By Anne Reed
No Hope at The Hope Clinic for Women
An employee of The Hope Clinic for Women (HCW) in Granite City, Illinois, called 911 on June 16, 2023, at 11:15 a.m. She requested emergency transport of a 32-year-old female to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, a Level One Trauma Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The chief complaint communicated by the caller was a “suspected false passage.”
According to the caller, the woman had undergone a dilation and curettage procedure, most often referred to simply as a “D&C.” The woman likely required the procedure due to an “incomplete” abortion. A D&C is performed to finish the abortion – to remove the deceased child. Unfortunately, women who suffer the tragedy of miscarriage commonly require a D&C as well.
During a D&C, cervical dilators are used to facilitate the introduction of instruments into the uterus. The uterus is then scraped and emptied using a curette – a thin, sharp-edged, spoon-shaped surgical instrument.
According to Dr. Beverly McMillan, a pro-life OB/GYN who once performed abortions, the suspected false passage referenced by the HCW employee during the 911 call likely referred to the surgical error of creating a false passage (perforating the cervix, and perhaps the uterus) while attempting to insert a dilator through the normal opening of the cervical canal.
Though less likely, the same injury could have been caused by a hysteroscope – a thin, rigid, or flexible telescope sometimes inserted into the cervical canal to take images of the inside of the uterus. Either way, if the uterus was perforated, the injury would certainly have been life-threatening, which explains why the caller specifically requested transfer to a hospital highly specialized in trauma care – instead of the hospital directly across the street in Granite City.
According to pro-life sidewalk counselors on the scene who observed the young woman being wheeled out on a stretcher, the ambulance was immediately followed by a car with tags from a southern, abortion-free state. They also observed that the following abortionists were on duty that day: Margaret Baum, Erin King, and Yogendra Shah. Any of the three could have caused the dangerous injury.
Apparently, it was important to keep any details about the emergency under wraps.
Just moments before the ambulance arrived, the facility’s security guard approached another set of out-of-state clients in the parking lot. The guard abruptly interrupted their conversation to warn them against interacting with the pro-life advocates. She informed them that they would not be allowed into the building if they stopped and spoke to the pro-lifers.
By all appearances, the guard’s warnings were an attempt to quickly move the clients into the building before the sight of an ambulance would potentially scare them away.
It also appears that Granite City is helping facilitate the cover-ups of injuries at HCW. Sidewalk counselors have noticed that Granite City ambulance drivers regularly turn off their sirens about a block before reaching the abortion facility. Likewise, when leaving HCW, the sirens are not turned on until reaching an intersection a block away. However, in emergencies unrelated to HCW, the same ambulance service fully utilizes its sirens, with no delay, when approaching and leaving the hospital directly across the street.
“So why the different procedure?” a pro-life eyewitness asked. “We suspect it’s done that way so the ambulance doesn’t alarm the client inside the abortion facility – and not to be quite as alarming to others in the parking lot.”
The 911 dispatch service also continues in its failure to ask questions concerning the patients’ vitals that would determine the required level of emergency intervention. (Perhaps the request for Barnes-Jewish Hospital is code to communicate the degree of severity.)
“This dangerous facility has been on our radar for a long time,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “But ever since George Tiller’s sycophant, Julie Burkhart, purchased it last March, the recklessness has increased and life-threatening emergency transports have doubled.
“Sadly, we have already learned about another emergency transport since this frightening botch and have initiated our investigative procedure. Operation Rescue has also filed a formal complaint with the Illinois Department of Public Health Office of Health Care Regulation for the steadily increasing, frightening medical emergencies at this hopeless facility – including a uterine perforation of a 13-year-old girl.
“We are working to close this dangerous facility before any more women are gravely injured – or, even worse, killed.”
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