Good for the Chicago Tribune, revealing today some shocking statistics it uncovered when investigating shoddy records reporting by Illinois abortion clinics and the lax Illinois Department of Public Health overseeing them:
Health care providers are failing to detail abortion complications to the state as required by law….
Nearly 4,000 reports of abortion complications involving Illinois residents in 2009 were missing the required description.
Health care providers who intentionally fail to submit accurate and complete reports are committing a criminal act, and a failure to report abortion complications is grounds for revoking their licenses, but the Department of Public Health has never sought disciplinary action against a provider…..
"It's outrageous," declared Maurice Stevenson [pictured] whose wife died in 2002 from infection following an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Chicago….
A review of malpractice cases revealed other abortion-related complications in IL - with no way of knowing whether they were reported to the state.
For example, in 2002, after an area woman's uterus was torn in an abortion she began hemorrhaging, went into cardiac shock and was hospitalized for 3 weeks. Several years later, a mother of 3 experienced seizure symptoms and slipped into a coma following her abortion at a city clinic. And in 2009, a teenage girl suffered respiratory and cardiac arrest and died immediately following her abortion in a northern suburb, according to court records….
In certain medical malpractice cases reviewed by the Tribune, women said they were never informed by their provider that the abortion was unsuccessful and later underwent challenging pregnancies, painful deliveries and other complications.
Others suffered anesthesia-related problems, hemorrhaging and infections, according to the suits….
Planned Parenthood of Illinois… could not confirm for the Tribune whether it had reported the 2002 death of Stevenson's wife, only that it had reported the 2008 death of another patient. The organization said it had no reason to believe the 2002 death was not reported but that the records were in storage.
And Family Planning Associates said it could not confirm whether it had reported 3 deaths, in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
A woman who identified herself as a manager of the Women's Aid Clinic of Lincolnwood would not comment on a 2009 death.
Contact: Jill Stanek
Source: JillStanek.com
