From lohud.com yesterday:

A New Rochelle woman died of complications from a late-term abortion at a Maryland clinic, authorities confirmed Wednesday.

Jennifer Morbelli, 29, a schoolteacher in White Plains, bled to death after amniotic fluid in her womb spilled into her bloodstream, said Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Medical Examiner’s Office.

She was “left with the inability to clot blood to stop bleeding,” Goldfarb said.

More details from Newsday:

The chief medical examiner’s office in Baltimore lists “amniotic fluid embolism following termination of pregnancy” as one of two causes of death for Jennifer McKenna Morbelli….

The second is “disseminated intravascular coagulation,” a condition that occurs when small blood clots form in the blood vessels, according to Morbelli’s death certificate. Eventually, the proteins needed for clotting can become depleted, which can lead to extensive bleeding throughout the body.

In short, what an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) is, from Wiki, with my notes in brackets:

It is mostly agreed that this condition results from amniotic fluid entering the uterine veins and in order for this to occur there are three prerequisites:

• Ruptured membranes [i.e., ruptured amniotic fluid or broken bag of waters]
• Ruptured uterine or cervical veins [latter can be due to cervical laceration]
• A pressure gradient from uterus to vein [direction of blood flow outward to mother’s body]

DIC, which was Morbelli’s secondary diagnosis, frequently accompanies amniotic fluid embolism, and it is a terrible thing – very difficult to treat. I’ve seen it. From Merriam-Webster:

Uncontrolled systemic coagulation resulting in thrombosis [clots] which in acute cases typically leads to generalized bleeding [hemorrhage] due to depletion of clotting factors and increased fibrinolysis.

… uncontrolled blood clotting leading to uncontrolled bleeding.

Yesterday the Washington Post tried to minimize abortion’s part in Morbelli’s death, basically saying it could happen to any pregnant mother:

The complication, which occurred when amniotic fluid was pushed into the woman’s bloodstream, can occur during or after abortions, natural deliveries or Caesarean sections.

This isn’t true. According to Medscape, WebMD’s resource for physicians, in a “Medicolegal Pitfalls” piece:

Failure to consider the diagnosis during legal abortion is a pitfall. A review of the literature indicates that most case reports of AFE have occurred during late second-trimester abortions.

Warren Hern, one of four late-term abortionists, along with Morbelli’s abortionist LeRoy Carhart, featured in the pro-abortion documentary After Tiller (pictured together right) agrees:

… amniotic fluid embolism is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in late abortion….

Hern wrote that in an article published in Gynecology and Obstetrics.

Back to Medscape:

Failure to respond emergently is a pitfall. AFE is a clinical diagnosis. Steps must be taken to stabilize the patient as soon as symptoms manifest.

At 33 weeks’ gestation Morbelli was only three to four weeks from being considered full-term. Had she delivered her baby in a hospital, she would still have been in the hospital 16 hours later. Signs and symptoms of trouble would have been picked up much before the situation erupted into an emergency.

Furthermore, there was no physician on hand to provide contiguous care to Morbelli. Carhart sent Morbelli back to her hotel room and left the state right after the abortion. And he left no doctor on call who knew Morbelli’s history. Precious hours elapsed due to Carhart’s negligence.

[Top photo via lohud.com]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• The Crescat discusses her abortion experience:
  The glass container was half full and splattered with blood. Even the tube that fed into the container was crusted with blood….

  All those graphic photos you’ve ever seen of tiny dismembered arms and legs are accurate. Only this wasn’t just one set of tiny arms and legs… this looked like all the babies that had been aborted that day. All together in one glass container….

  They hadn’t even bothered to clean the equipment between patients and I suddenly realized they had every intention of using the same filthy equipment on me.

• Businessweek profiles Michigan abortion clinic owner Rene Chelian (pictured left). While the article seems to try to sympathetically paint Chelian as a victim of the pro-life movement, some facts could prevent most readers from seeing Chelian as a poor abortion provider – namely, her 6500 square foot home, 2-karat diamond ring (which she removes when she goes to Lansing to lobby), and the $200,000+ she and her husband are paid by the clinic.
• The AP has a long article on the abortion debate 40 years after Roe:
  Of the roughly 1.2 million U.S. women who have abortions each year, half are 25 or older, about 18 percent are teens, and the rest are 20-24. About 60 percent have given birth to least one child prior to getting an abortion. A disproportionately high number are black or Hispanic; and regardless of race, high abortion rates are linked to economic hard times.
• ABC has an article on the documentary film, After Tiller (clip below), which follows four abortionists (Warren Hern, LeRoy Carhart, Susan Robinson and Shelley Sella) who commit late-term abortions. Robinson notes that many of the 3rd trimester abortions are performed for completely elective reasons on women who didn’t know they were pregnant:
  Then there’s the group of women who didn’t know they were pregnant…. They were told they were not pregnant for one reason or another and they are just as desperate. ‘I already have three children, my husband just lost his job and I can barely put food on the table. If I add a new baby to this family, we’ll all go under.'”

[Chelian photo via Businessweek]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• The Washington Post has a long article on late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart and his abortion business in Maryland.
• Gallup has a new poll out on abortion restrictions. The public widely favors informed consent, parental consent, 24-hour waiting periods and bans on partial-birth abortion. They weren’t as open to ultrasound legislation, conscience protections for health care providers and defunding abortion providers (though the framing of the last two questions really could change how people respond).

  Respondents also overwhelmingly favored banning abortion in the 2nd trimester. 71% thought 2nd trimester abortions should be illegal. 86% thought 3rd trimester abortions should be illegal.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN

• Catholic Vote discusses the House’s recent attempt to push the abortion agenda with the Women Veterans Bill of Rights, which would have “enshrined a right to taxpayer funding of abortions, mandatory access to abortionists, and ‘telmed’ abortions in the military” if pro-lifers like Rep. Chris Smith had not “amend[ed] the bill before it passed so that it specifically excluded abortions, abortion counseling, and IVF.”

[Read the rest of this entry…]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest has agreed to pay $345k back to the state of Washington after an audit revealed that Medicaid had overpaid (likely based on overbilling) PP more than half a million dollars over 3 years:The original audit estimated the improper payments at $629,143 over a 3-year period, and PP appealed. The settlement implied no admission of incorrect billing, documentation or payment.

  The findings were based on 333 procedures performed from March 2004 to February 2007.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Young filmmakers Martha Shane and Lana Wilson are planning to make a documentary, “Trust women: The story of two American abortion doctors,” if they raise enough seed money, which it appears they have.
The film’s two subjects will be late-term abortionists LeRoy Carhart and Warren Hern….

The filmmakers describe Carhart and Hern as “inspiring,” “courageous,” and “sacrific[ial],” certainly topic matter for a separate post. (For instance, will what the abortionists actually do to merit all this praise be shown in the film? Doubtful.)
But this weekend’s question goes a little different direction: If you could make a film about two pro-life heroes or heroines, who would they be?
(I asked the question; I can’t be an answer… not that I think of myself as such… but just so you know this isn’t a thinly veiled promotional attempt.)

by JivinJ

by JivinJ

[Read the rest of this entry…]