Pro-life blog buzz 3-28-14
by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.
- ProWomanProLife recommends a blog post by pro-lifer Matt Walsh entitled, “I paid to have babies murdered and all I got was this coat hanger necklace?” Walsh writes:
Sure, we’d like to give to every worthy charity and needy neighbor, but alas our resources are finite. So… [d]o we concentrate on nurturing, sheltering, clothing, protecting, blessing, and loving our fellow human beings? Or do we negate the need for such things by opting to fund the extermination of the very sorts of humans that might end up requiring our charity, should they be permitted to exist in the first place? Do we feed them, treating them like hungry friends, or do we fumigate, treating them like swarming cockroaches?If the ease and efficiency of the latter option appeal to you, The DC Abortion Fund is here to help….
[They like] to keep it classy. That’s why they offer a gift to anyone who chooses to donate to their organization: A coat hanger pendant….
I’m not sure what they were going for, but to me it symbolizes the myth of the “safe” abortion. We pretend that the clinics provide a less hazardous experience than back alleys and coat hangers, but it’s all a charade. A show. A merciless ploy, and women are the victims.
“Safe” abortions have killed at least 400 women…. A peer reviewed study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that women who’ve had abortions suffer from an 81 percent higher risk of mental health problems. Worst of all, the suicide rate among these women is tragic and startling.
Safe? Safe for who, exactly? Safe for the abortionists, I guess.
- Pro-Life New Mexico discusses how pro-life activist Bud Shaver and Protest ABQ appear to have the UNM Center for Reproductive Health on the run. Apparently, their persistent witness has had an impact:
Well, lo and behold, the baby killers on 1701 Moon CLOSED their doors this past week, and a source said that it was because of Bud’s daily visits in front of their facility. They decided to relocate to an office park near the airport, but Protest ABQ has made several visits to the location and have notified other businesses in the area about their new neighbor. Bud Shaver along with others now make a daily visit to this site.
- Real Choice posts a disturbing video from Operation Rescue, detailing an ambulance call for a patient not breathing following an abortion at a Cleveland facility. The video shows no resuscitation attempts by medical personnel as they are wheeling her out to the ambulance.
- Pro-Life Wisconsin posts audio of an ambulance call for a “safe” and legal abortion at a Madison, Wisconsin Planned Parenthood which perforated a patient’s uterus. The PP caller requested that an ambulance come without lights and sirens.
- At Pro-Life Action League, Eric Scheidler posts about the group’s activities outside the Supreme Court in support of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga this week. Scheidler also shares links to several interviews he gave to news outlets.
- At Reproductive Research Audit, Dr. Jacqueline Harvey has an interesting and timely article on the Hobby Lobby case:
Reproductive Research Audit (RRA) recently submitted this amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby for which oral arguments begin today. It is often glossed-over in the media that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood provide coverage for 16 out of 20 forms of prescription contraceptives, and object to merely drugs and devices that they believe cause early abortions (one of which, Plan B, is available over-the-counter). Prior research at RRA had determined that these methods are actually among the least-popular, which lead us to determine how many women are truly affected by the plaintiff’s moral objection to abortion.How many women? Harvey says it’s about 330.
- Priests for Life posts a stirring video of Fr. Frank Pavone speaking about the HHS mandate from the steps of the Supreme Court:
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Real Choice posts a disturbing video from Operation Rescue, detailing an ambulance call for a patient not breathing following an abortion at a Cleveland facility.
Real Choice adds: Since three staff followed — believed to be a nurse, a doctor, and the office manager — this seems to indicate attempts to retain control of a living patient. The office manager alone would suffice to do damage control for a dead patient.
I guess no one has told Real Choice that the story she is supposed to be sticking to is that women who have complications from abortion cannot possibly get adequate care unless the physician who performed the abortion can personally admit her to the hospital and continue to treat her there.
LisaC,
What will happen is this woman will get ER care from the ER doctor who will likely have to call the OB/GYN and surgeon on call. Now this isn’t unusual but it would be nice if the OB/GYN and surgeon on call weren’t having someone else’s complications dumped on him/her to take care of. I have seen this happen and generally doctors are not very pleased with this situation. I recall heated words being exchanged in one situation.
If the abortionist had admitting privileges, he/she would be qualified to do follow up care, which means he/she can’t be someone just making a few extra bucks on the side. The abortionist would have to be a licensed physician meeting all the credentialing criteria of the hospital, and yes, have privileges to take his patient to surgery if necessary or at least be able to admit her under his care.
Certainly you would consider it only good patient care and safety, as well as ethical practice, that the abortionist follows through with the care of his patient, is responsible for correcting any mistakes or complications, or at least has a partner or an agreement with another physician to do so. Of course the abortionist, like any physician, will be kept informed on his patient’s care and follow up, as is any physician.
Hi Mary,
So the abortionist kills the baby and injures the woman and then does what exactly?
Does the abortionist speak with the ER doctor?
Hi Carla,
If the abortionist doesn’t have admitting privileges or arrangements with another physician, there’s little more he can do than speak with the ER doctor, or the physician(s) called in. It would be very helpful to have some information and background on the patient, and to know exactly what happened. Contrary to TV medical dramas, ER staff cannot always make instant assessments and diagnoses. Valuable time can be lost as we try to determine exactly what is going on so all information that can be provided is essential. We saw this with the Morbelli case as ER staff tried to reach Carhart. Their only source of information in that case was a distraught family and critically ill patient.
Abortion advocates seem blissfully ignorant of basic good medical practice, patient safety, and ethics when they trivialize the importance of, and oppose, admitting privileges requirements. Hey, there’s the ER, right? The woman will get the help she needs. More likely someone’s mistakes and complications will be dumped on someone else to hopefully fix.
And sometimes it is too late to fix.
:(
Hi Carla,
And in a couple of cases we know of very sadly it was too late to fix.
So at issue is an abortionist having admitting privileges at a hospital.
What does that mean exactly? Does it make a difference in the life or death of the woman?
Texas is wanting compliance and mills are shutting down because the abortionists cannot get those privileges.
Hi Carla,
To have admitting privileges the abortionist will have to meet and maintain certain criteria. This includes credentialing as an GYN, GP, or surgeon. Credentialing involves maintaining your licensing, continuing education, peer review, etc. Some hospitals may require that you actually use their facilities for a designated amount of time or for a certain amount of cases. This makes sense as credentialing involves time and expense on their part and if you’re not going to be there or seldom are, its hardly worth their time and effort. While abortionists may snivel and whine that they’re being picked on, my free lance privileges have been suspended because I didn’t work at a facility enough. Its not personal.
Does it make a difference in the life or death of a woman? IMO it can.
If this abortionist has admitting privileges and a patient needs emergency care. The patient goes to the ER. The ER doctor speaks directly with the abortionist concerning the patient. The abortionist can see the patient in the ER. If the patient needs only admission and non surgical care he can take care of her. He can take the patient to surgery or make arrangements with a surgeon to do so. If another doctor has to be called in the abortionist is there to provide information. He is involved with his patient throughout the hospitalization. He is responsible for his patient. He is involved in her follow up care.
This is a far cry from a patient like Jennifer being dumped on ER staff who have to determine what has happened, the various possibilities of what is going wrong, a failing patient they are struggling to keep alive, frantically trying to call Carhart, and only a distraught family to provide information. As a former ER nurse I can only speculate on what happened, but know what a nightmare it must have been. I also know the devastation of the ER staff realizing the situation is hopeless.
If the Texas abortionists can’t get privileges there’s a very good reason why. Hospitals don’t dispense privileges like candy. Also, it isn’t personal. For whatever reason criteria is not being met.
Hi Carla,
In fact we had a situation like this a few years ago. The OB/GYN on call was called to the ER for a post abortive woman who was running a very high fever. She was taken to surgery, a D&C was performed, she was given IV antibiotics and discharged the next day.
The abortionist worked at a nearby city and our very incensed OB called him and informed him of his patient’s complications. Whether than being concerned, the abortionist just made some comment about “you prolifers”.
Our OB shot back that the issue here was an injured woman, not anyone’s politics, and the OB thought that maybe, just maybe the abortionist would want to know this. Also, this was the second such patient the OB and his partner have treated because of this abortionist. The OB was enraged over the indifference of the abortionist to the fact that he was injuring women. I still remember him storming around the OR.
Anyway Carla, this is an example of how the abortionist’s mistakes are dumped on other doctors to take care of and the abortionist is not held accountable for much of anything, unless the patient or her family sue. The abortionist is usually well aware that the woman will keep silent. As it was this woman’s mother had no idea what was wrong with her daughter and given patient confidentiality, the OB could not tell her. So long as the woman was legally competent, what she told her mother was her business.
Good Lord Mary.
I assumed that women who are taken to the ER by ambulance FROM a mill rarely had the care they needed at the mill. The waiting for hours, the hemming and hawing while she bleeds, the struggle to breathe and the 911 calls I have listened to with employees just sighing through it. The “don’t turn on your lights or sirens” direction.
But they “care” about women.
So basically if there are no admitting privileges for the abortionist there is no follow up. They don’t care. The woman is in other hands and maybe she lives and maybe she dies.
I can imagine prolife ER doctors must be disgusted at what the bottom feeders have done to women.
Hi Carla,
A lot of factors there. Is the woman having an allergic reaction to medications? Has she been overdosed by unqualified personnel? Has she been properly monitored? Then of course there are the complications of abortion itself.
The situation of the DS woman named Kristen who died because of Tiller sounds to me like she was in septic shock, a massive systemic infection, loss of blood pressure and organ failure. They were trying to resuscitate her yet told 911 they only needed “transport” when in fact they needed a paramedic unit ASAP. To deliberately give false info to 911 is beyond appalling. Schoolchildren, and even family pets, have exercised better judgment!
I understand the EMTs had to push the Tiller staff out of the way since they were so incompetent at the CPR. I believe Carhart was running the show. Now the DS woman would be rushed to the ER where she died, again the ER staff and doctors having someone’s mistakes dumped on them to fix. Unfortunately they couldn’t.
Any follow up will be done by the doctor the woman ends up with. Had Kristen lived she likely would have been under the care of specialists, like an intensivist and OB/Gyn. Without privileges the abortionist cannot administer any kind of care in the hospital or access patient records or even see the patient if she is not legally competent, i.e. she is unconscious or mentally challenged. Also he could not be kept informed of her condition. To visit a co worker’s minor daughter who was in the ICU, I and the ICU staff had to have my co worker’s permission. HIPPA rules are very strict. He may be asked concerning what happened to the patient and for what info he can provide, but that would be about it.
I should mention that if the patient or family wanted to share info with the abortionist that would be their decision. As a hospital staff member I absolutely would not. Nothing strikes terror in the souls of hospital personnel like the words “HIPPA violation”.
What will happen is this woman will get ER care from the ER doctor who will likely have to call the OB/GYN and surgeon on call.
Well, that will depend on what caused the respiratory arrest. Presumably you know better than I that the most likely instigator was not the abortion procedure, but the anesthesia. It may or may not take an ER physician plus an OB/GYN plus a surgeon to address the issue. Nor is that a complication unique to abortion procedures.
Now this isn’t unusual but it would be nice if the OB/GYN and surgeon on call weren’t having someone else’s complications dumped on him/her to take care of.
You appear to have misunderstood Real Choice’s post. She thinks the physician’s accompanying the patient to the ER was sinister rather than responsible.
Certainly you would consider it only good patient care and safety, as well as ethical practice, that the abortionist follows through with the care of his patient, is responsible for correcting any mistakes or complications, or at least has a partner or an agreement with another physician to do so.
I think that what is good patient care is best determined by appropriate professional organizations, rather than by anecdote. Because, not to put too fine a point on it, pro-life testimony is on the subject tends to be less than accurate. For example, Wisconsin has seen false testimony regarding whether Catholic hospitals will grant admitting privileges to competent abortion providers (Dr. Matthew Lee, who sits on the credentialing committee at a Catholic hospital, submitted an affidavit claiming that they would, only to be contradicted by his employer). West Virginia’s go-to doctor for pro-lifers feigning concern for women, Dr. Byron Calhoun, asserts that he personally sees women presenting at his hospital with complications from abortion “weekly;” however, his hospital has no records of these patients and Dr. Calhoun has never reported an abortion provider to the state’s Board of Medicine, as he is legally required to do in cases of medical incompetence. (Links not provided to avoid the post being filtered as spam, but you can google both doctors.)
While abortionists may snivel and whine that they’re being picked on, my free lance privileges have been suspended because I didn’t work at a facility enough. Its not personal.
Possibly what you do is not parallel to having admitting privileges, because restrictions on abortion providers are more certainly targeted toward abortion providers exclusively. For example, Texas does not require any outpatient procedure other than abortion to be done in a surgical center by a physician with admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.
I don’t know the details of either Mrs. Morbelli’s death or that of Kristen Gilbert, but I do know that not every complication is medical error, and not every medical error is malpractice. I also believe that patients and families are in a better position to judge the doctor’s behavior than are pro-lifers dancing on the graves of the women whose deaths they so gleefully trumpet using information that is at best second-hand.
No one is saying that doctors should have to grant admitting privileges to incompetent doctors, but no pro-lifers are saying that admitting privileges should be extended to competent doctors. Witness Ohio, which both requires abortion providers to have transfer agreements with hospitals and forbids public hospitals to have transfer agreements with abortion providers. Why would Ohio’s prolifers specifically try to prevent something that they claim is necessary for women’s safety? Because they don’t care. They merely think of admitting privileges as a useful tactic in blocking access to abortion.
Don’t feed the pro-abort troll. “Pro-lifers dancing on the graves of the women whose deaths they so gleefully trumpet” should be enough said. Don’t take the bait. Total waste of time. “Nuf said”. Otherwise please carry on.
Hi Carla and Mary how are you? Good posts btw. Actually Mary I did see a couple of post abortive complication cases, not pretty. I was not directly involved with their care but saw what you are talking about. God bless you for passing on information about the medical side of these cases. I am sure you like myself never “danced on any women’s grave” or “gleefully trumpeted” the severe harm done to these women because they were post-abortive. Love and blessing to all pro-lifers. We celebrate LIFE.
LisaC,
1. I listed possibilities, I did not say definitely what happened. If the patient has to be taken to the ER then the ER physician will have to see her and administer emergency life saving care. Or if it is an abortion complication an OB/GYN and/or surgeon will likely have to be called in to take the patient to surgery. Put simply, the abortionists mistakes are being dumped on someone else.
Also you should question who is administering anesthesia, monitoring the patient, and if someone is qualified to administer emergency care in the abortion clinic.
2. The abortionist accompanying the patient is fine, but any usefulness will abruptly end once he speaks to the ER doc. Without admitting privileges he can administer NO care and cannot access her records from that point on, or for that matter even see the patient without the permission of her or her family.
3. I am not discussing “PL anecdotes”. I’m telling you what it is like in the real world. The largest Catholic hospital in my city had doctors on staff who did abortions, though of course not at the hospital. They also delivered babies, took emergency call, and performed GYN surgery. No one blocked their credentialing.
Again, what kind of credentialing is the abortionist looking for, what are his qualifications, exactly what procedures is he able to perform? For instance, Tiller was a GP, not credentialed in GYN surgery from what I could find. I can tell you right now no hospital would ever credential him to manage abortion complications or to perform his horrendous procedures if he can’t manage complications.
I can’t speak for Dr. Calhoun who I have never heard of, but if he is making these claims, substantiating them may not be easy. Patient confidentiality is fiercely guarded under penalty of law and as a hospital employee even I can’t look through records in an effort to prove something. If you asked me for records I would also be unable to provide them. The fact he doesn’t report the abortion provider, again doesn’t prove anything. The women, out of fear of exposure, may not be telling him who the providers are. Again, I don’t know enough about him to comment. I can only give you some possible scenarios.
4. Its possible Texas doesn’t require this of non abortion providers because it isn’t a problem. Physicians staffing outpatient surgery centers will also have hospital privileges for their more complicated surgeries or sicker patients. They also have to concern themselves with liability. For instance, if an ortho doctor does knee arthroscopies at an OP facility, he will still have to see and assess his patient ahead of time, the patient doesn’t walk in off the street. He will be responsible for follow up care. If his patient goes to the ER a week later for complications, he or an associate will be notified and follow through. We have a large number of OP surgery centers, these include eye, general, plastic, ortho. All physicians have admitting privileges. They don’t have the luxury of operating, then taking off and leaving their patients to their fate.
I suggest you check the cases of Mrs. Morbelli and Kristen Gilbert. At very least patient abandonment and appalling incompetence. Carhart left Mrs. Morbelli and her family to fend for themselves. They finally took her to the ER after unsuccessful attempts to reach him where she died a few hours later. When Kristen was being given CRP, the clinic staffer’s only concern that there be no lights or sirens, not the dying patient in the next room. She wouldn’t even give accurate information to the 911 operator.
You were saying something about dancing on the graves of women?
Hi PLL,
Always great to see you here and thank you for the kind words. It is greatly appreciated.
Speaking of credentialing, I have to go tonite and finish my ACLS certification. Be glad when that’s done!