movie personalities, which would supposedly precipitate an all-out race war (how a bunch of White crazies slaughtering White movie stars was supposed to accomplish this was never really adequately explained). This race war would be won by Black people, but, as the racist Manson saw it, the victory would not last because of the innate inferiority of the Blacks. This race war could be closely followed by an Armageddon Manson called "Helter Skelter." He and his followers would hide in the Mojave Desert, and would emerge afterwards, taking over what was left of the world with Manson as one of the "Five Angels" — the other four being the Beatles, whom he adored.
The "Helter Skelter" grand plan would begin with the murder of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate. Then other movie stars would be killed. For example, Manson planned to have his gang murder Elizabeth Taylor, then carve the words "helter skelter" on her face with a red-hot knife and gouge her eyes out. Then Richard Burton would be castrated, and his penis and Taylor's eyes would be mailed to Eddie Fisher. Frank Sinatra was next. He would be skinned alive while listening to his own music. Manson's gang would make purses out of his skin and sell them. Tom Jones would be forced to have sex with Susan Atkins, and then would have his throat slit.
By 1968, after bumming around the San Francisco area in an old school bus, the Manson "family" was living at the home of music teacher Gary Hinman. On July 31, 1969, Charles Manson told Susan Atkins and Bobby Beausoleil to get some money from Hinman. When he would not cooperate, they imprisoned him in his house, then stabbed him to death and used his own blood to write "POLITICAL PIGGY" on his living room walls.
Director Roman Polanski and movie star Sharon Tate lived on Cielo Drive near Hollywood. Sharon was eight months pregnant and Polanski was away in Europe working on a film.
On August 9, 1969, Sharon was having a party with coffee empire heiress Abigail Folger and her boyfriend Voytek Frykowski, and internationally known hair stylist Jay Sebring.
First, the Manson gang cut the telephone wires to the house. Then they found 18-year-old Steve Earl Parent parked in his Rambler in front of the house. He had come to visit the caretaker at the Polanski-Tate home. They shot him four times.
Then they entered the house. They looped a rope around Sharon's and Jay's necks to keep them from escaping, then murdered Voytek Frykowski. They battered in his head and face with 13 heavy blows, and savagely puncturing the rest of his body with 51 stab wounds, in addition to shooting him twice.
Next, Susan Atkins approached Sharon Tate. She said "Sharon was the last to die. [She said] "Please don't kill me. Please don't kill me. I don't want to die. I want to live. I want to have my baby. I want to have my baby." [I said] "Look, bitch, I don't care about you. I don't care if you're going to have a baby. You had better be ready. You're going to die and I don't feel anything about it." ... In a few minutes I killed her." Sharon was found with 16 stab wounds all over her body.
Atkins said that she had wanted to cut the preborn baby out of Sharon's abdomen, but "there was not enough time."
The gang also murdered Abigail Folger by stabbing her many times and dumping her body on the front lawn. Jay Sebring was shot and stabbed seven times.
The Manson "family" concluded their night's deadly activities by scrawling the word "PIG" on the front door of the Polanski-Tate home in the blood of one of the victims.
But their killing spree was not yet over.
Leno and Rosemary LaBianca lived at 3301 Waverly Drive in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, and were visited by Charles Watson and Leslie Van Houten. Police found Leno in his pajamas, lying with a blood-drenched pillow over his head and a lamp cord tied tightly around his neck. One of the Manson gang had tied his hands tightly behind his back with a leather thong, and a carving fork protruded from his stomach. He had been stabbed at least 26 times. One of the gang had carved the word "WAR" on his abdomen. Rosemary's body was in the bedroom on the floor, a pillowcase over her head and a lamp cord tied tightly around her neck. She had been stabbed at least 41 times by Leslie Van Houten.
The Manson gang had written various words on the walls of the house in the victim's blood: "DEATH TO PIGS," "RISE," and "HEALTHER SKELTER."
The trial of the Manson "family" began in June 1970, and its attempts at murder and mayhem did not cease even at this point. One of the prosecution's witnesses was Barbara Hoyt, whom the "family" threatened with death and then attempted to murder with a lethal dose of LSD. At one point, Manson threatened presiding Judge Charles Older, screaming that "Someone should cut your head off!" Ronald Hughes, attorney for Leslie Van Houten, quit the case and disappeared. A few months later, his body was found, and a Manson "family" member confessed to murdering him.
On January 15, 1971, the jury began its deliberations and, nine days later, found Manson, Krenwinkel, Atkins and Van Houten guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. All were sentenced to death. Later, Watson was convicted of the same crimes.
Eventually, Robert Beausoleil, Charles Manson, Charles Watson, Bruce Davis and Steve Grogan were tried and convicted for the murders of two other people: Gary Hinman and Donald ("Shorty") Shea.
In 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromm, a Manson "family" member, attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford and was sentenced to life in prison.
Manson is by no means a model prisoner. He has been charged with destruction of property, plotting to kill the President of the United States, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, narcotics possession, assault, and at least three death threats against prison staff.
Reference: Court TV's Crime Library has a 29-part series by Marilyn Bardsley entitled "Charles Manson and the Manson Family," a very detailed and thorough history of the Manson "family" and the hideous crimes it committed. The Crime Library is at http://www.crimelibrary.com.
Murder (8 counts), Grand Theft, Perjury, Conspiracy and Fraud (2 counts)
In 1989, abortionist Milos Klvana was sentenced to 53 years in prison after being found guilty of the mass murder of eight newborn babies and the stillbirth of another infant.
The State of New York Department of Health revoked the abortionist's license to practice medicine, noting his many convictions, including second-degree murder; aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine; conspiring to practice medicine without a license; preparing fraudulent insurance claims; presenting fraudulent insurance claims, grand theft and perjury.
References: Associated Press, August 9, 1995; HLI Newswire, August 11, 1995; State of New York Department of Health. "Monthly Report on Professional Misconduct and Physician Discipline," April and May 1996.
Murder (4 counts) [San Fernando]
In July 1998, Sandi Dawn Nieves told her four young daughters, Jaqlene Marie, Kristel Dawn, Rashel Hollie, and Nikolet Amber, that they were going to sleep in the kitchen in a kind of "slumber party." She bedded the girls down comfortably, and, as all little children do, they chatted happily away until they finally became too sleepy to continue, and they drifted off to slumberland one by one.
Then their loving mother, who had just had an abortion, set fires at several points throughout the house to make sure that her little daughters could not escape. All of them suffocated and burned to death in the fire.
However, her teenaged son, who was sleeping elsewhere in the house, escaped with his life and testified against his mother.
Prosecutors said that Nieves mailed her two ex-husbands suicide notes on the day of the crime. She explained that her actions were meant to punish her former spouses "for all their sins, real or imagined."
Nieves claimed that hormones were wreaking "havoc" in her life on the day of the murders because of complications resulting from her recent abortion. She said that she was barely conscious when she set the house ablaze.
But jurors didn't buy it. How do you carry out such a well-planned multiple murder, complete with suicide notes, while "barely conscious?"
The San Fernando jury deliberated for less than a day before finding Nieves guilty of four counts of murder on July 24, 2003.
Reference: "Mother Convicted of Murdering Daughters: Hormone Defense Falls Flat With Jury." Yahoo! News, July 28, 2003.
First-Degree Murder (2 counts), Rape, Rape with a Foreign Object, Kidnapping, Oral Copulation by Force, Sexual Battery, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Assault (2 incidents), Indecent Exposure, Burglary (4 incidents), Attempted Burglary (2 incidents), Vandalism and Theft [Riverside]
On March 12, 2005, Tony Lee Reynolds was released from prison for a 2003 burglary. He didn't waste any time going back to his old ways. He broke into a woman's house later in the day and raped her. Then he went on a burglary spree, breaking into at least two other homes.
Just three weeks later, on March 31, he broke into the Fairmount Boulevard home of Estela Perez, who was the mother of two small children, and who was five months pregnant with a baby girl she had already named Michelle. Nobody was home at the time, but she returned to her home and surprised him. Reynolds stabbed her repeatedly in the chest, stomach and legs, and finally slashed her throat, killing her.
On June 23, 2005, Reynolds was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, rape with a foreign object, four counts of burglary, two counts of attempted burglary, oral copulation by force, kidnapping to commit sexual assault, and sexual battery.
While he had been in prison, Reynolds pled no contest to indecent exposure and battery on a peace officer. He also pled guilty to domestic battery in December 2002 after punching his half-sister, Teresa Etcheson, in the face. He had also pled guilty to many other crimes, including assault against his father, assault with a deadly weapon after he slashed another man so severely he required sixty stitches, vandalism and theft.
References: "Sexual Assault Suspect Charged with Fairmount Blvd. Homicide." Riverside Police Department Official Press Release dated June 23, 2005; "Charges Expected in Slayings of Mother with Child." The Press-Enterprise [Inland Southern California], June 24, 2005.
Murder (2 counts), Fatal Botched Abortion, Grand Theft and Illegal Abortion (15 counts)
One of the most colorful and unscrupulous characters the "pro-choice" movement has ever given us is "Dr." Harvey Leroy Karman. He was idolized by pro-choicers, perhaps because he epitomized their values and standards.
Karman didn't have much of an education, but then education is not really necessary for an abortionist. He was a UCLA School of Theatrical Arts dropout, so at least he had the background to bluff his way into medicine. But first he needed a prestigious degree, so he awarded himself a fake Ph.D. from a nonexistent European university.
He quickly distinguished himself by being convicted of nine felonies in Los Angeles, and was sent to jail for killing Joyce Johnson with an illegal botched abortion committed with, of all things, a nutcracker in a motel room. He aborted Joyce on April 6, 1955, and she died of a massive infection on April 21. He was jailed, but as soon as Governor Jerry "Moonbat" Brown was elected, the virulently pro-abortion Brown pardoned him.
As soon as Karman was released, he went to work for an abortion mill in California despite his complete lack of medical credentials. There, he invented a new type of intra-uterine device (IUD) he named the "Super Coil," a plastic spring that was supposed to induce an abortion.
Karman was also the inventor of an early abortion technique called "menstrual extraction" or ME, which is widely used to circumvent pro-life laws in developing nations. The Federation of Feminist Womens Health Centers (FWHCs) adopted Karman's techniques, which are still used in "home abortion parties" by feminists today.
Back in the day when even feminists were more truthful, Ms. Magazine said in its September 1976 issue that[Harvey] Karman is the developer of the menstrual extraction technique. His three-page police record includes an arrest for murder in the death of an abortion client and a prison term for illegal abortion and grand theft. One of his other abortion arrests was in connection with a West Los Angeles clinic where he was associated with one Dr. John Gwynne. [Abortionist] Gwynne has since been convicted of the murder of his nineteen-year-old girlfriend.
Karman joined up with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) to test ME on women in Bangladesh. It is quite common for the racist abortionists and population controllers to test abortion and contraceptive techniques on poor women in developing nations before they try them out on North American or European women. A large number of the poverty-stricken women nearly died, and Karman quickly returned to the USA. There he joined forces with the Jane Network in Chicago, which helped women get abortions before it was legalized in the United States.
On Mother's Day in 1972, things came to a head. Karman received a busload of Jane Network clients at his Philadelphia abortion mill. He had invited the media to be present so he could be arrested and challenge the abortion law in Pennsylvania. While Harvey and his associates started putting "Super Coils" in the clients, other feminists protested outside and even let the air out of the bus tires.
One of the fifteen women had to be hospitalized due to a lacerated uterus. Several others had to be hospitalized when they returned to Chicago. Of these, the Centers for Disease Control found that one patient required a hysterectomy, one was hospitalized for twenty days with infection, and another continued to bleed until she became anemic. In all, nine of the 13 patients who could be tracked down suffered complications, some of them life-threatening.
Karman then returned to California and was arrested at least three times for running illegal abortion mills. He faded into obscurity after Roe v. Wade in 1973.
References: District Court of Appeal, Second District Division 3, California. The People of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Harvey Leroy Karman, Defendant and Appellant. Cr. 5583, November 13, 1956; New York Times, December 13, 1972; Judith P. Bourne, R.M., et.al. "Medical Complications from Induced Abortion by the Super Coil Method." Health Services Report, Volume 89, Number 1 [January-February 1974]; Bernard N. Nathanson. Aborting America (Life Cycle Books, 1979); Mark Crutcher. Lime 5 (Denton, Texas: Life Dynamics, Inc.), 1996; Laura Kaplan. The Story of Jane (University of Chicago Press, 1997). The information in this summary was largely condensed from the four-part series on Harvey Karman on the Real Choice Web site.
Murder (2 counts), Child Abuse (2 counts) and Drug Possession [Glendora]
On November 10, 2001, Lorie Renee Hurd gave birth to full-term twin baby girls in the bathroom of her home. Then she stuffed them into a plastic bag, cinched it closed, and abandoned her dying babies.
Hurd is a good example of how a person hardened to abortion can cross the line to infanticide without as much as a pang of conscience.
At the age of 15, she aborted her first pregnancy.
At the age of 17, she began to use speed and methamphetamine, and soon began drinking heavily. She also aborted her second pregnancy during this year.
Despite her heavy drug use, she became pregnant again in 1992 and gave birth to a daughter.
In 1993, she gave birth to a son and gave him up for adoption.
In 1994, she had another abortion.
In 1995, she became pregnant again and delivered a son.
In 1996, she became pregnant again and miscarried in her bathroom.
Hurd was also charged with two counts of child abuse and methamphetamine possession, and went on trial in Pomona Superior Court.
Reference: Bill Hetherman. "Murder Suspect Testifies On Drug Habit." San Gabriel Valley Tribune, April 15, 2003.
Murder [Pasadena]
On November 11, 1999, pediatrician Kevin Paul Anderson strangled his business partner, neonatologist Dr. Deepti Gupta, 33, a mother of two young children who was expecting her third. They were involved in an extramarital affair, and she was carrying his baby. In fact, she had informed him of this fact the day before he killed her.
Anderson was arrested by the police when a passerby noticed him pushing Gupta's Mercedes off a 450-foot cliff in the San Gabriel Mountains, after dousing her with gasoline, to make it appear that she had been killed in an accident. They caught him when his getaway car got bogged down in heavy mud. He admitted to police that he killed her in a moment of rage following a dispute over a business deal gone bad, but lab reports showed that she had been dead for about eight hours.
An excerpt from Anderson's confession reads: "I just grabbed her and I got ... I think I ... I was just choking her. I ... I have a tie that I wore, a Snoopy tie, that I wore to work, but I had taken it off by that time, but it was still in the truck and ... and I grabbed it and I just started pulling it on her. Being a physician, I know, I would check her pulse or something and I .. I just didn't. I didn't even touch her. I just ... I just assumed that she was (dead). So I thought, well, since we're up here, maybe ... maybe I could make it look like it was an accident, like she drove off the cliff or something, which was kind of inane. But, I mean, I just .. in that state of mind I didn't ... I wasn't thinking, you know, logically."
Vijay Gupta, the husband of the murdered woman and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California in Los Angeles, exhorted the Indian American community to express its "outrage" and write letters to the prosecutors, demanding that Anderson be given the maximum punishment.
On December 11, 2000, Anderson was convicted of second-degree murder by a Pasadena jury.
Sandy Gibbons, a spokesperson at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, said that "The prosecution had pressed the charge of first degree murder, but the defense argued for a manslaughter charge and after five days of deliberations the jury convicted him for second degree murder."
References: R.S. Shankar. "Many Unanswered Questions in Doctor's Murder." Indiainfo.com, November 24, 1999; Richard Winton. "Defense Rests, Mistrial Bid Denied in Doctor's Slaying Case." Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2000; Suman Guha Mozumder. "U.S. Doctor Convicted." December 9, 2000. Downloaded from The India Tribune Online at http://www tribuneindia.com/20001211/world.htm on February 19, 2001.
Murder [Van Nuys]
A jury found pro-abortionist Alfred E. Smith guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his ex-girlfriend Denna Moody. Smith killed Moody in April 1997 because she refused to abort their preborn child. The jury heard evidence that Moody had been pregnant by Smith before, and that he had pressured her to have an abortion in that case as well. Moody adamantly refused in this case. Her charred body was found in her burned car near the Van Nuys Amtrak station the next morning. Deputy District Attorney Alan Yochelson said Smith, 41, probably killed Moody at a park in Sherman Oaks after an argument, then drove the body to a business area near the train station and set the fire.
Reference: "Jury Convicts Man in Abortion-Related Killing." Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1998.
Murder and Impersonating a Doctor [Santa Ana]
Abortionist Alicia Ruiz Hanna was convicted in 1994 of second-degree murder after Angela Nieto Sanchez, a 27-year-old mother of four, died at Hanna's Santa Ana abortion mill in January 1993. Hanna owned and operated the abortion facility under the license of Dr. Anthony Lee Cappelli, who rarely visited the two-room facility, according to court testimony. Prosecutors asserted that Hanna posed as a doctor, performing up to 20 abortions with no doctor present. Sanchez suffered seizures after Hanna injected her with an unknown drug; Hanna later prevented a receptionist from calling 911, court testimony revealed. Sanchez had told family members only that she was getting a checkup. Two of her children sat in the waiting room for hours after she died. Later, they saw Hanna trying to stuff their mother's body into the trunk of a car in order to dump her body across the border in Tijuana, Mexico, according to court testimony. Hanna told them that Angela had just collapsed after being attacked by unidentified man who had run away, but the coroner indicated that Angela had been dead for at least six hours at that point.
Hanna's abortion facility was financially ailing when she began performing abortions herself to eliminate the middleman (the abortionist), prosecutors said. On January 28, 1995, Santa Ana, California Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey described her as "callous and self-serving" before sentencing her to 15 years to life in prison.
In January 2000, the United States Supreme Court turned back a challenge to the abortionist's conviction and sentence.
References: Rene Lynch. "Ex-Worker Tells of Attempt to Cover Up Death." Los Angeles Times, August 24, 1993; Rene Lynch. "Clinic Operator Sentenced for Murder." Los Angeles Times, January 28, 1995; Tim Graham and Clay Waters. "Roe Warriors: The Media's Pro-Abortion Bias." Media Research Council report dated July 22, 1998; Tony Gosgnach. "Cases Reveal a Path of Destruction Through Women, Children, and Society." The Interim, September 1998; Richard Marosi. "Santa Ana Clinic Owner's Murder Conviction Stands: Supreme Court Denies Alicia Ruiz Hanna an Appeal in Botched Abortion." Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2000.
Fatal Botched Abortions (2 incidents)
Even before Roe v. Wade, the Bel Air abortion mill in Los Angeles specialized in late-term abortions. But sometimes someone other than the agonized preborn baby would die at Bel Air.
Katherine M. Morse traveled to Los Angeles from Texas for a saline abortion at the hands of abortionist John DuPont, which took place at the Bel Air abortion mill on September 1, 1972. She complained of severe pain and a 102 degree fever 24 hours later. Her preborn baby was expelled just after noon on September 3, two days later. The coroner's report stated "Patient fretful, uncooperative throughout night. Hypotension, tachycardia, anuria noted 7:00 a.m. progressing to irreversible shock and death at 9:40 a.m." Preliminary diagnosis of sepsis was listed as the cause of her death, but the final cause of her death was determined to be shock due to gangrene of the ovary. The autopsy showed strangulation of the ovary and tube, hemorrhagic necrosis and edema.
Just two months later, on November 13, 1972, Twila Coulter traveled from her home in Colorado to the Bel Air Hospital abortion mill in Los Angeles for a saline abortion. She died from the experience.
Her autopsy report shows that she was admitted to a real hospital the next day and passed her unborn child. Her blood pressure fell and she went into cyanosis. Doctors administered oxygen, and she began bleeding profusely from IV sites and vagina. She received 3 units blood and was transferred to another hospital in a comatose condition. A D&C; removed retained pregnancy tissues. Her lab results were highly abnormal, and she was transferred to an intensive care unit (ICU). Doctors undertook aggressive treatment to address problems with her bleeding and clotting. Twila's parents were contacted and flew in from Colorado. They had been "unaware of her trip to Los Angeles or her plans for a therapeutic abortion. ... They were fully aware of the gravity of the patient's condition prior to her demise." Twila died the morning of November 15. An autopsy revealed a clot and extensive hemorrhage in her brain and in her internal organs and eyes. Her death was attributed to the hemorrhage in her brain.
References: Los Angeles Times, November 10, 1972 and September 15, 1973; Los Angeles County Coroner Case #72-9587; Los Angeles County Coroner Case #72-12165.
Fatal Botched Abortion and Negligence (8 incidents)
On August 13, 1986, abortionist Mahlon Douglas Cannon botched an abortion and killed Covina preschool teacher Donna Heim, 20, at the HER Medical Clinic. Heim was asthmatic and began to suffer extreme respiratory distress during Cannon's abortion procedure. Instead of treating this breathing problem, Cannon chose to ignore it and complete the abortion.
In June 1991, the California Medical Board adopted the decision of administrative law judge Richard J. Lopez that Cannon had been incompetent and negligent in treating at least eight abortion patients, including Heim. Cannon continued to perform abortions at the Family Planning Associates abortion mill on South Westmoreland Avenue in Los Angeles until he surrendered his medical license on July 10, 1991.
Judge Lopez found that Cannon routinely did not perform required physical exams on his abortion patients, take medical histories or administer standard tests. In one case, the abortionist aborted one woman and sent her home despite severe bleeding. She later rushed to a hospital emergency room in severe distress. When the hospital called Cannon, he said that she should be sent home and come in for an office visit in a week or two. Fortunately, the hospital disregarded the abortionist's advice and performed emergency surgery, which revealed a perforated uterus and severe hemorrhage that required an emergency hysterectomy.
References: Betsy Bates. "For Three Women, a Safe Medical Procedure Turned Deadly." Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, February 22, 1988, page A7; Claire Spiegel. "Physician in Abortion Case Loses License." Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1991, page B1.
Involuntary Manslaughter and Botched Abortions (3 incidents)
Abortionist Bruce Steir, according to the Associated Press, "with a history of disciplinary actions, was charged with murder after state regulators determined that he punctured a woman's uterus during an abortion." Deputy District Attorney Kennis Clark told Riverside County Judge Dennis McConaghy that Sharon Hamptlon bled to death after Steir ignored a danger he knew he had created.
Steir was on medical probation at the time of the abortion because of his previous botched abortions, which included uterine perforations. He perforated Hamptlon's uterus during the December 13, 1996, abortion. After Hamptlon was discharged from A Lady's Choice Women's Medical Center, her mother drove to Barstow, where she and her daughter lived. But Doris Hamptlon could not waken her daughter when they arrived at the mother's home. Hamptlon, 27, was dead before paramedics got her to Barstow Community Hospital. Her son, Curtis Bullorck, was 3 when his mother died.
At the time of the abortion, both Steir and another abortionist, Joseph Durante, who owns the abortion facility, were on medical probation stemming from ethical problems and medical errors in previous abortions. Steir surrendered his medical license in March 1997 amid complaints about negligence during abortions, including three that required surgery to repair injuries. In one case, surgeons had to remove a fetal skull found protruding through a huge tear in a patient's uterus, according to complaints filed with the Medical Board of California. Another woman discovered that Steir had left behind a four-inch piece of wire in her abdomen during an abortion. She suffered for 13 years before the wire, and the abscess that surrounded it, were surgically removed.
In 1985, Steir, who at the time was a Naval Reserve physician "moonlighting" as an abortionist, botched a cesarian section by leaving a placenta fragment inside his patient. In response, the Navy revoked his license to practice medicine.
In 1987, the Florida Department of Professional Regulation ordered Steir to relinquish his license to practice medicine in that state and "never again to apply for licensure as a physician in the State of Florida."
In 1988, while under probation with the California Medical Board, Steir perforated the uterus of an abortion client. An official review found that Steir "made no operative report or post-operative report [of the incident] until approximately eight months later, and this was in response to an investigation." Steir's behavior in that case prefigured, in detail, his actions in the death of Sharon Hamptlon.
A 1990 malpractice suit filed by one of Steir's clients recounted how the abortionist had "informed [the woman] that there was a fetal mass that could be aborted when in fact no such mass was present." Despite the absence of a child to abort, Steir proceeded with the abortion, causing permanent uterine damage and a condition know as Asherman's Syndrome.
Attorneys said key testimony during the Hamplton trial came from Nancy Myles, an ultrasound technician who assisted Steir in the abortion. Myles recalled that Steir looked up during the abortion and said, "I think I pulled bowel." The bowel cannot be reached without perforating the uterus, Clark said. If Steir thought he had grabbed the bowel with a clamp during the procedure, he had to know he had perforated the uterus, she said.
Showing a callous and total disregard for the safety of women, pro-abortionists raised money for Steir's defense on the Internet, encouraged their friends to put pressure on elected officials and the California Medical Board, and urged the Riverside County prosecutor to drop the charges.
Pro-abortionists even set up a professional-looking Web site in Steir's defense at http://www.steirsdefense.org.
The Chico Feminist Womens Health Center (FWHC), where Steir was Medical Director, set up the grandly-named "Dr. Bruce Steir Constitutional Litigation Fund." E-mail fundraising letters from this group are a showcase of paranoia and a conspiracy theorists's delight. According to the pro-abortionists, the fault lies everywhere except with the incompetent, bungling abortionist. How typical. How utterly predictable. What do you expect?
The "Fund's" February 28, 1998 letter, entitled "Medical Board of California Exploits Woman's Death," said "In March 1996, Carol Downer, founding director of the Feminist Women's Health Center, organized a group of providers and supporters concerned about escalating attacks on second trimester abortion providers. Community Access to Reproductive Services (CARES) has been actively investigating the harassment and discrimination of abortion doctors by the Medical Board of California (MBC). CARES found in a recent study that nearly 90% of doctors of freestanding abortion clinics are on probation with the Medical Board [Editor's note: Could this have anything to do with the fact that abortionists are generally incompetent, negligent hacks?]. One doctor had to battle the MBC six years to retain his license. During this time, he uncovered facts that document that the MBC participated in a campaign to selectively harass and close later abortion doctors [Editor's note: Naturally, such documents were never made available to the naturally curious, who wanted to see evidence of such charges]. ... Jeanette Driesbach, referred to in a Riverside newspaper ad an "anti-abortion spokeswoman," has a ten year history of collaborating with the Medical Board of California to eliminate abortion doctors from practice. ... Through testimony it became evident that the Hamptlon family was the target of Driesbach's anti-choice crusade. Doris Hamptlon, Sharon's mother, testified that she was working with Driesbach regarding her daughter's death. Hamptlon also testified that Driesbach connected her with anti-choice attorney, Jack Schuler, for a civil law suit against Dr. Steir on the family's behalf [Editor's note: Why is it a crime for pro-lifers to attack abortion by working with a victim's family when their daughter dies — but it is all right for pro-abortionists to work with the family of a girl (Becky Bell) who died of an alleged "illegal abortion" for the purpose of supporting abortion? This is just more pro-abort two-faced hypocrisy]. ... Although Judge McConaghy insisted, before the hearing, that he could be "fair," it has been learned that he holds strong anti-abortion views and regularly participated in Christian Fundamentalist prayer meetings [Editor's note: Gee, what a crime! Apparently no Christian can be "fair" in the feminist's eyes. Of course, if the guy had been a practicing Satanist and drag queen, he would have been perfectly acceptable to them. Just another ordinary guy]. ... What You Can Do: .. Contribute or raise money to help pay for trial expenses Attend court this summer or fall in Riverside Urge national and local pro-choice groups you belong to take a position of support for Dr. Steir. ... Send tax-deductible contribution to: Dr. Bruce Steir Constitutional Litigation Fund c/o Feminist Women's Health Center 1469 Humboldt Road Suite 200 Chico, Ca 95928 (530) 891-1911 (530) 893-9347 Fax."
A breathless e-mail letter sent out by the "Steir Defense Fund" on March 4, 1998, said, in part, "Dear Pro-Choice Supporter: The nightmare of Dr. Bruce Steir, abortion physician, continues. ... On February 18, 1998 Judge Dennis A. McConaghy, an anti-abortion judge in conservative Riverside County, California has held him over for trial. ... Dr. Steir's nightmare could happen to any provider of late abortions, especially one who travels a distance to provide abortions in a conservative community. He has surrendered [his medical] license, being unable to fight three legal battles at once - the battle to retain his license, the battle to prove he was not negligent, and the battle to stay out of jail. For several years California abortion providers have been alarmed at the California Medical Board's relentless attack on physicians who do later abortions. No one could foresee these outrageous criminal charges. In hindsight, it is easy to see how, given the climate of fear, suspicion, ignorance and pressure from the largest contingent of anti-abortion forces in the state, the California Medical Board could inflame the community justice system into bringing such harsh charges. Representatives from abortion clinics have attended all hearings and have examined all the medical records and the chart. We are fully satisfied that Sharon Hamptlon, the patient who died from an undetected perforation that bled into the abdominal cavity, was provided with competent medical treatment that met or exceeded that standard of care. This attack is serious. The effects of this attack, even if Dr. Steir is charged with the lowest criminal charge, Involuntary Manslaughter, can have a devastating effect on the availability of later abortion care nationally. Abortion providers understand this. We must take the lead in standing by Bruce and educating our pro-choice community about the fact that abortion is a comparatively safe procedure, but serious, sometimes fatal, complications can happen, even with excellent care. The Dr. Bruce Steir Constitutional Litigation Fund welcomes your questions, your ideas, your participation, and your financial support."
Shauna Heckert, executive director of the Feminist Women's Health Centers in Northern California, where Steir worked for 12 years, said "he really did have a bigger goal in mind ... to help women."
In this case, he certainly did help Sharon Hamptlon — right into the grave.
Specifically, the national leadership of the National Organization for Women (NOW), the National Abortion Federation (NAF), Refuse and Resist, and the California chapter of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARRAL, now NARAL Pro-Choice America), argued against filing any charges at all against Steir. The Chico [California] Feminist Women's Health Center (FWHC) went so far as to set up a "Dr. Bruce Steir Constitutional Litigation Fund." Naturally, they blamed the murder charge on pro-lifers, claiming that the charges were "trumped-up" and brought for "political" reasons, and, despite Steir's own admissions, claimed that the complications he caused during the abortion were "undetected" [see excerpts from the above letter].
During his hearings, several workers for the Feminist Womens Health Centers (FWHCs) appeared in the courtroom wearing large "STEIR, OUR HERO" buttons, and one was ejected from the courtroom. The FWHC in Chico, California, was Steir's primary employer.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) followed FWHC's lead. A letter of support from the Sacramento chapter of NOW said that "It is an inequitable tragedy that a doctor, who has dedicated so many years of his practice to providing abortion services, now faces such unjust harassment. The charges against Dr. Steir must be dropped, not only because we believe that he is not guilty of murder but also because we must send the message that we cannot be bullied by the anti-choice movement." A 1998 letter from the National Abortion Federation (NAF) urged that the murder charge be set aside and that any action against Steir be taken through "medical peer review and civil court." The NAF, which "sets and maintains quality care standards for abortion services," insisted that there was no evidence that "Dr. Steir deliberately put aside all his years of training and experience in order to cause harm to this patient."
A report by the Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which had filed amicus briefs on Steir's behalf, insisted that the prosecution of Steir was part of a vast conspiracy by "anti-choice" activists. The ACLU report whined that "Through harassment and violence, anti-choice groups have tried to frighten women out of seeking abortions and to frighten doctors out of providing them. ... Recent years have seen the rise of another tactic: Using the legal and regulatory systems to intimidate abortion providers and drive them out of business."
Refuse & Resist!, a radical and extremely violent Marxist group headquartered in New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, designated Steir "a true hero" as it conferred its supposedly coveted "Courageous Resister" award upon Steir during its March 10, 1998 "National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers." Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman, who attended the Refuse & Resist! ceremony in San Francisco, described Steir as "part of a sacred circle who have put their lives on the line for us." Meanwhile, Steir, like so many other abortionists, blamed the women for their problems when he said that "They were all second-trimester abortions. The patients put themselves at risk by waiting so long."
Showing its utter disregard for the lives of women, the abortion industry, while canonizing Steir, resolutely ignored the women who had been maimed by him. Steir's defenders dismissed the death of Sharon Hamptlon as a "tragic complication," rather than another episode of gross negligence on his part. What was really important, maintained the abortion establishment, were the supposed motives of Steir's opponents. For example, a letter from Eleanor Smeal's Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) to the California Medical Board asserted that "We believe the murder charge against Dr. Bruce Steir is part of an orchestrated campaign by anti-abortion extremists that targets health care workers and continues to harass them until they quit. We urge you to consider the possibility of ulterior motives of those accusing Dr. Steir and to respond accordingly."
In summary, it is significant that none of the self-proclaimed "champions of women's rights" considered it worthwhile to hold Steir accountable for his gross ineptitude.
In a February 15, 1989 deposition, Steir admitted that he spent an average of seven seconds with each patient before aborting them. He said that his total interaction with the women consisted of the words "Hello, my name is Bruce and I'm here to perform your abortion. How are you?"
Phyllida Burlingame of the American Civil Liberties Union authored a "study" concluding that legitimate doctors were not treated as harshly as Bruce Steir. State officials dismissed the allegations, calling the study a flawed review and a rehash of arguments that failed Steir's defense team in court. In a written statement, a medical board official assailed the ACLU study. The review contains no information on how Burlingame evaluated the cases, said Ron Joseph, the board's executive director. And it ignored the fact that the medical review process includes independent examinations by doctors, prosecutors and administrative judges.
Burlingame's study also accused the California Attorney General's Office of inappropriately providing information about the Steir investigation to a pro-life organization before the information was made public. That information was used to lobby for criminal charges, she said. Deputy Attorney General Jose Guerrero said no information was released before it was included in public records. Many of the study's conclusions were raised as defense issues by Steir's attorneys. Judges rejected the arguments before Steir accepted a plea bargain. "How many times do we get to chew this cud?" Riverside County prosecutor Kennis Clark asked, calling the study an attempt to generate publicity just before Steir's sentencing. Clark said Steir's remark that he had "pulled bowel" was the key to the prosecution. "If that statement had never been made, we never would have prosecuted that case," she said. "When you make a statement that you've done something bad and don't do anything to fix it, that's when you're in trouble. ... Because [Steir] had so many prior bad acts and lies in his background ... we know that he knew."
Dr. Dennis Christensen of the Madison Abortion Clinic in Wisconsin wrote that "since [Steir] has relinquished his medical credentials, there is no way he can be considered a threat to the community. Any other medical mishap that didn't involve abortion or intentional abuse would never have seen the inside of a criminal courtroom. I am convinced that Dr. Steir is being crucified on the tree of political ambition. ... The practice of medicine is an imperfect and often unpredictable undertaking which doesn't always follow a happy ending script and I believe justice would be best served with a minimal judicial penalty."
In an interview with the publication Inland Empire, Steir said, "My incarceration proved nothing." He maintained he was guilty only of failing "to make the diagnosis of her (Hamptlon's) condition." "I'm absolutely not sorry," he told the Inland Empire. "I'm sorry I ended up in jail. I'm sorry I had to surrender my license and I'm sorry a woman died. I would like not to have done that abortion that day." His order of priorities is telling; he apparently sees himself as the primary victim in the matter.
Jack Schuler, the Hamptlon family's attorney, said "I don't understand why the pro-choice people want to rally around the cause of a shoddy physician. If I were in their shoes, I would do as much as possible to distance myself from the likes of Steir ... rather than having him be the poster boy for my cause."
At the last possible minute, as jury selection was about to begin, Steir pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He entered the plea in Riverside County Superior Court. Pro-aborts continued to support him. Despite the crushing weight of evidence, Carol Downer ignored all reality and said "I'm incredibly sad. There was no case. "I'm sure this will give heart to people who want to attack doctors."
Steir's defense had suffered a series of losses in court while arguing that he was a victim of selective prosecution, targeted because he performed abortions. Despite a total lack of evidence, defense attorneys also alleged that state officials and prosecutors pushed for a murder charge because of pressure from abortion opponents. In pretrial hearings, Judge Vilia Sherman said she saw no indication that pro-life pressure led to the charge. A state official denied the selective-prosecution allegation and said abortion opponents hold no sway in any investigation into medical wrongdoing. Candis Cohen, spokeswoman for the Medical Board of California, said that "Mr. Steir's record ... of mispractice speaks for itself."
Hamptlon's mother, Doris, said that Steir should go to prison for a "long, long, long, long time. My child's never coming back."
Doris Hamptlon and her husband now care for Hamptlon's son, Curtis Bullorck, who is 7 years old and attends first grade. In 1999, the family agreed to a settlement worth up to $2 million in a civil lawsuit against Steir.
The clinic where the abortion was performed is owned by Dr. Joseph Durante, who was placed on two months' probation last year for failing to disclose previous disciplinary actions taken against him.
On November 30, 1998, the San Diego Union stated that "The shadow of Dr. Bruce Steir hangs over the Medical Board of California like a cloud — a constant reminder of how an incompetent and dangerous physician slipped through the cracks. ... Beginning in 1985, when he was thrown off staff at the Naval Hospital on Camp Pendleton, Steir repeatedly was disciplined for harming California women."
Steir was spared a prison sentence. His punishment for killing Sharon Hamptlon was a year in the county jail, 60 months of probation, and 1,000 hours of community service. The sentencing judge suspended 180 days of the sentence, thus reducing the term to six months. On September 16, 2000, after serving 114 days, Steir was released. This was done for his ostensible good behavior, which apparently did not require the slightest expression of remorse.
References: "Abortion Doctor." Associated Press, October 24, 1997; "Abortion Practitioner to be Tried for Second-Degree Murder." The Press-Enterprise [Riverside, California], December 19 anad 21, 1996, and February 19 and July 11, 1998; American Life League's Communiqu‚, November 14, 1997; Raymond Smith. "Funds Raised for Abortion Doctor." The Press-Enterprise, December 1, 1997, pages B1 and B2; "Woman's Death From Legal Abortion Continues to Cause Concern." Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1998; "Woman's Death From Abortion Makes for Explosive Case." Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, July 31, 1998, December 2, 1998 and February 19, 1999; "Legal Abortion Death Continues to Make Headlines," Sacramento Bee, February 18, 1999; "Abortion Practitioner Who Killed Woman Will Face Murder Trial." Pro-Life Infonet, April 6, 2000; Raymond Smith, The Press-Enterprise. "Plea Changed to Guilty in Abortion Case: An Agreement to a Lesser Charge is Reached as the Murder Trial was About to Begin." Inland Empire Online, April 10, 2000; "Abortionist Changes Plea to Guilty in Murder Trial." Pro-Life Infonet, April 7, 2000; "Abortionist Pleads Guilty: First Such Conviction Ever in State." San Diego News Notes, May 2000, pages 1 and 3; "News." Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, May 2000, pages 10 and 11; "ACLU Says Bias Led to Prosecution of Bruce Steir." Riverside Press-Enterprise, May 26, 2000; "ACLU Says Bias Led to Prosecution of Bruce Steir." Pro-Life Infonet, May 28, 2000; "Steir Gets Only One Year for Abortion-Related Death." Pro-Life Infonet, May 30, 2000; Maggie Garcia. "Caught Off Guard: Abortionist Sentenced to Jail." Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, July/August 2000, page 1; Julie Foster and Michael P. Ackley. Jailed Abortionist to be Released Early. Doctor Who Botched Procedure: 'My Incarceration Proved Nothing'." WorldNetDaily.com, September 16, 2000; William Norman Grigg. "The Abortion Underworld." The New American, January 15, 2001 [Volume 17, Number 2] [this is a wonderful description about how pro-abortion groups fully supported a butcher]; "Abortion Practitioner Convicted of Manslaughter in Legal Abortion Death." Arizona Republic, May 5, 2001; Pro-Life Infonet, May 5, 2001.
Infanticide (2 counts) [Santa Ana]
On March 2, 1977, abortionist William Waddill, Jr. committed a third-trimester abortion saline abortion and delivered alive a viable baby girl, whom he then strangled to death. This was the second time he had been charged with infanticide.
References: "Defense Rests in Dr. Waddill Trial Despite 'Missing' Evidence." National Right to Life News, June 1979, page 5; Omaha World-Herald, October 19, 1979; Los Angeles Times Magazine, January 7, 1990; Philadelphia Inquirer, August 8, 1981; Orange County Superior Court Case Number C-37815, Case Number 28-84-14.
Infanticide
Nurse witnesses stated that an abortionist from San Vicente Hospital, California, aborted a 7-month old preborn baby live. Some time later, he noticed that the baby was still moving, and drowned the little child in a vat of formaldehyde.
Reference: "Technician Alleges Aborted Baby Drowns." National Right to Life News, March 25, 1982, page 5.
Fatal Botched Abortions (3 incidents) and Medicare Fraud
Abortionist Leo Kenneally botched a December 19, 1992 abortion on Estella Gonzales at the HER abortion mill. After she left the abortion mill, she collapsed and was rushed to an emergency room for surgery to correct a lacerated uterus and intestines. Estella reported that while she was hospitalized, clinic employees visited her and offered her $10,000, and later $5,000 and a Cadillac; HER's attorney called this "a humanitarian gesture."
Kenneally was charged with negligence by the medical board in the 1986 death of Donna Heim following an abortion at his HER Medical Clinic by Mahlon D. Cannon.
Kenneally aborted Liliana Cortez on September 20, 1986 at his HER Medical Clinic. She went into cardiac arrest after abortion and there was a 40-minute delay before paramedics arrived. She was transported to a hospital, where she died five days later. Her death was ruled a "therapeutic misadventure," which a coroner's spokesman called "a nice medical term for a mistake." The attorney for the abortion mill said that "If something like this happened at a hospital, people would just say it was bad luck, one of those fluky things. But all of a sudden they make it seem like these (abortion clinics) are terrible places where terrible things happen."
Kenneally's medical license was suspended after his negligence resulted in several deaths and injuries. He was investigated after the death of another woman (possibly Maria Soto, who died at the HER Medical Clinic on September 9, 1985). The California Medical Board attributed the deaths of Donna K. Heim, Liliana Cortez, and Michelle Thames to his neglect or incompetence.
His medical license was suspended in 1975 for federal narcotics records-keeping violations and in 1979 for Medi-Cal theft. The California Medical Board voted to allow Kenneally to keep his medical license despite finding him guilty of incompetence and negligence because he works in an "underserved" neighborhood.
References: Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1991 and January 31, 1993; Betsy Bates. "For Three Women, a Safe Medical Procedure Turned Deadly." Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, February 22, 1988, page A7; Los Angeles County Superior Court Case #SWC30375; Claire Spiegel. "Physician in Abortion Case Loses License." Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1991, page B1.
Fatal Botched Abortions (5 incidents) and Malpractice (21 incidents)
Introduction.
There are several examples of high-volume abortion mills in the United States that have killed women repeatedly, whose abortionists have botched literally dozens of abortions, and which have failed inspection after inspection — but which operate for years or even decades. These 'front-alley' abortion mills are always loudly defended by the press, the State, and the pro-abortionists regardless of how many women die or are butchered at them.
A prime example of this kind of legalized butchery is presented by the Inglewood Women's Hospital, in Los Angeles, California. This huge abortion mill killed an incredible 12,000 preborn children a year, making it one of the largest clinics in the United States. It was also operated so sloppily that deaths and maimings were inevitable.
Inglewood abortionists worked quickly and efficiently, and each patient spent just five minutes in Inglewood's single operating room. This five minute time period included not only the abortion, but the preparation of the room for the next patient, which meant cleaning the floor and procedure table and suction machine. This five minutes also included counseling. Belinda Byrd was aborted at nineteen weeks gestation, which means the abortionist had perhaps three minutes to dismember and extract a preborn baby that weighed about a pound.
Abortionist Steven N. Pine botched two abortions so badly that both of his patients died: Yvonne Tanner in 1984 and Belinda Ann Byrd in 1987, both at the Inglewood Women's Hospital abortion mill. Several other women died at the high-volume clinic over the years, including Kathy Murphy, Lynette Wallace, Cora Mae Lewis and Elizabeth Tsuji.
The Unlamented Death of Belinda Byrd.
Belinda Byrd, young mother of three, died at the hands of abortionist Steven N. Pine at the Inglewood abortion mill in 1987. But the abortion mill continued to butcher women unimpeded by the State, the media, or feminists. Belinda was the 74th abortion of the day in Inglewood's single procedure room.
Belinda's mother, Mattie Byrd, tried hard to get justice for her little daughter, but nobody would listen to her. Finally, she resorted to putting posters up in her Watts neighborhood urging the State to take action against the Inglewood abortion mill. She finally wrote a letter to a Los Angeles district attorney;I am the mother of Belinda A. Byrd, victim of abortionists at 426 E. 99th Street in Inglewood. I am also the grandmother of her three young children who are left behind and motherless. I cry every day when I think how horrible her death was. She was slashed by them and then she bled to death. ... She has been stone dead for two years now, and nobody cares. I know that other young Black women are now dead after abortion at that address — Cora Mae Lewis and Yvonne Tanner. Where is [the abortionist] now? Has he been stopped? Has anything happened to him because of what he did to my Belinda? Has he served jail time for any of these cruel deaths? People tell me nothing has happened, that nothing ever happens to White abortionists who leave young Black women dead. I'm hurting real bad and want some justice for Belinda and all other women who go like sheep to slaughter.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Mattie Byrd
As a partial result of this botched abortion, the Inglewood Women's Hospital had its license revoked by the State of California and closed down a month after Belinda's death. However, money is a great motivator, and it opened only two weeks later with a different name: The West Coast Women's Medical Group. It was now a freestanding clinic, meaning that it did not have to have a State license. It was subsequently bought by mega-abortionist Edward Allred (who has also killed several women), and still functions to this day.
Women Who Died at Inglewood.
On August 24, 1973, Kathleen Denise Murphy was aborted at the Inglewood Women's Hospital abortion mill. After the abortion, she drifted in and out of consciousness. She stayed at Inglewood until the staff finally transferred her by ambulance to Centinela Hospital on September 7, two full weeks after her abortion. On that same day, the hospital transferred her back to Inglewood, where abortionist John Dupont pronounced her dead at 1:20 on the morning of September 8. Her autopsy showed that she died of massive cervical and uterine infections caused by the abortion. Her cervix in particular was covered with greenish-black pus.
On September 13, 1975, 22-year-old Lynette Wallace was aborted at the Inglewood Women's Hospital abortion mill. Two weeks later, on September 27, she reported to a hospital emergency room, complaining of severe abdominal pain. She became hysterical, and died of cardiopulmonary arrest at 10:53 AM. Her autopsy revealed what Inglewood abortionists should have detected — that she had had an ectopic pregnancy. Her Fallopian tube had ruptured, causing a massive infection.
On February 2, 1978, Elizabeth Tsuji had a saline abortion at the Inglewood Women's Hospital abortion mill and died three days later.
On November 11, 1983, Cora Mae Lewis was aborted at the Inglewood Women's Hospital abortion mill. After the abortion, she developed fever and chills and was admitted to a real hospital, where she died on December 3. She died of pneumonia and lung abscesses caused by uterine and cervical inflammations caused by her abortion, but the death was classified as "natural" and an "accident."
On July 10, 1984, Steven Pine and/or Morton Barke aborted Yvonne Tanner at Inglewood. She immediately went into a coma after the abortion and died on August 14, 1984.
Last to die at Inglewood was Belinda Byrd, who was aborted at Inglewood by Steven Pine on January 24, 1987. She was 19 weeks pregnant. She went into a coma and died on January 27 due to bleeding from a punctured uterus.
Other Botched Abortions at Inglewood.
Many other women alleged malpractice and various other injuries at the hands of Steven Pine or other abortionists at Inglewood. These women included;
1971: Joyce B., aborted at the West Coast Medical Group, as Inglewood was called at that time, on October 29, 1971.
1972: Debra V., at hands of abortionist Richard B. Tepper. Debra said in her suit that Inglewood seemed designed "to get me through the operation as quickly as possible as opposed to ensuring my well being and safety, both before, during and after the operation;" Tami R., aborted on June 1-2, 1972; and Jean K., for a Planned Parenthood-referred abortion at the hands of Dennis Perlow. Jean said that "They told me that the abortion was a quick and simple procedure and that no problems could result. I wasn't warned that the doctors performing the abortion had so many other abortions to do that realistically it would be hard for them to do anything with care. ... I was sent to an abortion mill."
1973: Janet C., Gladys G. and Gloria D., at the hands of abortionist John Dupont on June 9, 1973, July 11, 1973, and September 4, 1973, respectively; Sharon M., at the hands of Maclyn Wade and/or Dennis Perlow in May 1973; and 13-year-old Cynthia T., at the hands of Leo Kenneally in April 1973. According to her lawsuit, little Cynthia suffered "post-abortal clostridia sepsis, diffuse intravascular coagulation, and acute tubular necrosis. ... Some necrotic material was found in the uterus, draining of the cul-de-sac revealed pus, and the uterus was found to be quite involved by a suppurative process as were the tubes and ovaries. The plaintiff also suffered acute renal failure. ... [The plaintiff] has suffered severe emotional, nervous, mental and psychological shock resulting from the complete abdominal hysterectomy, and demonstrated by prolonged periods of depression and lethargy." The little girl must take medications for the rest of her life, and will never have children, thanks to the Inglewood assembly-line abortion mill.
1974: Patricia J., at the hands of abortionist John Dupont on November 30, 1974; and Laura M. at the hands of abortionist Floyd Gray and/or Jacobs Noghrian on January 15, 1974;
1975: Aliner P., at the hands of abortionist Fred D. Parrott on April 25, 1975;
1978: Deborah S., at the hands of Morton Barke on September 29, 1978. Elizabeth Tsuji also died at Inglewood in 1978.
1979: Karen C., at the hands of John Dupont on July 28, 1979, and Linda L., at the hands of Scott Ricke on October 20, 1979. Also, the Philadelphia Inquirer, on August 2, 1981, published a story of live births after abortion at Inglewood, and described a 1979 case where a 1-pound 11-ounce infant was born after a saline abortion and subsequently died.
1980: Mia C., at the hands of abortionist P. Scott Ricke on June 12, 1980.
1981: Sandra Applegate; and Dorothy A., aborted on June 27, 1981.
1982: Vicky Rabourn; Betty Matthews; Shannette D., aborted at Inglewood on February 17, 1982; Betty M. and Vicky R., aborted at the hands of Steven Pine on September 29 and November 24, respectively; and Stella G., aborted at Inglewood on November 14, 1982.
1983: Patrice C., aborted by Morton Barke and/or R. Weaver and/or C. Von Dippe at Inglewood on April 27, 1983.
1984: Tracy M. Medley, Susan Lee Minyo, Shanti Friend, Leslie M. Thompson and Kathryn Ann Hummell [the last by Steven Pine at Women's Care Hospital]; Shanti F., at the hands of Steven Pine on June 19, 1984; Leslie T., at the hands of Lola Barke and/or Steven Pine and/or Bruce Shiffman on January 5, 1984; Dianne C., at the hands of Morton Barke on September 11, 1984; Tracy M., at the hands of Steven Pine and/or Morton Barke on June 1, 1984; and Susan M., at the hands of Steven Pine and/or Morton Barke on April 17, 1984.
1986: Juana Nunez; Penny P., aborted by Bruce Schiffman on August 2, 1986; Juana N., aborted by Edward Wilson on September 13, 1986, and winding up being hospitalized for five weeks; Kate A., at the hands of Bennett Weiss on October 12, 1986; Debra W., sterilized and then aborted by Steven Pine; and Dayna H., at the hands of Bruce Schiffman and/or Chand Aryasingha in December 1986.
1987: Debra Weaver; Mary Y., 22 weeks pregnant, aborted on January 22, 1987 by Morton Barke and/or Steven Pine, and/or Theresa Zumwalt; Edith H., aborted at Inglewood in June 1987; Teresa C., at the hands of Teresa Zumwalt and/or Morton Barke on June 2, 1987; Christina G., aborted at Inglewood on June 26, 1987; Monique D., at the hands of David Lieu on November 11, 1987; and Rosette M., aborted by John Kaplan on December 11, 1987.
1988: Donnetta G., failed abortion on May 21, 1988.
Inspection After Inspection Failed.
The "Inglewood Women's Hospital" abortion mill is the perfect example of exactly how unconcerned abortionists are about women's health. Inspection after inspection turned up life-threatening deficiencies. After the death of Elizabeth Tsuji, a March 1978 inspection found:
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- no pulmonary function testing available;
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- missing radiology equipment;
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- required equipment not in recovery room;
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- no identification of infections evident at time of admission;
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- no documentation that the physician director was coordinating respiratory care services;
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- respiratory care diagnostic and therapeutic procedures were not being provided;
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- facility conducting outpatient surgical services without having applied for a license to do so;
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- dietetic supervisor not qualified to do the job. This was very important, since many of Inglewood's late-term abortion patients had to stay overnight in the abortion mill;
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- syringes and needles not being rendered unusable in the recovery room; and
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- facility had an inadequate disaster plan.
Three days after Cora Mae Lewis died at Inglewood in November 1978, another inspection found
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- radiology equipment missing;
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- required equipment not in recovery room;
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- unqualified staff inserting laminaria and performing physicals;
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- no nursing care plans for seven patients;
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- standing orders not signed;
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- medical records charting not all signed;
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- facility still using an unqualified dietetic supervisor;
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- facility still failing to render syringes and needles unusable; and
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- forms for sterilizations did not have physician signature, date, and time.
A February 1980 inspection found that conditions had not improved. Obviously, the abortionists at Inglewood had learned that the State of California was not going to impede their mad rush for money in any meaningful way. This inspection found;
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- no documentation that a registered nurse was always available;
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- there was not always an RN assigned to the recovery room;
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- two of three nursing plans reviewed were identical, and had not been individualized for each patient;
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- there were more problems with the charts and documentation, including notes not being signed by the person making the observation;
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- there were also irregularities of standing orders;
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- "surgery log had white out and a different procedure performed written over;"
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- "history and physician exams as recorded were less than adequate in a number of charts;" and
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- consent forms for sterilizations still did not have physician's signature, date, and time.
Inglewood continued to operate unimpeded. A year later, a February 1981, inspection found;
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- no documentation of pre- and post-anesthesia instructions;
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- only one crash cart available for both nursing and surgery;
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- cloth-wrapped sterile supplies were marked with a six-month expiration date rather than a thirty-day expiration date indicated in policies;
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- ECG machine not on written preventive maintenance program;
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- electromedical equipment not tested as scheduled;
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- no control panel for nursing call station; and
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- diet orders unclear.
A September 24, 1982 inspection found;
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- post-anesthesia notes dated later than the time the observation was supposedly made;
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- records face sheets were signed off by the physician with blank spaces later stamped with final diagnosis, surgery, and complications;
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- date and time of orders were not documented;
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- patient records were charted by aides but signed by a registered nurse;
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- improper documentation of IVs;
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- discrepancies between medications ordered and medications administered;
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- only one registered nurse available for the pre- and post-operative surgical area for the 72 patients scheduled the day of the inspection;
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- patients not provided with visual privacy;
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- plastic anesthesia face masks were washed and re-used;
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- multiple patients were given the same IV solution from the same container, using the same tubing;
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- staff were not changing scrub suits between patients;
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- linens were stored uncovered;
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- an operating room technician washed his hands for surgery, then opened the operating room door, contaminating his hands; and
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- solid waste bins were not covered and "had encrustations of putrescable material."
Another inspection, carried out one year later on September 23, 1983, found;
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- times for vital signs were not recorded in the recovery room;
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- sites of injections were often not recorded;
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- one medication was given 3 hours after it was ordered;
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- there was no infection control policy addressing scrub clothes;
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- there was inadequate documentation of "all possible infection possibly acquired during hospitalization and evident following discharge;"
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- an addition to the rear of the operating room was not rodent-proof or sealed from the elements;
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- infection control in the disposal of infectious waste was not followed;
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- not all staff were documented as being tested for tuberculosis;
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- a patient was ordered a particular diet, but there was no menu available to define the diet;
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- another patient was put on a surgical liquid diet the day before that diet was ordered for her; and
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- dishes were being towel-dried rather than air-dried; this could contaminate the dishes.
In response to complaints, the State inspected Inglewood yet again in May and June of 1984. These inspections found;
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- a patient had a complication, but "none" was listed in the complication section of the surgical log;
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- two patient surgical logs had no entries, just a blank under the complications section;
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- laminaria was inserted by unlicensed staff;
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- a patient was transferred to another hospital without proper documentation;
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- consent for laminaria insertions was not always checked;
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- two patients' physical exam forms and history forms contained different information;
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- unlicensed staff were doing tentative gestational diagnosis;
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- there was no documentation that a physician was notified of ruptured membranes in one case;
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- one aide inserted laminaria, but another was documented as doing it;
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- there was no documentation of observations of a patient having seizures;
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- one patient was charted as in acute distress and unable to get blood pressure, but the type of distress was not described and no reason was given for the apparent inability to get her blood pressure;
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- entries in charts were written over and/or not dated;
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- there was no stripchart EKG in the post-anesthesia recovery room;
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- the written policy for the flash autoclave used to sterilize instruments was not followed;
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- the facility was advertising outpatient and emergency services although it had not been licensed to provide those services;
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- the surgical suite shelving was laden with dust and lint;
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- the surgical suite ceiling ventilation grid was encrusted with grayish material;
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- "Hospital does not have enough surgical equipment, nor does it appear that staff is properly sterilizing their equipment as evidenced by comparing the hospital's surgical log with the number of surgical sets available;" and
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- nurses, practitioners, and physician assistants lacked assignment of clinical privileges.
Conditions at the abortion mill just got worse and worse. A January 17, 1985 inspection found many more deficiencies than had ever been found before, including;
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- lab procedures were performed without a physician's orders;
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- the surgical log did not document complications charted elsewhere for two patients;
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- a recovery room adequate for only two patients was serving four patients;
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- only one cardiac monitor was present for four the patients in recovery;
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- boxes of supplies were stored on recovery room floor;
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- in two abortion patient records, verbal orders were documented from a physician who was neither on premises nor contacted by phone;
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- some physician's orders lacked dosage, frequency, or time;
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- medication was administered without orders from a physician;
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- "policy and procedures manual contained conflicting temperatures and pressures for autoclaving;"
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- autoclaving documents were not dated;
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- uncovered clean linen was stored in a patient room used as a pre-operative holding area;
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- linen was stored on a counter by the recovery room sink;
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- disposable anesthesia masks were re-used;
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- re-usable anesthesia masks were rinsed but not sanitized between patients;
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- there was an accumulation of dust and lint on the operating room suite shelving;
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- an area of operating room floor covering was missing;
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- one recovery room gurney was covered with dust;
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- sterile equipment with a December 24, 1984 expiration date was seen in the operating room during the January 17, 1985 inspection;
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- two of eight employee records lacked documentation of health examinations;
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- a physician's assistant was practicing without privileges;
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- documentation on D&Cs; were made by numerous staffers and not signed;
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- one patient record had an undated examination form in it;
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- a physician pre-signed blank physical examination forms for some patients;
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- "It was common practice to record the time a surgical procedure began before the patient actually entered the operating room. In one case, the patient's record [documented] that the procedure had begun at 10:00 a.m., but this was observed at 11:30 a.m., and the patient had not yet entered the O.R." In other words, patient charting was done in advance!;
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- "One physician did not wash his hands after going to the bathroom. He was observed going from the bathroom straight to the operating room to perform a surgical procedure;"
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- operating room staff did not wash hands "After returning from break and in between patients;"
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- operating room staff did not follow procedures for scrub gowning;
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- medication was observed on counters in the utility rooms, accessible to unauthorized personal;
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- a backup supply of controlled substances was not adequately monitored;
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- single-dose vials of medications were used for multiple doses;
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- medication was dispensed contrary to manufacturer's recommendations;
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- there was no medication refrigerator on the nursing unit; and
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- medications were charted as ordered but not charted as administered.
On May 9, 1985, inspectors once again returned to Inglewood to see if their corrections had been implemented. They really should have known better. Instead, they found;
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- inpatient records were charted primarily by nurses' aides and were co-signed by a nurse;
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- two patients were not reassessed as their condition changed;
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- patient chart entries were not signed by the person making the entries;
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- medications were not administered for several hours after they were ordered;
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- one patient's chart did not show the administration of ordered medication;
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- entries in charts were written over;
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- a patient's allergic reaction was documented in surgery but not in her discharge summary;
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- the emergency generator was not tested as required;
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- expired medications were stored in a refrigerator;
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- there was no documentation of training for the person disposing of infectious waste;
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- there was a defective recording thermometer on the operating room autoclave;
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- there were outdated sterile supplies in the utility room;
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- there were inadequately documented credentials for a physician assistant and a nurse practitioner;
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- a drug was administered to a patient when she had had an allergic reaction to that same drug the previous day;
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- one patient's allergic reaction had not been documented;
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- a certified registered nurse assistant was documented as administering medication which interviews indicated had been administered by a registered nurse;
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- a registered nurse administered a drug to treat allergic reaction without doctor's orders;
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- despite one patient's allergic reaction, the certified registered nurse assistant indicated that the patient "tolerated anesthetic well without problems;"
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- numerous medical entries were obliterated so as to be illegible;
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- physician orders were documented, but not the time they were given;
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- one person functioned as a circulating surgery nurse, while another signed off;
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- one physician was observed documenting orders as if he had written them the previous day;
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- one nurse was signing off on charts written by aides, without assessing patients to ensure their accuracy;
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- one patient was admitted with a temperature of 100.6 degrees, but no further documentation of the patient's temperature was observed, and she was later readmitted with a high temperature;
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- one chart documented a positive skin test for a patients's medication sensitivity, but it lacked documentation of any further assessment;
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- some drugs ordered to be administered for pain had been given to a patient for her fever;
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- there was improper documentation of autoclave temperatures ;
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- there was dust along ledges, on the ceiling, and on fixtures in the recovery room;
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- there was an eroding plaster wall by the handwash sink in the operating room;
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- there was peeling and/or chipped paint in the operating room;
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- there were torn and/or stained window curtains; and
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- the upholstery was torn on one operating room surgical table and stool.
The State of California, after having its inspectors ignored for more than a decade, finally closed Inglewood in February of 1988 after dozens of major health code violations caused by a mad rush to make money, including;
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- the use of operating tables "soiled by the fresh blood of previous patients;"
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- abortionists signing discharge orders for patients they hadn't examined;
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- failure to monitor patients' vital signs;
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- falsification of and failure to complete medical records;
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- administering a fixed amount of anesthesia to patients of all weights;
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- rushing patients through recovery; and
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- killing at least five women since 1973 by botching their abortions.
Superior Court Judge Miriam Vogel stated that "These are obviously life-threatening infractions, not technical violations. Obviously, people's lives are at risk." State Deputy Attorney General Donna Buntaine agreed, saying that the "hospital" had made "empty promises" in the past to correct violations: "They correct the violations on paper, but when we walk out the door they go back to their [dangerous] practices." Predictably, the abortionists, who couldn't resist the incredible amount of money made from 12,000 abortions a year, immediately found a way around the law, reopening just three days later as the "West Coast Women's Medical Group." Also predictably, the most outspoken critic of the investigation of the health care violations at this abortuary, California State Senator Diane Watson, received two very large campaign contributions from the facility.
References: Inglewood letters to the California State Health Department dated April 16, 1972 and April 22, 1975; Undated letter from Mrs. Mattie Byrd (mother of Belinda Byrd, who died January 27, 1987), quoted in Feminists for Life of America amicus brief in the case of Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services, #88-605; Los Angeles County Superior Court Cases #C-141669, #C-249894, #C-331213, #C-359986, #C-368721, #C-41915, #C-442889, #C-476082, #C-476082, #C-483321, #C-483321, #C-507397 , #C-555261, #C-555261, #C-577956, #C-58508, #C-64484, #C-64485, #C-74502, #C-84626, #HWC-32151, #NWC-034151, #NWC-04156, #NWC-042103, #NWC-045509, #NWC-35925, #SCC-11519, #SCC-12219, #SCC-12219, #SEC-61659, #SUC-099075, #SWC-062766, #SWC-102814, #SWC-108011, #SWC-28902, #SWC-30375, #SWC-34021, #SWC-34625, #SWC-52412, #SWC-69025, #SWC-97391, #SWC-97812, #WEC-092527, #WEC-092527, #WEC-86705, and #WEC-86705; Los Angeles County Coroner Reports #73-14675, #78-1763 and #83-15079; Los Angeles Times, December 3, 1987 and August 12, 1989; California Hospital License #4H-00951; Ownership and Control Interest Disclosure Statement dated March 24, 1983; The Wall Street Journal, October 12, 1988; Associated press, July 15, 1989; and Leslie Bond. "Abortion Hospital Closed Because of 'Battlefront Conditions.'" National Right to Life News, March 24, 1988, page 5. You can find a very detailed expose of the Inglewood abortion mill, which served as the source of most of this information, at the Real Choice Web site here.
Fatal Botched Abortions (3 incidents) and Malpractice (10 incidents)
Abortionist Kenneth L. Wright was a defendant in lawsuits regarding the abortion deaths of 17-year-old Laniece Dorsey in 1986 and Josephina Garcia in 1985. He was also a defendant in at least nine other malpractice suits up until 2000.
The most recent case was filed in August 2001 in Fresno County Superior Court. It accuses Wright and the Family Planning Associates Medical Group abortion mill of wrongfully causing the death of Kimberly K. Neil. The lawsuit alleges Neil wasn't properly monitored and wasn't properly treated after she went into respiratory arrest during the abortion. Neil died May 22, 2000.
The other case, filed in April 2001, claims Wright was negligent and "overlooked" an unborn child while doing an abortion on Heather M. Shaw of Tulare County in 1999. Shaw later suffered cramping, hemorrhaging, nausea and "borderline gangrene" and required emergency surgery, the lawsuit says. Lita Reid, Shaw's lawyer, said that an unborn child was left behind during the abortion and that her client's medical care was substandard. "There is a consent form and you warn patients about things, but you can't write off negligence with a disclaimer," Reid said.
References: Press-Telegram, April 25, 1988; Los Angeles County Superior Court Cases #BC008189, #C109353, #C148914, #C188819, #C347394, #C483647, #C505315 and NCC238673; Orange County Superior Court Cases #317968, #320240, #370730 and #503914; "Fresno Abortion Practitioner Sued for Abortion Death, Botched Abortion." Fresno Bee, August 18, 2001; Steve Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, August 20, 2001; "Kenneth Wright Loses Abortion Patient." About.com, August 22, 2001; Sylvia Dorsey v. Family Planning Associates Medical Group, et.al. [wrongful death], Superior Court of California, County of Orange case #S1-04-15.
Fatal Botched Abortion, Malpractice (13 incidents), and Medi-Cal Fraud (32 counts)
Joyce Ortenzio developed an infection and died on June 8, 1988, after a laminaria insertion for an abortion by abortionist Ruben Marmet, who had over a dozen other malpractice suits lodged against him.
The abortionist was also charged and convicted of 32 counts of Medi-Cal fraud in 1983.
References: Los Angeles County Superior Court Cases #C122497, #C127280, #C258779, #C343897, #EAC50227, #WEC139590, and #WEC38628.
Fatal Botched Abortion
On February 28, 2002, 25-year-old Diana Lopez of Huntington Park went to Planned Parenthood for a second-trimester abortion. She already had two children and relied on state aid to support them, according to her sister.
Lopez was about 20 weeks pregnant. Within minutes, abortionist Mark Maltzer punctured her cervix, and she began to bleed profusely. The abortion mill staff was unable to control the bleeding, so Lopez was taken by ambulance from the Planned Parenthood clinic on Kingston Avenue in East Los Angeles to nearby Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Women's and Children's Hospital, where an emergency hysterectomy was performed. Maltzer did not bother to accompany his bleeding patient to the hospital.
The Los Angeles County Coroner determined that Diana died from a massive hemorrhage caused by "traumatic perforation of the cervix" subsequent to an abortion at Planned Parenthood.
Additionally, the Los Angeles County Department of Health, Facility Licensing Division issued two reports concluding that Planned Parenthood and the abortionist Mark Maltzer of Sacramento, were at fault. This report found that Lopez was not a good candidate for the abortion procedure.
Diana's death left her two sons, Frankie (4) and Fabian (2), motherless. Relatives struggle to provide for the boys.
The reports noted that Planned Parenthood's own procedure protocols "absolutely contraindicated" taking a patient into surgery who has less than a ten hemoglobin, as was the case with Diana. The reports also noted that Maltzer failed to obtain physician-required informed consent, that he failed to examine Diana prior to surgery, and that he failed to adequately dilate her cervix. Additionally, Planned Parenthood did not report Lopez's death within a required 24-hour period.
Although the Department of Health failed to note the most revealing part of Planned Parenthood's substandard care, it is clear in the patient record that Maltzer was working so rapidly that it could only be described as working recklessly. He completed the delicate twenty-week abortion in only 6 minutes.
In summary, the California Department of Health Services study, released on May 21, 2002, found numerous deficiencies in the Planned Parenthood clinic's operations, including:
- Failing to institute a necessary change in medical protocol relating to the use of laminaria (used to expand the cervix) in the dilation and evacuation procedure.
- Lacking the evidence to show a completed assessment of the competency and credentials of the physician who carried out the abortion.
- Failing to follow proper surgical abortion policy and procedure by administering Cytotec to the patient on day one of the two-day abortion procedure, when policy requires it to be administered 90 minutes before the abortion procedure.
- Failing to inform Planned Parenthood's governing body of any adverse outcome related to patient care within the facility.
- Failure to contact the state within 24 hours after Lopez was taken to a hospital, as required by the state (the state was notified six days after Lopez died).
- Failure to implement a policy that would have advised against an abortion for Lopez because her hemoglobin (a substance in the blood) was too low on a test.
- Failure by the clinic's board of directors to "exercise oversight responsibility for ensuring the operation of the clinic." Minutes from board meetings, for example, did not document "any adverse outcome related to patient care within the facility."
- Failure to keep a detailed health record on Lopez, including her diagnoses, type of anesthesia used during the procedure, surgical findings and the procedure performed.
As always, the pro-abortionists do everything they can to defend the procedure while not even mentioning the names of those they have mutilated or killed. Martha Swiller, acting president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, heartlessly tried to put a happy face on the death of this young mother with typical pro-abort boilerplate propaganda that sounds as if it was prepared years ago, without even a space for filling in the dead woman's name. Swiller said that "Everyone at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles feels tremendous sympathy for this woman's family and we share their grief. While abortion is extremely safe, this is a tragic reminder that, as with all medical procedures, some risk does exist."
Why Maltzer, whose practice is in Sacramento, was working in the Los Angeles clinic is not clear. Jack Schuler, the Lopez family's attorney, suggested the motive was financial. He said that "They get the clinics to do all the prep work, then they line the patients up in a cattle call. They never see the patient until just before surgery, and then spend five or six minutes with the patient and are on to the next one."
Vicky Saporta of the National Abortion Federation (NAF) joined Planned Parenthood in damage control. She said that some abortionists travel to fill in where there are too few doctors willing to perform abortions. She said that "Eighty-seven percent of counties in the U.S. have no current abortion provider. They often have to travel so women in remote areas can have access to abortion services. Some travel to lend their knowledge and expertise in a training situation."
On Maltzer's own Web site, PregnancyConsultation.com, he states that this same procedure takes "ten to thirty minutes."
Maltzer is Medical Director of Pregnancy Consultation Center in Sacramento. He bought this abortion business from the owners who had employed abortionist Bruce Steir, who pled guilty to manslaughter in the death of Sharon Hamptlon in 1996 (for details, see elsewhere in this database). Steir went to jail and the business was sold to Maltzer and his wife.
Later, Maltzer's Pregnancy Consultation Clinic was featured as one of the clinics caught in a nationally publicized sting of abortion clinics that were skirting state laws requiring the reporting of statutory rape of young teenaged girls. Significantly, the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood abortion mill where Diana was killed was also caught in the same sting originated by Mark Crutcher's Life Dynamics, Inc. Both abortion mills agreed to provide abortions and contraceptives to a woman posing as a 13-year-old girl impregnated by her 22-year-old boyfriend without notifying parents or authorities.
"It was wrong. It was wrong," said Judy Lopez, Diana's older sister. "She was healthy. She was fine."
In April 2003, the Lopez family filed a wrongful death suit against Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles and Maltzer, alleging that "Maltzer worked so quickly, recklessly and negligently pulling out sharp body parts of Diana Lopez's 19-20 week unborn infant that severe irreparable damage was done to the cervix causing massive, immediate hemorrhage from a traumatic cervical perforation that caused the death of Diana Lopez."
The suit also alleges that Maltzer failed to accompany Lopez to the hospital, nor did he speak with doctors there or with the Lopez family after she died.
Both Planned Parenthood and Maltzer deny all of the allegations, of course.
Not surprisingly, Maltzer is still performing abortions and piling up money at abortion mills in the Los Angeles area, but at least is under investigation by the Medical Board of California. The board's spokeswoman declined to say what the probe was about.
References: Dorsey Griffith. "State Faults Clinic in Death." Sacramento Bee, June 19, 2003; "State Faults Planned Parenthood Facility in Woman's Abortion Death." Sacramento Bee, June 19, 2003. Steve Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, June 21, 2003; "Family of Woman Who Died at Abortion Clinic Files Lawsuit." Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 25, 2003; Mother of Three Dies after Planned Parenthood Abortion, Family Sues." LifeSite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, June 25, 2003; "Family of Woman Who Died at Abortion Clinic Files Lawsuit." The Sacramento Bee, June 26, 2003; David Fein. "Abortionist Involved in Woman's Death Awaits Word on Medical License." CNS News, June 30, 2003.
Rape (3 incidents)
On October 4, 2004, a woman identified only as "Jane Doe" on court papers filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, claiming that Father Jesus Garay raped her and then pressured her to have an abortion.
The lawsuit states that Father Garay repeatedly raped her in 1997 when she was 17 and was a parishioner and part-time secretary at Holy Family Church in Wilmington, California. She became pregnant in December 1997 and Father Garay continued to sexually abuse her until about April 1998.
The lawsuit alleges that the Los Angeles Archdiocese failed to notify authorities of the sexual abuse, did not provide medical care for the girl, and did not support the child after it was born.
Reference: "Woman Claims L.A. Priest Raped Her When She Was 17, Urged Abortion." The San Diego Union-Tribune, October 5, 2004.
Attempted Mass Murder and Mayhem
In March 1989, three pro-abortionists were arrested after igniting an incendiary device in a church packed with pro-life activists. Police also found concussion grenades beneath the speaking platform where pro-life leaders were to speak. If these had been detonated, the speakers would have been killed or gravely injured. Approximately 2,500 people were present.
Reference: Operation Rescue of California, Blue Jay, California.
Attempted Murder
A member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) rammed pro-lifer Bill Soucie's car with a Chevy Blazer and forced him into oncoming traffic. The criminal fled to Canada to avoid prosecution.
Reference: Glenn Ellen Duncan. "The Shocking Violence Against Prolifers." Catholic Twin Circle, September 11, 1994, page 11.
Rape (3 counts), Coercion, Battery (28 incidents), Attempted Battery, Sexual Assault (2 counts), Sexual Abuse (6 counts), Impersonating a Doctor, Incompetence, Negligence and Malpractice (5 counts) [Santa Monica]
Abortionist Laurence Reich was Medical Director of a chain of abortion mills in Chula Vista, Santa Ana, Huntington Park, Baldwin Park and the Los Angeles area. These clinics were named Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy, operated on a cash-only basis, and systematically targeted Hispanic women. In 2000, he took over from another notorious abortionist, Nicholas Braemer, who lost his medical license after years of malpractice and negligence involving abortion patients.
Reich was charged with 28 counts of battery, attempted battery, sexual misconduct, prescribing drugs without a license, coercion, and impersonating a doctor. Reich sexually assaulted two of his abortion patients, forcing them to have oral sex with him. Another patient claimed that Reich raped her and botched one of her abortions. Several court testimonies claimed that Reich sexually abused at least six of his patients and botched operations on at least four others.
Reich worked with two other abortionists, each of whom has criminal convictions. John Rivera was arrested and convicted when he publicly groped a woman in the vaginal area while high on the drug ecstasy, and George D. Flanigan was convicted for stealing from the California state Medi-Cal program, and has been accused of incompetence and negligence in the traumatic death of an infant named "Baby Girl Rodriguez."
Reich's chain of abortion mills were the subject of a 2005 Cable News Network (CNN) expose that was so effective that even rabidly pro-abortion United States Senator Barbara Boxer sent a strongly worded admonition to the California Osteopathic Board demanding that Reich's medical license be suspended.
On February 14, 2006, pro-lifers witnessed another screaming woman being loaded onto a gurney after yet another botched abortion.
Reference: Santa Monica Municipal Court Case #M107591; Los Angeles County Superior Court Cases #C407986, #C413009, #C436254, #C522808, #C619947, and #C672949; Osteopathic Examiners Board Case #82-18; Kevin Sherlock. The Scarlet Survey. Akron, Ohio: Brennyman Books, 1997, pages 6 to 8. James McCoy. "Not a Back-Alley Clinic: This is Chula Vista." NewsNotes [San Diego's Catholic Newspaper], April 1999, pages 1 and 3; John-Henry Westin and Steve Jalsevac. "California Abortion Doc Convicted of Sexual Abuse Continues to Practice." LifeSite Daily News, November 1, 2005; Steven Ertelt. "California Woman Taken to Hospital After Botched Abortion in Santa Ana." LifeSite Daily News, February 16, 2006; "Convicted Sex-Offender Abortionist Still Practicing: De-Licensed California Doctor Allowed to Keep Clinics Open Until Mid-April." WorldNetDaily, March 2, 2006.
Rape (4 incidents), Sexual Abuse (65 incidents), Gross Negligence and Mail Fraud
Abortionist Ivan C. Namihas impregnated one of his patients, "Jeannette J." In January 1989 he performed an after-hours abortion on her without adequate equipment or personnel. Namihas wrote a letter to Jeannette's employer, disclosing confidential medical information and calling her an "incorrigible liar."
Namihas also repeatedly raped his half-sister, "Y.N.P.," during the time period 1964 to 1970 and "carried out several D&C; procedures on her to terminate suspected pregnancies" without anesthesia. In 1969, he sent her to Mexico for "an abortion carried out in primitive, non-sterile conditions" on a confirmed pregnancy.
Over 100 patients and former patients reported allegations of medical misconduct or sexual abuse at the hands of Namihas to the medical board dating back to 1969. These included raping a patient with a foreign object. One 21-year-old patient in an emergency room, suffering a miscarriage, reported he did a D&C; on her without anesthesia and made sexually abusive statements. Namihas told another patient to think about him and masturbate and "induced her into performing oral sex on him." He had "physical encounters with a nurse" while a patient was in labor, boasted to her of his sexual prowess, and demanded she have a hysterectomy although there might not have been medical indication, and then went on to insert his tongue into her vagina. He "asked numerous intimate and insulting questions and critical, judgmental comments about [a patient's] sex life," "prescribed expensive and dangerous medication for infertility without medical indication or proper examination," performed laser surgery so incompetently as to require hospitalization, "divulged to her confidential physician-patient information of a sexual nature concerning another patient," and attempted to establish a sexual relationship with her.
He attempted to solicit a date with a patient's friend while he was performing a painful exam and treatment; he kissed patients on the mouth; he entered an exam room, undoing a woman patient's belt and pants, moved his body against her, put his hand down inside her underwear and told her "that she had a nice 'cunt' or 'pussy.'" He falsely told a patient she was in premature labor and did a C-section "for the convenience of his skiing vacation;" he put "extra stitches" in episiotomies to make women "nice and tight;" he took the drape away from another patient, making her walk naked to the scales to be weighed, telling her she was too shy and that she should be proud of her body, and said she should make love with him so he could "show her how good it could be." He then called her at home and asked her to meet him, kissed her during an exam, and asked her to describe her marital encounters in detail.
He asked another patient if she was having sex, and when she told him 'no,' he "put his fingers in her vagina, pushed them in and out quickly and said 'See what you are missing,'" she told him it hurt, and he told her "What a waste, you shouldn't be letting a tight pussy like this go to waste," then he referred her account to a collection agency, and told her "I'm a doctor, this is what I do, they won't believe you;" he told a 17-year-old patient, nude on the exam table, that her body was perfect for sex and that he wanted to have sex with her, and he falsely told her she had cysts on her ovaries and needed a hysterectomy (her parents got a second opinion and the girl avoided the unnecessary surgery).
He asked a patient on the exam table, "Hi, have you had a good f— lately?" He raped a patient on the exam table; a 12-13 year old patient brought to him due to painful menstruation was told she had cysts on her ovaries, she would have to take birth control pills, and that if they did not take care of her problem she would need a hysterectomy and be unable to have babies. He pulled her to the end of the exam table and "gave her a very passionate hug." She began to cry and he "gave her a very wet kiss, told her it was O.K. and not to cry." He "used offensive slang terms when referring to body parts" during her exam, and told the patient she shouldn't get married "because she wouldn't be around for 'us dirty old men to play with.'"
He tried to French-kiss a patient during a postpartum check up, telling her that her symptoms she attributed to possible bladder infection was "a build up from not climaxing during sex and that he could help her out if she went to a motel with him." Namihas undressed one patient for her exams, tell her "he wanted to show her what an orgasm really was," and called her on the phone offering to be her first sexual experience. The abortionist played with a 16-year-old patient's nipples during an exam; made comments about another patient's pubic hair, pulling out loose pubic hairs and blowing them across the room, saying how he loved blondes. Another patient came in with her baby for post-partem exam, and Namihas instructed her "to tighten up her vaginal muscles. He then spread her legs further apart and put his fingers in her vagina moving them in and out quickly," asked her gruffly if it felt good. As she tried to move away he followed her up the exam table, she pushed him away with her foot, she got dressed when he left the room but her returned and pinned her against the wall, breathing hard and telling her she was beautiful, and she finally took her baby and left.
The abortionist fondled another patient's breasts to awaken her after surgery; he told a patient she had "blue balls" because her husband "was not satisfying her," and offered "to help with the problem;" he conducted pelvic exam without gloves, telling patient "that her 'cherry' was not broken but was very stretched out and that he could break it for her if she wanted him to because he was very big." He rubbed the tip of her clitoris "and said it was very red at the tip which meant that she 'was a very horny little girl," and offered to help her get pregnant since he was very fertile; he offered to show a patient, a virgin, "what love is all about;" while he was examining a patient's breasts, he told her he "would like to eat those."
He severed a patient's veins during a C-section, and she required multiple transfusions. He came to see her, "to tell her how scared he was that he had almost lost her ... stated how special [she] was to him and that he would take good care of her ... that it was his birthday and, while [she] was laying in the hospital bed with IVs in both arms ... kissed her on the lips." During a later exam, he said "Are you horny - you seem so horny, maybe I can help." He moved his hand inside her, and told her that if she "was having sexual problems she would call him day or night and he would always be there for her." He told another patient's husband that she was a hypochondriac, that he should not believe anything she said, and then told the patient "that her husband was cheating on her and that was how she had gotten all her diseases."
He told a patient and her stepmother that she had severe genital warts, showing them photos in a book, and saying that "her case was so bad that he was going to have to burn her all over inside and out and that she would be bedridden for 30 days ... that she would have to soak in seawater, to be purchased at the fish store ... that he was going to have to hurt [her] terribly ... if she did not have the surgery it would lead to cervical cancer and that there was a slim chance that [she] would ever have children. When questioned by the stepmother, [he] immediately slammed shut his book, became defensive, and raised his voice." When she was getting ready to sign consent forms while Namihas was with another patient, his nurse told her the tests were negative and that Namihas "was misdiagnosing many women because he needed the money."
He was dating and having sex with a patient; he told another patient he had stitched her vagina "a perfect size for his penis and there was no way that [her] husband could be bigger than him," and when she said that obviously her husband was because intercourse was painful, he "pushed [her] to the floor, started to press hard against her, and French kissed her;" he rubbed his penis against a patient's leg, telling her he'd stitched her tight during surgery and that her husband would enjoy it, and during a subsequent exam told her "You're not being used much."
Namihas was finally found guilty by the medical board of sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, gross negligence, incompetence, and immorality. The California medical board pursued allegations and actively revoked his license. He was also charged with mail fraud for billing patient for unneeded treatments.
References: Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1993; Orange County Register, March 28, 1995; Medical Board of California Department of Consumer Affairs Case Number D-4660, OAH Number L-57069).
Rape, Perjury, Death Threats (2 incidents), Medical Insurance Fraud (16 counts), and Consistently Filthy Abortion Mill
Abortionist Lawrence Alozie Akpulonu, in medical board documents, allegedly raped patient "A.A," who was under anesthesia for an abortion by Akpulonu at Midland Medical Center on January 28, 1995. A complaint to the California Medical Board states thatA.A. awoke to find respondent raping her; he had penetrated her vagina with his penis. Respondent gave patient A.A. a shot and she went back to sleep. When patient A.A. woke up a second time, she saw respondent next to her. She saw his erect penis out of his pants. She tried to push him away ... Respondent then gave her another shot and she went back to sleep. When patient A.A. awoke for a third time, she found her sweater had been removed and her bra partially pulled down exposing her right breast. Respondent was caressing patient A.A.'s body ... when patient A.A. tried to scream, respondent placed his hand over her mouth. Respondent told patient A.A. she had a beautiful body. He said she was a very nice girl and a very sexy girl while he continued rubbing her inside her blouse and bra. He kissed her right breast. He then placed his business card inside her bra and said she could call him anytime." He was found guilty of negligence and gross deviation from standard of care in this behavior and in the excessive injections given to A.A.
In other incidents, Akpulonu was arrested for committing perjury on government documents. He was also given probation for brandishing a loaded handgun in front of pro-lifers and threatening their lives. Akpulonu also pleaded guilty to medical insurance fraud. On November 19, 1991, Akpulonu threatened a parking garage attendant with a loaded .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol, which he had been carrying concealed in his vehicle, when the attendant asked him to remove his improperly parked car from a restricted area. Original charges of exhibiting a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, and carrying a loaded firearm in a public place were amended to add a charge of disturbing the peace; Akpulonu pleaded nolo contendere to the added charge February 20, 1992, and the remaining charges were dismissed.
Medical board documents alleged that Akpulonu billed Medi-cal for x-rays on patients S.T. (October 22, 1986), C.C. (November 11, 1986), D.C. (December 16, 1985), and E.D. (December 13, 1986); false or fraudulent Medi-Cal claims totaling $9300 on 62 additional patients in 1989 and 1990, such as billing once as an abortion D&C; and once for a non-obstetrical D&C; for the same abortion; billing $5970.40 fraudulently as new patient visits for 98 previously billed patients; submitted fraudulent pathology bills on 43 patients when pathology services were included in other billed procedures; 15-count felony complaint filed against respondent and Shirley Akpulonu September 9, 1987; on August 9, 1988, 16 counts were dismissed in a hearing and 10-count Felony Information was filed August 15; March 13, 1991, he pled guilty to a misdemeanor offense.
There were many official inspections of Akpulonu's Midland Medical Center abortion mill, and every one of them revealed recurring threats to patient health that were not corrected;
Akpulonu, who is a podiatrist by training, ran his filthy Midland Medical Center abortion mill for years, and kept his clinic open despite at least seven health inspections that found numerous threats to the lives and health of his patients. Akpulonu's case is a perfect example of how states are perfectly willing to let bad abortionists continue to threaten the lives of women, just because they want abortion to stay fully available. When reading this list of inspection failures, consider what the authorities would do to a pro-life crisis pregnancy center if it had such a lousy inspection record — it would be shut down after it failed the first inspection!
A July 17, 1991 inspection found
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- A filthy rest room with no toilet paper;
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- Reports of unsterile instruments being used in the operating room;
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- Fumes persevering after anesthesia;
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- No registered nurse at the facility;
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- Akpulonu performing abortions alone, with no assistant;
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- No scrub room and inadequate supply of gowns and gloves;
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- Blood on floor and curtains of the operating room;
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- Facility operating with an expired license; and
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- Blood specimens discarded rather than sent to a lab for testing.
August and September 1991 inspections found
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- Employees were trained to clean hoses used in medical procedures in running cold water by working the hoses manually to flush out all blood and tissue;
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- Surgical gloves not worn;
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- Employees trained to dump tissue jars into the sink and run the contents through the garbage disposal;
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- Medical instruments were in cold water in the sink and put in the autoclave, which was rusty and too small to permit closing of the lid when the instruments were in it;
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- No pathology reports on abortion tissues;
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- Disposable plastic syringes being re-used;
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- Clinic smelled of rotting tissues, surgery room splattered with blood, and some other rooms were extremely dusty; and
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- Rat droppings found in the surgery room and in the hall.
A May 1993 inspection found
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- Respondent did not use gloves during medical procedures and advised his medical assistants that they did not need to use gloves unless they had a cut on their finger or hand;
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- Respondent brought his entire staff into the examination room to observe a patient who had a severe case of genital warts;
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- No pathology reports done on abortion tissues;
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- No refrigeration for blood and tissue samples or for medications;
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- No on-site equipment for handling emergencies;
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- Fetuses less than 18 to 24 weeks were flushed down the garbage disposal;
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- Equipment not properly sterilized between procedures;
A July/August 1993 inspection found
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- Staff were now flushing fetuses of less than five months down the toilet;
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- Staff were not trained in infection control;
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- Equipment was still not being sterilized between procedures;
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- Employees were assisting in medical procedures were not provided aprons, masks or hair covers; and
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- Staff were re-using single use equipment such as plastic equipment inserted in patients' vaginas, and tubing that transported products of conception.
A September, 1993 inspection found
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- A foul odor in exam rooms;
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- A dirty autoclave containing rusty, dirty, tissue-encrusted instruments;
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- An employee containing dirty equipment without wearing gloves because the employee had been instructed by Akpulonu that, if the employee desired to work at respondent's clinic, the employee would not wear gloves when dealing with bodily fluids; and
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- When the employee indicated intent to report this to health authorities, Akpulonu told the employee he would see to it that the employee never got another job in the health care field;
A February 1994 inspection found
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- Blood products improperly stored in improperly labeled, leaking containers;
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- No soap, antiseptic, or towels at handwashing facilities;
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- Improper storage of hazardous waste;
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- Inadequate personal protective equipment for staff;
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- Missing emergency equipment;
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- Poor housekeeping;
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- Improper record keeping; and
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- Training was inappropriately given by an employee with only one week of employment and did not include information on the handling of an exposure incident;
A March 1994 inspection found:
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- IV needles were not disposed of properly;
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- There were improperly labeled blood products stored in open cupboards;
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- There were still no towels at the handwashing site;
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- The emergency exit was blocked;
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- There were no gowns, face shields, or goggles for staff;
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- The emergency equipment was still missing;
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- The housekeeping was still poor;
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- The record keeping was still inadequate;
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- Biohazardous waste was improperly stored in paper boxes; and
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- Maintenance room contained an unlabeled and blocked electrical panel as well as a floor covered with large wires creating a hazard.
On January 14, 1995, Akpulonu hired a nurse on the spot, but she quit after only four hours of working in his filthy abortion mill. Among other health hazards, she observed in a complaint to the California Medical Board;
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- rusty metal speculums;
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- rusty forceps;
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- instruments cleaned with dishwashing liquid;
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- a lack of lifesaving equipment;
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- no apparatus for administering anesthesia;
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- cockroaches in the operating room;
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- no medical swabs in the operating room;
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- no alcohol in examining or operating rooms;
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- a 'rancid blood smell' in procedure rooms;
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- no refrigerator to store pathology tissues;
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- no containers for biohazardous materials;
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- no needle disposal units in examining room or operating room;
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- used needles left on tables in the operating room; and
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- improper handling of fetal materials.
The nurse's complaint to the California Medical Board stated thatAkpulonu performed five abortion procedures. ... I saw old specimens, apparently from earlier abortions performed the day before, in urine sample glasses stored in the medicine cabinet. ... When Akpulonu began the abortion procedures, he did not allow anyone else in the room with him. There was no nurse or assistant with him. ... After the procedures, Akpulonu asked me to empty the products of conception from the gauze bag attached to the vacuum aspirator into containers. ... he referred me to the medicine cabinet. The only containers in that cabinet that could have held the specimens were the plastic urine sample glasses. I followed instructions and then asked an intern if that was the standard procedure at the clinic. She said it was. The specimens sat on the counter for several hours. ... Based upon what I saw in the short time that I was there, it does not appear that Akpulonu is sending any specimens to a pathology lab. ... I truly believe that someone will become seriously injured if something is not done immediately.
References: Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1993; News Notes. "A Gentle Touch." The Wanderer, March 2, 1995, page 3; California Medical Board Accusation Number 17-95-46707 dated March 21, 1995.
Incest and Sexual Abuse (3 incidents)
This case demonstrates an obvious fact: That child predators use abortion to cover up their crimes of incest and child rape.
Jose Luis Melchor-Aparicio, of La Habra, impregnated his daughter and then demanded she have an abortion. Melchor, who failed to register as a sex offender, had two prior deportation orders related to sex offenses. He tried to hide his identity by using fake documents, said Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for the immigration agency, which is part of the Homeland Security Department.
Melchor-Aparicio was one of a dozen child predators and other sex offenders arrested in the Los Angeles area in early October 2003. The arrests were part of "Operation Predator," a nationwide crackdown by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to protect children from pornographers, prostitution rings, Internet pedophiles and other predatory criminals.
Since July of 2003, there have been more than 250 arrests in Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties, said Loraine Brown, special agent-in-charge of ICE investigations in Los Angeles. Since the operation began, there have been more than 1,000 arrests nationwide of child predators and sex offenders. Those arrested in Southern California include
"Operation Predator" is coordinated by the ICE Cyber Crime Center in Fairfax, Va., and the effort also partners with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Reference: "Operation Aimed at Sex Offenders, Child Predators Nets Dozens of Arrests in L.A. Area." San Francisco Chronicle, October 10, 2003.
Committing Lewd Acts on a Child and Sexual Abuse (2 incidents)
On August 25, 1978, Father John Peter Lenihan, a Catholic priest, committed lewd acts on 14-year-old Lori Haigh, to include oral copulation, sexual intercourse and mutual masturbation, according to court documents. The molestation continued for two years. Haigh told reporters in April 2002 that Lenihan impregnated her when she was 16, then paid for her to have an abortion.
Lenihan was arrested in March 2003 and was jailed in Orange County in lieu of $100,000 bail. He was charged with committing lewd acts on a child.
It was not the first time Lenihan was accused of sexual abuse. A former pastor at St. Edward Church in Dana Point and St. Norbert Church in Orange, Lenihan left the priesthood last year after Roman Catholic Church officials paid $1.2 million to a woman who accused him of getting her pregnant when she was 16.
The Diocese of Orange County also paid $400,000 to settle a lawsuit that accused Lenihan of having sex with a woman who sought counseling while he worked at St. Edward.
Lenihan could get nine years in state prison if convicted. He was charged Wednesday after a yearlong investigation.
References: Robert Jablon. "Former Priest Jailed for 1978 Affair that Led to Girl's Abortion." Wilmington Star, March 14, 2003; "Ex-Priest Will Face Sex Charges." The Orange County Register, May 12, 2003.
Assault (2 incidents)
An April 10, 1993, during the fifth annual Holy Week rescues, pro-lifers shut down the Hamilton Family Planning Clinic in Huntington Park. A male pro-abortionist had been arrested for violently assaulting pro-lifers the day before. Police released him, and the coward returned the next day to bite a 10-year-old boy on the neck and smash him to the pavement. He was arrested for felony assault — and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) paid the $5,300 bail to set him free!
Reference: Jan Stoltenberg. "Holy Week Rescues in L.A. Close 3 Clinics." The Life Advocate [Advocates for Life Ministries, Portland, Oregon], June 1993, page 24.
Assault and Battery
During the August 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, a worker from the Her Medical Clinic abortion mill attacked Operation Rescue West director Troy Newman while he demonstrated on a public sidewalk. She was arrested by Los Angeles police and was charged with assault and battery. Ironically, this attack occurred just minutes after Operation Rescue held a press conference contrasting the difference between peaceful pro-life protests and other protest groups which use violence to get out their messages. "I can think of nothing that illustrates my point more clearly than this arrest and jailing of an abortion clinic worker for assault and battery."
References: "Abortion Clinic Worker Arrested for Assaulting Pro-Lifer." LifeSite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, August 15, 2000; "Abortion Clinic Employee Arrested in Connection with Protest." ZENIT News Agency Daily Dispatch at [email protected], August 13, 2000.
Assault and Battery
Lilliam Mackey was attempting to serve papers on abortionist Curlee Ross, who beat her severely about the face and body. Ross settled the case out of court for $1500.
Reference: Los Angeles County Superior Court Case #C34287.
Grand Theft, Conspiracy to Defraud, Filing False Claims and Receiving Stolen Property
Abortionist Morton W. Barke was indicted in 1972 of "conspiracy to cheat and defraud by committing the crimes of grand theft and of filing false claims;" "On February 14, 1972, Barke and [Walter] Appleman performed a total of fifty-one therapeutic abortions in 665 minutes while preparing reports and claims totaling 610 minutes for the eleven patients who were on Medi-Cal." On February 18, 1972, Barke and Appleman filed claims for anesthesia for five simultaneous abortions; "On February 28, 1972, Barke and Appleman performed a total of 43 therapeutic abortions in 540 minutes while preparing reports and claims totaling 580 minutes for the 11 patients who were Medi-Cal recipients." On March 15, 1972, Barke and Appleman filed claims for anesthesia for four simultaneous abortions; Barke pled nolo contendere to a misdemeanor of receiving stolen property in a plea bargain, was given 2 years probation without formal supervision and $1000 fine.
Reference: Los Angeles Superior Court Case #A308288.
Grand Theft (6 incidents)
Abortionist Edgar A. Guess, Jr. was indicted for six counts of grand theft for filing false Medi-Cal claims.
Reference: Los Angeles County Superior Court Case #A331372.
Bribery, Involuntary Abortion and Gross Malpractice
Abortionist Christopher Dotson aborted 17-year old Andrea Monique Ball on January 7, 1980. During another procedure, Dotson discovered that Andrea was pregnant; Dotson noted "unwanted pregnancy" on Andrea's chart, and did not tell her that she was pregnant. He went ahead and aborted her viable unborn baby anyway. Court documents said that "At all times prior to the death of plaintiff's unborn child, said unborn child was viable but for defendant's professional negligence would have been born healthy and capable of providing the plaintiff with society, comfort, attention, and support."
In documents related to a non-abortion obstetrical suit by the survivors of Pamela Ferguson, Dotson allowed Batty Ingram to provide prenatal care to Pamela, a diabetic; Pamela, 9 months pregnant, had elevated blood pressure and blood sugar, swelling of feet and legs, and Ingram prescribed medication. Pamela went home, took the medication as prescribed, lay down to rest, convulsed and died, and her preborn child died as well. Her family endured the trauma of watching her die.
As a partner in Compton Penny Venture, Dotson was charged in 1976 with paying development commissioners $40,000 to vote in favor of the city of Compton purchasing a property from Compton Penny Venture for $701,408 HUD money.
References: Los Angeles County Superior Court Cases #C404454, #C374282 and #C167504.
Perjury, Felony Insurance Fraud and Unlawful Distribution of Controlled Substances (10 counts)
Abortionist Leonard Breslaw was convicted in 1972 of felony insurance fraud and perjury in connection with conspiracy to have his office burglarized to collect insurance money and denying said conspiracy in court.
Breslaw's California medical license was suspended 180 days on January 28, 1982, with five years license probation. During his license probation period, he prescribed controlled substances "other than for a legitimate medical purpose and not in the usual course of medical practice ...to persons not under respondent's treatment for a pathology or condition other than addiction ..without either a good faith prior examination or medical indication." He pled guilty to and was convicted of 10 counts of unlawful distribution of controlled substances. On December 15, 1986, he was fined $20,000 and given five years probation and a suspended five year prison sentence.
References: Los Angeles Municipal Court Case Number A-120918; California Medical Board Case Number D-3825.
Gross Negligence and Incompetence [Claremont]
Abortionist Michael Rosenthal, already on probation and without medical malpractice insurance, was stripped of his medical license after he acknowledged to the Medical Board of California that he misled patients, endangered their lives and attempted a second-trimester abortion. Rosenthal admitted to the Board that he misled patients, lied to another physician, failed to reveal an abnormal pap smear result, failed to perform an ultrasound on a patient who had already delivered four babies by caesarean section, and started an abortion on a woman in her second trimester.
In an agreement dated September 24, 2001, he admitted gross negligence and incompetence. In an interview, he admitted to poor decisions that he made in part because he was taking Prozac that he prescribed to himself.
The Board accused him of botching three abortions in 1999, when he was running his own Upland, California-based abortion mill with the truly Orwellian name "Family Birthing Center."
At the time his license was revoked, Rosenthal was on probation for two other incidents, one in 1986 and one in 1992. In the latter case, medical board prosecutors said he gambled that a pregnancy would be without incident and didn't tell his patient that he had lost his privileges in San Antonio when he practiced there. His privileges were revoked after his insurance company stopped his malpractice coverage in 1992.
Rosenthal's primary concern was not for the women he injured, but for the embarrassment his troubles would cause his wife, a former Mayor of Claremont. He showed his utter disregard for others when he said that "The single biggest thing is embarrassing Karen. I have resolved this in my own mind a long time ago. ... For myself, I just don't care."
References: Tipton Blish. "Abortion Practitioner Admits Many Violations, Loses License." Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2002; Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, April 21, 2002.
Malpractice and Practicing Medicine Without a License [Hollywood]
In February 2002, health and law enforcement officials shut down an unlicensed abortion mill in West Hollywood, and are investigating whether the owner practiced medicine without a license. Abortionist Edgar Ruiz charged $200 in cash for abortions and catered to uninsured women, according to sheriff's and county health department officials. Ruiz told authorities he is licensed in his native Nicaragua, but does not hold a medical license in this country. A sheriff said that Ruiz drew "women wanting something cheap and discreet, something that wouldn't leave a paper trail." Ruiz told investigators that he has run his Centro Medico Para La Mujer abortion mill for four years in a medical building on Santa Monica Boulevard near the Hollywood Freeway.
Officials learned about the unlicensed abortion mill after a woman complained to county Supervisor Gloria Molina's office on November 30, 2001 that the abortion practitioner had botched an abortion on her. An undercover sheriff's deputy then visited the clinic posing as a patient, and Ruiz allegedly offered to perform a pelvic exam on her. Authorities then arrested Ruiz and seized hundreds of patient files and padlocked his abortuary.
His bail was set at $1 million. Investigators asked the district attorney's office to file felony charges against Ruiz, alleging that he practiced medicine without a license with the risk of great bodily injury.
References: "Abortion Facility Shut Down in Hollywood." Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2002; Steve Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, February 4, 2002.
Death Threats (5 incidents)
Mark Hardie, a reporter for the student newspaper at the University of California, was forced to resign and is under police protection after receiving death threats for his conservative views. One pro-abortionist said on a radio show "He's gonna be a victim. I'm waiting outside. I swear to God I'm gonna kill his family."
Reference: "Black Student Threatened For Espousing Conservative Views." The Wanderer, March 17, 1994, page 8.
Bomb Threats (8 incidents)
Pro-abortion activist Frank Mendiola was arrested for calling in phony bomb threats to abortion mills and the homes of abortionists in order, as he said, "to have you people, the media, come down with a harder line on those people who are harassing the clinics." He even called in three bomb threats to his own house. For years, Mendiola had told heart-rending stories of how his twin sister had died of a botched illegal abortion — until investigators found that he was lying; he never had a sister.
References: Patt Morrison. "Zealot's Tale: Pro-Choice Activist Faces Sentencing in Bomb Threats to Stir Sympathy for Cause." Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1987, pages F1, F4 and F6; Anti-Life Report. "Bomb Hoaxer Gets Suspended Sentence." ALL About Issues, June-July 1988, page 16; News Briefs. "Friendly Bomb Threats." HLI Reports, April 1988, page 4.
Sexual Assault (2 incidents)
On April 18, 1992, pro-abortionist Julie Schollenberger of the Clinic Defense Alliance was arrested for sexual assault against a female participant of Operation Rescue. Also, about a dozen homosexuals, dressed up as Jesus Christ, danced and mocked Christianity, using crude and offensive language in front of pro-life women and children. The pro-abortionists held makeshift crucifixes, applied red dots of paint to their hands (mocking the crucifixion of Jesus Christ) in efforts to shock and offend Christians. To the tune of the song Hokie Pokie, they sang, "You put your crucifix in, you take your crucifix out ..." A male clinic escort assaulted a female pro-lifer from behind and simulated sexual acts on her, and was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department.
Reference: Press release, Operation Rescue of California, April 21, 1992.
Sexual Assault
At the HER Medical Clinic abortion mill, a pro-life woman in a dense crowd felt a pro-abortion man press his body against her. He hissed in her ear, "I bet you like that don't you?" Then the man started making explicit sexual comments as he pushed against her. Another pro-abortionist said, "She's one of those frigid ones." The first pro-abortionist said, "I like 'em that way," and then he made various sexual movements.
References: American Anti-Persecution League, December 1993 fundraising letter, and personal testimonies.
Assault (12 incidents)
On July 25, 1992, at a Christian prayer vigil, pro-abortionists dressed as the Virgin Mary carried a six-foot cross in the shape of a phallus, beat on drums, shouted obscenities, tore pages out of Bibles, threw them into the faces of the pastors and praying crowd, and called nuns "lesbians." At the Women's Center abortion mill, pro-abortionists mocked God, screamed blasphemies, and assaulted Christians. A transsexual, "Connie Norman," repeatedly cursed and verbally attacked a Catholic priest with crude and offensive language. The pro-abortionists brought out a portable barbecue, placed a stack of Bibles on it, poured lighter fluid on them, and ignited them. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) charged them with setting an illegal fire.
References: "Pro-Abortion Demonstrators Barbecue Bibles at Prayer Vigil Outside Abortion Clinic." Life Advocate, Advocates for Life Ministries [Portland, Oregon], September 1992, page 11.
Assault (5 incidents)
On April 14, 1990, at the Family Planning Associates abortion mill, several pro-abortionists physically assaulted pro-life rescuers.
Reference: Bill Soucie, personal video recording of the incidents.
Assault and Battery
Abortionist George J. Collins assaulted Mary E. Jones by swinging her by her arm and shoulder on March 15, 1968, causing her "bruises, lacerations and contusions over her entire body ... serious injuries to her ribs and back, to her head and to her hips, and to the bones, muscles and ligaments thereof. Her answers to interrogatories indicate she was a medical assistant at his abortion mill the time.
Reference: Los Angeles County Superior Court Case Number 949816.
Assault
In March 1991, a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) member severely bit pro-lifer Chris Keys twice.
Reference: Operation Rescue National, Violence and Disruption Report, December 10, 1994.
Assault
In February 1994, at the La Mujer abortion mill, an AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) member repeatedly kicked Terri Palmquist.
Reference: Tim Palmquist, letter to Lynn K. Murphy, Life Research Institute, November 14, 1994.
Assault [Orange City]
In March 1989, during a rescue at the Family Planning Associates abortion mill in Cypress, a pro-abortion Orange City police officer dragged a pro-lifer behind a wall so he could not be seen, and savagely beat him, although he was not resisting.
Reference: Tim Palmquist, letter to Lynn K. Murphy, November 14, 1994.
Fraud, Illegal Abortion, Practicing Medicine Without a License, Malpractice (8 incidents), Gross Negligence (2 incidents), Falsifying Documents, Unprofessional Conduct and Incompetence [Van Nuys]
Abortionist Gordon Goei had committed abortions for years in abortuaries throughout the Southern California region before authorities were called to a Northridge hospital where a 42-year old woman who had been aborted by him was bleeding profusely. They found the mutilated body of her 26-week-old preborn child in a dumpster outside Goei's abortion mill. The County Coroner ruled the child's death a "homicide" due to "blunt force trauma."
The District Attorney's office claims that Dr. Goei has more accusations against his license than any other doctor in any field in California. Goei was practicing despite a suspended medical license. He was charged with performing an illegal abortion.
Goei was no stranger to the medical board; he had a 99-page file detailing disciplinary actions dating to 1979, when he was first placed on probation. He was disciplined again in 1984, in 1992, and in 1997 — the most recent time for mishandling cases of eight obstetrical (non-abortion) patients. Six days before he performed the abortion that led to his arrest, his license was suspended because he failed a competency exam required under probation, according to medical board records. Goei has been disciplined concerning his abortion practice since 1979 for, among other acts, gross negligence in dealing with two mothers, knowingly making or signing a falsified medical document, and professional incompetence in his treatment of eight other patients. Goei also committed most of the late-term abortions that led to the famous discovery of 16,000 aborted preborn babies found in a California dumpster that was seized for lack of payment.
The California Medical Board found the abortionist guilty of "fraud, corruption, dishonesty, and unprofessional conduct" in billing patient L.B.'s insurance company $385, $710, $510, $475, $754, $495, $390, $150, $390, $150, $390, $508, $345, $300, and $390 for services he did not do, billing combination injections as separate injections, and billing $225, $250, $410, $300, and $612, for dates L.B. did not even visit his office. His medical license was suspended for 1 year, with 3 years probation.
Despite this incredible range of crimes, an attorney defending Goei posted an Internet plea on the WHAM (Women's Health Action & Mobilization) ALERT! website for corroborating evidence that "physicians who perform later abortions are under attack from the California Medical Board."
References: "Dumpster Abortionist Faces Late Abortion Charges." ALL About Issues, May 1984, page 33; California Medical Board Accusations #D-4464, #D-3132 and #L-31034; Los Angeles County Superior Court Case Numbers C225892, C322090, C363563, C531778, C538008, C751915 and SWC097915; "Judge Bars Abortion Practitioner from Practicing." Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1998; Julie Marquis and Lee Romney. "Handful of Abortion Clinics Put Poor at Risk." Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1998; Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, May 1, 1998; Global Report; "Men Behaving Really Badly." Life Insight [publication of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)]. October 1998 [Volume 9, Number 8].
Vandalism (2 incidents) [Torrance]
On Sunday, July 9, 1990, the Catholic Church in Torrance, California, and the building housing the Los Angeles Archdiocese were sprayed with obscene graffiti. The vandals left a wooden cross festooned with used condoms and a mattress stuffed with animal intestines outside the church. Police speculated that the animal entrails were the products of Satanic rituals. The next day, an anonymous woman called the church, and proclaimed herself to be a member of "Artists Against Religious Oppression." She warned the Catholic Church to "stay out of politics" and to "stop its oppression of women, gays, and lesbians."
Reference: Joseph Sobran. "Liberals Obsessed With Imaginary Dangers." Conservative Chronicle," July 25, 1990, page 20.
Vandalism [Gardena]
In August 1991, pro-abortionists sprayed butyric acid on a church and spray-painted it with obscene pro-abortion slogans.
Reference: Wendy Wright, letter to Lynn K. Murphy, Life Research Institute, November 23, 1994.
Desecration of a Church (5 incidents)
Pro-abortionists defaced the Sherman Oaks Church with obscene graffiti several times in 1989, and, on March 18, 1992, they defaced its walls with red paint, red coat hangers, and posters accusing the church of "crimes against women."
Reference: Bill Soucie, comments in personal video recording of the incidents.
Desecration of a Church (5 incidents)
On December 3, 1989, pro-abortionists and homosexuals vandalized three churches in Los Angeles and the Catholic cathedral and chancery buildings in both Los Angeles and San Francisco as a "protest" against recent U.S. bishops policy statements on AIDS and the Church's consistent opposition to homosexual perversions and abortion. All of the buildings were vandalized by having red paint splashed all over them and anti-Catholic posters glued to them.
Reference: Robert Hutchinson. "Seven Trample on Consecrated Host." 30 Days, January 1990, pages 20 to 23.
Harassment [Santa Ana]
During a speech by Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, a bottle of butyric acid broke in a pro-abortionist's hand while he was in the middle of the crowd. The stinking pro-abortionist was arrested and charged with harassment.
Reference: Operation Rescue of California, Blue Jay, California.
Violation of Civil Rights
In June of 2001, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) began a campaign to show the result of abortion by driving hundreds of miles of Los Angeles freeways in trucks with billboard-sized photos of aborted babies on every side.
In March of 2002, citing a California law that prohibits "disruptive" activity on any street adjacent to a school, police officers pulled over one CBR member who was driving a box-body styled truck with the pictures, while a second was escorting the truck in a sedan. The traffic stop took place near Dodson Middle School in Los Angeles County.
Deputies detained the activists for more than 90 minutes, searched their vehicles, and then warned them their activity was disruptive and to not return to the school with their pictures.
The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit on April 17, 2003, on behalf of CBR alleging a violation of the Free Speech provision of the Constitution.
"Regardless of how one feels about these disturbing photos, CBR has a constitutional right to display them," said Robert Muise, associate counsel with the center. "Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups have embedded themselves in public school systems throughout this country. So long as pro-abortion groups insist on targeting school-age children, it is appropriate that these same students receive at least a modicum of truthful education about abortion. CBR's photographs do not lie and they show abortion for what it is: The killing of an innocent human life."
In addition to the Sheriff's department, the lawsuit also names Sherriff Lee Baca, several deputies and a school administrator who assisted the deputies. The plaintiffs want a judge to declare the use of the "disruptive" law to restrict the operation of CBR's trucks on public streets unconstitutional.
Reference: "Deputies Sued Over Aborted-Babies Photos: Pro-Life Group Files Claim After Billboard Truck Deemed 'Disruptive'." WorldNetDaily, May 7, 2003.
Violation of Civil Rights [Riverside]
Pro-life nurse Michelle Diaz worked for the Riverside Neighborhood Health Center. In June 1999, she was fired after she told her supervisor that her deeply-held religious beliefs prevented her from distributing morning-after pills designed to end pregnancies because she believed she would be participating in an abortion.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed suit for Diaz in December 2002 and represented her in a four-day trial in the United States District Court in Riverside, California. On May 24, 2002, a jury found the County of Riverside guilty of violating her First Amendment rights of free speech, violating her rights of freedom of religion, and failing to reasonably accommodate her religious beliefs. The jury awarded damages totaling more than $47,000, including $19,000 in damages for back pay and more than $28,000 in damages for emotional distress.
References: "Pro-Life Nurse Fired for Refusing to Issue Morning After Pill Wins Lawsuit." LifeSite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, May 27, 2002; "Jury Sides With Fired Pro-Life Calif. Nurse on Distributing Drugs." Associated Press, May 31, 2002; Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, June 4, 2002.
Indecent Exposure (4 incidents) [El Monte]
On June 29, 1991, at a picket of a local abortion mill, two pro-abortion women exposed their breasts to pro-lifers, and two others stripped off their pants and exposed themselves to the pro-lifers.
Reference: Bill Soucie, personal video recording of incident.
Threat
In June 2004, hip-hop 'artist' Joe Budden, also known as "Usher," suggests violently beating a pregnant woman when she refuses to have an abortion in his song "Confessions (remix)." The lyrics include the following;
"Pray that she abort that,
If she's talkin' 'bout keepin' it,
One hit to the stomach,
She's leakin' it."
Day Gardner, Director of Black Americans for Life, said that "These lyrics are demeaning and outright violent toward both women and unborn children. It is appalling to suggest that a man attack a woman to cause the death of her unborn child. As women and as mothers, we simply cannot allow ourselves or our unborn children to be treated as objects of such abuse."
References: "Remix of Usher Song Advocates Abortion, Violence Against Pregnant Women." Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life News Report at LifeNews.com, June 26, 2004; also see http://www.lifenews.com/nat631.html; "Joe Budden Hip-Hop Song Advises Violence Against Pregnant Women Who Refuse Abortion." LifeSite Daily News, June 30, 2004.
Malpractice and Negligence
Dolores Watson sought counselling at the pro-abortion Clergy Counseling Service due to her unwanted pregnancy concurrent with marital problems in August 1970. A man presenting himself as a clergyman did not discuss her problems with her, but indicated that Dolores "had good legitimate grounds" for an abortion. He stated that the abortion would be safe and easy, and discounted any medical or psychological risks, refusing to even discuss them. Watson said that "I was unsteady and messed up at the time and did not know what to do." The "clergyman" referred her to Lee D. Newman for an abortion. The abortionist did not explain the risks but proceeded with the abortion. Dolores passed an intact preborn child two weeks later while working with a friend in her church nursery. This friend said that "Since the abortion operation and since seeing her child, Dolores Watson has not been the same ever since. She has undergone severe guilt because of the killing of her unborn baby. ... based on my numerous years of experience knowing Dolores [I believe] that she was substantially induced to undergo the abortion operation by the lack of any hesitancy by the person in Clergy Counseling." While hospitalized following the expulsion of her preborn child, Dolores had to undergo a hysterectomy.
Reference: Los Angeles County Superior Court Case #C59813.
Malpractice
In February 2001, a 28-year-old Los Angeles woman won a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood stemming from a botched, first-trimester abortion in 1997. She was awarded $672,610 after a baby missing two limbs was aborted from her several weeks after she was supposed to have had an abortion at Planned Parenthood. It is thought that the woman had twins, with the second baby initially undetected by abortionists. Her lawyer said that since the incident, the woman has contemplated suicide, is haunted by visions of babies being killed and cries uncontrollably at the sight of children.
Reference: Tony Gosgnach. "Planned Parenthood Exposed." The Interim, February 2003.
Lewd Conduct
According to police documents, abortionist Earl D. Baxter, on September 10, 1982, in a park restroom, "unzipped his pants and masturbated his erect penis towards" one vice officer and grabbed the crotch of another. Baxter pleaded no contest to one of three counts, and the other two were dropped; he was fined $60 and given three months probation.
Reference: Los Angeles Municipal Court Case Number P006285.
Coercion
Sharrona Alexander, an assistant coach of the women's basketball team at the University of California, was pregnant. However, the head coach, Marianne Stanley, gave her a coercive choice between having an abortion or quitting her job, then abandoned her at a hotel during a Midwest recruiting trip with 90 cents in her pocket. Stanley admitted during sworn testimonty that she told Alexander that "If you are going to continue with this pregnancy, you're not going to be able to fulfill the job duties; therefore, I am then going to have to hire another coach." Despite this confession, Stanley denied attempting to force Alexander to have an abortion. She said she did not fire Alexander, but "asked her for her resignation."
Alexander went so far as to call an abortion mill and schedule an abortion for Stanley in Atlanta.
In 2000, the University of California paid Alexander $115,000 in 2000 by the University to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit after she refused to have the abortion.
Stanley was named WNBA coach of the year after leading Washington to the Eastern Conference finals during the 2001-2002 season. She won three national championships at Old Dominion and was voted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in May of 2002.
Dr. Sherrie McElvy, a fetal medicine specialist at the University of California-Davis, says she advises pregnant women to continue the physical activities they were doing before their pregnancy right up until giving birth — as long as it doesn't involve using their abdominal muscles or there is a high risk of suffering trauma. She says "For the most part, there would be nothing about coaching that would exclude her from continuing."
Three weeks before filing her suit, Alexander gave birth to Kenden Reaves. Alexander and her boyfriend married on May 16, 2000, and now have two children and live in Nashville. Alexander, now 30, said she since has applied for welfare. She has applied for assistant coaching jobs at four schools, but none has hired her. She testified that "This has ruined my life. I went from thinking I am going to take care of my son and be able to provide for myself, and to be on food stamps and on welfare and be degraded. ... You can't imagine how this has changed my life. My reputation ... how hard I had worked to get to that point was just thrown down the drain because I couldn't — I couldn't just go to a clinic to abort my son."
References: "Post: Stanley Gave Assistant an Ultimatum." The Seattle Times, September 16, 2002; "Fired Basketball Coach Settles Pregnancy Discrimination Lawsuit." Steve Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, September 17, 2002; Jessica Hopp and Greg Sandoval. "Choice Between Child, Paycheck: Lawsuit Claims Coach Told Assistant to Have Abortion or Give Up Her New Job." Washington Post, September 18, 2002.
Death Threats (3 incidents) [Anaheim]
"I got an idea. You put that f—ing banner in the air one more time I'm going to f—ing find you and kill you all."
This is one of the many death threats sent to Gregg Cunningham's Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) after it flew banners depicting aborted babies over beaches in California. The threat was sent by mobile telephone on August 10, 2002.
Another threat said "Yeah, I just saw a truck with one of your ad campaigns on it that's f—king disgusting, and, I mean, Goddamn, y'all don't need to be having big semi-trucks driving around with aborted fetuses on it. Whoever came up with that campaign is a dumb son of a bitch and they deserve to be drug in the street and shot. Thank you, 'bye."
Another intelligent pro-abortion e-mail message, displaying all the literacy and self-restraint we can expect from pro-aborts, came from Dezarae Dolan Jimenez on April 23, 2003. She wrote "Hey F— Heads. I saw your trucks this morning on the 101 freeway. That was me, the friendly young lady who gave you the bird and said "F— You". I'd like to see you guys without your Police Escort. I'm sure you sissy's [sic] would never do without them. Maybe next time your [sic] out protesting I can get arressted for assualt [sic]. Your campaign and your Nazi propaganda tatics [sic] are complete bulls—. How can you compare apples & oranges. You ignorant a—h—-s" [Gregg replied "Whoa! If abortion is such a great idea, why do a few photos make you so angry? But we have heard it all before. Lots of pro-aborts who advocate violence against the unborn will threaten violence against us. Some have even tried it. They all went to jail. If you wish to join them we are willing to accommodate you. But in the mean time, you will be in our prayers."].
Improper Disposal of Medical Waste [Chino Hills]
At the bottom of a steep embankment, where Route 71 crosses over Payton Drive, two boys who were playing nearby, found some boxes filled with the remains of 54 late-term dismembered babies. The boys bicycled home and said they had found boxes of "babies."
The babies had been dumped on March 14, 1997, by a trucker who may not have known what the Los Angeles abortion clinic had hired him to dispose of. He later served 71 days in jail for the improper disposal of medical waste.
This incident troubled local residents, who formed a group called Cradles of Love, for the purpose of providing a burial for the 54 babies. The members of this group were shocked (although perhaps they should not have been) when the American Civil Liberties Union said that it strongly objected to the dead babies being "released to the church groups for the express purpose of holding religious services."
The pro-lifers ignored the ACLU, and in October the babies were buried in a plot provided at no charge by a cemetery in nearby Riverside. Each baby was given a name by a participating church group. Each name was engraved on a brass plate that was affixed to each of the 54 small, white, wooden caskets made, at no charge, by a volunteer who took three days off from work to do it. Fifty clergy and four persons active in the right-to-life movement carried the caskets. Each baby's name is inscribed on a large headstone, also provided at no charge. Fifty-four doves, provided at no charge by the cemetery, were released at the services.
It seems very strange that the same pro-abortionists who object so loudly when the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform drives its big trucks with large photos of dismembered preborn babies around schools will then turn around and dump the actual dead babies where kids can find them.
Reference: George F. Will. "54 Babies." The Washington Post, December 3, 1998, page A23.
Concealing a Corpse
Edward Allred, the notorious Los Angeles abortionist, attempted to bury a woman who died after an abortion without first turning the body over to the county coroner.
References: Los Angeles County Coroner Case Number 84-16016 and Los Angeles County Superior Court Case Number C575154); Paul Likoudis. "Investigators Cast a Wide Net To Find Abortionist's Murderer." The Wanderer, December 10, 1998, pages 1 and 10.
Modesto
Stalking
A pro-abortionist was arrested for stalking a pro-lifer on July 7, 1994.
Reference: Operation Rescue of California, personal communication with Lynn K. Murphy, October 30, 1994.
Oceanside
Vehicular Assault and Assault (2 incidents)
A group of pro-lifers named Open Eyes Ministries often pray in front of the Planned Parenthood abortion mill in Oceanside (a city midway between Los Angeles and San Diego), and reported numerous incidents of pro-abortion violence directed towards its members.
On April 14, two pro-abortionists in a car swerved towards three of the pro-lifers (including an eight-year-old) and swerved away at the last possible second. One of the pro-lifers got the license plate number, and a sergeant from the police department appeared after the pro-lifers called him, and a Planned Parenthood worker demanded that he arrest them.
Two weeks, previously, two pro-aborts in a car threw eggs at the pro-lifers. Their license plates were covered with masking tape so they could not be identified.
On April 3, while Howard Putnam and Glen Biondi were picketing in front of the Scripps Hospital in Encenitas, a male pro-abort threatened them and then knocked the sign out of Putnam's hands and shoved him into the street. He then shoved Howard again. After a police officer took the statements of the pro-lifers and drove away, another pro-abort drove by and threw a half-gallon jug full of water at them.
Reference: Glen Biondi. "Little Notes: Pro-Abortion Violence at Planned Parenthood, Oceanside." San Diego News Notes, June 2001, pages 10 and 12.
Palm Desert
Botched Abortion and Fraud
The Medical Board of California suspended abortionist Joseph Durante's medical license two months after he lied to state officials about an earlier disciplinary case for which he was still on probation. State medical officials also placed the abortionist on five years probation in September 1996 for gross negligence when he misdiagnosed the age of an unborn child he was trying to abort at a San Diego clinic. Eight months later, Durante told the state's Medi-Cal program that his medical license had never been suspended, revoked or otherwise disciplined by a state licensing authority. Durante was applying to become a Medi-Cal provider so he could perform abortions at a Santa Ana abortion facility.
Durante's earlier Medical Board case stemmed from a 1992 abortion he attempted to perform at a San Diego abortion facility.
According to state records, Durante failed to perform a pelvic exam or an ultrasound to determine the age of the unborn child before he proceeded with the abortion. The 17-year-old girl told Durante the pregnancy was eight to 12 weeks along; it actually was 6« months along.
The Medical Board of California filed accusations on May 1, 2000 against Durante, who operates abortion mills in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The petition states Anne Marie Santana underwent an abortion on August 10, 1998, at A Lady's Choice Women's Medical Center in Victorville, one of Durante's abortuaries. Her uterus was perforated and she suffered a probable bowel injury. Durante did not perform the abortion but, in providing follow-up care, he did not properly evaluate and treat the woman's symptoms and failed to refer her to an acute-care facility. The petition also points out that Durante kept outdated medications and did not have a valid federal permit for keeping controlled substances at the Moreno Valley abortion mill.
As always, the abortionist tries to absolve himself by blaming others, and frequently pro-lifers. Durante maintained that he was being targeted by the Medical Board for reasons that have nothing to do with his qualifications as a physician. He sniveled that "There are some anti-abortion zealots on the board. They didn't get what they wanted — to take my license away." He also maintained the board still is reacting to a criminal case that arose out of the 1996 death of a Barstow woman at one of his Southern California abortion facilities. Bruce Steir, who worked for Durante and had performed an abortion on the woman, was charged with murder in her death and eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
References: "California Abortion Practitioner's License Suspended." Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, October 28, 1999; Riverside Press Enterprise, October 27, 1999; "California Abortion Practitioner Facing More Charges." Pro-Life Infonet, May 19, 2000; Carlos Bay. "Will the State Let This One Slip By?: Another Botched Abortion at Durante's Clinic." Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, July/August 2001, pages 1, 7 and 8, and San Diego News Notes, July/August 2001, pages 1, 3 and 4; "Abortion Practitioner Faces Disciplinary Action in Malpractice." The Desert Sun, September 27, 2001; Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, September 28, 2001; Steven Ertelt. "Abortion Business Owner Who Injured Woman Shuts Down California Facility." Pro-Life Infonet, November 27, 2004.
Redding
Felony Vandalism (4 counts) and Commission of a Hate Crime (4 counts)
In January 2005, several local Christian organizations erected 3,000 crosses in a grassy lot adjoining the Christian Life Center in Redding, California, in order to commemorate the number of preborn babies who die at the hands of abortionists in the United States every day.
Naturally, pro-abortionists, who hate any kind of opposition, and who especially despise any form of free speech that exposes their mass killings, very frequently vandalize and destroy such displays, and then snivel that they are victims when they are caught.
At about 3:00 AM on January 17, 2005, four pro-abortion men — Michael Lane Redding, Clayton Heath of Anderson, Brian Fitzgerald of Chico, and Aaron Krzywicki of Santa Rosa — decided to go on a vandalism spree. They tore all of the 3,000 crosses out of the ground, and threw some of them over the adjoining fence onto a freeway, endangering passing traffic. They also slashed and destroyed several eight-foot-long vinyl signs that read "Abortions done per day in the U.S.A."
Sergeant Roger Moore of the Shasta County Police Department said that the four were arrested, and each was charged with felony vandalism and commission of a hate crime. Moore said that "It is a hate crime. Anytime you infringe on people's civil rights, it's a hate crime." He also said that damaging property to intimidate or interfere with civil rights based on a person's race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender or sexual orientation, real or perceived, is illegal, he said.
The amount of labor that went into making the crosses and signs was about 2,000 hours, according to organizers.
Reference: "Un-Constitutional 'Hate Crimes Law' Used to Charge Four Pro-Aborts for 'Vandalizim and Destruction of Property'." Covenant News Wire Service, January 18, 2005.
Assault with a Deadly Weapon (ADW) and Assault (4 incidents)
Pro-abortionists at the Redding Feminist Women's Health Center (FWHC) abortion mill have a long and vicious history of committing violence against pro-life rescuers and picketers. In June 1993, a pro-abortionist attempted to run down pro-lifers Debbie McCallister and Walt Runyon with his truck. In July 1993, a pro-abortionist wrested Ron Walters' picket sign away from him and beat him with it. Ron was taken to a doctor for severe bleeding. In August 1993, a clinic worker threw rocks at pro-lifer Steven McCallister. On September 24, 1993, abortionist Carl Serratt and others kicked, punched and jumped on pro-lifer Richard C. Rudolph after stealing his picket sign. On December 2, 1993, a pro-abortionist soaked pastor Steven McCallister and his video camera with a garden hose.
References: Redding Police Department Report #93-51505 and lawsuit #124449 filed by Rudolph on September 23, 1994 in Shasta County Superior Court. Operation Rescue National, Violence and Disruption Report, December 30, 1994.
Sacramento
Murder (7 counts) and Sexual Assault
On August 20, 2001, Ukrainian immigrant Nikolay Soltys went into a deadly rage. First, he murdered his pregnant wife Lyubov in their home in North Highlands by stabbing her repeatedly and slashing her throat, then drove ten miles to Rancho Cordova. He broke into the home of his elderly aunt and uncle Galina Kukharskaya and Petr Kukharskiy, murdered them, then killed their grandchildren, Soltys' cousins, ten-year-old Dimitriy Kukharskiy and nine-year-old Tatiana Kukharskaya, in the front yard. All four were stabbed to death as well.
He then returned home and sexually assaulted and then murdered his three-year-old son Sergey. He wrote a message in Russian which led police to the little boy's battered body, stuffed into a box near a trash pile.
Soltys tried to melt into the large Ukrainian community, but the FBI put him on its Ten Most Wanted list, and he was captured soon after. On August 30, Soltys was arrested without a struggle at his mother's home, and subsequently confessed to the murders.
On September 4, 2001, Soltys was arraigned and charged with seven counts of murder.
References: "California Police Find Body of Rampage Suspect's Son." NewsMax.com, August 22, 2001.
First-Degree Murder (6 counts), Cannibalism, Suicide, Rape, Sodomy, Assault, Burglary (5 incidents), Abuse of a Corpse (2 incidents), Animal Abuse (11 incidents), Drug Possession and Unauthorized Possession of a Firearm
As a child, Richard Trenton Chase took up an unusual hobby. He enjoyed capturing, torturing and killing animals, particularly cats. People criticized him severely for this behavior. He could have grown up and made a lot of money doing exactly the same thing to preborn children as an abortionist, but he decided to take a different path.
He began to use drugs heavily. In 1966, he was arrested during his sophomore year of high school for drug possession, and in 1973 for unauthorized possession of a firearm. In 1976, he slapped and kicked his mother and knocked her to the floor. He continued to torture and kill animals, including dogs and even cattle.
On December 29, 1977, he took his crimes to a whole new level. On this day, he shot and killed 51-year-old Ambrose Griffin in a drive-by shooting. He later told police he shot Griffin "just to see what it was like."
In January 1978, he escaped from custody and robbed several apartments in the Sacramento area. On January 23, he killed his second victim, Teresa Wallin, who was three months pregnant. Then he dragged her body into a bedroom and proceeded to mutilate her corpse. He carved off her left nipple, stabbed her repeatedly, cut out both of her kidneys and sliced her pancreas in two. Then he retrieved a yogurt container from the trash and used it to drink her blood.
On January 25, 1978, he stole a four-month-old puppy, shot it in the head, and drank its blood.
On January 27, 1978, he raped and sodomized 36-year-old Evelyon Miroth, then shot and killed her. Then he murdered her boyfriend, 52-year-old Daniel Meredith, and Evelyon's six-year-old son Jason. Finally, he went to the crib of little 22-month-old nephew David Ferreira and crushed his head. Chase took the body of baby David with him, cut off the little boy's head, and ate some of his organs.
A city-wide search was organized to find baby David. Police knocked on Chase's door, and, when there was no response, they waited. When Chase stepped outside some time later, police took him into custody.
Two psychiatrists examined Chase, and he confessed to all of his crimes. The psychiatrists both declared him sane and fit to stand trial. He became known as the "Vampire Killer of Sacramento."
On May 8, 1979, after a sensational four-month-long trial, a Santa Clara jury deliberated for only five hours before finding Chase guilty of six counts of first-degree murder. During the sanity phase, the same jury took an hour to determine that he was, indeed, completely sane.
Chase was sentenced to death for his crimes.
On December 26, 1980, Richard Trenton Chase ended his violent life by committing suicide on Death Row. In 1992, a movie on his life was released. It was appropriately entitled Unspeakable.
References: Ronald Markman and Donald Bosco. Alone with the Devil [New York: Doubleday], 1989; "Vampire Killers: Murderers Who Were Inspired by a Lust for Blood." Court TV's Crime Library at http://www.crimelibrary.com.
First-Degree Murder (2 counts)
Deondre Terrell Hudson's girlfriend, Quinnisha R. Thomas, was eight months pregnant with his daughter, and he was very unhappy about it. So, on January 13, 2003, Thomas shot her in the back of the head as she took a shortcut through a fence to a Greenhaven neighborhood supermarket to buy some chips. Hudson and his two friends removed her body and dumped her into the trunk of a car. They were very careful to wrap her head in plastic garbage bags so her blood would not stain their car. Then they drove her to a nearby park and dumped her body into some bushes.
Then Hudson stole her 99-cent bag of Cheetos corn chips and gave them to another girlfriend, who was only 14 years old and also pregnant with his child, which she aborted after his arrest. Deputy District Attorney Mark Curry said "That is pretty cold. That is as cold as it gets and that tells you what's up with this guy. He is a coldblooded killer." Testimony showed that Hudson wanted Quinnisha and her baby dead because he viewed them as an "irritant" that would "jeopardize his future" as a rap music star. Hudson confessed to his half-brother, Jermaine Arron Hatchett, that he had killed Quinnisha.
Hudson's two friends, Kevin Duran Coleman and James Kaleo Ross, each pleaded guilty to lesser charges of acting as accessories to murder.
Hudson's murder trial was unusually short, taking only two weeks. The jury deliberations were even shorter, less than two hours. The members of the jury found Hudson guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the killing of Quinnisha and her preborn daughter.
On June 14, 2004, Judge James L. Long sentenced Hudson to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
References: Ramon Coronado. "Double Murder Case is Outlined: Jury Will Now Decide Fate of Teen Accused of Shooting Pregnant Girlfriend in the Head." Sacramento Bee, May 14, 2004; Ramon Coronado. "Jury Takes Less Than 2 Hours to Convict in Double Murder." Sacramento Bee, May 15, 2004.
Attempted Murder (3 counts), Conspiracy to Commit Murder (2 counts), Kidnapping (3 counts), Assault with a Deadly Weapon (3 counts), and Attempted Robbery (3 counts)
Terry Buford's girlfriend was 7½ months pregnant, and he did not want the baby. So, on September 25, 2004, he enlisted two friends, Titenesha Russell and Dwayne Curry, to help him carry out a brutal abortion on her.
Buford, Russell and Curry said that they were going to take her to the movies. Instead, they took her to a remote area in a park, and beat her with a baseball bat, a metal flashlight, a garbage can and their hands and fists, causing her serious head injuries. Then the three robbed her, stripped her, dumped her by the side of a road, and fled.
Before she died, a woman found her and took her to a hospital, where doctors not only saved her life but that of her preborn child through emergency Cesarian section and resuscitation.
On April 3, 2006, a Sacramento jury found Buford, Russell and Curry guilty of attempted murder of a fetus, assault with a deadly weapon to terminate a pregnancy, attempted robbery and kidnapping for purposes of robbery. Buford and Russell also were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.
Reference: Associated Press. "Jury Finds Three Guilty of Beating Pregnant Woman." Sarasota Herald-Tribune, April 4, 2006.
Arson
In November 1992, pro-abortionists set fire to a church dumpster next to a pro-life Alhambra church. Fire officials said if it had not been caught as soon as it was, the church would have burned down. The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) was demonstrating at another church that morning in response to the previous day's arson of the Alhambra abortion chamber. ACT-UP members had previously vowed that they would burn down a church every time an abortion mill burned down.
Reference: Operation Rescue, Sacramento.
Assault (5 incidents)
At the Alhambra Women's Center abortion chamber, pro-lifers were singing. Pro-abortionists used a bullhorn to scream directly into the ears of the pro-lifers. The volume was so loud that several of the pro-lifers said that it may have caused permanent ear damage.
Reference: Law offices of Cyrus Zal, personal communication with Lynn K. Murphy of Life Research Institute, November 7, 1994.
Assault
On July 7, 1994, a pro-abortionist identifying himself as "condom-man" blasted a radio in order to interfere with sidewalk prayer and a woman dropped condoms at the feet of Christians. "Condom-man" then yelled at those praying telling them to go home, that they aren't Christians. Several pro-abortionists then bounced inflated condoms off the heads of the Christians.
Reference: Video taken by a pro-lifer at the scene (in possession of Life Research Institute).
Assault
On July 7, 1994, at the Sacramento Feminist Women's Health Center (FWHC), police arrested a pro-abortionist for assaulting a pro-lifer.
Reference: Operation Rescue of California, personal communication with Lynn K. Murphy, Life Research Institute, October 30, 1994.
Attempted Child Sexual Molestation
Bruce Mirken, a homosexual activist and newspaper writer, was arrested following an Internet sting operation conducted by undercover police. The charge was attempting to commit a lewd and lascivious act on a child.
Mirken has been published in the San Francisco Examiner, Miami Herald, and the Detroit Free Press, extolling the virtues of homosexuality and denouncing the "religious right" for "lying to the American public about homosexuality."
Going on-line under the pseudonym "Luvboys343," Mirken asked someone he thought was an underage child about skinny-dipping and whether he was alone during lunchtime. Police officers arrested him after he arranged a meeting place and showed up to meet the boy. Mirken claimed he was only doing research for one of his stories.
Reference: "Homosexual Activist Reporter Arrested for Pedophilia." LifeSite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, July 7, 1999.
Vandalism (4 incidents)
Pro-abortionists broke the windows of a Christian coffeehouse named Pilgrim's Cafe on several occasions. This was apparently a result of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) vow that members of the organization would burn down a church every time an abortion mill burned down, since the incidents happened on the days after abortion mills around the country were burned.
Reference: Operation Rescue, Sacramento, Murray Lewis, March 2, 1994 telephone conversation with Tim Palmquist.
San Bernardino
Assault (5 incidents)
On May 12, 1990, at the Family Planning Associates abortion mill, private security guards trampled on several pro-lifers and deliberately stamped on one pro-lifer's face.
Reference: Bill Soucie's personal video recording of the incident (in possession of Life Research Institute).
Gross Negligence, Incompetence, Unprofessional Conduct, and Failure to Maintain Adequate Medical Records
The Medical Board of California revoked the license of abortionist Philip B. Pierre-Louis, effective May 27, 2003. On March 31, 1999, he was fined $5,000 by the Board and put on four years of probation after he perforated the uterus of a patient and removed three to five feet of her intestine when aborting her. The patient wound up in intensive care for nine days and spent nearly two weeks in a hospital. During the hearing, Pierre-Louis acknowledged that there was enough evidence for the Board's charges of gross negligence, incompetence, unprofessional conduct, and failure to maintain adequate medical records
In its Petition to Revoke Probation, filed November 20, 2002, the Medical Board charged Pierre-Louis with numerous violations of his probation, including failure to take and pass a remedial clinical program; failure to submit timely reports to the Board; failure to reimburse the Board for its investigative and probation monitoring costs; and failure to appear for interviews with Board staff, all of which he had agreed to do in his settlement.
Soon after the Petition was filed, Pierre-Louis disappeared, and the abortionist has not been found since.
References: "Medical Board Revokes License of San Bernardino Physician." Business Wire, April 30, 2003; "Abortion Practitioner Loses License After Botched Abortion." Steve Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, May 2, 2003; Annette Wells. "Doctor's License is Revoked." San Bernardino County Sun, May 6, 2003; "Doctor's License Revoked for Botched Abortion." LifeSite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, May 7, 2003; News Notes. "California Abortionist Loses License." The Wanderer, May 15, 2003, page 3.
San Diego
First-Degree Murder (3 counts) and Conspiracy to Commit Murder (3 counts)
Teresa Holloway was six months pregnant and happily awaiting the birth of her baby. Then she learned some facts that would lead to her death. She lived with Brian Johnsen, who was buying methamphetamine from drug dealer Doug Mynatt. One of Mynatt's other customers was Robert Jurado, Jr. Teresa learned of a plot by Jurado, his girlfriend Anna Humiston, and Denise Shigemura to murder Mynatt because Jurado owed him money. She then made the fatal error of confronting Humiston about the plot.
In order to silence Teresa, on May 15, 1991, Jurado strangled her and beat her to death while Humiston held her down. Then they dumped her body in a culvert beneath Highway 163 in San Diego, where it was found two days later.
Humiston was only 17 years old, and began to brag to her high school friends about her involvement in the murder. This helped lead detectives to the murder conspiracy.
Jurado was convicted of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait, as well as conspiracy to commit murder. A jury sentenced him to death. On April 6, 2006, the California Supreme Court unanimously upheld Jurado's death sentence.
Humiston and Shigemura were both sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for first-degree murder and for conspiracy to commit murder.
References: People v. Jurado, 06 S.O.S. 1732; Kenneth Ofgang. "State High Court Upholds Death Sentence in Drug-Related Murder." Metropolitan News-Enterprise, April 7, 2006.
Murder, Grand Theft (15 counts), Fraud, Illegal Distribution of Drugs, and Gross Malpractice
Abortionist Suresh Gandotra was convicted in May 1990 in Orange County Superior Court on 17 felonies and misdemeanors ranging from grand theft and Medi-Cal fraud to providing dangerous drugs without proper authority and aiding the unlicensed practice of medicine.
He also killed Magdalena Orteg Rodrigues with a botched abortion on December 8, 1994 at the El Norte Clinica Medica abortion mill. The San Diego County district attorney's office filed involuntary manslaughter charges in the Rodrigues' death. Medical authorities came under fire in this case because a file indicated that Gandotra had so seriously injured a woman in an abortion four years earlier that an examining physician described her anatomy as "difficult to identify."
Gandotra fled the country to his homeland, India, before authorities could formally charge him with an upgraded charge of murder after further detailed investigations. Gandotra had no hospital admitting privileges at any facility. Nor did he have basic emergency supplies on hand, such as blood for transfusions, according to medical board records. A medical expert for the licensing board, in a sworn declaration, stated that Gandotra deviated from the standard of care in 10 significant ways, including "an extreme delay" in transferring the patient to the hospital.
Gandotra had previously lost his license to practice medicine in New York state in 1992, and served 8 months in prison in 1990 for 17 felony counts, including forging prescriptions, grand theft, Medi-Cal fraud, aiding in furnishing of a dangerous drug without an authorized prescription, aiding and abetting the unlawful prescription of controlled substance, and assisting in the unlicensed practice of medicine.
References: California Superior Court Case #S6003494; Los Angeles County Superior Court Case #SEC76210; San Diego Union-Tribune, December 13, 1994; Santa Monica Outlook, December 1994; Orange County Register, December 15, 1994; Los Angeles Times, March 21 and April 5, 1995; San Diego News Notes, February 1995; Paul Likoudis. "Investigators Cast a Wide Net To Find Abortionist's Murderer." The Wanderer, December 10, 1998, pages 1 and 10; Tony Gosgnach. "Cases Reveal a Path of Destruction Through Women, Children, and Society." The Interim, September 1998.
Murder (2 counts), Grand Theft Auto, Evading Police and Parole Violation [Rincon Indian Reservation]
Andre F. Calac and his girlfriend, 22-year-old Marlene J. Magee, had had an up-and-down type of relationship for several years. She was more than six months pregnant by him, and expecting a girl. He repeatedly threatened her, at one point saying to her "I will beat you like you need to be beaten."
On February 14, 2004, Calac spent the day getting drunk and high on drugs with his friends. The next day, he pointed a shotgun at Marlene and shot her in the head. He blew his thumbnail off, and a medical examiner found it in the huge hole in Marlene's face during the subsequent autopsy.
Calac then drove Marlene to a fire station for medical treatment and claimed that a Mexican drug gang was responsible for the murder. He was arrested at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to his left thumb. He claimed that an unidentified intruder had killed Marlene, and that the bullet that killed her had struck him first. He was arrested at the Medical Center and subsequently booked for murder and parole violation.
On May 3, 2006, a jury found Calac guilty of two counts of murder. He had previous convictions for auto theft and evading police.
References: Shannon Tangonan. "Rincon Man Arrested in Fatal Shooting of Pregnant Girlfriend." San Diego Union Tribune, February 17, 2004; Teri Figueroa. "Trial Begins for Rincon Man Accused of Killing Woman and Fetus." North County Times [California], April 18, 2006; Jose Luis Jiminez. "Man on Trial in Slaying of Pregnant Girlfriend." The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 20, 2006; Steven Ertelt. "California Man Found Guilty of Double Murder Under Unborn Victims Law." LifeSite News, May 4, 2006.
Assault (7 incidents) [El Cajon]
On September 21 and October 5, 2000, pro-lifers from the California Life Coalition passed out pro-life literature to students on public sidewalks outside Santana High School in Santee and Granite Hills High School in El Cajon. Both schools are in the Grossmont Union High School District.
Outside Granite Hills, Allyson Smith was assaulted by a male and female student. The female hit her in the face and spat on her, and the male destroyed her sign. Another male student spat on her from a departing school bus. Other students and passersby cursed and swore at the pro-lifers. Pro-lifer Ron Brock said that "I was picking up the posters when a 4-wheel-drive vehicle pulled up in a red zone behind me. The driver got out, went up to my van, and tried to rip the signs off the sides, but they're plywood so she was unable to destroy them. I started taking her picture, so she decided to come after me. She came at me with both arms swinging. She grabbed my smock and hit me on the back. Cheryl started taking pictures of her attacking me; then she came after Cheryl. She threw Cheryl's camera into the parking lot and hit her in the mouth. At that point we heard the sirens coming, and the police pulled up. They took a police report, and I placed her under citizens arrest."
Outside Santana High School, Shamgar Jabez, director of Christian Men United, and three other pro-lifers, were physically assaulted by pro-abortion students.
In none of these incidents were any charges filed by police, nor was any disciplinary action taken against the attacking pro-abortion students by the schools.
References: Allyson Smith. "Back to School: Screaming, Hitting, Spitting." San Diego News Notes, November 2000, pages 1 and 3. Page 1 of the article has a photograph showing two students assaulting pro-lifer Cheryl Sullenger.
Assault (4 incidents) and Destruction of Property [La Jolla]
On August 4, 2003, Hillary Clinton was at a swank La Jolla bookstore promoting her so-called "tell-all" book Living History. About 15 pro-lifers with the California Life Coalition picketed the event. By the time pro-lifers arrived, the crowd had grown to more than 300, and quickly surpassed 1,000 by mid-morning.
Within moments of displaying large graphic signs of aborted babies in the first trimester, Clinton supporters surrounded the pro-lifers and began shoving and covering their signs. Suddenly, one man violently kicked one of the signs, shattering the foam insulation board to which it was mounted and putting a hole in the middle of the vinyl photograph. Pro-lifers Sylvia Sullivan and Rayna Sullenger were slightly injured in the assault. Police were called and the attacker, Andrew Vergowuen, was detained.
Moments later, pro-lifer Joe Manzo was attacked and spit upon by a woman who disagreed with his views. Manzo immediately placed her under citizen's arrest to prevent others in the crowd from thinking that they could act aggressively against the Christians without consequences. Within minutes of that attack, an angry woman dumped a drink down the back of pro-lifer Frank Dawson but ran away before she could be detained.
Cheryl Sullenger, director of the California Life Coalition which organized the prolife outreach, said that "These Clinton supporters have demonstrated with their actions the lawlessness of their world views. If support for abortion, homosexuality, and other criminal acts against the Creator can be held in respect, then violent, criminal reaction to those who disagree can only be expected. Everyone on the street and most people in the community were aware of the bold pro-life testimony today. It was well worth the loss of a sign and a few bumps and bruises."
Reference: MTTU News, downloaded from the Web site of Missionaries to the Unborn at http://www.mttu.com on August 7, 2003.
Death Threats (9 incidents)
During the first week of January 1995, three pro-life crisis pregnancy centers in the San Diego area received a total of nine death threats from pro-abortionists. The taped messages included statements such as "It's time for some of you to die" and "I'm going to f—ing kill you."
Thomas A. Glessner, president and general counsel of the National Institute for Family and Life Advocates, send a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno on January 6, 1995, asking for the Department of Justice to provide CPCs with the same level of protection it so eagerly provided to abortion mills. Not surprisingly, such protection was denied. And Gena Shaw, spokeswoman for the National Abortion Federation, questioned whether the CPCs deserved or needed protection.
Reference: Joyce Price. "Pro-Life Care Sites Ask for Protection After Death Threats: Seek Same Help as Abortion Clinics." The Washington Times, January 7, 1995.
Death Threat
On March 17, 1999, pro-lifers picketed Planned Parenthood's Mission Valley abortion mill. A woman identified as a Planned Parenthood employee or patient by a Planned Parenthood security guard threatened the life of a pro-life attorney, saying "I'm going to run your ass over on the way out."
Reference: Nicholas Owen. "Lawyer, Judge Buttress Baby Killers." News Notes ["San Diego's Lay Catholic Newspaper"], May 1999, pages 1 and 6-8.
Gross Malpractice, Gross Negligence (3 incidents), Incompetence, Unprofessional Conduct, Fraud, and Practicing Medicine Without a License [Chula Vista]
Abortionist Nicholas Braemer grossly botched an abortion on August 26, 1987. The California Medical Board found him guilty of "gross negligence, repeated negligent acts and incompetence," and suspended his license for 90 days. The medical board found that he botched the abortion "through haste, inattention and neglect of his professional medical responsibilities," all of which Braemer admitted in accepting probation. Braemer, while aborting a viable preborn baby, managed only to chop one arm off the baby, and the mother miscarried the dead child a day later. The little child was born with only one arm.
The abortionist, who had committed abortions in at least ten locations, agreed to stop practicing medicine on August 1, 2000 under a negotiated settlement with the Medical Board of California.
In 1999, the Medical Board of California formally accused Braemer of gross negligence in a 1996 abortion in Panorama City that left a woman with serious bowel damage. That incident occurred while his medical license was under probation for previous findings of negligence, according to state documents. In the signed agreement to surrender his license, Braemer admitted gross negligence in the 1996 case.
State investigators later added two allegations of negligence and unprofessional conduct, contending that Braemer told another woman that her abortion was successful when she was still pregnant and that he allowed untrained staff to perform and interpret ultrasound pregnancy tests.
The abortionist said that "I chose not to fight it. I agreed to retire. I'm 60 years old, I'm financially OK. I'm ready to do other things." He also said his abortion businesses will remain open, with another abortion practitioner as owner, but will not do late abortions, as he did, between the 24th and 26th weeks of pregnancy. His abortion mills, including the one in Chula Vista, are called Clinica Medica para la Mujer de Hoy (Medical Clinic for the Woman of Today). Some also use the names Community Women's Medical Clinic and Family Planning Medical Center.
Braemer received his California medical license in 1966. According to state records, the medical board in 1983 put him on five years' probation after a criminal conviction for state Medicaid fraud. He began another five years' probation in January 1995, on the basis of a 1987 abortion in which he did an incomplete abortion, causing the woman to suffer infection and miscarriage, state medical records say.
After seeking to revoke Braemer's license in June 1999 because of the 1996 case, the board in November accused him of negligence in a 1998 abortion in Huntington Park for telling the woman that her abortion was successful. Six weeks later she found out that she was 15 weeks pregnant with a severely damaged unborn child, and she had a second abortion, according to records.
On September 16, 2000, medical board investigators posed as patients at four of Braemer's 10 abortion mills, including one in Huntington Park, another in Baldwin Park and two in Los Angeles.
On the basis of those visits, another medical board accusation was filed in April charging that Braemer had allowed medical assistants to perform ultrasound pregnancy tests and interpret the results to patients and that this amounted to their practicing medicine without a license.
References: James McCoy. "Not a Back-Alley Clinic: This is Chula Vista." NewsNotes [San Diego's Catholic Newspaper], April 1999, pages 1 and 3; "California Abortion Practitioner Gives Up His Medical License." San Diego Union Tribune, June 22, 2000; "California Abortion Practitioner Gives Up His Medical License." Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, June 23, 2000; Maggie Garcia. "Unlicensed to Kill: Has Notorious Abortionist Really Left the Killing Business?" Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, October 2000, pages 1 and 3.
Assault and Indecent Exposure
When pro-lifers picketed abortionist David Priver at his high-rise condominium complex on February 20, 1999, one woman resident exposed herself to them and another poured water on them from the balcony.
Reference: "Little Notes." News Notes ["San Diego's Lay Catholic Newspaper"], May 1999, page 10.
Malpractice (7 incidents)
Abortionist Philip Rand had a number of malpractice lawsuits filed against him. In one of the suits, by 17-year-old Shirley Bellamy, the abortionist had refused to treat her for bleeding during her pregnancy. Rand "yelled and screamed" that she was going to lose the baby anyway, so she should get out of his office; Bellamy requested treatment in a hospital to try to save her unborn baby, but Rand refused, stating that he did not run a taxi service. When Bellamy experienced a sudden gush of blood, Rand refused to allow one of his nurses to take her to a nearby hospital. She suffered premature birth and subsequent death of her infant, who she named Sherelee Natai Allen.
Rand declared bankruptcy in March 1992, due to the loss of a multi-million dollar lawsuit by Pamela Batter, who suffered toxemia and detached placenta, causing her son to be born brain-damaged fifteen years earlier.
References: San Diego County Superior Court Cases #382675, #479972, #640446, #640957, #642682 and #650363; San Diego News Notes, February 1995.
Gross Negligence and Gross Incompetence
Abortionist James M. Long of San Diego performed an abortion on 22-year-old Angela Vidano in February 2000 at the Family Planning Associates abortion mill on Hospitality Lane.
According to the attorney general's office, Long did not take precautions to deal with Vidano's medical condition before beginning the abortion and failed in treating Vidano after she stopped breathing. She subsequently suffered severs brain damage.
State medical officials requested the revocation of Long's medical license, and attorney general's office accused him of gross negligence, repeated negligent acts and incompetence in his handling of the Vidano abortion. Vidano's family also sued the abortionist, the clinic and other staff members. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages and compensation for Vidano's injuries and loss of future wages.
Unlawful Business Practices and Wrongful Termination
Surgical technician Megan Allen was required by Planned Parenthood to perform medical services — including assisting abortionists during abortions — that she was not licensed to perform. She was hired as a management trainee by Planned Parenthood of San Diego, but clinic supervisors immediately put her to work assisting in abortions, even though she had no training or certification to perform those duties. Allen immediately began pointing out medical procedural discrepancies, but [clinic staff] told her, "Don't worry about it." In one example, a woman came to the clinic for an abortion, but didn't speak English. Allen asked "Are you going to get someone in here who can speak her language and get her informed consent?," but clinic supervisors allegedly dismissed her. When her complaints began to come more frequently, the clinic fired her.
She said "After working at Planned Parenthood, I noticed a lot of things that they were doing wrong — a lot of procedures they weren't doing in a sterile fashion or with people who were certified and trained properly. ... They call them 'surgical assistants' — [people] who are trained in-house, just right off the street without any medical background — and during surgical procedures that involved sterile instruments they would be assisting during the abortions."
The United States Justice Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of Allen, naming as defendants Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, and Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles.
The suit alleges that the facilities participated in "unlawful business practices" and "wrongful termination." The facilities allegedly permitted "unlicensed personnel" to assist in the performance of abortions and to diagnose, evaluate and treat medical conditions, the complaint said.
Allen is seeking damages in the form of back pay and punitive damages for being fired. Her lawsuit also accuses Planned Parenthood abortion facilities in San Diego and Los Angeles of failing to report suspected or known cases of child sexual abuse, as required by law.
The Planned Parenthood abortion mills were quite "blatant" about their use of unqualified staffers. According to one clinic job description, new hires need only a high school diploma to be qualified, even though they are required to be involved in caring for abortion patients. Exhibit 3 of the complaint is the official job description given to Allen by clinic staff and signed by her. Called "Surgical Services Assistant Center Manager," the job profile required her to have direct patient-care contact. "Education" required for the position says only that candidates need a "High School diploma or equivalent experience." "Other" job duties include "willing to work in all areas of the center," without specifically exempting medical treatment areas. And under a heading entitled "Detailed Duties and Responsibilities," employees must "assist physician with [abortion] procedure."
Richard Ackerman, litigation counsel for the USJF, said the clinics' alleged violations were some of the worst he's seen. He told WorldNetDaily "Toward the end she was complaining about quite a few of the violations of law, and they retaliated by firing her. ... I spent a decade doing medical malpractice cases. This [case] is unbelievable. It's a time bomb."
Allen, who said she is not a pro-life activist, maintains she was purely concerned for the safety of women from a medical perspective. Would she ever work for a Planned Parenthood clinic again? "Never," said Allen. "Not for any amount of money."
References: Jon E. Dougherty. "`Time Bomb' Lawsuit Against Planned Parenthood: Ex-Employee Alleges Unlicensed Personnel Assisting in Abortion Procedures." WorldNetDaily.com, August 22, 2002; "Ex-Planned Parenthood Employee Sues Over Safety Violations." Steve Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, August 27, 2002; Scott Marshall. "Planned Parenthood Attorney Responds to Lawsuit." North County Times, September 13, 2002. Downloaded from http://www.nctimes.com on September 15, 2002.
San Francisco
The Same Old Boring, Unoriginal, Bigoted and Obscene
Pro-Abortion Response to the 2006 March for Life in San Francisco
(photos from Zombie's Web site)
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Murder (4 counts), Arson and Death Threats (3 incidents)
Early in the morning of October 10, 2005, Rodrigo Ortiz Paniagua stabbed his girlfriend, Leticia Chavez, who was about five months pregnant, three times in the stomach, apparently deliberately targeting their preborn child. Then he stabbed their little daughters, cutting the throat of six-year-old Adrina, and killing three-year-old Analisa. Leticia and Analisa died at that point, Then he methodically set their Palo Alto house on fire and sat down on the curb outside the home and lit up a cigarette, waiting for police to arrest him. When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found Leticia's 15-year-old sister trying to care for little Adrina, who was suffering from multiple stab wounds and burns. She was rushed to Regional Medical Center, but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
A police summary statement said that "Rodrigo Paniagua was standing in the driveway area watching the paramedics and firefighters as if he were a bystander. An attending paramedic noticed Paniagua toss a knife to the ground. The paramedic then noticed that Paniagua was covered with a large amount of blood."
A few hours after he was arrested, Paniagua confessed to the murders during a police interview. He was arraigned in Santa Clara County Superior Court on four counts of murder and one count of arson.
Neighbor John Stallworth said of Paniagua that "He was pretty mellow; he was good with his kids, he took care of them. He was a cool, laid-back dude. ... He loved his girls. He'd tell me how his daughter aced something in school. ... It was a perfect family. It just goes to show you that you never know what's going on in people's minds."
Leticia's relatives had a different story, however. Her cousin Lisa Gutierrez said that domestic violence had occurred in the past and that Chavez had complained to police. Cousin Danny Gutierrez said "I think she was holding back, that she was afraid to tell us."
Paniagua was convicted in 2002 for repeated death threats against Leticia, served time in jail, and was ordered to complete a yearlong course on domestic violence.
References: Diana Walsh and Steve Rubenstein. "Man Kills Pregnant Girlfriend and 2 Kids, Police Say: He Allegedly Slays Family Members Before Setting Fire." San Francisco Chronicle, October 11, 2005, page B-1; "Pregnant Mother of Two Stabbed to Death." Palo Alto Online News, October 11, 2005; Kathleen Sullivan. "Suspect Admits Stabbing Family, Gets 4 Murder Charges." San Francisco Chronicle, October 14, 2005, page B-5.
First-Degree Murder, Second-Degree Murder (2 counts) and Attempted Suicide [Moss Beach]
According to sworn affidavits and police and witness statements, the following events occurred near Moss Beach, California.
On October 6, 2002, Eddie Rapoza, his eight-months pregnant wife, Raye, and their four-year old daughter Tehani were driving near Moss Beach. Rapoza drove the family Dodge Caravan van off a 150-foot cliff in what prosecutors say was a botched triple-murder/suicide attempt caused by Rapoza's jealousy. Raye and her preborn child were killed in the plunge, and the little girl was disconnected from life support a few days later. Rapoza was hospitalized with severe injuries and confessed to deliberately driving the minivan off the cliff. He then recanted the confession, claiming that strong psychiatric pain-killers caused him to lie.
During a March 2003 preliminary hearing, Rapoza accused his wife of infidelity, questioning the paternity of her near-term preborn baby, and threatened to kill himself.
Rapoza was subsequently charged with three counts of first-degree murder. On April 11, 2005, a jury found Rapoza guilty of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. On May 27, 2006, Judge Carl Holm sentenced him to life in prison.
References: Michelle Durand. "Trial for Triple-Murder Defendant Delayed." San Mateo Daily Journal, June 29, 2004; Michelle Durand. "Rapoza: 'I'm Innocent'." San Mateo Daily Journal, January 1, 2005; Michelle Durand. "Triple-Murder Sentencing Today." The Daily Journal, May 27, 2006.
First-Degree Murder (2 counts) and Armed Robbery [Antioch]
Christopher Henriquez held up a bank, and was afraid that his wife Carmen would inform on him. So he decided to eliminate her as a witness permanently.
On August 12, 1996, Henriquez strangled Carmen to death, and then bludgeoned his three-year-old daughter Zuri to death with a claw hammer. Carmen was just four weeks away from delivering a healthy baby.
In 2000, Henriquez was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death. He now resides at San Quentin Prison.
References: San Francisco Chronicle, June 3, 2000, page A20; Marjie Lundstrom. "Despite the Hype, Peterson May Go Unharmed in Prison." Sacramento Bee, December 16, 2004.
Murder (2 counts) [San Jose]
Gilberto Cano's live-in girlfriend, Martha Isela Moreno, was nearly seven months pregnant, and was looking forward to having her little girl. But Cano was not quite so happy about it.
On April 20, 2002, he stabbed her several times in the abdomen with a long kitchen knife and then strangled her to death. Cano was arrested that night, jailed, and charged with two counts of murder in Stanislaus County Superior Court.
Forensic pathologist Jennifer Rulon testified that Moreno suffered three stab wounds to her stomach, two of which could have been fatal. Moreno also appeared to have been strangled to death, she said. One of the stab wounds had a single entry point but three corresponding puncture wounds to an interior muscle, consistent with the knife being stabbed in, not withdrawn all the way and then thrust in three more times, Rulon said. Prosecutor Rick Distaso argued that those wounds indicated that the attacker was clearly stabbing in an "attempt to kill the baby."
Two witnesses testified that Cano had gone to a relative's house on Taggert Court on the evening of Moreno's death and told them he had "injured" or "done something bad" to Moreno. A blood sample drawn from Cano that night showed no indication of drugs or alcohol in his system, attorneys on both sides agreed.
References: Ty Phillips. "Double Homicide Charge Likely." The Modesto Bee, March 23, 2003; John Cote. "Murder Case Focus Deep, But So Narrow." The Modesto Bee, May 8, 2003.
Attempted Murder [Oakland]
In March 1989, pro-abortionists wearing heavy steel-toed boots attempted to kill a disabled pro-lifer by kicking him repeatedly in the head, even after they had knocked him unconscious.
Fatal Botched Abortion [Livermore]
18-year-old Holly Marie Patterson and her boyfriend went to Planned Parenthood in Hayward on September 10, 2003 for the RU-486 abortion pill [mifepristone].
After being taken to a local hospital following complaints of severe bleeding and cramping, doctors told her family that Holly had experienced septic shock coupled with a severe bacterial infection. They also said the abortion was incomplete and that part of the baby remained inside of her. She died hours later, on September 17, 2003.
The Alameda County Coroner's Office confirmed that drug-induced abortion medication was the official cause of death for Holly Patterson. According to Deputy Coroner Frank Gentle, Holly Patterson's "therapeutic drug induced abortion" caused a condition called endomyometritis, an inflammation of the mucous membrane lining of the uterus. This inflamed condition set in several days after Patterson took the abortion drug, and in turn led to shock which ultimately killed her, Gentle said.
Monty Patterson, her father, said that he didn't learn until hours before his daughter's death that she was pregnant, let alone that she and her boyfriend had gone to Planned Parenthood. It wasn't until three days later, when his daughter was in critical care at ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton, that he learned she was seven weeks pregnant and had taken the pill. He says a doctor there told him she died because she hadn't aborted the entire fetus, causing a systemic infection and septic shock.
He said "I think it's a sad day when a father has to bury his daughter because she suffered in silence. I think it was fear and shame that made her decide she could do this, that she could take a pill and make it all go away. If she could have just talked to us, things would be different. ... What we want to tell young ladies and teenage girls is no matter what, no matter how bad things are, talk with family and friends. We will support you. Family has the strength to pull you through anything. ... Parents need to talk to their children, and children need to talk with their parents. There's no quick fix for pregnancy, no magic pill. ... The medical community treats this as a simple pill you take, as if you're getting rid of a headache. The procedure, the follow-ups, it's all too lackadaisical. The girl gets a pill. Then she's sent home to do the rest on her own. There are just too many things that can go wrong."
Holly's mother, Deborah, said "We hope with Holly's passing that other families can come together and take care of issues. We want to save other girls from the same demise and heartbreak. It was so needless, so needless."
In 2002, The Washington Post reported that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the RU-486 manufacturer (Danco Laboratories) sent a letter informing doctors that two women died and four others became seriously ill after taking it. More deaths have followed, said the report.
Despite this, the Planned Parenthood Web site describes the most common side effects of mifepristone as abdominal pain, bleeding and gastrointestinal distress. It also says no deaths have taken place as a result of the use of mifepristone.
Danco estimates that 150,000 women in the U.S. have used RU-486 since the 1980s. Its Web site says RU-486 (also called Mifeprex) is "the medical breakthrough you've been hearing about for years," and that it is "the first FDA-approved safe and effective non-surgical option for ending early pregnancy." Yet the site also says, "bleeding and cramping are a normal part of the process .. Side effects that may occur include nausea, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, fatigue and back pain," and that "a few women who take Mifeprex will need a surgical procedure to end the pregnancy or to stop heavy bleeding."
Misoprostol has a legitimate use in the treatment of gastric ulcers. Moreover, its manufacturers, including Searle, warn pregnant women never to use misoprostol since it can kill or otherwise harm the child and also harm and even kill pregnant women. Numerous medical studies have shown that many women who take the RU-486/prostaglandin combination experience severe pain, nausea, vomiting, much blood loss, and sometimes heart attacks.
Helen Wilson, Monty Patterson's fiance, said "They thought they were doing the right thing for themselves at the time. They researched it on the Internet, they were told no one in the country had died of this. But we later found out that's not true."
Holly, who worked at Macy's, had just bought a new red Honda Civic and planned on starting at Las Positas College in the Spring, her father said.
Though Monty Patterson said he doesn't consider himself pro-life or pro-choice, he vowed to support the work of pro-life groups in placing an initiative on the 2004 ballot. The initiative would require the parents of girls under 18 to be notified at least 48 hours before a scheduled abortion.
Pity Monty Patterson. First he lost his daughter to the pro-abortionists, and now he is going to be attacked and ridiculed by them.
Despite Patterson's death, Planned Parenthood is still giving the abortion drug to women. As pro-lifers expected, it is also callously defending the killing pill. Vanessa Cullins, vice president for medical affairs at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) national headquarters in New York, said "Until we're able to examine the medical records, and piece together from the medical records exactly what the sequence of events was, we will not be able to know why this woman died. It may be totally unrelated to the medical abortion. ... It's really safer than carrying a pregnancy to term. I hope that the media attention around this tragic situation does not scare other women from opting to have a termination procedure through mifepristone medical abortion if that's something the woman wants to do."
References: "Reports Posted on Abortion Pill." The Washington Post, April 17, 2002; Susan Okie. "Physicians Sent Abortion Pill Alert: Six Women Using RU-486 Taken Ill, and Two Died, Letter Says." The Washington Post, April 18, 2002, page A02; "Dead Teen May Have Taken Abortion Pill." The Washington Times, September 19, 2003; Julian Guthrie. "Pregnant Teen's Death Under Investigation: East Bay Woman had Taken RU-486, According to Father." San Francisco Chronicle, September 19, 2003, page A-21; Bonita Brewer. "Family Blames RU-486 in Woman's Death: Father Urges Parents, Children to Communicate." Contra Costa Times, September 20, 2003; "Abortion Pill May be Cause in Death." Tri-Valley Herald, September 20, 2003; "Woman Dies Following Use of RU 486 Abortion Drug." Steven Ertelt's LifeNews at http://www.lifenews.com, September 20, 2003; "Investigation Into RU 486 Abortion Death Begins." Steven Ertelt's LifeNews at http://www.lifenews.com, September 22, 2003; "U.S. Teen Dies After Taking Abortion Pill (RU-486): Father Says 'There Are Just Too Many Things That Can Go Wrong' with RU-486." LifeSite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, September 22, 2003; George Neumayr. "Planned Parenthood's Latest Casualty." The American Spectator, September 23, 2003; "Planned Parenthood Provides Abortion Pill that Kills Teenage Girl." Culture & Cosmos [Culture of Life Foundation], September 23, 2003 [Volume 1, Number 8]; Julia Duin. "Teen Dead after Abortion Pill." The Washington Times, September 23, 2003; Bonita Brewer. "Father Wants Answers on His Daughter's Death." San Jose Mercury News, September 23, 2003; Carl T. Hall. "Questions Abound About Why Pregnant Teen Died: Experts Not Quick to Blame Abortion Pill." San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 2003, page A-21; Jeanine Benca and Kim Santos. "State Probing Hospital Where Teen Died After Taking RU-486." Oakland Tribune, October 1, 2003; Brent Bozell. "Behind the Holly Patterson Story." Media Research Center, October 1, 2003; "Holly Patterson Received Proper Care Before Abortion Death, Hospital Says." Steven Ertelt's LifeNews, October 3, 2003; "Coroner Confirms Abortion Pill Death." Bay City News and KTVU.com, November 1, 2003; Joshua L. Kwan. "Teen's Death is Linked to Use of Abortion Pill." Mercury News, November 3, 2003.
Rape and Sexual Abuse (2 incidents)
Abortionist Anthony J. Lund raped a female patient. Medical board documents indicate that "At that time, respondent was aware that A.O. was separated from her husband. Without a nurse present. ... respondent performed a vaginal examination [and] began manipulating the clitoris and asked the patient to fantasize and move her hips. This conduct caused A.O. physical irritation, mental confusion and emotional distress ... as A.O. stood up, respondent lifted off A.O.'s examination gown, leaving her nude, and requested that she walk and move her hips; she refused. Respondent indicated to her that she had a nice body and requested that she lift her leg onto the step of the examining table to remove the diaphragm, while she remained nude."
Medical board documents indicate that, in the case of another female patient, "S.S. had great trust in respondent and confided in him;" S.S. sought care July 12, 1977; "Respondent knew that S.S. was in the process of divorcing her husband ... and had consulted him in part to ensure that she had not contracted any venereal disease as a result of her husband's contact with other females. Without a nurse present ... respondent checked the patient's breasts by manipulating and rubbing them instead of examining them in an appropriate manner;" during vaginal exam, "respondent began manipulating the patient's clitoris and subsequently inserted his erect penis into her vagina. S.S. was frightened, acutely embarrassed and suffered intense feelings of shame and extreme emotional distress as a result."
Medical board documents indicate that, in the case of a 15-year old girl who sought fitting for diaphragm for her upcoming marriage November 19, 1982: After the nurse left the room, Lund said he wanted to check fit of her diaphragm, so B. "resumed her position on the examining table; respondent stated he was going to teach her how to relieve herself and began to manipulate the patient's clitoris with his right hand, with his left hand placed against the pubic area. Upon the patient's protest, respondent took the patient's hand, placed it over her clitoris, placed his hand over hers and began to rub back and forth. While the patient was standing in the room after the examination, respondent put his hand inside her vagina and stated that 'this is what it will feel like...' while pushing on the inside of her vagina and manipulating her clitoris;" B.R. is ... now extremely reluctant to consult with physicians for gynecological examinations or problems."
The California Medical Board revoked Lund's license in 1984 because of these allegations.
Reference: California Medical Board #D-3191.
Arson [Walnut Creek]
On February 26, 1982, pro-abortionists set fire to the office of California Right to Life. Fire officials ruled that the incident was arson, partly because the arsonist stole the organization's membership lists.
Reference: Camile Giglio. "California Right to Life Office Destroyed by Arsonist." National Right to Life News, March 11, 1982, page 1.
Assault with a Deadly Weapon (ADW) and Assault (4 incidents)
Eduardo Lopez was enraged upon learning that his girlfriend was pregnant and did not want an abortion. He savagely beat her four times after he learned about the pregnancy, concentrating especially on punching and kicking her in the stomach. He then bought a syringe with an abortifacient drug and tried to inject her with it, but she managed to fight him off.
Reference: "Frontline Updates." National Right to Life News, May 7, 1991, page 4.
Assault with a Deadly Weapon (ADW) and Assault (2 incidents) [Menlo Park]
In 1999, Ken Reed, a leader of Operation Rescue West, was picketing a Menlo Park abortion mill when an outraged pro-abortionist drove his large SUV up onto the sidewalk, striking Ken and knocking the sign out of his hands. He then climbed out of the SUV, threw hot coffee on Ken, and physically assaulted two other pro-lifers.
References: "Please Help Us Stop the Outrageous Wave of Pro-Abortion Violence Against Peaceful Pro-Lifers!" Paid advertisement by the Life Legal Defense Foundation. The Wanderer, April 26, 2001, page 12. The advertisement includes three photographs of a pro-abort in a van on the sidewalk, driving directly at pro-lifers in another incident of pro-abortion violence.
Stalking (2 incidents) and Battery (2 incidents) [Beale's Point]
Police arrested two pro-abortionists for battery and stalking pro-lifers.
Reference: July 1994, Operation Rescue of California, personal communication with Lynn K. Murphy, Life Research Institute, October 30, 1994.
Vandalism (185 incidents)
It is a sad fact of political and social life that pro-abortionists loudly demand that they be allowed unlimited free speech rights, but adamantly deny this right to pro-lifers. This is proof of how fascistic, hypocritical and oppressive the pro-abortion movement really is. While pro-aborts have gone so far as to say that abortion must be protected because women "speak with their bodies" when they have abortions, the pro-abortionists try their best to squelch classic pro-life free speech in the form of picketing and leafletting outside abortion mills, and they even attack pro-life free speech in other public forums.
There is no better example of this pro-abortion bigotry, inconsistency and fascism than what was displayed in (where else)? San Francisco in early 2006.
The Respect Life Ministry of the Oakland Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church paid $43,200 to display 280 posters in Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) trains, and another 48 in BART stations. There were two different very inoffensive ads produced for the campaign, each featuring a blurry photograph of a woman against a turquoise background. One ad said "9 months" in large letters, and featured nine months of a calendar. It read "Because of Roe vs. Wade, this is the amount of time the Supreme Court says it's legal to have an abortion." The other ad contained the message "The Supreme Court says you can choose: After the heart starts beating, after its arms and legs appear, after all organs are present, after the sex is apparent, after it sucks its thumb, after it responds to sounds, after it could survive outside the womb." Both ads concluded with the tagline "Abortion: Have we gone too far?" and the name and Web site address (www.secondlookproject.org) for the Second Look Project, an effort sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which created the campaign and unveiled it on Washington's Metro subway system in 2005. The San Francisco campaign started shortly after Christmas 2005, and was scheduled to continue until the end of January 2006.
Pro-abortionists tore down, vandalized, or defaced more than 200 of the posters, causing an average of more than $130 in damage each time. Many of the pro-abortion scrawlings took the form of hate crimes and anti-religious bigotry. Monika Rodman, coordinator of the Respect Life Ministry, said that "The defacement has taken to religious epithets, profanity, everything you can think of."
About thirty pro-aborts called the BART offices and demanded that the pro-life posters be removed. This was a pretty weak effort, in light of the fact that the pro-abortion Web site www.indybay.org urged pro-aborts to call BART and members of its Board of Directors to register their discontent.
Suzanne "Sam" Joi is a member of a typical so-called "social justice" group named Code Pink, which is in reality simply virulently pro-abortion and anti-free speech. Joi said "I think every woman has noticed them. I couldn't believe BART would allow something like this. Why are they doing this? At the very least they should have made sure both sides were represented."
We wonder how loudly Joi would gripe if pro-lifers shredded her ads.
Another unoriginal thinker, Elizabeth Creely of the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights (BACORR), whined that "They're calling for the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, which will lead to the slaughter of women. The Catholic Church is very strong here and is working hard to erode reproductive rights."
One BART official disagreed with the pro-abortionists when he said that his organization does not discriminate on the basis of content: "We're not in the business of censorship and don't believe a government agency should be in the business of censorship. It shouldn't be up to a government official to determine whose opinion is right and whose is wrong."
Reference: Michael Cabanatuan. "Anti-Abortion Ad on BART Angers Activists: Many Placards Have Been Defaced or Destroyed." San Francisco Chronicle, January 13, 2006, page B-1.
Bomb Threat and Vandalism (5 incidents) [Union City]
Pro-abortionists phoned in a bomb threat to the East Bay Crisis Pregnancy Center on January 22, 1999, the 26th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Pro-abortionists had also vandalized the building with spray-painted pro-abortion slogans such as "Abortion is a Right" and "Lies Told Here." The buildings were also plastered with pro-abortion flyers advertising local abortion mills, and their locks were jammed with an epoxy-like glue. Four other crisis pregnancy centers in the San Francisco Bay area were also the victims of vandalism on the same day.
References: Thaai Walker. "Vandals Hit Clinics Opposed to Abortion." San Francisco Chronicle, January 23, 1999, page A16; "Pregnancy Help Center Receives Bomb Threat." Catholic World News at http://www.cwnews.com, January 25, 1999; "California Crisis Pregnancy Center Receives Bomb Threat, Others Vandalized." San Francisco Chronicle, January 23, 1999, page A16; Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, January 24, 1999; Associated Press, January 23, 1999.
Assault (2 incidents) and Death Threat
On February 3, 2001, members of the pro-life group Voice For Life were peacefully protesting in front of the Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center abortion chamber in Santa Cruz, California.
37-year-old pro-abortionist James Wilson was arrested after he punched and kicked two of the pro-lifers. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office said Wilson also brandished a knife and told one protester he was going to stab him.
References: "Pro-Choice Protestor Assaults Pro-Life Advocates." San Jose Mercury News, February 5, 2001; Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, February 7, 2001.
Possession of Extreme Pornography
In December 1998, Feminist icon Betty Friedan, a co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), denounced President Clinton's enemies as "a bunch of dirty old white men trying to use sexual issues wrongly."
In July of 1984, the Daily News reported on an incident at the San Francisco airport when Friedan arrived for the Democratic National Convention as part of the New York delegation. Friedan's over-stuffed suitcase burst open on the luggage carousel, disgorging a cargo of sado-masochistic magazines depicting women in extreme bondage. According to witnesses, "Both Friedan and the delegates around her were extremely embarrassed." Friedan, who has dismissed Clinton's sexual indiscretions as "private behavior" and "his business," could not be reached for comment.
Reference: "Friedan's Feminist Domination." New York Post, December 21, 1998, page 6.
Assault with a Deadly Weapon (ADW) [San Jose]
In September 2000, a group of pro-lifers were peacefully picketing a Planned Parenthood abortion mill. Suddenly, pro-abortionist Aly Tamboura of San Jose drove a large white van directly onto the sidewalk at a high rate of speed, forcing the pro-lifers to dive out of the way or be run down. Fortunately, the only object hit by the van was a pro-life sign, which was knocked into the street and destroyed.
Longtime pro-lifer Harry Padilla, who had been faithfully protesting outside the abortion mill for 13 years, snapped several pictures of the assault.
Tamboura fled and was later arrested by police. He admitted to the crime, said that he committed the assault because he was in favor of abortion and because the signs offended him, and then he asked the arresting officer, "Wouldn't you do the same thing?"
Incredibly, the San Jose District Attorney refused to prosecute Tamboura. It took a persistent, months-long campaign by local and national pro-lifers to finally embarrass the District Attorney into prosecuting Tamboura. He said that he had "no idea" why the case "slipped through the cracks." Pro-lifers know why. If the assault had been by a pro-lifer, he would have been instantly thrown in jail and vigorously prosecuted for attempted murder at the very least. However, since it was a pro-abort attacking pro-lifers, there was no crime committed in the eyes of the San Jose District Attorney.
Even then, the DA reduced the charge against Tamboura to "reckless driving" — a misdemeanor — and then refused to arrest him for a month and a half.
The response of the San Jose District Attorney's office was so criminally sluggish that the pro-life Life Legal Defense Foundation had no recourse other than to file a civil suit against Tamboura.
Neither Planned Parenthood nor any other pro-abortion group or individual apologized for this near-deadly act of violence nor condemned it in any way.
References: "Please Help Us Stop the Outrageous Wave of Pro-Abortion Violence Against Peaceful Pro-Lifers!" Paid advertisement by the Life Legal Defense Foundation. The Wanderer, April 26, 2001. page 12. The advertisement includes three photographs of the van on the sidewalk, driving directly at pro-lifers.
Stalking (6 incidents) and Assault [San Jose]
On May 5, 1990, at the Family Planning Associates abortion mill, during an Operation Rescue blockade, a pro-abortionist sat on pro-lifer Suzanne Summerhay's head, causing back injuries, neck injury, and a dislocated shoulder, according to doctor's reports. The assailant was protected and disguised by the abortion clinic. After the trial on the incident, pro-abortionists began to stalk and harass Summerhay. Several men appeared on her campus trying to find where she lived. They also called her parents and appeared at her house to try to find her. She finally had to hide for several months out of fear.
Reference: Suzanne Summerhay, October 29, 1994 personal communication with Lynn K. Murphy of Life Research Institute.
Assault (8 incidents) [San Mateo]
On July 17, 1993, at the local Planned Parenthood abortion mill, pro-abortionists attacked several pro-lifers and threw them to the ground. They also picked up several other pro-lifers and dragged them away from the area.
Reference: Bill Newsome, personal video recording of the incident (in possession of Life Research Institute).
Assault (5 incidents) [San Rafael]
In the Summer of 1989, pro-abortionists pushed and shoved pro-lifers and sprayed them with a bottle of urine.
Reference: Tom Vivian, October 12, 1994 personal communication with Lynn K. Murphy, Life Research Institute.
Assault (5 incidents) [Oakland]
On March 3, 1989, at a Planned Parenthood abortion mill, pro-abortionists spit upon and shoved pro-lifers. Police stated that they feared for the safety of the pro-lifers.
Reference: Tom Vivian, personal communication with Lynn K. Murphy, October 12, 1994.
Assault [Walnut Creek]
On June 6, 1981, at the local Planned Parenthood abortion mill, one of the clinic staff struck pro-lifer Raul Gomez.
Reference: "Pickets Slugged, Then Charged With 'Trespass' at PP Clinic." International Life Times, June 10, 1981.
Assault [San Jose]
On July 24, 1993, at the local Planned Parenthood abortion mill, pro-lifer Robert Collins was videotaping a female pro-lifer in order to prevent pro-abortionists from harming her. They were trying to surround her to render the taping ineffective. The pro-abortionists tried to remove him from the public sidewalk. Collins wrapped his arms around a pole, and the pro-abortionists repeatedly struck his arms so that he would release the pole.
Reference: Chet Gallagher and Robert Collins, October 12, 1994 personal communication with Lynn K. Murphy of Life Research Institute.
Assault [Los Gatos]
On July 20, 1993, pro-abortionist Charles Minster stamped on sidewalk counselor Elizabeth Foster's feet and hit her with his elbow.
Reference: Operation Rescue National, Violence and Disruption Report, December 10, 1994.
Attempted Forced Abortion
Before she was the WNBA's coach of the year, Washington Mystics head coach Marianne Stanley was at the University of California at Berkeley. There, reports The Washington Post, she told newly pregnant assistant coach Sharrona Alexander that she could keep either her unborn baby or her job. Alexander (who refused to have the abortion) received a $115,000 settlement from the school.
Reference: Ted Olsen. "Forcing Abortions: Mandated Abortions Happen in the U.S., Too." Christianity Today Magazine, November 18, 2002 [Volume 46, Number 12], page 21.
Malpractice
In October 1997, a woman Yugoslavian immigrant went to a Planned Parenthood-Golden Gate abortion mill to have a first-trimester abortion. She was pregnant with twins. The abortionist botched the procedure, leaving one of the children alive but mutilated.
Abortuary mill personnel told her that the abortion was "complete." During the follow-up exam, the woman said that she still felt pregnant. She called the abortion mill several times for advice, but each time was told that her symptoms were "normal." Finally, on February 18, 1998, she demanded a urine test. The same nurse who had told her that all was well had to admit that the woman was still pregnant, and 6 months along.
Planned Parenthood, issued her an apology and finally agreed to pay for her second abortion. During the ultrasound, the woman saw that her child had had one arm and one leg cut off during the previous abortion. She then suffered an emotional collapse. She had to go through a three-day abortion procedure to kill the remaining twin.
The woman has continual visions of babies being killed, cries uncontrollably at the sight of young children (particularly twins), and has contemplated suicide. The woman has been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She has also been unable to get in close proximity to a man without shaking and, sometimes, vomiting.
On February 4, 2001, a jury awarded her $650,000 for mental anguish, $1,870 in past medical costs, $14,500 for future psychiatric expenses and $6,240 in lost earnings. Because of a 1975 California law which limits non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases to $250,000, the award will have to be reduced.
Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, which owns nine abortion mills in the San Francisco area, said it would appeal the jury's verdict.
References: "California Woman Wins Abortion Malpractice Lawsuit." March 16, 2001; and "San Francisco Woman Wins Abortion Malpractice Case." March 23, 2001. Justice Foundation Web site at http://justice.oct.net/action.html.
Santa Cruz
Rape (4 incidents), False Imprisonment (4 incidents), Sexual Battery (4 incidents), Death Threats (4 incidents), Assault, and Attempted Forced Abortion
Augencio Jasso, 40, of Santa Cruz, raped and sexually battered a young girl over a period of three years.
At a preliminary hearing on July 29, 2002, he was ordered to stand trial on four charges of forcible rape, four counts of false imprisonment, four counts of sexually battering her while she was restrained, one count of physically assaulting her, and other charges. Prosecutor Jeff Rossell says the charges represent only a partial list of Jasso's crimes against the woman. Detective Aaron Tripp testified that the woman reported that Jasso had begun molesting when she was 7 years old and living in Mexico.
Some time after she moved to Santa Cruz in the summer of 2000, Jasso grabbed her from behind while she was cooking, threw her to the floor and raped her. The victim was 17 at the time. The woman also told interviews the details of two other times Jasso raped her in Santa Cruz. The victim kept quiet about the crimes because Jasso repeatedly threatened to kill her and her family members if she turned him in. The victim testified that she believed he was capable of killing them.
The woman said that, after a rape during the 2000 Christmas holiday, she thought she had become pregnant and confronted Jasso about it. Jasso took her to a Planned Parenthood abortion mill, planning to force her to get an abortion, but the office was closed. Jasso then allegedly threatened to send her back to Mexico and force her to have the baby and not tell anybody what happened. When the woman refused to go back to Mexico, Jasso punched her in the stomach, causing her to have a miscarriage.
Reference: Jason Schultz. "S.C. Man Will Face Trial on Multiple Rape Charges." Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 31, 2002.
Santa Maria
First-Degree Murder (2 counts) and Murder
James Manuel Noriega's girlfriend, Kathleen Martinez, was just four weeks away from giving birth. The couple were living in Room 11 of the Palms Motor Hotel on West Main Street in Santa Maria, California, with their two-year-old daughter, Savanna Zamora.
On July 17, 2001, Noriega strangled Kathleen with a pair of black stretch pants, then smothered his little girl. He dumped their bodies in the tub of the motel room and then scrubbed the entire room with bleach to remove fingerprints. He then took all of the family's belongings and fled.
On June 10, 2005, a jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts against Noriega. In California, anyone found guilty of multiple murders is eligible for a special circumstances charge that could lead to the death penalty. On November 18, 2005, a jury had deadlocked on the issue, so Noriega was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
References: Erin Carlyle. "Noriega Guilty in 3 Murders: Santa Maria Man Could Face the Death Penalty." Santa Maria Times, June 11, 2005; "James Noriega Receives Life Sentence." Santa Maria Sun, November 16, 2005.
Santa Rosa
Harassment
On November 6, 1993, at the Women's Choice Clinic abortion mill, pro-abortionist Glenn Johnson dumped a bucket of urine where pro-lifers were intending to picket.
Reference: Love Opincar, February 8, 1994 communication with the Life Legal Defense Foundation.
Stockton
Murder (2 counts) and Conspiracy to Commit Murder
Jerry and Elaine Bunyard had been married for three years, and Elaine was ecstatic that she was about a week away from delivering their first child, a little girl, in 1979. She was a nurse's aide in Manteca, and in anticipation of a stay in the maternity ward, she had packed a bag and kept it by the front door.
But Jerry Bunyard wasn't as excited. He was carrying on an adulterous affair with a Tracy woman and thought his wife would "take him for everything he had" if he divorced her, a witness said.
Earlin Popham was a biker-type boyhood friend who had been helping the Bunyards build a home in Patterson. Bunyard approached him and offered him $1,000 to kill his wife.
One afternoon, when Elaine Bunyard was alone in the kitchen, Popham broke an iron skillet on her skull. He then shot her in the head with a shotgun and tried to make the crime look like both a robbery and a suicide.
California law requires special circumstances for a death sentence. They include multiple murder and murder for hire. Murder-for-hire prosecution parameters still were evolving, so Stockton prosecutors chose to go after Bunyard for multiple murder. A jury convicted the totally unrepentant Bunyard of two counts of murder, and he became the first person sent to death row under the state's fetal murder law.
Popham received a sentence of 25 years to life in exchange for his testimony against Bunyard.
Reference: Garth Stapley. "Peterson Charges Mirror '81 Trial: Murray Refrained From Commenting on the Bunyard Case." The Modesto Bee, September 13, 2003.
Assault
In 1990, while a pro-life rescuer blocked a Planned Parenthood abortion mill entrance, a mother escorting her daughter grabbed a sign from the rescuer and hit him with it.
Reference: Law offices of Cyrus Zal, November 7, 1994 personal communication with Lynn K. Murphy, Life Research Institute.
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