D.C. Sirens Remind Us That Every Abortion Has at Least Two Victims

January 28, 2022

On January 27, sirens on 4th Street Northeast in Washington, D.C., announced an ambulance’s arrival at the Carol Whitehill Moses Center, the city’s Planned Parenthood. According to witnesses, a woman who appeared to be in pain was escorted out of the abortion facility and into the ambulance as a second emergency vehicle arrived as backup.

The Carol Whitehill Moses Center’s website states that they offer chemical abortions, as well as surgical abortions “up to 19 weeks and 6 days after the start of your last menstrual period.” One pro-life witness to the scene explained that Thursdays are the days when women further along in their pregnancies—between 12 and 20 weeks—are scheduled for abortions. At abortion businesses, the arrival of an ambulance is tragically more common than the industry would have women believe.

Planned Parenthood is not the only abortion facility in the D.C. area carrying out abortions after the first trimester. In fact, D.C. and Maryland offer no protections for the unborn, with both jurisdictions allowing children in the womb to be killed throughout the entirety of pregnancy. Anyone who cares about women should be troubled by the fact that several of the people carrying out abortions in the D.C. metro area have had malpractice lawsuits brought against them.

LeRoy Carhart, an abortionist who is infamous for carrying out extremely dangerous late-term abortions, has sent more than 10 women to the hospital over the course of his career, including one teenage girl and two women who ultimately died. Carhart has been sued by multiple women asserting that his abortion procedures caused them serious injury and left them permanently sterile.

Despite the numerous charges against Carhart, the supposed advocate for women has happily continued carrying out his signature late-term abortions. In a 2019 BBC Panorama documentary with Hilary Andersson, when he was asked, “And you don’t have a problem with killing a baby?” Carhart responded, “Absolutely not. I have no problem if it’s in the mother’s uterus.”

Currently, Carhart is facing two malpractice lawsuits. The first is from a woman who suffered a perforated uterus and torn-open bowel as the result of a late-term abortion carried out by abortionist Elizabeth Swallow at Carhart’s business. The second is from a woman who suffered a perforated uterus, massive hemorrhaging, trauma to her appendix, and an incomplete abortion that left most of her partially-beheaded baby inside.  

Another D.C. late-term abortionist, Caesar Santangelo, operates his business just blocks from the White House. In 2018, a medical malpractice/wrongful death lawsuit was filed against him by the family of a woman who received a dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedure at his business to remove her naturally-miscarried child. Santangelo, who had no hospital admitting privileges at the time, failed to call an ambulance for 13 minutes after the woman’s oxygen levels fell, and she turned blue. Sadly, once at the hospital, the woman was declared dead. An autopsy revealed that Santangelo botched the procedure, leaving her with a perforated or lacerated uterus and pieces of her preborn baby in her bloodstream and lungs. 

Abortion advocates often claim that more women will die by dangerous “coat hanger” procedures if Roe v. Wade is overturned. However, women must be reminded that even legal abortions are not safe procedures—they carry great risks and are often carried out by con artists who prove daily that they can get away with murder. One D.C. witness to yesterday’s tragedy observed that, fortunately, two women who were entering Planned Parenthood left the facility after seeing the ambulances.

It is important to note that abortions are not only dangerous when they impact the women who misguidedly choose them; every “successful” abortion ends in the death of a precious child. Every human life possesses inherent dignity and worth—whether it is a baby girl who was just conceived or a woman sitting in the waiting room of an abortion facility. Abortion is undeniably evil even when mothers emerge physically unscathed.

Incidents like the emergency at D.C.’s Planned Parenthood are not new phenomena. Abortionists are aware of the danger that they pose to women, and many shamelessly continue to practice even after maiming mothers. If women will not reject abortion to protect their babies, then they should at least consider the danger that they themselves face before placing their own lives in the hands of killers.