Court Stops Abortionist Until Formal Hearing Convened; Boyfriend Charged with Inducing an Abortion Using Misoprostol
Part One of Two

By Dave Andrusko

Editor's note. I hope I am not merely making the same mistake a second time. People who read Part Two yesterday loved it. My guess is, however, many did not read past Part One. I think you will thoroughly enjoy the story about the pro-life song, " She's with Me." I am re-running it as Part Two today. Please send comments on either Part One or Part Two to daveandrusko@gmail.com. Have a great weekend.

Occasionally the grim truth about abortion seeps through the media fog. Two stories clearly illustrate just how ugly abortion really is.

Abortionist Andrew Rutland

Charged by Deputy Atty. Gen. Douglas Lee with "commit[ing] repeated negligent acts in his care and treatment" of a 30-year-old woman who died in his clinic in San Gabriel, California, abortionist Andrew Rutland has been ordered by Administrative Law Judge James Ahler "to immediately stop performing abortions and delivering babies until a formal disciplinary hearing can be held about the death of one of his patients during an abortion," according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Medical Board of California had requested that Rutland's license be immediately suspended.
The abortionist is not unfamiliar with the law. "Rutland, 66, surrendered his license in 2002 after a two-year medical board investigation into the deaths of two babies, botched surgeries and ethical violations," according to the Orange County Register. His license was later reinstated in 2007.

The Times's Tony Perry reports that Ahler rejected Rutland's contention that he was not really performing an abortion but preparing Chen, 30, for an abortion to be carried out at another facility. "Ahler said that was contradicted by the doctor's earlier statements to a law enforcement investigator and a Medical Board consultant."

Last July Chen came to Rutland for a second-trimester abortion. "In preparation, he injected lidocaine, a local anesthetic, into her cervix. Shortly afterward, the patient struggled to breathe, documents say," the Register reported.

"Rutland performed CPR but did not give her oxygen, the documents allege. The [Medical] board [of California] documents say there was a "significant delay" in calling 911," according to the Register's Courtney Perkes.
"When paramedics arrived, the woman was in cardiac arrest. She was taken to a hospital where she died six days later," writes the Register's Andy Templeton. "An autopsy concluded that her heart attack was caused by 'lidocaine toxicity,' board documents say."

Ahler said "that Rutland's willingness to perform a second-trimester abortion in a facility inadequately equipped for emergencies 'casts doubt on his professional judgment,'" According to the Times.
While Ahlers said that Ruland "present a risk of danger," a "full suspension was unnecessary to protect the public because Rutland had never engaged in misconduct unrelated to surgeries or deliveries," the Register reported.

Meanwhile 31-year-old Jared Merril Ahlstrom of Harriman, Utah, is out on $7,500 bond, charged with unlawful termination of a pregnancy. He is accused of slipping his ex-girlfriend Misoprostol, a powerful prostaglandin, that induced an abortion in January 2009, according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

The pregnancy was unplanned, but while Ahlstrom wanted an abortion, the woman (who was not named in newspaper accounts) did not. Their relationship ended, but they began to see each other again, the Sentinel reported, before it broke off again.

Reporter Amy Hamilton wrote that, "According to an arrest affidavit, Ahlstrom wanted his girlfriend to have an abortion after he impregnated her. About a year after his ex-girlfriend lost the baby, he admitted to her that he had drugged her twice to kill the baby. Ahlstrom told the woman he had purchased Misoprostol in Mexico and laced her food with the drug before they went hiking."

For whatever reasons, Ahlstrom repeatedly tried to contact the woman in late 2009. "In late November 2009, the woman forwarded e-mails to an investigator with the Police Department in which Ahlstrom admitted to obtaining the drug and putting it in the woman's food on two separate occasions," Hamilton reported.

Part Two