Bristol
Unlicensed Abortion Mill and Contempt of Court (5 incidents)
In July 1999 and April 2000, Davidson County Chancellor Irvin H. Kilcrease Jr. ordered two East Tennessee abortionists, Gary C. Boyle and Wesley F. Adams, and their businesses not to operate The Women's Center abortion mill without a certificate of need and a license.
In December 2000, Kilcrease found Boyle and Adams, of Bristol, a third abortionist, Angus M. Crook of Nashville, and several other defendants in contempt of his orders.
On March 15, 2001, Kilcrease fined the defendants nearly $60,000 for having operated the abortion mill without the required licensing.
References: Kathy Carlson. "State Urges Fines for Abortion Clinic." The Tennessean, March 4, 2001; "Tennessee Abortion Facility Fined for Having No License." The Tennessean, March 16, 2001; Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, March 18, 2001.
Chattanooga
Grossly Botched Abortions (4 incidents)
Abortionist Ralph Robinson grossly botched a number of abortions, including the April 1992 incident at the Summit Medical Center abortion mill when he suctioned Stacey Wade's right ureter right out of her body.
On March 2, 1991, Robinson performed an abortion on Rhonda L. Bradford the Chattanooga Women's Clinic abortion mill. He appeared rushed and began the abortion immediately upon entering the room, giving Bradford no time to ask any questions. She screamed in pain and was rushed to Erlanger Hospital for emergency surgery to repair potentially fatal damage, to include a ruptured uterus, lacerated intestines, and massive bleeding. Surgeons removed the scalped head of a preborn baby from her abdominal cavity, and she was hospitalized for a week. The abortion mill's records were falsified to show that Bradford was in "good condition after the recovery" when in fact her life was in danger. Robinson did not maintain privileges at any hospital in the county, and did not contact the doctor treating Rhonda's complications to provide information or assistance. Robinson was found judgment-proof due to his lack of malpractice insurance and the transfer of any substantial assets out of his name.
Missouri Medical Board records indicate that Robinson was licensed with restrictions in 1988. The Ohio Medical Board suspended his license in 1989, and the Kentucky Medical Board placed restrictions on his license in 1988. The Kentucky Medical Board denied his request to terminate his probation on August 14, 1990, following a November 9, 1987 complaint. He had a restriction on prescribing Schedule II or Schedule III drugs. Washington, DC disciplined him in 1990 for filing a document he knew or should have known was false or misleading. He voluntarily surrendered his California medical license in 1991 after charges were brought against him for frequently prescribing, dispensing, or administering controlled substances for undiagnosed pain, for prolonged periods of time and in appropriate combinations. He was disciplined in 1991 in Virginia due to disciplinary actions in other states.
References: California Medical Board #D-4277; The Birmingham News, October 15, 1992; Jefferson County Circuit Court Case #CV84460; Alabama Supreme Court #85-1055; United States District Court, Eastern Tennessee District, Southern Division Case #CIV-1-90-423; and Hamilton County Circuit Court Docket #91CV-467.
Botched Abortions (6 incidents)
Abortionist Karen J. Smiley has a history of grossly underestimating the ages of the preborn babies she kills. On December 22, 1989, she aborted 17-year-old Tralishia Nicolle Gillespie at the Family Planning Clinic for Reproductive Health abortion mill. Smiley estimated that the preborn child was only at 6 weeks gestation, but she was born critically ill four days later in a hospital corridor. Gillespie's attorney said "She's devastated, obviously. She would never have dreamed of having an abortion had she known it was 26 weeks old."
In a 1990 incident, Robin O. Simmons said that she did not want an abortion if her pregnancy was beyond the first trimester. Smiley told her that her pregnancy was in the first trimester. She consented to an abortion, then suffered severe abdominal pain, and went to a nearby hospital where parts of a dead 15-week preborn child were removed.
Smiley's medical license was suspended on four counts of improperly performed abortions, and he lacked hospital admitting privileges. His Tennessee medical license was subject to emergency suspension in March 1990 for substandard care, incompetence, or negligence, and a restriction was placed on his license in October 1990 for failure to comply with professional rule. He was disciplined by the Tennessee Medical Board in 1991, and required to enter an impaired physician program for drug or alcohol impairment.
References: The Tennessean, March 15, 1990; Today's Tennessean, February 2, 1990; and Associated Press, January 1, 26 and 29, 1990.
Botched Abortions (2 incidents)
An anonymous plaintiff, "Jane Doe," charged that abortionist Ed Perry botched a February 27, 1992 abortion on her by failing to kill her preborn child. She filed a $1.25 million lawsuit against Perry and his Chattanooga Women's Clinic abortion mill.
She testified that "When plaintiff was taken into the room to have the abortion performed, Ed Perry appeared with his shirt unbuttoned, with his chest hair exposed .. While performing the procedure, Ed Perry appeared to be fondling the nurse who was assisting, and made a comment to the plaintiff that "Nothing is better in life than sex and money"."
On October 21, Doe was examined by an obstetrician, who determined that she was still pregnant.
Doe also said that she had to pay $300 up-front for the abortion, and was never given any consent forms to sign.
Abortionist Perry also committed abortions at the Volunteer Medical Clinic abortion mill in Knoxville. In August 1992, a Knox County grand jury indicted him for failing to notify the parents of a 15-year-old girl he aborted who was four months pregnant. The girl's mother filed an $11 million lawsuit against Perry, charging that the abortion was incomplete, leaving her with internal injuries.
References: The Chattanooga Times, October 2, 1992; "Women's Clinic, Doctor Sued Over Botched Abortion." The Abortion Injury Report [American Rights Coalition], May 1993, page 1.
Johnson City
First-Degree Murder (4 counts), First-Degree Rape and First-Degree Robbery
Even by pro-abortion standards, this case is grisly in the extreme, and perfectly illustrates the vile and murderous nature of anti-life thinking.
22-year-old Glenn Isaac Goins confessed to murdering 24-year-old Amanda Wood of Johnson City, who was at least four months pregnant, in January 2004, after police told him they had found her body in the basement of his mother's house. An investigator testified that Goins said "I did it. I killed her."
Goins said he had seen Amanda, watched her a couple of times, and wondered what it would be like to kill her. He said in a statement that "I think it was three days ago at night. I pulled up beside her in my car and said "Hey." She said "Hey." She asked if she could get a ride. I told her to hop in."
Then Goins said she asked him what she could do for him or what he would like. They went to his mother's Johnson City house and had sex, he said. Then Goins told police that he taped Wood's hands in the bathroom. He said she asked him what he was doing, and he told her to be quiet and not worry about it. After having sex a second time, Goins said he took her back to the bedroom and she asked him again what he was doing. Then Goins testified that he said "And I said "I'm going to kill you." She said "Please don't" or something like that, and I smacked her in the face and told her to shut up. She was sitting on the bed, and I took a towel and started choking her with the towel. I kept on choking her until she died."
Goins then told how he stuffed Amanda's body in a sleeping bag and moved her to the basement, and then tried to clean up the scene. Goins then wrapped her body in plastic and duct tape. He also took $20 from her.
Goins said he fell asleep upstairs before waking up and taking his mother's car to Appalachia, Virginia. He said "I never felt bad about what I have done. Whenever I let her in my car, I knew I was going to kill her and nothing would stop me."
Goins was charged with first-degree murder in Amanda's death.
But hers was not the only murder he confessed to.
On January 12, 2004, Goins was indicted in Louisville, Kentucky, on charges of murder, first-degree rape and first-degree robbery in the 1999 slaying of country singer Melissa Januskevicius, 20, of Stevens Point. Goins provided a videotaped statement to Louisville police confessing to Melissa's killing, and to several others in other states, according to a court document.
When questioned about one of his murders, Goins admitted that he "liked killing people." According to police investigators, at no time did Goins show a scrap of remorse for any of his murders.
Reference: "Police: Murder Suspect 'Liked Killing People'." Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, January 15, 2004.
Knoxville
Fatal Botched Abortion and Negligence
Brenda A. Vise was 38 years old. She was six weeks pregnant and did not want another child, and so she visited the Volunteer Women's Medical Clinic abortion mill in Knoxville on September 7, 2001.
Vise died on September 12, 2001, from a massive infection resulting from a ruptured ectopic (tubal) pregnancy.
The malpractice suit filed by Vise's estate in Hamilton County Circuit Court on August 2, 2002, alleged that the abortion mill failed to diagnose her tubal pregnancy. It claims that the abortuary missed several opportunities to diagnose her condition and recommend appropriate medical care.
Plaintiff's attorney Hoyt O. Samples said that "The boyfriend who went with [Vise] said they (the abortion facility) did the ultrasound and ... said, "we don't see any fetus in the uterus, but that's not unusual. This is an early pregnancy." ... The clinic should have properly performed an ultrasound, and if they had properly performed the ultrasound, they would have realized there was no fetus in the uterus." Combined with a positive pregnancy test, the absence of a baby in the uterus would have provided a near certain signal of a tubal pregnancy, Samples said, "and [the clinic] should have immediately referred her to appropriate medical care. ... The clinic never discussed the possibility of a tubal ectopic pregnancy at all, but that is a classic sign of [a] need to look further. Instead, They went ahead and gave her the first pill, the RU-486 pill," Mifeprex.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that women with tubal pregnancies should not take RU-486.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says that the drug combination will not abort a tubal pregnancy, which must be treated by medical therapy or surgery to prevent rupture. ACOG states in its guideline pamphlet for obstetricians and gynecologists that ectopic pregnancy is a "major health problem for women" and, in the United States, is the leading cause of pregnancy-related death during the first trimester.
After Vise was prescribed the abortion drug Mifeprex on September 7, 2001 and returned home, she began to experience severe pain and bleeding, which worsened over several days. She placed "multiple" calls to the abortion mill as her condition worsened but was advised that her symptoms were normal and routine."
Samples said "Then when the symptoms got really bad, they said, "well, bring her to Knoxville [where the clinic is located], don't take her to a place in Chattanooga [where Vise lived], because they don't know anything about these drugs there. All that's in contravention of the protocols from the manufacturer and FDA."
Two abortionists, Edgar E. Perry and Richard O. Manning, are also named in the lawsuit, because, according to the complaint, they "are responsible for attending to the medical needs of the clinic's patients and ensuring that appropriate care and advice are made available to the clinic's patients."
The suit against the Volunteer Women's Medical Clinic abortion business is seeking $5 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages "to deter defendants from further acts of gross or wanton negligence."
As always, the pro-abortionists ignored the dead woman and the grief of her family, and rallied to the defense of the abortion procedure.
Dr. Beverly Winikoff, director of reproductive health for the Population Council, the pro-abortion group that spearheaded the effort to gain FDA approval of RU-486, claims she knows of no problems experienced by abortion practitioners in diagnosing ectopic pregnancies before administering RU-486.
Winikoff estimates that about 100,000 American women have used Mifepristone so far, and since ectopic pregnancies account for one to two percent of all pregnancies, "in theory you would say that would be between 100 and 200 ectopics" among women seeking chemical abortions. "So all the others were either caught or dealt with properly," she said.
"You can see that not much is going wrong because you would expect 100 to 200 such cases that came from Mifepristone, and you haven't heard of 100 to 200 disasters; you've heard of one," said Winikoff.
References: "Lawsuit Alleges Medical Malpractice in RU-486-Related Death." Cybercast News Service, September 3, 2002; Steve Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, September 4, 2002.
Filthy Abortion Mill
The East Tennessee Women's Clinic abortion mill in Knoxville was shut down by state health authorities after an investigation found filthy toilet facilities needing repair, a receptionist assisting between patients, a receptionist bringing dirty supplies to instrument room and bringing out clean supplies with the same gloves still on, medical records stored in upstairs closet with no filing or retrieval system, no evidence of physical examination prior to abortion procedures, alcohol-soaked sponges stored in a plastic ice cream container, intravenous needles and packages of curettage tips found on the floor in a box containing dead bugs, a brownish-red residue [probably human blood] on the floor of the first treatment room, dirt on the floors of the waiting room and the second treatment room, an instrument cleaning room floor described as "blackened," cobwebs and dead insects on the floor of the recovery room, no soap or towels in lavatories, no paper towels in the treatment room, beds in the recovery room with soiled sheets and blankets, two beds in the recovery room unmade, with large reddish-brown stains on their mattresses, a microwave oven in the kitchen area which contained "a fast-food bag which emitted a foul odor and contained a gray and green, fur-covered object," an instrument cleaning room containing blood-stained rubber gloves, two blackened sponges, a dozen suction curettage tips behind the faucet, a vaginal speculum that shed pieces of brownish-red tissue when handled, and two open boxes of needles.
A news report stated that inspectors found on a Friday individually bagged abortion tissue specimens from the previous Monday "in a garbage bag sitting on boxes of formaldehyde," and the state's report said that "functions cannot be and were not adequately performed with part-time nurses hired from a personnel pool and directed by an out-of state physician available one day each week."
The abortion mill also failed to carry the required $2 million malpractice insurance.
References: Knoxville News-Sentinel, February 17, 1985 and May 27, 1987; Associated Press, September 19, 1989.
Memphis
Murder and Manslaughter
On January 22, 1999, the 26th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, pro-abortionist Eric Laquinne Brown of Pontotoc, Mississippi strangled to death his pregnant ex-girlfriend Shorlonda Moore and left the bodies of Moore and her preborn child in a burned-out car in Memphis, Tennessee.
On November 29, 1999, Brown received a life sentence for the murder of Moore and a concurrent 20-year manslaughter sentence for the killing of her preborn child after pleading guilty to the charges.
Assistant District Attorney Clay Joyner told the Associated Press that Brown killed Moore "primarily because she was pregnant and was causing him problems, demanding child support."
Reference: Liz Townsend. "Prosecutors Across the Country File Charges in Unborn Babies' Deaths." National Right to Life News, December 1999.
Death Threat
During an April 10, 1993 rescue mission at the Memphis Area Medical Center for Women abortion mill, the clinic owner showed up for work and threatened to run over the rescuers with her car. The police restrained her while she screamed that the rescuers were the terrorists.
Reference: Michael Donato. "First Memphis Rescue." Life Advocate, July 1993, page 29.
Botched Abortions (8 incidents)
John D. Peeples, Jr., a plastic surgeon and abortionist, botched at least eight abortions in a relatively short period of time at his "Planned Motherhood" abortion mill and other locations.
References: Memphis Circuit Court Cases #11659TD, #12774TD, #09893TD, #11373TD, #02439TD, and #08238TD; Shelby County Circuit Court Cases #19684 and #11077TD.
Monterey
Murder
According to police investigators, pro-abort Byron Looper, a county property assessor running against pro-life state Senator Tommy Burks, shot Burks to death near a pumpkin patch where he planned that day to bring schoolchildren on a hayride. Burks' body was found in his truck. He had been shot once near his left eye. Looper disappeared, but turned up several days later and was arrested. In the preliminary hearing in November 1998, Joe Bond, a childhood friend of Looper's, who is now a Marine recruiter in Arkansas, testified for the state. He said Looper came to him asking for help in obtaining a gun before the murder and said Looper talked to him about killing Senator Burks, against whom Looper was running for the State Senate, and asked him to provide him an alibi. The Marine also said Looper told him after the murder that "I did it, man, I did it! I killed that dude." Burks, a strong pro-life advocate, fought for the rights of crime victims and farmers during a 28-year career in the Legislature. The conservative Democrat served four terms in the House before he was elected to the Senate in 1978. He fought against abortion during his entire tenure. A producer for "The Daily Show" on cable television's Comedy Central network said that Looper made derogatory remarks about Burks during an interview three weeks before the killing. The interview was not used due to the murder.
We must ask ourselves about the media coverage of this incident. If Burks been a pro-abortionist, and Looper a prolifer, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would have convened a special task force to investigate and search diligently for a conspiracy. All of the major networks would have given extensive coverage to the killing, which they would have characterized as yet another example of anti-abortion violence. Pro-aborts would have held emotional and weepy vigils all around the nation, and would have sniveled about how nobody who is 'pro-choice' is safe from violent 'anti-choicers.' But because the victim was pro-life and the murderer was pro-abortion, it simply was not important, and was not news.
References: "Pro-Life Democrat State Senator Killed in Shooting." Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, October 23, 1998; The Tennessean, October 27, 1998; Mary Jo Denton. "Looper Enters Not Guilty Plea." Tennessee Herald-Citizen, February 6, 1999; Mary Jo Denton. "Looper Quoted: "I Killed that Dude"." Tennessee Herald-Citizen, November 24, 1998; Court TV's Crime Library at http://www.crimelibrary.com has a complete 17-part series on Looper's murder of Burks.
Morristown
Murder
Raymond Gregg's live-in girlfriend, Angela Russell, was pregnant, and he was not happy about it. So he solved his 'problem' in the most direct manner possible.
He admitted to police that he killed Angela, and then buried her body in woods off Statem Gap Road in Hamblen County. On October 6, 2003, Gregg pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Morristown Criminal Court. He was given the maximum possible sentence, 25 years in prison without parole.
Police wanted to charge him with two counts of murder but felt they could not prove the victim's unborn child was ever alive. "Our pathologist was of the opinion that he could not state with certainty whether or not it was a viable fetus at the time," said District Attorney general Berkley Bell.
References: "Man Pleads Guilty to Murder Charge." WVLT-8 Television [Knoxville, Tennessee], October 12, 2003.
Nashville
First-Degree Murder (2 counts)
Christopher Clinard's girlfriend, Tia Vinson, was just two weeks away from delivering a healthy baby, but she wanted to end their relationship. According to Lieutenant Williams Watkins of the Springfield Police Department, "He became angry and upset because he told her that if he couldn't have her, no one else could, that he wasn't going to see another man raise his child."
So, on February 20, 2005, Clinard repeatedly stabbed Tia until she and her preborn baby died.
Clinard was charged with criminal homicide the next day. In May 2005, a Robertson County grand jury indicted him on two counts of first-degree murder.
References: "Man Charged With Pregnant Girlfriend's Murder." WTVF News 5 Television [Nashville, Tennessee], February 21, 2005; "Middle Tennessee Man Indicted For Murder Of His Pregnant Girlfriend." WTVF News 5 Television [Nashville, Tennessee], May 5, 2005.
Murder (2 counts) and Vandalism
At about 4 in the morning of January 5, 2004, Antonio Dejesus Idelfonso and Eliseo Marcelino-Quintero were driving their pickup truck past a woman walking on the road when she fell down next to them. They stopped to see if they had hit her.
32-year-old Tracy Owen, who was so heavily pregnant she might have even been in labor at the time, was lying on the road, crying for help. Idelfonso told police that he responded, "Here's your help," and shot her five times in the upper body. One of the bullets struck her preborn child.
Metro police detective Robert Swisher said "In my 22 years on the job, I have never seen anyone executed, and I mean executed, because someone thought they had hit the person with a vehicle. It sickens me."
Idelfonso and Marcelino-Quintero said that they killed Tracy because they thought they had struck her with their pickup truck and feared they would get in trouble.
Tennessee is one of 28 states which permit prosecutors to pursue a murder charge when a preborn child is killed. A deputy district attorney, Tom Thurman, told the Tennessean newspaper that the state's law applies to any fetus that is able to live outside the mother's womb. A medical examiner will have to determine whether Owen's baby was viable.
Tracy's brother, David Owen, said "She had a great attitude and was always smiling. She just loved everybody."
Although Marcelino-Quintero did not pull the trigger, he was charged with murder because he was the driver of the pickup, had knowledge of the shooting, and cleaned the murder weapon and placed it at his ex-girlfriend's apartment on Thompson Place, Swisher said.
Before the killing, Idelfonso and Marcelino-Quintero had been shooting at cars in the parking lot of Berkeley Ridge Apartments on Plus Park Boulevard, about a block from their apartment.
Investigators arrested them after a witness told police he had seen them shooting at cars and recognized them. Police then went to their apartment, where a roommate told them they had said they had hit a woman with their pickup and then shot her.
References: Holly Edwards. "Shooter May Have Killed Fetus, Too." The Tennessean, January 7, 2004; "Tennessee Case Focuses on Violence Against Pregnant Women." Steven Ertelt's LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report, January 9, 2004.
Murder, Kidnapping, Robbery and Burglary
Drifter Marshall Wayne Frey was dating Adrienne Anne Smiddy, who was near-term pregnant. One day in June 2005, she decided to break off their relationship. In response, Frey took her to a secluded area in South Nashville and beat her to death with a large rock, then left her body in a shallow grave. He later confessed to murdering her and led detectives to her body.
On July 13, 2005, detectives discovered Adrienne's decomposing body in wooded land near Whites Creek Pike. A medical examiner determined that she had been about eight months pregnant.
On September 28, Frey, who also used the name Steven Phillips, was charged with criminal homicide in Adrienne's death. He was also wanted in Nashville on burglary, robbery and kidnapping charges.
References: "Police Identify Body of Pregnant Woman." The Tennessean, August 13, 2005; "Suspect Leads Police To Area Where He Says He Dumped Murder Victim." NewsChannel5.com, September 28, 2005; "Man Charged with Killing Pregnant Woman." WSMV Television 4 News [Nashville, Tennessee], September 29, 2005.
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