Back To The Alley
Clinical Psychosis
by Susan E. Wills
Source: National Review 13-NOV-98
[More Dead & Butchered Women from SAFE and Legal Abortion]
There was a time when you could count on reporters not to care much what
happened behind the doors of abortion clinics. But times are changing for
America's abortionists. One slip-up-you misjudge an unborn baby's age by
three months, you lose a patient or two to a perforated uterus, you
defraud a few insurance companies-and bam! The local papers are at your
doorstep, exposing the ugly side of the American abortion industry.
Case in point: John Biskind of the A-Z Women's Center in Phoenix. On June
30, 1998, while attempting to do a partial-birth abortion on a baby whose
age he estimated at 23.6 weeks, Dr. Biskind discovered the little girl to
be nearly full term, weighing a hefty 6 pounds, 2 ounces. He delivered
her
intact, but not before he had fractured her skull and deeply lacerated
her
face in two places.
It wasn't long before inquiring reporters unearthed a few skeletons: the
Arizona Republic reported that in 1990 the Arizona medical board had
"scolded [Dr. Biskind] for trying to abort a full-formed baby he said he
thought was just 10 weeks old." Mid-abortion, he sent the mother home
with
antibiotics instead of sending her to a hospital. The Board put a "letter
of concern" in his official file. The next year, the Board added another
letter of concern for the doctor's having signed blank and undated
prescription forms.
In January 1996, examiners issued a "decree of censure" against Dr.
Biskind for gross negligence in connection with the February 1995 death
of
a 26-year-old Flagstaff woman. In the course of committing a
mid-trimester
abortion (at 20-plus weeks), Biskind perforated and lacerated her uterus
8
centimeters (over 3 inches). The woman was discharged from the facility
about a half-hour after the abortion and bled to death later that day.
Then, in April 1998, Dr. Biskind punctured the uterus of another woman,
33-year-old Louann Herron, in the course of an abortion on her
26-week-old
fetus. An RN then in his employ maintains that Dr. Biskind knew of the
baby's age from two prior ultrasounds, but instructed a medical assistant
to take another ultrasound from a different angle to make the baby appear
younger. (Abortions are not permitted in Arizona after 26 weeks, absent
documented risk to the mother's life or health.)
The abortion was completed at 12:40 p.m. An hour and a half later,
alarmed
medical assistants-two of whom were new and untrained-alerted Dr. Biskind
that the patient was still bleeding. He ordered medication to control the
bleeding and left the clinic for the day. It was almost 4:00 p.m. when
the
now-frantic assistants asked the administrator to call 911. The
supervisor
refused without paging Dr. Biskind first. When 911 was finally called,
clinic employees wanted the ambulance to go to the back door with the
sirens off. Paramedics administered CPR too late to save Ms. Herron from
bleeding to death from a uterine puncture.
Maricopa County Superior Court records show seven lawsuits that name
Biskind, the A-Z clinic, or Dr. Moshe Hachamovitch, the clinic's owner;
Arizona medical board records contain seven complaints against
Hachamovitch and three letters of concern for problems such as improper
medical record-keeping and failure to file fetal death certificates,
required if the child is 24 weeks' gestation or older; and the A-Z
clinic
was fined for 12 health hazards (one "serious") in 1996 by the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Dr. Hachamovitch owns another abortion clinic in Phoenix and one in
Tempe,
as well as several in New York and Texas. At least two lawsuits and
complaints against him have arisen from the deaths of patients in his
clinics in New York and Texas.
Another case: Recent press reports have exposed Dr. Steven Brigham's
systematic insurance fraud and tax evasion, for which he was sentenced to
120 days in jail, five years' probation, and restitution. But we found
only one story in eight years that has mentioned that he lost his medical
licenses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Georgia, and Florida for
acts committed within each state (including life-threatening botched
abortions). Obviously, license suspension or revocation didn't
inconvenience the doctor much; he simply moved operations to another
state
or hired other doctors to work in his clinics after each incident. The
revocation of Dr. Brigham's license in New York didn't stop him from
operating two clinics in the state. He also performed second-trimester
abortions in New Jersey, despite a February 1994 order from the New
Jersey
medical board limiting him to first-trimester abortions (up to 15 weeks).
Like Dr. Biskind, Dr. Brigham appears prone to underestimating
gestational
age in his eagerness to perform late-term abortions. On August 19, 1993,
for example, Dr. Brigham told a patient at his New Jersey clinic that she
was 16-20 weeks pregnant. He allegedly offered to abort her child in New
York for $5,000 to $10,000. The baby girl was then 32-35 weeks' gestation
and was born on September 15, weighing a healthy 6 pounds, 7 ounces. And
then there is Brigham's bedside manner. After refusing to allow a mother
to be present during her frightened 14-year-old daughter's abortion
because she could not afford a $50 "spectator" fee, Brigham allegedly
over-sedated the girl and stuffed a handful of gauze into her mouth.
Staff
had difficulty waking her.
Dr. Mark Binder, who performed abortions at Dr. Brigham's clinics in
Colonie and Nanuet, N.Y., has been charged by the New York State Board of
Professional Medical Conduct with 18 counts of gross negligence, gross
incompetence, conduct evidencing moral unfitness, and fraud. He, too,
instructed an ultrasound technician to falsify readings on gestational
age
so that fetuses over 24 weeks would appear to be under New York's legal
age limit.
Mrs. Wills is assistant director for program development at the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, and
editor of Life Insight.