News Briefs
News Briefs
Arizona Abortionist Convicted of Manslaughter
An Arizona abortionist will serve five years in prison for allowing a patient to bleed to death after performing a botched abortion on her.
John Biskind, 75, was convicted of manslaughter for the 1999 death of 33-year-old LouAnn Herron. Biskind was accused of leaving the clinic after the abortion, even though staffers told him Herron was having problems. The former clinic administrator, Carol Stuart Schadoff, was convicted of negligent homicide in the case. Herron’s death forced the clinic to close and led to new legislation regulating abortion in Arizona. (Source: Associated Press and Arizona Republic, May 5, 2001)
Florida Woman Wins Coerced Abortion Suit
A Florida woman has won a lawsuit accusing her former employer of coercing her into an abortion because her baby was biracial.
Nikki Schmitz won a judgment of over $466,000 against the Fisher-Pou funeral home after jurors found that supervisors invaded Schmitz’s privacy and subjected her to “extreme and outrageous” behavior. Schmitz’s lawyer said he plans to retry part of the case after jurors deadlocked on whether the supervisors’ actions involved racial discrimination. (Source: Associated Press; Feb. 11, 2001)
Michigan Abortionist to Lose Medical License
A Michigan abortionist who was accused of performing an illegal late-term abortion will lose his medical license for altering his patient’s medical records in an attempt to cover up the abortion.
Jose Higuera will plead guilty to a charge that he altered the baby’s gestational age on the medical records, but state officials have agreed to drop the illegal abortion charge in exchange for the loss of Higuera’s medical license. Higuera’s former nurse brought the case to the attention of the state attorney general’s office in 1994 after Higuera performed an abortion at nearly seven months, violating a Michigan law prohibiting late-term abortions except to save the life of the mother. Higuera is believed to be the first abortionist charged with performing an illegal abortion since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973. (Source: Associated Press; May 7, 2001)
Abortionist Will Not Be Held Liable for Woman’s Death
The family of a Wisconsin woman who was poisoned during a botched chemical abortion will not receive any compensation for her death, even though a jury has found the abortionist to be responsible.
Linda Boom, 35, died after chemicals were injected into her bloodstream rather than her womb during a late-term abortion in Sept. 1995. A jury awarded Boom’s family $2.3 million for her death, but the amount cannot be recovered because the abortionist, Daniel Gilman, was dismissed as a defendant after the lawsuit was filed too late. The jury also found that Sinai Samaritan Medical Center, where the abortion was performed, was not liable for Boom’s death because Gilman was not a hospital employee. (Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; May 4, 2001)
Philadelphia Abortionist Facing Lawsuit
A couple has filed a lawsuit against a Philadelphia-area abortionist, accusing him of botching the wife’s abortionist and endangering her life by failing to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy.
Victoria and Daniel Jeh are asking for $50,000 in damages from Harvey Brookman and the Healthy Women’s Center after Victoria underwent an abortion there last July. Their lawsuit says that Brookman failed to test for ectopic pregnancy after Victoria continued to have pain and bleeding after the abortion. She later had to undergo emergency surgery to remove an ectopic pregnancy from her fallopian tube. (Source: Bucks County (PA) Courier Times, Feb. 23, 2001)
Teen Says Fake Doctor Botched Her Abortion
A 16-year-old Florida girl has accused a fake doctor of botching her abortion, possibly leaving her infertile.
The teen told police that she was hospitalized with a possibly sterilizing infection after undergoing an abortion performed by Jose Carros, who has twice been arrested for practicing medicine without a medical license. The police reported that since news of the case broke, nearly 40 other women have come forward to say that Carros treated them also. (Source: WPLG-TV ABC (Miami); March 13, 2001)
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Abortion Regulation Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case brought by four South Carolina abortionists over abortion clinic regulations in that state.
The abortions claimed that the regulations were an unconstitutional attempt to undermine abortion, but the regulations were upheld on appeal. The Supreme Court would not comment on its refusal to hear the case, known as Greenville Women’s Clinic v. Bryant, but its decision could affect similar lawsuits in Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee. (Source: Associated Press; Feb. 26, 2001)
Man Gets Life in Prison for Death of Unborn Child
An Arkansas man will spend the rest of his life in prison after arranging an attack that killed his girlfriend’s unborn child after she refused to have an abortion.
Eric Bullock was convicted of hiring three men to beat his girlfriend, Shiwona Pace, who survived, and kill her nearly full-term unborn baby girl. One of the three alleged attackers has been sentenced to 40 years in prison. This is the first case to be tried under an Arkansas law that allows murder charges to be brought when an unborn child of at least 12 weeks’ gestation dies during a violent crime. Source: (Source: Associated Press; Feb. 9, 2001)
Man Convicted in Forced Abortion Attempt
A Connecticut man convicted in January of trying to force his girlfriend to have an abortion could face up to 95 years in prison.
Edwin Sandoval was accused of forcing two pills of misopristol into his girlfriend’s birth canal during a forced sexual encounter in Aug. 1998 after she refused to have an abortion. She later suffered vaginal bleeding but did not have a miscarriage. Misopristil is used in RU-486 abortions to cause uterine contractions and expel the unborn child. (Source: National Right to Life News, Feb. 2001)
Originally published in The Post-Abortion Review, Vol. 9, No. 2, April-June 2001. Copyright 2001, Elliot Institute
