Kill the Baby, Endanger the Mother: Day's Work for a Late-term Abortionist

He not only destroys children in the womb, he endangers the lives of the women he claims to serve

Meet James Pendergraft, a Florida abortionist now operating an office in the D.C.-area where he executes babies after the 24th week of pregnancy by "intra-cardiac injection." He then sends the mother off, still carrying her dead child, to have the abortion completed somewhere else, by someone else.  He not only destroys children in the womb, he endangers the lives of the women he claims to serve.  Are you paying attention, America?

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Meet James Pendergraft, convicted felon and owner of five abortion clinics in the state of Florida.  His medical license is currently on its 4th suspension, but that has hardly deterred him. On his website, LateTermAbortion.net, he reveals his current method of circumventing the system to kill babies in the 2nd and 3rd trimester (greater than 24 weeks), leaving others to clean up after him.

At his office in the DC-area, the address and location of which he will not disclose even to women seeking his "services," he specializes in abortion by intra-cardiac injection.  Guided by a sonogram image, he uses a spinal needle to stab the baby in the heart and inject a lethal dose of a "feticide agent" or 50 cc's of air in order to stop the child's heart.  This "procedure" takes from 2 to 4 minutes to complete.  The website reports that the woman is able to go home within 15 minutes of the "procedure."

You may be wondering what happens next.  Now carrying a dead baby, the woman must take herself back to either her regular OB/GYN, family doctor, or head to the emergency room so that someone else can complete "the evacuation of the uterus."

Pendergraft only wants to do the execution; he leaves the rest to the woman and whatever doctor she can find.  His website carefully explains that payment for his "services" is only accepted via electronic bank transfer of funds.  While he does not specify a dollar amount, he lists "unlimited phone consultation, the time spent at the LateTermAbortion.net facility, the sonogram, lab testing, counseling, recovery and administrative fees including travel costs."  He explains that this intra-cardiac injection is not a simple "procedure" and thus, very few doctors are trained in how to do it.  He, of course, is highly trained in this specialized method of execution, and undoubtedly, it ain't cheap.

Women who make an appointment are instructed: "On your day of arrival, you will be told of a designated area to meet based on when you arrive to the D.C. area by plane, train, car, or other form of transportation. That individual will pick up you and your significant other up as there will be only one other person to come with you to the facility due to privacy and security issues for the patient and staff." [sic]

When the "procedure" is over and the woman is ready to leave, she is given a post-op packet "with instructions on how to care of yourself until you follow-up with your personal physician or the proper referral where the evacuation of the uterus will be carried out." [sic]

Pendergraft details what can happen if the abortion isn't completed in a timely-enough manner:  "Generally when most fetuses die in utero, there are enzymes released that cause an inflammatory reaction to occur which leads to labor which is followed by delivery of the tissue. The problem is if you do not go into labor for a few days, not only can the patient's blood become severely infected, but this can lead to a clotting disorder where the patient's blood does not clot, severe low blood pressure, bleeding constantly from needle sticks, internal bleeding, multiple organ failure which can lead to maternal death. This is nothing that should be taken lightly. Therefore once the intra-cardiac injection is complete, there is no turning back. The remainder of the procedure must be carried out as pre-planned."

He makes certain he gets his money up front, carries out the execution, then sends the mother off to have the abortion completed somewhere else, by someone else, and removes himself from any liability, complication, or even maternal death that may result. 

The most obvious scenario is this:  the woman goes to her local emergency room and says her baby has stopped moving.  They do an ultrasound that shows no heartbeat and tell her the baby has died.  Now an unsuspecting doctor begins to induce labor and deliver the child, not knowing how the baby died.  If this doctor believes in the sanctity of human life and chooses not to take innocent life through abortion, he has now been deceived into unwittingly completing an abortion against his conscience.  The hospital either bills the woman's insurance for the extensive costs of induced labor and delivery, or the taxpayers pick up the tab. 

The mother's recovery care, including any complications resulting from the abortion, is not anything Pendergraft cares to concern himself with.  It's now up to the doctor and/or hospital who completed the abortion Pendergraft started, and they will probably not even know what situation they're actually dealing with.

Pendergraft, like Kermit Gosnell, is nothing more than a butcher who preys on babies and women for profit.   It was in Pendergraft's clinic, Orlando Women's Center, where baby Rowan was aborted alive and left to die.  In 2005, a pregnant woman delivered her baby alive in a toilet.  Baby Rowan lived for 11 minutes.  Despite his mother's pleas for help, staff at OWC refused to help the child.  911 tapes revealed that the staff also refused to allow baby Rowan's mother to use their phone to call an ambulance.  (So much for obeying the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, which was signed into law in 2002.) Baby Rowan's story was documented in the drama, 22 Weeks.

No criminal investigation into baby Rowan's death was ever done, and Pendergraft has continued doing late-term abortions in Florida and now in D.C.   His website assures women that at his D.C.-area office the intra-cardiac injection is perfectly legal, though he adds this qualifying statement:  "Though it is being called a Late Term Abortion Facility, it actually is not by Florida or most other State's definition of abortion."

Since there are no dead babies actually delivered in his office, he claims it's not really an abortion facility.  How convenient for him.  Like a secret hitman, he does the kill and then pushes the two victims out the door to be someone else's problem while he counts his cash.

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Jennifer Hartline is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

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