Mark Crutcher, head of Life Dynamics, wrote a well researched and powerful book called Lime 5: Exploited by Choice.The book compiles stories of abortion complications and deaths. Crutcher draws material from court records, published sources, and firsthand accounts.
Often, stories of abortion malpractice are hidden because abortion related injuries and deaths very rarely make the news. There is generally no legal requirement for clinics to report complications; doing so is voluntary. And since drawing attention to botched abortions is not in the clinics’ best interests, there is very little motivation for clinics to report their mistakes to the CDC. Women who are injured by legal abortion seldom want to publicize what happened because of abortion stigma. In cases of deaths by legal abortion, often the families themselves keep the matter quiet.
However, information about abortion complications can sometimes be found in court records when abortion clinics are sued for malpractice. It takes an intrepid investigator to uncover this evidence. Pro-lifers who painstakingly search through these records are able to discover shocking cases of abuse and medical irresponsibility among abortion providers.
One such disturbing account concerns a Planned Parenthood abortionist who was also a member of the National Abortion Federation, an organization made up of abortion providers which allegedly oversees clinics and helps make abortion safer. The National Abortion Federation claims that only the best clinics and abortionists get their stamp of approval.
In a case in Hennepin County MN, District Court Case file no.89-15330, an abortionist is revealed to have treated patients horribly.
From Lime 5:
A female abortionist (a member of the NAF and director of a Planned Parenthood facility) seems to enjoy seeing abortion patients suffer. According to a suit filed against her, after telling a patient to “drop your pants and get up on the table,” she performed an abortion without anesthesia. When the patient screamed in pain, the abortionist told her to shut up or they would gag her and have her “put in a psycho ward.” She then had a nurse hold her hand over the patient’s mouth. After the ordeal, the abortionist said, “Here are your pants, put them on and get out of here. This will make you think twice before having sex without contraception.” The patient said she saw at least one other woman who was hysterical in the recovery room, crawling on her hands and knees and screaming uncontrollably.
Pro-choicers like to describe the horrors of illegal, “back alley” abortions before Roe V Wade, but these court records show that simply making abortion legal, with little or no oversight, has not guaranteed that abortion will be a positive experience, or that clinics will be staffed with competent, caring professionals. It is hard to imagine a medical professional with less compassion for her patients. I am not a mental health worker, so I cannot really speculate on what makes this abortionist treats her patients this way. But I can guess that such abusive behavior shows deep psychological problems.
Perhaps seeing the bodies of aborted babies daily has created such a sense of guilt in this doctor that she has to transfer the her anger and self-loathing onto her abortion patients, blaming them for putting her in the position to do abortions. Whatever caused her to lash out at her patients, women who came to her clinic were subjected to horrifying mistreatment.
In publicizing stories of abortion malpractice, pro-lifers can show that legal abortion does not necessarily make abortion safe and easy. Abortion is inherently a dehumanizing business, because it involves the taking of life in a gruesome manner. Whether performed in a back alley or a clean, professional clinic, the horror of abortion remains and takes its toll on those who are involved with it
Source: Mark Crutcher Lime 5: Exploited by Choice (Denton, Texas: Life Dynamics Incorporated, 1996)
