Woman Died After Having Abortion at Marie Stopes Abortion Biz in Australia

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 5, 2014   |   10:22AM   |   Washington, DC

An investigation has revealed more information about a woman who died in 2011 from a botched late-term abortion at a Marie Stopes abortion business in Australia.

Delta Poke, 42, died at the Box Hill Hospital on December 18, 2011 after having a late-term abortion at the Croydon Day Surgery, now known as the Marie Stopes Clinic, four days earlier. Now, a court has heard more about what happened, following a lengthy investigation.

abortionhurtswomen2Former clinic owner Dr Mark Schulberg is the only doctor in Victoria, and possibly Australia, who performs late-term abortions between 16 and 24 weeks gestation.

The inquest heard Mrs Poke was undergoing her final procedure at the clinic when she suffered a cardiac arrest.

Giving evidence Monday, the centre’s then manager Wendy Turner said she and Dr Schulberg spoke to Mrs Poke’s husband Stanley after his wife was taken to hospital when he mentioned an earlier adverse reaction to surgery.

The abortion death took place at an abortion facility that had already drawn international attention because it employed an abortion practitioner who was accused of purposefully infecting more than 50 women with hepatitis C during 2008 and 2009. Anesthesiologist James Latham Peters was not the only abortion clinic employee who had problems — as Dr Mark Schulberg, the owner of the abortion business has had problems in the past.

He was in 2009 found guilty of unprofessional conduct for failing to gain legal consent to perform a late-term abortion on an intellectually disabled woman. And earlier in 2011, a 40-year-old woman was left fighting for her life in the Box Hill Hospital after Dr Schulberg performed a late-term abortion surgery on her. He is still being investigated by the practitioners’ board after 40-year-old mother Pheap Sem was rushed to hospital in August in a critical condition after a late-term abortion.

In 2008, abortionist Schulberg was found guilty of professional misconduct by the board for failing to gain legal consent for the 25-week abortion of an intellectually disabled woman raped by her father. A year later he was found guilty of inappropriately prescribing painkillers.

The death followed on the heels of an England-based Marie Stopes International abortion practitioner getting struck from the list of licensed physicians in England after he nearly killed a woman in a failed abortion. Phanuel Dartey perforated the uterus of an Ireland woman who went to the UK for an abortion and left parts of the unborn baby inside of her after supposedly completing the abortion he did at the Marie Stopes International Clinic in Ealing where he worked.

The woman, according to a report in the Independent, returned home following the abortion but was late taken tot he hospital where she remained in critical condition for two months after the botched abortion.

Dartey was also accused of botching laser surgery on five other women and the combined actions prompted a disciplinary panel to rule that he posted a risk to the public by engaging in medical malpractice and dishonesty. The panel ultimately said “his integrity cannot be relied upon.” The General Medical Council cited “unforeseen and distressing consequences” from the cosmetic surgeries.