In 2003, abortionist Charles Rossman gave a handful of abortion pills to a 23-year-old who was beyond 30 weeks pregnant. He then locked the door of his Valdosta, Georgia, abortion mill – trapping the woman inside – and disappeared, leading authorities on an 11-year chase spanning two continents.
The woman, frantic and in labor, called 911 and police arrived in time to see her deliver a son. As for Rossman, Interpol finally found him in Germany and extradited him to the U.S. He pleaded guilty to criminal abortion and served five years in prison.
It’s my hope that people will keep this bizarre story in mind as the abortion cartel reminds Americans that March 10 wass the National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers.
Rossman’s case was unique but his is not the only story of abortionists who couldn’t care less about the health and safety of their patients.
On late-term abortion day at the Orlando office of James Pendergraft, the abortionist would send his visibly pregnant patients out to walk in circles around his parking lot. He wanted to speed up labor so he could deliver these mothers’ dead babies and get on with his day. I will never forget a story told to me by a pro-lifer who witnessed this horrifying ritual and tried – but failed – to convince a mother 20 weeks pregnant with twins not to kill her children.
In 2011, a jury awarded a mother $36 million for a botched abortion she suffered at Pendergraft’s hands. Her baby was born with disabilities and she went to court.
REACH PRO-LIFE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE! Advertise with LifeNews to reach hundreds of thousands of pro-life readers every week. Contact us today.
But that wasn’t the last of Pendergraft’s crimes.
During a routine traffic stop in 2015 in South Carolina, police found drugs and surgical implements covered in blood and human tissue from abortions he had conducted. The local sheriff described him as a “traveling abortionist” but it was the drugs that got him arrested. He pleaded guilty and was given five years on probation and a $26,000 fine.
The abortion industry has produced many monsters, like Kermit Gosnell and Steven Brigham. But it’s the casual cruelty of the abortionists in the stories told by the women of the Silent No More Campaign that I think of every year when this macabre “Day of Appreciation” comes around.
The doctor came in and didn’t say one word to me, no questions, no last thoughts. He turned on the machine and a loud noise rang in my ears, and he began the procedure. I was writhing in pain. I was cramping and felt like my insides were being ripped out of me. The nurse did not hold my hand to comfort me. I screamed so loud, I know my mother could hear me but no one came to my rescue me. I could hear him sucking out pieces of my baby, I cried and felt so ashamed. When it was over, the doctor turned off the machine, told me to take ibuprofen for pain, and seek medical attention if I notice blood clotting.
I never saw the abortion doctor until just before the procedure. I was reluctant to let him go in with the instruments. He said, jokingly, “Just spread your legs like a cheerleader.”
No one spoke to me at the clinic. There were three nurses and a doctor. No sedation or anesthesia for pain. Two nurses held me down. Horrified over what was happening to me and my baby, I began to cry out. A nurse placed a washcloth in my mouth, telling me to bite down on it. My screams were stifled.
These are the people abortion advocates want us to appreciate – doctors who presumably went into medicine to heal but somehow ended up in a practice devoted to killing. Obviously there will be no appreciation from pro-lifers for these misguided medical practitioners but I am asking for prayers for them.
We talk often about needing to make abortion unthinkable. Let’s pray that these men and women who go to work every day ready to end the lives of countless innocent unborn have a conversion of the heart and discover that how they make their living has become unthinkable.
Janet Morana is the executive director of Priests for Life and the co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. Her most recent book is Everything You Need to Know About Abortion – For Teens.
