Few Americans know that there are no federal requirements to report either abortions or complications and injuries due to abortion. In addition, only 28 states report post-abortion complications (because their state laws require it), according to the Guttmacher Institute — and the media further helps to obscure abortion-related injuries. For these reasons, it has been easy for Planned Parenthood to amass long track record of injuring women and then hide the evidence of injuries – even those documented by 911 calls.
Despite the testimony of whistleblowers who have spoken about the injuries inflicted upon women by Planned Parenthood facilities, the corporation continues to receive taxpayer dollars.
Severe injures to women
Live Action News, relying on reporting from Operation Rescue and 911 calls records, has documented instances in which Planned Parenthood staff have disclosed severe injuries of their patients while on the phone with emergency personnel dispatchers. The following are a sample of 911 calls made by Planned Parenthood facilities across the country which provide evidence of Planned Parenthood patient injuries.
Planned Parenthood Flossmoor Health Center (Illinois)
This facility’s staff injured two women two days in a row in May of 2020, as Live Action News previously reported.
On May 7, the facility called a private ambulance which arrived without lights or sirens, suggesting a dangerous cover-up on Planned Parenthood’s part; there are no 911 records available for this call.
On May 8, a staff member called 911 for a woman with a “possible uterine perforation.” Live Action News noted that uterine perforation during an abortion “can lead to hemorrhaging, damage to surrounding organs, hysterectomy, or even death.” Cree Erwin-Sheppard, a 23-year-old woman who had a first trimester abortion at Planned a Parenthood in Kalamazoo, Michigan, died from a post-abortion uterine perforation in 2016.
- Live Action News documented how staff at the Flossmoor, Illinois, Planned Parenthood facility frantically called 911 twice on October 25, 2020, for a 25-year-old woman who was “bleeding out” and needed an ambulance “as soon as possible.” It appears that the woman may have suffered from a botched abortion.
- Another incident at the same facility, reported by Live Action News, took place on May 23, 2023, when a Planned Parenthood staffer called 911, requesting an ambulance for a patient with “post-procedure hemorrhaging.” The staffer added, “Doctor has inserted a catheter, she has, um, added sutures. She’s gonna receive Methergine.”
As Live Action News noted:
The comments about the patient hemorrhaging and needing sutures indicate that the woman potentially had her uterus or another vital organ lacerated or perforated, though no specific details are known at this moment. Operation Rescue also noted that Methergine is often used to treat or prevent excessive bleeding after childbirth… but that a clinical trial testing its usage after an abortion found that it caused more bleeding, not less. A foley catheter is also known to be used stop heavy bleeding; it’s a tactic previously used by the Flossmoor Planned Parenthood facility.
Planned Parenthood Aurora Health Center (Illinois)
- On March 16, 2024, a staffer at this Planned Parenthood facility called 911 for a woman suffering from “heavy bleeding.” Although it isn’t clear what happened to this particular patient, this facility offers abortions through 22 weeks of pregnancy, including D&E abortions. This facility has at least one documented case of critical uterine perforation, and several cases of hemorrhages, according to Operation Rescue and Live Action News.
- During another incident, this Aurora Planned Parenthood facility staff called 911 on December 18, 2021, for a woman with a possible (severe) uterine perforation following a second trimester abortion, and specifically requested an ambulance without its sirens in use from the emergency dispatcher and requested that the ambulance pull up at a side entrance.
- On May 27, 2020, staffers at this same facility called 911 for a woman who was unresponsive after a second-trimester abortion and was bleeding heavily, according to Operation Rescue, which obtained audio of the call and a copy of the incident report. During this call, the Planned Parenthood staffer alluded to other emergency cases, suggesting that medical emergencies are common occurrences at this abortion facility.
Planned Parenthood Charleston Health Center (South Carolina)
According to previous reporting by Live Action News, this facility’s health manager called 911 on March 12, 2021, requesting an ambulance for a woman who possibly had a perforated uterus following an abortion.
“We have a patient here for a surgical procedure. Not sure if her uterus is perforated or not, but she will not stop bleeding,” the manager said.
As Live Action News previously reported, “When [the manager] was asked if the patient was in severe pain, [she] had an unusual reaction: she laughed. ‘Um, probably,’ the manager said, laughing after she added, ‘She just had a procedure.’” This facility was cited in November 2020 “in an inspection for failing to report botched abortions to the state as required; the year before that, the facility staff were found to be using expired syringes.”
Planned Parenthood Walnut Creek Health Center (California)
- In September of 2020, a staffer at this Planned Parenthood facility called 911 for a 29-year-old woman who had apparently suffered a botched abortion there. Operation Rescue obtained the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) printout and the 911 call audio, which show that the ambulance for the woman was dispatched with the Priority 1 Code, meaning the patient’s emergency was serious enough to require an ambulance with its light and sirens in use.“We have a patient here who we were doing a procedure on,” the staffer said. “She was given fentanyl and midazolam, or Versed. She is having a slow response to the medication as far as coming out of it.” When the staffer told the dispatcher that the woman was in and out of consciousness and her oxygen saturation was not as high as it should be, the dispatcher requested for a defibrillator to be placed inside the woman’s room for emergency personnel. The staffer replied that the Planned Parenthood facility did not have this important life-saving device on hand.
- In May of 2021, this facility had to call 911 twice within a week for two women who suffered medical emergencies there, Live Action News reported. Each case was listed as a possibly life-threatening condition, Code 3.On the afternoon of May 14, a Planned Parenthood staffer called 911 for a 20-year-old abortion patient with “uncontrolled pain and…bleeding.” The injured woman was transported by ambulance to a hospital 13 miles and 17 minutes from the facility.The second emergency occurred in the afternoon of May 21. A Planned Parenthood staffer, sounding distraught, called 911 for a woman who was “unresponsive” after an abortion.
- This same scandal-plagued Planned Parenthood facility had an emergency during a botched abortion procedure on July 31, 2021, when a 29-year-old woman suffered uncontrolled hemorrhaging following a uterine aspiration abortion, according to the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) report obtained by Operation Rescue. The woman was transported to the hospital by ambulance, with her injury coded “P3-Urgent.”
How Planned Parenthood staff puts patients at risk when requesting ambulances
As noted above, Planned Parenthood staff have asked emergency dispatchers to send ambulances without lights or sirens even in emergency situations, potentially slowing aid for injured women and putting women’s lives even more at risk than they already are because of injuries. Staff have even directed paramedics to back entrances in order to hide injuries from ‘customers,’ while potentially slowing response time for emergencies.
- Planned Parenthood Chapel Hill (North Carolina) Live Action News reported that on February 26, 2022, this Planned Parenthood facility sent a 31-year-old woman, who was “bleeding non-stop” from her uterus, to the emergency room; according to call records obtained by Operation Rescue from the city, Planned Parenthood staffers seemed to be more concerned about keeping the emergency a secret than helping the woman as they requested no sirens and told the dispatcher to ensure the EMTs entered the facility’s side door instead of the front door.
- Planned Parenthood Aurora (Illinois) According to Live Action News and Operation Rescue, on December 18, 2021, a staff member called 911 for an injured woman, and specifically asked for an ambulance without its sirens turned on. When the dispatcher questioned the staffer about the emergency, the staffer handed the phone to the abortionist, who said: “This is a patient who was undergoing a second-trimester abortion with suspected perforation.”
- Planned Parenthood Manhattan (New York) Live Action News reported that eyewitnesses to the incident told Operation Rescue that on November 7, 2020, a young African American woman was taken from the facility by paramedics; she was curled up on a gurney and appeared to be in severe pain. Planned Parenthood workers on the sidewalk allegedly ignored the gurney and the injured woman as they pumped fists with each other and cheered for Biden’s presidential victory.
- Planned Parenthood Lynwood (Washington) Live Action News reported Operation Rescue’s documentation of a March 12, 2021, 911 call made by staff at this facility which offers abortions by abortion pill. Operation Rescue obtained the Computer Aided Dispatch Transcript (CAD) report, and although the report was heavily redacted, it contained a dispatch code that is used to refer to a hemorrhage or laceration. The requested ambulance arrived at the facility without its lights or sirens on, even though the code indicating a serious injury was recorded from the call, strongly suggesting that the Planned Parenthood staff requested an ambulance without lights or sirens running.
Live Action News has reported multiple instances in which Planned Parenthood staff have improperly coded and downplayed their patients’ injuries and emergencies when speaking with emergency dispatchers, putting their patients in extreme danger. An employee at Planned Parenthood Everett Health Center in Washington state called 911 on February 15, 2023, for a patient with a “possible [uterine] perforation” following a surgical abortion. The Planned Parenthood staffer requested only basic life support (BLS) transport, instead of advanced life support (ALS) transport, even though a uterine perforation is a serious injury involving heavy bleeding.
Planned Parenthood masquerades as a reputable health organization, yet these 911 Planned Parenthood calls records strongly suggest that Planned Parenthood has a low standard of care and endangers women. The above summaries are mere samples of the documentation Live Action News has gathered on Planned Parenthood emergency calls.
Unfortunately, many of the emergencies occurring at Planned Parenthood facilities, or experienced by women at their homes following their abortions, are likely undocumented.
