Labor and delivery: gruesome Florida abortion saga reveals possibly illegal late-term practices

"It's a women's clinic . . . My friend is having an abortion and the baby was born alive. . . . They're not allowing her to use the phone there. They're wanting the baby to die! . . . and she's not wanting that to happen."

That was a portion of the 911 call to the Orlando Fire Department on April 2, when a 34-year-old woman named Angele (who asked that only her first name be used) claims to have delivered a live baby during a botched abortion at the EPOC Clinicâ--and that the child died after clinic workers refused to render aid or call for help (see "Rowan's story," WORLD, May 7).

On April 27, Orange County, Fla., Chief Medical Examiner Jan Garavaglia prepared her report on the death of the boy, whom Angele named Rowan. Dr. Garavagliaâ--who is a bit of a celebrity with her own show on the Discovery Health Channelâ--found "no forensic evidence" that Rowan had been born alive. Dr. Garavaglia did conclude that Rowan was a baby, including in her report a physical description of the boy having red, slightly wrinkled skin, normal facial features, tiny fingernails, and hair on his head.

That's not what abortion workers at the EPOC Clinic told the Orlando Fire Department (OFD). Clinic workers told OFD medical rescuers that an abortion patient had "passed some tissue," was "hysterical," and that no live baby had been born. A spokeperson for abortionist and clinic owner James Scott Pendergraft later told reporters that what Angele claimed "absolutely never happened."

The EPOC Clinic is one of six Florida abortion businesses owned by Dr. Pendergraft, a self-avowed empire builder who in 2000 told BusinessWeek he dreamed of expanding his chain of clinics up the Sunshine State's east coast all the way to his home state of North Carolina.

But a seven-month federal prison stint stemming from a 2000 extortion conviction stalled those plans. (The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in 2002, but left open the possibility of retrying Dr. Pendergraft and another man on conspiracy charges.) Now, the incident at the EPOC Clinic could spell further trouble for the abortionistâ--particularly in light of revelations that his employees may have deceived fire and law enforcement officials.

An OFD paramedic, who asked that his name be withheld to protect his job, said that at 10:23 a.m. on April 2 a friend of Angele's, who had driven her to the abortion clinic for day two of a "labor and delivery" abortion procedure, called 911 to report that the baby had been born alive. Three paramedics and one emergency medical technician sped to the scene at 609 Virginia Dr. They were greeted outside by an EPOC Clinic worker who told them that no baby had been born aliveâ--that such a thing wasn't even possible. Instead, a woman scheduled for an abortion had "passed some tissue," was "hysterical," and was refusing to hand "the tissue" over to clinic workers.

According to the OFD paramedic who spoke with WORLD, fire personnel were not aware the "tissue" in question was in reality a fully formed baby boy. That, along with clinic workers' assertion that Angele was clinging hysterically to "the tissue," would explain why fire department medical workers, in their report, noted that they had assisted the Orlando Police Department (OPD) in handling a "disturbing the peace" call.

The OFD paramedic's story matches OPD Officer Jonathan Pinder's account of events. One of two OPD officers to respond to the scene, Mr. Pinder told WORLD that the fire department "called us in reference to releasing the baby. I guess [Angele] wanted to hold onto the fetus, and the clinic had some concerns that she wouldn't release it."

When Mr. Pinder arrived, "the fire guy told us the baby had already been turned over. I made contact with [Angele] as a courtesy," and helped Angele and her friend call a funeral home and a cab.

According to the OFD paramedic WORLD spoke with, EPOC Clinic workers told fire department responders that the situation inside the clinic was under control and that a doctor was supervising the whole affair. That conflicts with a complaint that Liberty Counsel, a conservative public interest law firm, lodged with the Florida Department of Health and Florida's Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA). The complaints cited several violations of Florida law in the April 2 incident, including the absence of a doctor during the abortion procedure.

The procedure in question is called a "labor and delivery" (L&D) abortion. In 2000, Jill Stanek, a registered nurse who worked in the labor and delivery department of Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill., testified before Congress in support of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act of 2000. According to Ms. Stanek's testimony, Christ Hospital clinicians when performing L&D abortions medically induced premature cervical dilation, so that "the small, pre-baby drops out of the uterus, oftentimes alive." Ms. Stanek went on to tell the congressional panel about infants born alive and, limbs flailing weakly, left to die in the L&D ward's "soiled utility room."

Christ Hospital isn't the only institution performing L&D abortions. In March 2001, Washington C. Hill, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, gave a presentation in which he described the L&D procedure. The slideshow that accompanied his lecture noted that "success [was] dependent on fetal demise," while "complications" included "live birth."

Last week, Ms. Stanek told WORLD that hospitals and abortion clinics approach L&D abortion differently. "Hospitals don't kill the baby before they initiate the procedure. They have more of a mentality of a covert type of killing, of inducing prematurely and letting them die 'naturally,'" sometimes by allowing them to suffocate in the birth canal. Abortion clinics, however, try to kill the baby before inducing labor, often by injecting the baby's heart with digoxin.

The autopsy findings of Dr. Garavaglia, the medical examiner, verified Angele's claim that Harold Perper, the EPOC Clinic worker who induced her premature labor in preparation to abort Rowan, never injected the baby with digoxin. The examiner found no puncture wounds in the baby's chest. Neither did Dr. Garavaglia find any evidence that the baby had breathed after birth, leading her to report that "no forensic evidence" suggested he had been born alive.

But breathing is only one of four signs of live birth according to the Born Alive Infant Protection Actâ--any one of which mandates that medical workers provide lifesaving medical care. The other three life signs are a beating heart, a pulsating umbilical cord, or movement of voluntary muscles.

Angele, meanwhile, has said that Rowan both moved and grasped her finger with his handâ--leading her to instantly regret her decision to abort. Her story did not surprise a former medical assistant who had been in training to do L&D abortions at Dr. Pendergraft's Hyde Park clinic. "When I was in training to do second trimester abortions, I was told that we would have [women] deliver into the toilet so that if the baby happens to be alive, that it drowns," said the former worker, who requested anonymity because she feared Dr. Pendergraft.

The medical assistant said she had never seen a baby born alive, but that co-workers at the clinic told her they had. "They would see them move or make a little sound, and other people would say that was involuntary. I didn't believe that and neither did they."

According to the medical assistant, all babies, dead or alive, were stuffed into red biohazard bags for later pickup by a medical waste service. She herself had delivered women with no doctor present, and disposed of babies' bodies that way. She added that no doctor was present during most deliveries, leaving medical assistants, and often unlicensed workers to care for patients. When she worked for Dr. Pendergraft, she said, she was one of two licensed workers among 10 on staff.

Florida's AHCA has uncovered late-term abortion problems with the clinic before. In a 2003 survey it said in 11 out of 11 third-trimester abortions sampled, the facility failed to have two physicians certify "to a reasonable degree of medical probability" that the abortions were necessary to save the life or preserve the health of the woman as required by Florida law. AHCA allowed the clinic to amend its records to "correct" the discrepancies.

During one incident, the medical assistant said, she delivered a 28-week-old baby dead while Dr. Pendergraft was out having lunch. "When I turned it over [on its side], the baby's hands went together like it was praying. . . . I was waiting for it to scream. . . . It looked so much like a living baby." That, she says, is when she decided she couldn't work there anymore.

Something else on Dr Mengele:

Abortion doctor found guilty
Supporters say the extortion trial of James Scott Pendergraft was politically motivated.
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 2, 2001

OCALA, -- One of Florida's best-known abortion doctors was convicted Thursday of trying to extort millions of dollars from Marion County by falsely accusing a county official of bomb threats and intimidation.
Dr. James Scott Pendergraft was found guilty of all charges against him -- conspiracy, attempted extortion and mail fraud. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison.
His adviser, Michael Spielvogel, was found guilty of the same charges, plus lying to the FBI and making false statements. He faces 40 years in federal prison.
Both men were released on their own recognizance, and Pendergraft's attorney promised to file a motion for acquittal within seven days. No sentencing date was immediately set.
"I will continue to fight back, but I will continue to serve women in their time of need," Pendergraft said after the verdict. "I'm getting ready to go back to work and help women."
Pendergraft, 43, owns clinics in Orlando, Ocala, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale. Corporate records list Pendergraft as the president of the corporation that owns the Women's Center of Hyde Park in Tampa. A spokeswoman at the clinic declined to comment Thursday.
Pendergraft's supporters said the prosecution was politically motivated by abortion opponents in the community. Prosecutors said the case was about extortion, not abortion.
"I'm disappointed in the justice system as far as saying that I'm guilty," said Pendergraft, who promised to keep his clinics open. "But I will continue to fight that, and in the interim, I will take care of women in their most difficult time."
Pendergraft's attorney said he would file a motion to acquit, citing prosecutorial misconduct by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Devereaux who told jurors that Pendergraft, who is black, was "shuckin' and jivin' " questions on the witness stand. Jacob Rose, Pendergraft's attorney, said the remark was racially offensive.
Jurors deliberated eight hours over two days before reaching their verdict in U.S. District Court. Neither Pendergraft nor Spielvogel showed any emotion when the verdicts were read.
During the three-week trial, the defendants were accused of lying in affidavits in an effort to extort a big settlement from Marion County in exchange for dropping a lawsuit. The lawsuit claimed the county and the city of Ocala weren't allowing off-duty police officers to moonlight at Pendergraft's clinic.
"When you break the law, hopefully you should get caught," said Lynda Bell, president of Florida Right to Life.
The government's case was based on three incidents in the months before and after Pendergraft opened his Ocala clinic in 1998:
Spielvogel alleged that County Commissioner Larry Cretul had told him in a telephone conversation that it wasn't a matter of "if" but "when" the Ocala clinic would be bombed. He also said Cretul had told him that what happened in Alabama is "nothing compared to what will happen in Ocala," a reference to the fatal bombing of a Birmingham clinic in 1998.
During the trial, Spielvogel admitted he made up the conversation, but he said other conversations with Cretul made him fear for his safety and the safety of others at the clinic. Spielvogel also said he staged a fake telephone conversation in front of Pendergraft to make the doctor think that Cretul had threatened him.
Spielvogel and Pendergraft filed affidavits in court describing the alleged threats by Cretul. The affidavits were attached to a lawsuit Pendergraft had filed seeking a buffer zone around the clinic.
Pendergraft, Spielvogel and Pendergraft's then-attorney, Roy Lucas, met with a Marion County attorney for a settlement talk on a separate lawsuit Pendergraft had filed to compel local law-enforcement agencies to allow their officers to work off-duty as guards at the clinic. At the meeting, Pendergraft threatened to bankrupt the county by seeking $100-million in damages and said a statue of him would be built in Ocala that would read: "Dr. Pendergraft brought freedom to Ocala."
His attorneys say the threat was rhetorical. The meeting was secretly taped by FBI agents who had been contacted by Cretul.
Defense attorneys told jurors that Pendergraft, as a lone defender of a woman's right to choose in a community hostile to abortions, was being persecuted by prosecutors with a political agenda. In addition, his attorneys said Pendergraft was misled by Spielvogel.
Abortion rights advocates think abortion opponents in the community were using the federal legal system to stop Pendergraft the way extremists have used firebombs and death threats in the past to stop other abortion providers.
"We can see how an innocent person can be convicted in a United States courtroom," said Dr. Sangeeta Pati, a spokeswoman for Right to Fight, a coalition of abortion rights groups supporting Pendergraft. "Abortion was an issue. Race was an issue."
Prosecutors countered that abortion has nothing to do with the charges against Pendergraft. They would not comment on the race allegation.
The fabrications Spielvogel told about Cretul are the same kind of lies that ruin lives like accusing a priest of molesting children or a judge of taking bribes, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Judy Hunt.
"I believe this jury's decision brought the truth out," Cretul said after the verdict.
Pendergraft, who grew up in North Carolina where his father was a mortician and his mother a nurse, was trained in caring for high-risk pregnancies at Tampa General Hospital.
A 1998 St. Petersburg Times article estimated he had performed 15,000 abortions. He told an interviewer that he was driven by the belief that every woman deserves access to a safe abortion. At the time, his staff had grown from to 40, including five other doctors.
"I have read the Bible. I go to church. I don't read in the Bible what (abortion protesters) read," Pendergraft said then. "I know morally what I am doing is right. If a woman doesn't want to be a mother, she shouldn't have to be."
© Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved

... the facility failed to have two physicians certify "to a reasonable degree of medical probability" that the abortions were necessary to save the life or preserve the health of the woman as required by Florida law.

What a farce. A horrible macabre farce.

Abortion is not about saving women’s lives!

Total Abortions since 1973

46,023,191

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Why the drop after 1960? (in deaths of women from illegal abortions)

The reasons were new and better antibiotics, better surgery and the establishment of intensive care units in hospitals. This was in the face of a rising population. Between 1967 and 1970 sixteen states legalized abortion. In most it was limited, only for rape, incest and severe fetal handicap (life of mother was legal in all states). There were two big exceptions — California in 1967, and New York in 1970 allowed abortion on demand. Now look at the chart carefully.

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Abortion Statistics - Decision to Have an Abortion (U.S.)

· 25.5% of women deciding to have an abortion want to postpone childbearing

· 21.3% of women cannot afford a baby

· 14.1% of women have a relationship issue or their partner does not want a child

· 12.2% of women are too young (their parents or others object to the pregnancy)

· 10.8% of women feel a child will disrupt their education or career

· 7.9% of women want no (more) children

· 3.3% of women have an abortion due to a risk to fetal health

2.8% of women have an abortion due to a risk to maternal health

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So how many women’s lives have been saved by abortion?

Only about 3% of abortions since 1972 were reported to be “due to a risk to maternal health.” A reasonable person would recognize that not all of those cases represent a lethal risk. But let’s say they did. That means that nearly 45 million fetuses were butchered to save the lives of about 1.3 million women. Or put another way; 35 babies are killed to save each woman.

Abortion was legal in all 50 states prior to Roe v. Wade in cases of danger to the life of the woman.

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