At the Daily Caller, Janet Morana of Priests for Life wrote this week that while the Centers for Disease Control reported in late 2016 the lowest number of abortions in the United States since before Roe v. Wade, the CDC’s report also contained some disturbing news. “Women continue to die from legal abortion,” she wrote. “Of course, we know this is true but the numbers were somewhat surprising.”
Morana reports the CDC’s numbers by year:
2012: Four deaths from legal abortion, three of whom are unknown. Only one, Tonya Reaves, made headlines. Reaves died after a Chicago Planned Parenthood abortionist (Mandy Gittler, who is now employed by Planned Parenthood in Michigan) left her to hemorrhage after her 16 week abortion for five hours without medical care without calling 911.
2011: Two deaths from legal abortion, identities unknown
2010: 10 deaths from legal abortion, all unknown except for one — Alexandra Nunez from Queens, New York, who died after an artery was severed during her abortion, leading to cardiac arrest
2009: Eight deaths from legal abortion, with only two identities known — Karnamaya Mongar, who died after a painkiller overdose at Kermit Gosnell’s Philadelphia “house of horrors,” and Ying Chen, who died as a result of what the OC Register called “a toxic reaction to anesthetic.”
2008: 12 deaths from legal abortion, all identities unknown
The CDC report, Morana notes, does not list 2013-2016, but here’s what we do know:
- In 2013, at least two women died from legal abortion — Maria Santiago and Jennifer Morbelli. Santiago died from “cardiopulmonary arrest” following a first trimester abortion, after being left in the care of an “unlicensed medical assistant.” Jennifer Morbelli died at the hands of abortionist LeRoy Carhart while undergoing a late-term abortion at 33 weeks of pregnancy. Carhart has a long history of abortion complications and deaths.
- In 2014, at least one woman died from legal abortion — Lakisha Wilson, who died from cardiopulmonary arrest during an abortion at Preterm in Cleveland, Ohio.
- For 2015, no deaths are currently known.
- In 2016, at least two women died from legal abortion — Jamie Lee Morales of Buffalo, New York (who died after blood loss from a second trimester abortion), and Cree Irwin-Sheppard of Michigan (who had her abortion at Planned Parenthood and was found dead by her mother just days later).
Based on the pattern of underestimation of legal abortion deaths, it is highly likely that more women died from legal abortion from 2013 to 2016 than we currently know.
The media (with the exception of those in the pro-life community) largely does not report the deaths of women who die from legally obtained abortions. And this is a problem, for many reasons. Morana writes:
This is an overarching problem with abortion – we just don’t know the truth about it. Abortion is one of the most common elective surgeries and the American public has a right to know how many women are dying, and why, from this “safe and legal” procedure.
But the abortion industry doesn’t want the public to know that abortion carries risks. They don’t want the public to know that many women regret abortion. They don’t want to the public to know that abortion is not just a small percentage of their business (looking at you, Planned Parenthood). They don’t want the public to know that the abortion industry is largely unregulated (but you’d never know it, gauging from how often they complain about “anti-choice” laws, which are often times little more than common sense protections for women’s health and safety). And the media, for their part, appear happy to go along with the suppressing of information.
Women deserve better than abortion.
