ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DEAD [OR MAIMED] WOMAN

The details were so gruesome, the behavior so bizarre, the indifference to human life so astonishing that it took an entire month to try abortionist John Biskind and his assistant for the 1998 death of LouAnne Herron at the now-closed A-Z Women's Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (See story, page 4.)

But once sequestered last month it took a jury of seven women and one man no time at all to find the 75-year-old Biskind guilty of manslaughter and Carol Stuart-Schadoff guilty of negligent homicide in a death that followed a botched late-term abortion. The Arizona Republic reported that the jury foreman said "jurors made up their minds to convict Biskind and Stuart- Schadoff immediately upon beginning deliberations."

Biskind and his assistant are scheduled to be sentenced March 20. Penalties range from probation to 12-1/2 years in jail for Biskind and probation to three years for Stuart-Schadoff. Attorneys for both are appealing the verdicts.

Someone, I don't remember who, once wrote about contemporary university departments of history that they are "under the domination of a cult of untruth." However, when it comes to media coverage of abortionists, historians are positively bastions of objectivity by comparison. (Present company excluded.)

In the interests of economy, we'll focus on just the two "botched" abortions reported in this edition of National Right to Life News, Biskind, for one, and a Planned Parenthood clinic out in the San Francisco Bay area. (See story, page 15.) Both examples are so grotesque as to be almost surrealistic.

What happened to LouAnne Herron? According to the Republic, " Evidence showed that Herron, 33, bled to death after Biskind punctured her uterus during the late-term abortion in April 1998 at the A-Z Women's Center. At one point, Biskind testified that he left the clinic to go to his tailor as Herron lay bleeding."

Actually, the testimony paints an even more depressing picture of craven indifference to human life. The jurors heard "a parade of prosecution witnesses, medical assistants who testified that Herron was begging for help before she died; emergency crews who said they were called too late; and other doctors who testified that Biskind ignored the blood pooling under her body and other undeniable signs that she was dying."

There is no dispute that Biskind punched a two-inch hole in Ms. Herron's uterus during the abortion of her unborn baby, judged to be between 23 and 26 weeks in age. Biskind testified that he did not know the seriousness of Herron's condition and could not have prevented her death, the Republic reported.

Prosecutors said Biskind demonstrated a "reckless disregard" for Herron's life "leaving the clinic although he knew she had spent too many hours in the recovery room and declining to return even after being told she had trouble breathing and had no pulse," according to the Republic. Stuart-Schadoff failed to schedule a registered nurse in the recovery room the day the 33-year-old Herron died and "delayed for a few minutes a call to 911 after it was clear that Herron's condition was worsening," the Republic reported.

Although the judge refused to allow evidence of it into the trial, Biskind has a long track record of botched abortions and indifference toward women, what the Republic politely called a " stained medical record." Not only have women died, but Biskind once tried to abort a 38-week-old baby who later arrived at a hospital weighting six pounds and nine ounces, with lacerations and injuries to her skull, according to the Republic.

Jury foreman Russell Craig told the Republic that "the seven- woman, one man jury was offended by Biskind's smiling arrogance on the stand and his testimony that he left the clinic while Herron was bleeding."

I refer you to Liz Townsend's excellent story on page 15 for details of the incredible case of "J.B.," a Yugoslavian immigrant. Let me quote the first couple of paragraphs from a story in the San Francisco Examiner:

"A woman who remained pregnant following a botched abortion three years ago has been awarded $672,610 from Planned Parenthood. As the court clerk read the jury's award Wednesday, the woman, whose fetus lost two limbs in the abortion attempt before being terminated months later, lowered her head and wept, convinced her three-year court battle was finally over. And it is, but only for now. An attorney for Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, which oversees nine clinics in the Bay Area, vowed to appeal the award. 'It's definitely going to be appealed,' Lynn Stocker said Thursday. 'Planned Parenthood disagrees with the verdict, and we will be appealing.' "

Packed in those 109 words is a story that ought to make even NARAL blanch. A story of a woman who comes in pregnant with twins, told she has "successfully" aborted, knows in her follow-up visit that something is wrong, but is repeatedly assured she is not pregnant.

"But on Feb. 18, 1998, J.B. demanded a urine test, "the Examiner reports. "The same nurse who had long assured her nothing was wrong came back horrified. J.B. was still pregnant, her lawyer said."

Planned Parenthood says it's sorry and shoos her out the door. Only later does it relent and agree to pay for a second abortion, the Examiner reports. An ultrasound reveals that her baby is missing an arm and a leg. Her lawyer, Christopher Dolan, says she sees the ultrasound, and "has an emotional collapse." J.B. "has to go through a three-day procedure to terminate the fetus' life, something that absolutely wrecks her," Dolan tells the court.

"J.B." is, to put it mildly, severely emotionally distraught. The jury awards her over $670,000, although a 1975 court decision will limit the award to something more like $250,000.

And on and on and on. Babies slaughtered by the millions, women all too often devastated and emotionally left to twist in the wind, if not killed. Only occasionally does this grisly reality make it to court, rarer yet is the abortionist held accountable.
This is the real face of "safe, legal abortion."

dave andrusko [dha1245@juno.com]