Pro-Life News in Brief

By Liz Townsend & Dave Andrusko

Huge Decreases In Abortion in Nebraska and Idaho

For the year 2000, not only did the number of abortions in Nebraska drop by 8% to the lowest figure in nearly 25 years, when combined with an even larger drop in 1999, it represents a decline of nearly 20% in just two years.

In Idaho, equally good news. For 1999 - - the latest year numbers are available from the new Idaho Vital Statistics Report - - the number of abortions declined to a record low of 867. This figure is the smallest since a 1977 state law required an annual count of the number of abortions. The worst year was 1981, when 2,706 babies were aborted.

According to the Idaho Statesman, the ratio of abortions to live births for Idaho residents - - 76 per l,000 live births - - is less than one-quarter what the national ratio was for the last year (1997) that figure was calculated - - 306 per l,000 live births.

This welcome decline comes on the heels of the state legislature's decision to stop taxpayer funding of abortions. Both pro- and anti-life forces believe this move will mean even fewer abortions. When pro-life Gov. Dirk Kempthorne signed the bill, he said, "This legislation reinforces our State's commitment to protecting, as much as possible under the law, the lives of unborn children. As a United States Senator, I consistently supported the federal limitations on publicly funded abortions under the Hyde Amendment. House Bill 309 would enact similar restrictions on state-funded abortions in Idaho."

Final figures in Nebraska were expected as NRLNews went to press. Predictions are that when the final tabulation is complete, the total number of abortions will not exceed 4,200, the lowest annual total since the 1976 figure of 3,977.

Pro-lifers attribute the sharp decline to a number of reasons. Part of the explanation is the retirement of one of Nebraska's most prominent abortionists. And part of the reason fewer unborn babies are dying is because of the diligent work of crisis pregnancy centers.

But another reason may well be that the knowledge of abortion's trauma to women is being passed to younger women from older women who wonder now how in the world they could have taken their unborn child's life. This wisdom, bought at the price of the life of the child and the psychic well-being of his/her mother, is having a dampening effect.

The number of abortions in Nebraska has dropped every year since 1990, except for 1996, when there was an 8% increase, and in 1998, when abortions rose less than 1%. The peak year for abortions was 1990, with 6,346 reported.

According to the National Education Trust Fund, abortions have declined 17% nationwide since 1990.

Unlicensed Abortionist Arrested in Florida

Florida police charged Jose Angel Caso, 71, with practicing medicine without a license after they found bloody fetal body parts and dirty and rusty operating equipment in his Hialeah clinic.

A 16-year-old girl, who may never be able to have children after having an abortion performed by the unlicensed Caso, was one of over 30 women who said they received medical treatment from Caso, according to the Miami Herald.

The unidentified girl told reporters at a news conference that the abortion was performed on her two-month-old unborn baby on February 10 at CMC Medical Clinic in Hialeah. She said that immediately after the abortion she knew something was wrong. "When I woke up I was crying and I told [Caso], 'Please get my mom because I feel really bad,'" the girl said, according to WPLG-TV. "I told my mom that I felt like I was bleeding a lot. And my mom looked, and she saw a whole bunch of blood."

She continued to experience headaches and excruciating pain. "She was hospitalized as a result of the complications," said Capt. Jerry Freeman of the Hialeah police, "and she was told by the doctors treating her that there is a possibility that she will never be able to have children as a result of what happened that day."

This was the second time that Caso was arrested for practicing without a medical license, the Herald reported. After more women complained about Caso after the first arrest, police searched his clinic and found "an illegal operating room, dirty and rusty operating instruments wrapped in dingy rags and bloody human tissue inside a freezer, floating in liquid," according to the Herald.

The Florida Department of Health continues to investigate Caso and his clinic, and police officials are asking anyone else who was treated by Caso to call their CrimeStoppers hotline.

Biskind Sentencing Postponed Until May

John Biskind, the former Arizona abortionist convicted in February of second-degree murder, will be sentenced May 4. Sentencing was originally set for March 20, but prosecutors asked for extra time to prepare for the hearing, the Arizona Republic reported.

Biskind could receive probation or a prison sentence of up to 12 1/2 years for the death of LouAnne Herron, who bled to death after he tore a two-inch gash in her uterus during an April 17, 1998, abortion. Biskind later left the A-Z Women's Center without giving her emergency care.

Also to be sentenced May 4 is Carol Stuart-Schadoff, the A-Z Women's Center clinic administrator who was convicted of negligent homicide for also failing to get help for Herron as she lay bleeding in the clinic recovery room. Stuart-Schadoff faces up to 3 1/2 years in prison.

Prosecutors needed more time to gather evidence and witnesses about Biskind's reported history of botched abortions and investigations by the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners, according to the Republic. Such evidence was banned from the original trial, since it did not pertain directly to his actions on the day of Herron's death.