The reality behind the 911 calls to Chicago's 'all-trimester' abortion business

Hope Clinic, an abortion business chain, is located in Granite City, Illinois, and opened a second location — an "all-trimester" facility — in Chicago last year.

Despite having not even been open one full year, the facility has already had at least two known emergencies, which highlight some disturbing realities about late-term abortion.

Key Takeaways:

• On December 10, one of the Chicago facility's abortionists called 911, reporting a woman was experiencing high blood pressure and needed oxygen after an "uneventful procedure" at least a day prior. The doctor then claimed the woman "gave birth" at 30 weeks gestation, when in actuality, the child was intentionally stillborn as the result of a late-term abortion.

• Less than three months later, on February 19, the facility sent another woman to the emergency room after a "delivery," this time due to heavy vaginal bleeding.

• Third-trimester abortion procedures involve injecting the preborn baby with a feticide to cause cardiac arrest, followed by a stillbirth more than a day later.

• Abortion in Illinois is legal through 'viability,' and therefore, these abortions might have been illegal, or they might have been committed legally due to a large loophole in the state law.

• The emergencies shine a light on the fact that abortion facilities killing preborn children late in pregnancy are not following the medical standard of care.

The Details:

Operation Rescue (OR) obtained two 911 calls from Hope Clinic's Chicago facility, which bills itself as an "all-trimester" abortion business. There were two separate emergencies within just months of each other, both involving what appear to have been third-trimester abortions.

Operation Rescue reported that both emergencies were rated “Priority 1A,” indicating life-threatening emergencies.

Call #1: 30-week abortion, possible preeclampsia after

The first took place on December 10, when an abortionist named Dr. Hinz (OR speculates that this is abortionist Dr. Erica Hinz) called 911, reporting that a 35-year-old patient was experiencing high blood pressure and needed oxygen.

Hinz said the patient had undergone an "uncomplicated procedure," and said there was concern for preeclampsia. The dispatcher asked how far along the patient was, and Hinz answering haltingly, "She was 30 weeks. She is no longer pregnant."

The dispatcher also seemed confused, asking, "Did… she have a miscarriage, or did she give birth?”

Hinz responded that the woman gave birth.

Call #2: Heavy post-abortion bleeding

On February 19, 911 was called for a 36-year-old woman who was experiencing heavy vaginal bleeding. The staffer told the dispatcher the woman had "delivered" three hours prior to the call.

Zoom In:

While specific details are not known for certain, the terminology used seems to indicate that both women experienced third-trimester induction abortions. These are typically multi-day procedures.

During an induction abortion, the abortionist injects the preborn baby with a feticide like potassium chloride or digoxin in an attempt to cause cardiac arrest and death. At the same visit, the abortionist may insert laminaria (seaweed sticks) into the woman's cervix to begin the process of dilation. The woman returns, often a day later, to have the laminaria removed and replaced. An ultrasound may be performed to ensure the baby has died; if not, another injection may be delivered. The abortionist may choose to give the woman drugs to induce labor as well.

After another day or two, the woman returns to the abortion facility to deliver the body of her dead baby, though she may go into labor on her own. In those circumstances, she is often advised to sit on the toilet and deliver the baby, and remain there until abortion clinic staff arrives.

Regardless, both 911 calls were technically correct: these women did give birth — they just gave birth to dead babies (who were intentionally killed) rather than living ones.

3rd Trimester Late-Term Abortion | Induction Abortion | What Is Abortion?

It is possible that the child may not be delivered in one piece, in which case the abortionist will commit a dilation and evacuation (D&E) to remove whatever body parts remain in the uterus. There are known risks of induction abortions, including hemorrhage, lacerations, and uterine perforation, and death.

Interestingly, the Hope Clinic website does acknowledge the risk of perforation and laceration. However, the facility appears to blame those risks on the woman:

Perforation/laceration, a tear or puncture in the uterus or cervix, occurs most frequently with sudden movement during the procedure. It is crucial you remain still during the procedure for this reason. Moderate sedation works to keep you as comfortable and safe as possible.

Abortion activists frequently claim late-term abortions are rare, and only occur due to fetal abnormalities or risks to the mother's health. Yet, in truth, thousands of late-term abortions are committed each year, and the reasons for them are typically the same as earlier abortions.

The Big Picture:

Technically speaking, the abortions committed at Hope Clinic's Chicago facility may be illegal. The 2019 Illinois Reproductive Health Act purports to restrict abortion after (highly subjective) fetal viability, which is often still considered to be 24 weeks, though babies born as young as 21 weeks have survived. The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute also claims that, in Illinois, “Abortion is banned at fetal viability, generally 24–26 weeks of pregnancy.”

The Hope Clinic website, however, advertises abortions through 34 weeks, which is nearly full-term. And as these 911 calls prove, these third-trimester abortions are being committed. But if abortion isn't permitted past 26 weeks, how is this possible?

It's because, as with many restrictions on abortion, there are loopholes in place that are intentionally broad.

As the Reproductive Health Act states, “every individual has a fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about one’s own reproductive health;" additionally, “a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights under the law, of this State.”

The law further defines “fetal viability” to be determined by “the professional judgment of the attending health care professional, based on the particular facts of the case, [that] there is a significant likelihood of a fetus’ sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”

This means that the abortionist, who is being paid to kill the preborn child, is the one to determine whether or not a baby would need “extraordinary medical measures” to survive. The law also fails to define “extraordinary medical measures,” leaving the abortionist to make that decision.

Finally, the law allows abortion up through birth for any reason related to the "health of the mother," which is classified as “all factors that are relevant to the patient’s health and well-being, including, but not limited to, physical, emotional, psychological, and familial health and age.” (emphases added).

This is identical to the wording of Roe v. Wade‘s partner decision, Doe v. Bolton, which also created an “abortion to birth” loophole with this language.

The language essentially allows abortion for any reason, with the abortionist needing only to say it is "necessary," for something like a woman's "psychological" or "emotional" health, even if there are no physical ailments whatsoever.

While on paper abortion is not permitted in Illinois past viability, it is essentially legal through all nine months if abortionists make the right excuses.

Why It Matters:

These are all examples of the abortion industry's failure to follow the standard of care in the medical industry.

“I’ve got hours of testimony” from abortionists all over the country “saying [hospitals for late-term induction abortions are] the proper ‘standard of care,'” malpractice attorney Mike Seibel previously told Live Action News, explaining that abortion facilities offering induction abortions outside of hospitals or hospital-like settings are “violating the ‘standard of care’ so much so that the insurance companies should not be paying for those procedures. Otherwise the insurance companies are an accessory to this case.”

While there are few abortionists willing to commit abortions past 24 weeks, they do exist. And as Seibel explained, the risks for women increase as the baby's gestation increases.

“The problem is, above 25 weeks, even Curtis Boyd, the worst abortionist in the entire world, the biggest killer, will tell you each week you go up, you go past 18 weeks, is more risky than going through a [live birth] delivery. He puts that in his consent forms,” Seibel said. “And each week you go, the higher the risk of death, the higher the risk of problems. They still do it anyway, just in these outpatient clinics.”

For these dangerous late-term abortions to meet the standard of care, they not only need to be committed in a hospital (or hospital-like setting), but abortionists also need to be giving their patients 24-hour monitoring, for exactly the kind of complications the two women at Hope Clinic experienced. Otherwise, it can be considered malpractice.

“Because they created unreasonably dangerous conditions for women,” Seibel told Live Action News.

Yet abortion facilities are not willing to operate under the standard of care, because it would drastically limit the number of abortions able to be committed, thereby eliminating a huge revenue stream.

“Once you put it into hospitals, you have the Joint Commission Standards which are very tough on abortionists. Because they require testing for pulmonary embolism and a variety of other things, and they also have to go through the sepsis protocols,” Seibel said. “So, you’re going to save more women, number one, but it’s going to become so much more expensive… and they are going to do fewer. [In addition], they are not going to do an elective abortion in a hospital because it poses too much risk to the patient.”

The Bottom Line:

Late-term abortions are dangerous, and facilities like the Hope Clinic are putting women's lives at risk every time one is committed.