Supporters of Operation Rescue and other Pro-Life organization are expected to demonstrate outside a Cleveland women's clinic Wednesday, after a 22 year old woman died from an apparent botched abortion.
The protest is scheduled for 11 a.m. outside the Preterm Abortion Clinic on Shaker Boulevard, and organizers say they will call for the immediate suspension of the clinic's license because of the March death of 22-year-old Lakisha Wilson.
According the Operation Rescue, Lakisha Wilson, 22, received a late-term abortion at Preterm on March 21. Sometime after the abortion, Wilson stopped breathing, according to 911 records, and was transported to Chase University Medical Center, where she was placed on life support and pronounced dead less than a week later.
The autopsy report shows evidence that Wilson was not properly monitored after her abortion, a lapse that may have prevented her from receiving emergency care in time to save her life.
According to the report, Wilson suffered from "uterine atony." This is a condition where the uterus does not properly contract after the abortion and thus leads to a hemorrhage. Wilson suffered blood loss and went into shock, which was not immediately detected, or she would have been treated and stabilized.
Depressed respiration caused by sedation administered by abortion clinic personnel may have contributed to the lack of oxygen Wilson's body received, compounding the medical crisis she experienced due to blood loss. As a result, Wilson suffered cardiopulmonary arrest and subsequent fatal brain damage while at the Preterm Abortion Clinic, before paramedics were called.
Wilson had been turned down at two other clinics before being accepted for the procedure by Preterm.
"If Lakisha had been monitored properly, early signs of distress would have been rapidly detected and treated before she had deteriorated to the point of cardiopulmonary arrest," said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. "Because there is now reason to believe that negligence was involved, we call upon Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty to launch a criminal investigation into the death of Lakisha Wilson and act quickly to bring those responsible to justice."
The autopsy report indicated that Wilson's pre-born baby was 19.4 weeks gestation at the time of Wilson's abortion - just three days before the legal abortion limit in Ohio - although no fetal remains were present during the autopsy. The Medical Examiner appears to have relied on abortion records for that information.
Ohio Right to Life, another one of the organizations planning to be involved in today's protest, also sent a letter Tuesday asking Gov. John Kasich to investigate the incident and the abortion facility.
"The death of this young woman is another sobering reminder that Ohio needs to enforce laws that hold abortion clinics accountable to health and safety standards," said ORTL President Mike Gonidakis. "The abortion industry touts the myth that abortion is 'safe,' yet botched chemical abortions and tragedies like Ms. Wilson's are not necessarily the exception."
Wilson's death is more evidence that minorities are the group most affected by abortion, with 1 out of every 4 black babies having been aborted since Roe vs Wade passed.
