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GERMANTOWN, MD, January 25, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, Kim Nichols, a former worker at an abortion facility, was the first to receive pro-life group Operation Rescue’s Whistleblower Reward of $25,000. The reward is awarded to individuals that disclose information leading to the arrest and conviction of abortionists breaking the law. 

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Nichols had stepped forward to expose abortionist Rapin Osathanodh’s role in the death of one of his clients, Laura Hope Smith.

Operation Rescue’s (OR) Whistleblower Reward, announced by the organization last January, encourages abortion facility workers, former patients, and anyone with knowledge of crimes committed in abortion clinics to come forward.  The group says the reward money is not only to persuade people to report, but to help compensate those who speak out, who often lose their jobs or are hit with lawsuits as a result of the crimes they reveal.

Troy Newman, president of OR, presented the first Whistleblower Reward to Nichols at a pro-life rally in Germantown, Maryland, Saturday.  The weekend events included a Prayer March on Sunday, attended by a crowd of over 700, who braved sub-degree temperatures to prayerfully march around the Germantown late-term abortion facility of notorious abortionist Leroy Carhart.

Nichols began working at Women’s Health Center, Rapin Osathanondh’s abortion mill in Hyannis, MA, about ten years. She had previously been at the facility, when she accompanied a friend, and said she had been “bothered by all the young girls there alone in the waiting room. Many were upset and I thought I could help by volunteering.”

However, she says soon began to see the “very bad” treatment of staff and patients by Osathanondh.

Nichols suspected that Osathanondh performed many late term abortions when she saw how Planned Parenthood sent numerous referrals from as far away as Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.  “They looked very far along in their pregnancies and I had to wonder why they came so far to us, passing many abortion clinics on the way to Hyannis,” Nichols said in testimony published on OR’s website.

The abortionist, Nichols found later, had been forced to leave Brigham & Women’s Hospital for allegedly threatening to kill five of his nurses for losing some paperwork.

The turning point for Nichols came on September 13, 2007, when she stood by holding patient Laura Hope Smith’s hand as she died from a botched abortion. “Her final words to me were, ‘I am so glad you are here with me, I feel so safe,’” Nichols said.

“Laura’s death shook me to my core. I told the doctor that we should close this clinic down. This wasn’t supposed to happen,” said Nichols.  “The doctor said we all need to get together and agree what had happened. I told him I couldn’t lie for him. He said, ‘Don’t lie, just say you don’t remember anything … that you were in shock.’”

A short time later, Nichols came forward to ‘blow the whistle,’ telling the whole truth, including Osathanondh’s attempts to cover up what really happened, to Laura Smith’s mother and soon afterwards to the Massachusetts Board of Medicine.  Her information led to Osathanondh’s arrest and conviction in early 2008.

In presenting the Whistleblower Reward, OR president Troy Newman commended Kim Nichols for her courage throughout the ordeal: “Nichol’s testimony was the basis for criminal charges that resulted in Osathanondh’s conviction and incarceration on the charge of involuntary manslaughter for causing the death of Laura Smith. She did all of this while enduring threats and harassment from Osathanondh who attempted to frighten and intimidate her into silence.”

“Before Laura’s death,” said Nichols, “I would have considered myself pro-choice. Now, I am definitely pro-life! I want to tell all those young girls who are contemplating abortion to reconsider. I want to tell them that abortion will affect them for the rest of their lives and that it may even sterilize them. I want them to know that they can be physically maimed or worse; they could die, like Laura did.”

“I now see that girls are traumatized by abortion. They are not told what is really going to happen to them or their babies. They are lied to about the development of the baby. The baby is called a blob of tissue. They are not told about the alternatives to abortion such as adoption. I wish abortion would end.”

For more information on the Whistleblower Reward.