Women Having Abortions at Suspended Facility Had Complications, Pressured 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 22, 2006
Birmingham, AL (LifeNews.com) — Women who had abortions at the Alabama abortion facility that had its license suspended last week say they had complications form their abortions. Other women report being rushed into and pressured to have the abortion. They agreed the facility should be closed.
Last week, the Alabama state health board suspended the medical license of Summit Medical Center, a Birmingham abortion business.
Summit was found to have allowed a staff member give a woman with a late-term pregnancy and a severely high blood pressure the dangerous abortion drug RU 486. The drug is only supposed to be given early in pregnancy and the woman should have had emergency medical attention instead. In addition to violating several laws, Summit falsified its paperwork to make it appear a licensed physician was in the office that day.
The woman didn’t die but gave birth to a six pound four ounce stillborn baby. She’s not alone in having problems at Summit.
Jennifer Vickery, 26, had an abortion at Summit on May 4 and is already regretting her decision.
When she heard the news about the state health board closing the abortion business over the problems, she told the Birmingham News she was "scared for my life."
Vickery is having complications from the abortion and running a fever and had planned to have a follow-up appointment at Summit. The abortion center will be closed while its license is suspended for 90 days and a hearing is scheduled for June 20 to determine if it should be closed for good.
That would be fine with Vickery.
"I don’t think they should be allowed to reopen," Vickery said of Summit. "That’s dealing with someone’s life. If they can’t do it right, they don’t need to even be open."
She said Summit officials pressured her into having the abortion.
"They rushed me back so quick and started giving me medication, and I didn’t have time to think about it," she said. "I didn’t feel like I had time to think about nothing. When I got there, they had me start filling out papers. They said, `We want you to do it today, because we have a doctor here.’"
The Birmingham News also reported that three other women have contacted the newspaper saying they had recent abortions at Summit and reported complications.
One woman said she had an abortion there on the day the abortion center was shut down. She said she was in extreme pain and had a 103 degree fever and had to drive herself to a medical clinic and was rushed into surgery.
Further back, Summit abortion practitioner Malachy DeHenre had his license suspended in 2004 after a woman died from a botched abortion at Summit. The Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners investigation found he committed "repeated malpractice."
