Pro-Life News in Brief

By Liz Townsend

Michigan Women Plead Guilty to Attempted Assisted Suicide

A Michigan mother who helped her 19-year-old son kill himself pled guilty to attempted assisted suicide August 27. Kathleen Holey and her sister-in-law Mary Wendland, who helped Holey and who previously pled guilty, were the first to be convicted under the state's four-year-old ban passed to stop Jack Kevorkian.

According to the Associated Press (AP), Holey, 43, encouraged her son and daughter-in-law to commit suicide, filled a prescription for a powerful painkiller, drove them to an abandoned farmhouse April 9, and instructed them in how to use the drugs to kill themselves. Her son Patrick died that day, but his wife Jennifer, also 19, survived the suicide attempt.

Patrick and Jennifer Holey were married just before their first child was born in August 2001, according to the New York Times.

Their world began to fall apart in April. On April 1, according to Ingham County Assistant Prosecutor Joyce Draganchuk, Jennifer helped her husband rape a 14-year-old girl, the AP reported.

One week later, social workers removed their eight-month-old baby from their custody, because she "was not gaining weight properly, seemed ill and . . . appeared to be in physical danger," according to the Los Angeles Times. As police were preparing to interview them about the rape, Kathleen Holey convinced Patrick and Jennifer to kill themselves, Clinton County Prosecutor Charles Sherman told the AP, "because it could improve her chances of getting custody" of their baby girl.

Jennifer Holey was found wandering near the farmhouse April 10 by a farmer who thought she had been attacked, according to the New York Times. When she was taken to a hospital, she told police what happened and directed them to the farmhouse, where they found Patrick's body in the basement.

At the time of her suicide attempt, Jennifer was pregnant with their second baby, who was born healthy on August 10, the AP reported.

Also convicted in the case was Kathleen Holey's sister-in-law, Mary Wendland, who pled guilty to attempted assisted suicide July 8 and is serving a six-month jail term. Wendland testified that she gave Patrick and Jennifer anti-nausea medication so they would not throw up the pain killers they took, according to the AP.

Jennifer Holey is now serving a sentence of four to fifteen years in jail after she pled guilty in June to third-degree criminal sexual conduct for her involvement in the April rape. Her children are both in foster care.

Kathleen Holey will be sentenced on October 14 and could receive up to 2-1/2 years in prison and a fine of $5,000.

Haskell's Clinic Must Comply with State Law, Court Rules

An Ohio appeals court ruled August 15 that an abortion clinic in Kettering, owned by abortionist Martin Haskell, needs to be licensed as an "ambulatory surgical facility" under state law, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Haskell is notorious for pioneering the "dilation and extraction" abortion procedure, now known as partial-birth abortion. He owns Women's Med Center in Kettering.

At the request of pro-life groups, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) investigated 21 abortion clinics in 1999 to determine if they were in compliance with a 1996 law regulating medical facilities. The health department found that Women's Med Center fell under the definition of an "ambulatory surgical facility" and had to meet "requirements that deal with staff members, building and equipment maintenance, and emergency procedures," according to the Daily News.

Haskell challenged the health department order, asserting that the investigation unfairly focused on abortion providers and that his clinic was an "office of private physicians" and should be exempt, the Daily News reported.

However, according to the 2-1 majority opinion written by Judge Dana A. Deshler, there was "no evidence that [ODH] was exclusively targeting abortion clinics merely because a right-to- life group may have made ODH aware that a particular facility was not licensed. The statute here is 'abortion neutral.'"

Haskell's attorney, Alphonse Gerhardstein, told the Daily News that the ruling may be appealed.

Texas Parents Sue Clinic for Aborting Teen without Notification

The parents of 17-year-old Cherise Mosley, who used a fake ID to obtain an abortion without notifying them, have sued the abortion clinic for failing to follow Texas law. Parents of a minor who wants an abortion in Texas must be notified 48 hours before the procedure unless the minor receives permission from a judge.

"My first grandchild was aborted," Frederick Mosley, Cherise's father and pastor of New Covenant Christian Fellowship in Pearland, told the Houston Chronicle. "It hurt me deeply."

Cherise and her boyfriend went to the Aaron Family Clinic in Houston for an abortion in August 2000, according to the Chronicle. When they were told that Cherise needed identification to show she was over 18, they went to a grocery store and received a shopping card that listed a false address and age.

Returning to the clinic, a staff member accepted the card as official documentation of her age. "They just seemed to want something to copy," Cherise told the Chronicle. "So they made a copy for their records, and I was in." Cherise paid $600, and her unborn baby was aborted that day.

Cherise now says that deep down she hoped that the clinic would see through her lies and give her a reason not to have the abortion.

"It was so easy," she told the Chronicle. "I never thought they would accept it, and then I'd be forced to tell my dad." The only acceptable proof of age is supposed to be "valid governmental record of identification," the Chronicle reported. However, the grocery store card that Cherise used was stamped " This is not a government document," which should have made it ineligible to be used at the abortion clinic.

"We talk about the irresponsibility of minors," said Deborah Mosley, Cherise's stepmother, according to the Chronicle, "but how about the irresponsibility of the clinic that took us out of the equation for the business of making money?"

Cherise said she has begun to heal from the abortion, especially after giving birth to a daughter, Alyssah, seven months ago. " Having her brought me extreme closure," she told the Chronicle. " It's like having a second chance."

Red Cross Cord Blood Donor Program Growing

Braeden Goggans's birth on August 14 was not only a day of joy for his parents but a milestone for Russellville Hospital in Franklin County, Alabama, as it became the 12th affiliate of the American Red Cross to join an umbilical cord blood donor program, the Alabama Times Daily reported.

Braeden and two other babies born the same day were the first cord blood donors at the hospital.

Cord blood is a rich source of stem cells that provide an ethical alternative to embryonic stem cells for treating various diseases, including leukemia, bone marrow failure, and sickle cell anemia.

"Mothers giving birth are giving life," Red Cross site coordinator Susan Austin told the Times Daily. "This program gives life to someone else."

After the baby is delivered, the umbilical cord is clamped and cut and the blood is drained. Successful collections require about two ounces of cord blood, which is stored and shipped within 24 hours, according to the Times Daily.

The collection procedure does not affect the mother or child at all. "The needle goes into the baby's cord and fills up a container," Dr. Joseph Johnson told the Times Daily.

The American Red Cross program gathers the cord blood and offers it free to patients. "It gives life rather than throwing it away," Austin told the Times Daily. "It's a donation a family can be proud of."

The first hospital in the South to begin the program was Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital in Florence, Alabama, November 26. Since then, about 250 babies have been enrolled in the program at that hospital, the Times Daily reported.

Red Cross officials hope that cord blood donation becomes common around the nation. "My dream is that doctors learn how to do this in medical schools," Heidi Patterson, national director of the cord blood bank, told the Times Daily. "It would be wonderful if this could happen for every birth."

Court Rejects Challenge to Louisiana "Choose Life" License Plates

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced August 9 that its March decision rejecting a pro-abortion challenge to Louisiana's specialty "Choose Life" license plates would stand, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The appeals court refused to reconsider its ruling that the pro- abortionists did not have the legal standing to bring a lawsuit against the license plates.

The license plate, which features the "Choose Life" slogan and a drawing of a baby wrapped in a blanket in the beak of the state bird, a pelican, was unanimously approved by the legislature in 1999. Money raised from the sale of the plates would go to organizations that promote adoption.

Bill Rittenberg, attorney for the pro-abortion groups, told the AP that he is "strongly considering" an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

D.C. Official Pressured Employees to Abort

Confirming an August 2001 story in the Washington Times, the D.C. inspector general called for "appropriate disciplinary action" against an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) official for pressuring trainees to have abortions if they became pregnant during their first year of employment.

Three women out of six who attended a training session in March 2001 reportedly had abortions based on the official's advice, fearing that they would be fired if their pregnancies were discovered. The three women are still working for EMS but have suffered emotional pain over their abortions.

"They are still experiencing trauma over the issue," Kenneth Lyons, chairman of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3721, told the Times. "They're dealing with it day to day."

D.C. Inspector General Charles C. Maddox found that interim EMS chief Samanthia M. Robinson told the trainees "they were on a year's probation, had no union representation and could be fired if they became pregnant," the Times reported.

"Robinson's statements in this regard violated official District government policy prohibiting the termination of government women based solely on their pregnancy," Maddox wrote, according to the Times.

Maddox's office forwarded the report to the U.S. Attorney for possible legal action against Robinson, but the case was not prosecuted due to lack of "evidence of criminal intent," the Times reported.

In addition to calling for sanctions against Robinson, the inspector general's report recommended that fire and EMS officials make sure instructors understand D.C. law on maternity leave and pregnancy.

According to the Times, Maddox asked interim Fire Chief Adrian Thompson to decide by September 3 how the report's recommendations would be put into practice.

Limits to Abortion Funding Challenged in Florida

An administrative judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Florida's law limiting Medicaid funding of abortion to life of the mother, rape, and incest. Judge Patricia Malono heard arguments in the case August 29, in which an abortion clinic, a doctor, and a woman assert that the law discriminates against women, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

According to the AP, the plaintiffs, represented by the pro- abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP), argued that the law violates the state constitution because it denies women a specific medical treatment.

"Poor men get all medically necessary care while poor women don't," CRLP attorney Bonnie Scott Jones said in court, the AP reported.

However, state attorney Jeffries Duvall argued that the Florida law "does not stop women on Medicaid from getting abortions or put up impediments to their abortions," according to the AP.

Lawsuits against the Medicaid funding limits have been filed since 1993. At first, opponents argued that the law violated privacy rights. The case wound through the courts until summer 2001, when the Florida Supreme Court upheld the funding law.

Since the state Supreme Court upheld the law solely on the basis of privacy rights, pro-abortionists filed the current suit in October 2001 on the grounds of discrimination.