What would you do if you found out your outpatient surgeon had a history of letting her patients bleed for hours on the operating table without alerting a hospital?
Or that your doctor had his medical license suspended but is still operating on patients? Those are some of the tragic situations Louisiana women found themselves in at the state’s abortion facilities.
Thankfully, Louisiana legislators stood up for women and enacted Act 620, a law that requires doctors at abortion facilities to hold admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. This means that these abortionists can be screened by hospitals for competence and a clean track record. It also means that, in the case of an emergency, an abortionist can directly admit a woman undergoing an abortion to the hospital. But abortion providers didn’t want to comply with these legal safeguards.
So they challenged the law in court and said they were doing so to “protect women’s rights.”
On March 4, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in June Medical Services v. Russo. Alliance Defending Freedom filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of 80 current, former, and incoming Louisiana state legislators in support of Act 620.
By fighting this common-sense law that benefits women, abortionists are hijacking the voice of women and silencing those they claim to represent.
So, if these women weren’t silenced, what would they say?
D.C.’s Story
One woman, who goes by D.C., would tell you about how she was left bleeding on the table for three hours after an abortion until an employee finally called an ambulance, against the abortionist’s order.
Why didn’t the abortionist want to call an ambulance? Well, Dr. Whitmore “would not let her call 911 because of possible media involvement.” It isn’t hard to see why Dr. Whitmore had his medical license suspended by the Louisiana Board of Medical Directors over a question of his medical competency. Ultimately, D.C. had to undergo a complete hysterectomy.
Audrey’s Story
Another woman named Audrey D. would tell you about how Dr. Golden, an abortion doctor, left her with nurses when she was experiencing excruciating pain following a surgical abortion. Rather than evaluate her himself, Dr. Golden had nurses give her Tylenol and tell her to go home and lie down.
Thankfully, Audrey ignored the nurses’ advice and went straight to the hospital, where the emergency-room physician found a rip in her uterus along with her child’s head. Dr. Golden failed to complete the abortion, and, as a result, put Audrey’s life at risk.
Audrey had to undergo an emergency hysterectomy that day. And that wasn’t the only time Dr. Golden put a woman’s life at risk.
Brenda’s Story
Dr. Golden left another woman, Brenda, on the operating table for seven to eight hours as she bled uncontrollably. Finally, he had an employee take Brenda to the hospital in a car (he didn’t even call an ambulance!) and told Brenda what to tell the emergency-room physician.
Because Dr. Golden didn’t accompany Brenda to the hospital, emergency room personnel missed out on learning vital information—including the fact that she was injured during an abortion procedure. Three days later during surgery, they discovered her child’s skull and an infected tear in her uterus.
In the end, Brenda also had to undergo a hysterectomy.
All these women tragically lost their ability to have children because they were left in the hands of incompetent doctors. Because of Dr. Golden’s mistreatment of Audrey and Brenda, the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners found him guilty of medical incompetency and suspended his medical license for two years. But, even after that, the West Bank Clinic employed Dr. Golden to perform abortions less than a month after his conviction.
That is why Louisiana adopted Act 620. The process to gain admitting privileges involves extensive screening that keeps out medically incompetent doctors. Unfortunately, since the prior law didn’t require it, abortion facilities didn’t ensure that their abortion doctors were able to pass these background checks. And, in challenging Act 620, they still refuse to.
Women should receive the best care possible from competent and qualified doctors; women deserve better than substandard care from medically incompetent abortionists.
–Written by Teresa Haney and published by Alliance Defending Freedom.