On my blog last week I posted an excerpt from the Salon piece, “Abortion saved my life.”
The writer, a blogger named Mikki Kendall, was relaying her first person account of supposedly nearly hemorrhaging to death because a hospital doctor refused to perform the one procedure that would save her life, an abortion. Here was the quote I pulled:
I don’t know if his objections were religious or not; all I know is that when a bleeding woman was brought to him for treatment he refused to do the only thing that could stop the bleeding. Because he didn’t do abortions. Ever.
The story headline and subtitle: "Abortion saved my life: I almost died in an emergency room because the doctor on call refused to perform a necessary procedure."
Quoting Kendall from her article:
- “The doctor on call didn’t do abortions. At all. Ever. In fact, no one on call that night did.”
- “A very kind nurse risked her job to call a doctor from the Reproductive Health Clinic who was not on call, and asked her to come in to save my life…. The doctor who didn’t do abortions was supposed to have contacted her (or someone else who would perform the procedure) immediately. He didn’t.”
- “I don’t know if his objections were religious or not; all I know is that when a bleeding woman was brought to him for treatment he refused to do the only thing that could stop the bleeding. Because he didn’t do abortions. Ever.”
- “My two kids at home almost lost their mother because someone decided that my life was worth less than that of a fetus that was going to die anyway.”
- “My husband had told them exactly what my regular doctor said, and the ER doctor had already warned us what would have to happen. Yet none of this mattered when confronted by the idea that no one needs an abortion.”
Kendall was clearly accusing a doctor of standing by to let her bleed to death because he opposed abortion, right?
For several reasons I doubted the veracity of Kendall’s story (see the 1st comment on my blog and my comments at Salon on 5/27 at 8:30a, 11:23a, 11:33a, 12:32p, and 12:37p ).
There were many red flags. But the biggest was Kendall’s claim that a doctor was willing to let her bleed to death after she presented with placental abruption, because he knew treatment would result in her baby’s death, a nonviable 20-weeker. This made no sense, particularly knowing nontreatment would ensure both the mother and baby died.
I asked why hadn’t Kendall sued? Why didn’t she name both the hospital and doctor? I concluded my comments at Salon by writing the publication was negligent for posting Kendall’s story without fact-checking and should retract it.
Pro-aborts went on to slam me with their standard fare of slurs, nor did Kendall handle the criticisms very well. She blogged on May 27 that pro-lifers were “motherf***ers” and threatened, “I’m not a nice girl, and you’re about to see that.”
Then, on May 29, still aggravated by “the comments and emails that are flooding my inbox,” Kendall blogged:
Some say I should name and shame the doctor that refused to do the procedure. If I knew why he refused I might have done just that, but since I know that there are many possible reasons that he did not do it? I’ve left him to deal with the internal procedures in place.
Excuse me? Kendall’s entire Salon story was built upon her accusation that a heartless, negligent, anti-abortion doctor was willing to let her hemorrhage to death rather than provide a life-saving abortion.
And she has now admitted her story was a big, fat, fabricated lie.
Now will Salon retract?
[Photo of Kendall via her "Angry Black Woman" Facebook page]
