Planned Parenthood Ignored Instruction to Call 911 in Abortion Death

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 7, 2012   |   12:20PM   |   Chicago, IL

The Planned Parenthood facility that botched an abortion on Tonya Reaves and claimed her life not only failed to call 911, as LifeNews previously reported, but also purposefully ignored instructions to do so.

Operation Rescue has obtained a recording and computer aided dispatch transcript that indicates, on the same day that Tonya Reaves died from hemorrhage caused by a uterine perforation after a second trimester abortion, the Chicago Planned Parenthood that killed her ignored instructions from an emergency dispatcher to directly call 911. Planed Parenthood staff were lectured by emergency personnel to call 911 in the event of an emergency in order to prevent wasting precious time that could adversely affect a patient needing immediate medical attention.

The Office of Emergency Management and Communications for the City of Chicago confirmed to Operation Rescue, in response to a FOIA request, that only one call was placed from Planned Parenthood’s location on that day, and that call did not involve Reaves.

“This new information confirms that Planned Parenthood intentionally ignored instructions given to them earlier in the day by an Emergency Dispatcher and refused to employ the fastest means of getting help for their dying patient,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue. “In addition to waiting five and a half hours to get Reaves to the hospital, the further delay caused by refusing call 911 as instructed could have been the difference between life and death.”

According to information the group obtained, the record concerns a call placed at 12:43 p.m. on July 20, 2012, originating from the Loop Health Center Planned Parenthood, located at 18 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The Planned Parenthood office occupies the entire sixth floor of the Gage Building. The dispatcher is heard on the recording confirming that the caller’s office is on the sixth floor and no other medical offices exist in that building.

Tonya Reaves received her fatal abortion at 11:00 a.m. on July 20. As Reaves lay hemorrhaging, an employee called to report that elsewhere in the clinic a 16-year old patient was “physically assaulted” by her mother.

During that call, the Planned Parenthood caller indicated that the staff had to pull the two apart after they witnessed the mother kick and hair-pull her daughter and threaten her with further harm once her father arrived.

The 911 Dispatcher is heard admonishing the Planned Parenthood worker for calling 311, which caused a delay in dispatching aid to the scene. The 311 Call Center is used primarily to provide information regarding City events and programs and other non-emergency services.

The following is a partial transcript of the conversation:

Dispatcher: Okay, and once you called – you see, next time you need a police car to come out for any reason whatsoever, you need to call 911.
Caller: Right. Okay. I just –
Dispatcher: That way you don’t waste time with 311.
Caller: I know, I know, I just (laugh) I just hate to use services to make, you know –
Dispatcher: I know. Well, they don’t dispatch police cars. All they do is transfer you to 911.
Caller: Gotcha.
Dispatcher: So you’re waiting in that queue and then they flip you over to our office.
Caller: Right.
Dispatcher: Now I don’t have any of your information. So, what is your telephone number?

“This information shows gross negligence in the way Planned Parenthood managed Reaves medical emergency. Delays in getting her the care she needed were intentional. It crosses the line into what is likely criminal conduct,” said Sullenger. “We renew our call for a criminal investigation into Reaves death. If those responsible are not brought to justice, it is only a matter of time before another woman suffers Tonya’s tragic fate.”

At 11:00 a.m. on Friday, Reaves received a second-trimester dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion at Planned Parenthood, located at 18 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago. Following the abortion, Reaves began bleeding heavily and it continued at Planned Parenthood for five and a half hours before a Fire Department ambulance finally took her to Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 4:30 p.m.

Then, once the young woman arrived at the hospital, the reports make it appear emergency personnel had to start from scratch to figure out the extent of Reaves injuries.

“Then at 5:30 p.m., doctors performed an ultrasound, and another dilation and evacuation procedure – basically, another abortion – this time at Northwestern,” Miller reports. “But after that, there were then more problems, and pain. That warranted a new ultrasound, and a perforation was discovered. At 10:12 p.m., Reaves was taken back to surgery – and “an uncontrollable bleed was discovered,” documents say.”

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Reaves’ family has obtained an attorney who is looking into a potential civil lawsuit against Planned Parenthood on the family’s behalf.

A leading member of Congress who has already started the process of investigating the Planned Parenthood abortion business related to Medicaid fraud and potentially hiding cases of sexual abuse of minors says it should be probed over a recent abortion death.