By Cheryl Sullenger

Cleveland, OH – A 22-year old woman reported to a scheduled abortion appointment at Preterm in Cleveland, Ohio, when she began to feel ill.  She and her friend were seen entering the clinic, but moments later left and returned to their car, according to pro-life activist Fred Sokol, who was on the scene and photographed the incident.

The 911 call recording, obtained by Operation Rescue, showed that a sobbing and hysterical woman had suffered symptoms that caused the emergency dispatcher to screen her for a possible stroke.  The 911 call, placed on August 19, 2020, was so chaotic, it took several minutes to determine the woman’s symptoms.

“She’s about to have a heart attack.  We need an ambulance,” the woman’s friend told the 911 dispatcher.  Throughout the call the woman could be heard crying and shouting for help because she could not move.

A synopsis of the call is transcribed below.

911: Okay, tell me exactly what happened.

Caller: Nothing happened.  She’s just – yeah, she can’t move.

Caller:  She’s numb and stuff all over her body.  She can’t breathe or none of that.  She says she’s about to pass out.

. . .

911:  Did she ever have a stroke before?

Caller: No, she never felt like this before, ever.

Caller: She was on her way to get an abortion, she just started feeling like this. She ain’t never got sick like this before.

911:  Ask her to smile.

Caller:  She — she ain’t about to do that.  She trying.

Woman:  The only thing I can move is my fingers!

The woman was also unable to raise her arms straight out in front of her.  But it was when she was asked to repeat the phrase, “Early bird catches the worm,” that her patience ran out.

The woman began to scream and sob.  “Just get here,” she said, then later cried, “I’m about to die!”

Finally, about ten minutes after the call for help was placed, a fire truck arrived at Preterm, followed by an ambulance.  By then, the woman had recovered enough to walk under her own power to the ambulance.

After being treated in the ambulance for about five minutes, the woman was transported to University Hospital for additional care.

“If there was any bright side to this frightening incident, it appears that the woman did not have an abortion that day.  Maybe her possible stroke was a sign from God or maybe she just had a panic attack, but whatever happened, her baby was given a reprieve from suffering a brutal death by abortion,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue.  “We pray she recovered fully and that she had time to reconsider her decision. We hope she will not return to Preterm for an abortion.  That indeed would be a happy ending to her traumatic experience.”