Details Emerge on Hispanic New York Woman Killed in Botched Legal Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 27, 2010
Queens, NY (LifeNews.com) — More details are emerging on a botched legal abortion that killed a New York Hispanic woman that took place on Monday at an abortion center in Queens. Officials say the 37-year-old was killed after a botched abortion claimed her life at the A-1 Women’s Care abortion center located in Jackson Heights.
As LifeNews.com reported on Monday, emergency officials responded to an emergency call from the A1 Medicine facility at 95-45 Roosevelt.
There, they found Alexandra Nuñez bleeding very heavily following an abortion procedure and she was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital Center where she was later pronounced dead.
The abortion severed one of her arteries and she went into cardiac arrest.
The New York Daily News today indicates police have interviewed the staff at the A1 Medicine facility, which does abortions in addition to plastic surgery. However, no charges have been filed yet in connection with Nunez’s death.
"There is an investigation going forward," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said according to the newspaper, "but as of yet, there’s no indication of any criminality."
The news of Nunez’s death stunned her family because she told them she was headed to a medical center in Newark, New Jersey to have a cyst removed — apparently not wanting them to know she was headed to an abortion clinic.
"I’m upset because I never got a chance to say goodbye," sister Daisy Davila, 19, told the News. "She didn’t want anyone to go with her. I made dinner and lunch [yesterday] hoping she would come back."
"We’re not angry. We just want to know what happened," said Davila, who told the newspaper her mother did not believe in abortion. "She was a strong woman, always happy. I looked up to her."
Despite the abortion death, staff at the abortion center, who did not return a LifeNews.com phone call seeking comment, told the News that everything went properly during the abortion procedure and that they are still booking women for abortions.
"The patient was transferred to the hospital, she didn’t die at the clinic," a woman told the newspaper. "Nothing happened here."
The New York state department of health lists A1 Medicine as a facility for plastic surgery accredited by The Joint Commission on July 13, 2009.
Other media reports indicate the second-floor office specializes in plastic surgery, laser wrinkle surgery, skin depigmentation and liposuction but does abortions as well.
This failed abortion comes after a California medical board said an abortion practitioner who killed a woman last year in a botched abortion must stop doing them. However, to the chagrin of pro-life advocates, a judge did not revoke the medical license of Andrew Rutland, as happened years ago before reinstating it.
Rutland surrendered his license in October 2002 after a two-year state investigation that resulted in accusations of negligence, misconduct and incompetence in his treatment of 20 pregnant women, newborns and gynecological patients.
Rutland faced a Thursday hearing in front of the California Medical Board at a hearing in San Diego after documents showed Rutland killed a woman during an abortion by administering anesthesia to her and not knowing the proper dosage.
A judge ordered Rutland to stop doing abortions until a more thorough hearing on the case could be held.
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