Newly chosen Planned Parenthood president Dr. Leana Wen claims that as an emergency room physician, she saw a patient die from an at-home abortion. In the video announcing her as Planned Parenthood’s new head, Wen says, “I remember seeing a young woman lying on a stretcher pulseless and unresponsive. Because of a home abortion. Because she was too scared to seek medical care. I did everything I could to resuscitate her, but she died….” Wen then speaks glowingly of her new employer, saying, “There is no more important time than now. And no more important organization than Planned Parenthood.”
READ: Women remember the dangers inside St. Louis’ record-breaking Planned Parenthood
First, no matter what, any death (mother or child) from abortion (legal or illegal) is tragic. And preventable. But most of us would object to the idea that no organization on the planet is more important than Planned Parenthood. And there are other problems with Wen’s statements:
1. Planned Parenthood, Dr. Wen’s new employer, actually advocates for home abortions.
While the circumstances of Wen’s ER patient’s “home abortion” are unclear, Wen’s new employer actually pushes for home abortions — and this is dangerous for women. Medication abortions are becoming more and more common at Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities (all of which usually charge just as much for a pill as for a surgical abortion). The abortion pill is distributed at the facility, with the first medication in the regimen, mifepristone, usually taken in office. The woman is then sent home with the second medication, misoprostol, to take later at home. The woman is told her bleeding and cramps will be similar to a period, and that she will essentially “miscarry” her baby. But for many women, the reality is absolutely terrifying and gruesome, and some women have even died from taking the abortion pill. Despite this, the abortion industry is pushing for abortion pills to be readily available on some college campuses, and, of course, at home. As I reported in a previous article:
Women have reported shaking, sweating, vomiting, hemorrhaging, passing massive clots, bleeding for weeks to months on end, and more — all after being told by the abortion industry’s media friends to expect something similar to a period. Beyond this, women have ended up hospitalized, needing transfusions, some even suffering from potentially lethal infections (sepsis). Dr. Donna Harrison of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists saysthat a study of more than 42,000 patients showed “medical abortions have four times [the] risk of serious complications than surgical abortions.”
We may never truly know how many women are dying or injured from so-called “safe and legal” abortions initiated by Planned Parenthood (or other abortion providers), either chemically or surgically, because only half of U.S. states are even required to report abortion complications. Planned Parenthood is the number one abortion provider in the nation, committing more than 320,000 abortions every year, by its own count. Along with that, legal abortion at the abortion corporation has harmed plenty of women — women just like the one Dr. Wen saw in the emergency room.
2. Making abortion legal hasn’t made it safe. Not even at Planned Parenthood.
2012: 24-year-old Tonya Reaves died after hemorrhaging following an incomplete 16-week abortion, which she had at a Chicago Planned Parenthood. Abortionist Mandy Gittler let Reaves bleed out for over five hours, neglecting to call an ambulance. According to a previous Live Action News article, “It was later reported Planned Parenthood was not even the one to call 911.” Gittler reportedly wasn’t fired, and later worked at a different Planned Parenthood in Michigan, “despite negligence and lack of license.”
2016: 24-year-old Cree Erwin-Sheppard died following her abortion at Planned Parenthood in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her brother, Tyler Sheppard, believes the Bronson Battle Creek Hospital — which Cree visited in an attempt to get care after the abortion to no avail — may have even helped to cover up Planned Parenthood’s negligence in her case.
2009-2017: At least 67 women were sent to the hospital during this time period by Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, a center run by a medical director also affiliated with Washington University/Barnes Jewish Hospital, who was found to be disturbingly unfamiliar with proper hand washing protocol.
2017-2018: Pro-life group Operation Rescue documented that 11 women were transported to the hospital from Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Center in New York in 2017. The group documented two more hospital transports from the facility from January to April of 2018.
READ: 18 years of the abortion pill have made things worse for women and society
This is just a sampling of what’s happening at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country. Other abortion facilities not run by Planned Parenthood have similar problems with medical emergencies. Abortion advocates claim that abortion, when committed by a doctor, is safe. But plenty of National Abortion Federation-affiliated doctors, even at Planned Parenthood, who commit abortions have harmed and even killed women. Planned Parenthood’s new president, a doctor herself, should surely be concerned about those women, too.
