Wednesday May 26, 2010
Naples, Florida Planned Parenthood Patient Rushed to Hospital
By Kathleen Gilbert
NAPLES, Florida, May 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A possible botched-abortion victim had to be transported from a Naples abortion clinic by ambulance on Monday, as abortion clinic workers blocked the patient from view with a black tarp, reported the Naples Daily News.
The regular crowd of pro-life witnesses watched in dismay as the victim, a patient at Planned Parenthood of Collier County, was transported to an area hospital in the early afternoon hours. Photographs submitted to the local newspaper show abortion clinic workers holding up a black tarp to block view of the victim entering the ambulance.
Abortionist Philip Waterman of Cape Coral only performs abortions at the Naples clinic on Mondays.
Char Wendel, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood, declined to say whether the patient was the victim of a botched abortion, telling the Daily News only that “we are a medical facility and we respond to emergencies.”
Pro-lifer Fred Goduti told the newspaper that the ambulance call was the first since the clinic began performing abortions on Sept. 14 of last year. Prior to that, the Pro-Life Action league reports that Naples had been abortion-free for over a decade, after pro-lifers pressured the abortionist Wallace McLean to quit by picketing his home.
“We were praying this would not happen,” Goduti said. “It is inevitable it would happen.”
The dissemination of the story, which was picked up by Fox News, shows a shift in how the media handles such stories, said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman. “Not that long ago, no news outlet would have touched this story,” said Newman.
Newman commented on the “sheets of shame” Planned Parenthood employees used to hide the victim from view, which he said “could not keep the truth from getting out that their organization endangers the lives of women when it takes the lives of pre-born babies.”
“For many years we have tried to get the media to cover documented cases of ambulances transporting injured women from abortion clinics. Now it is finally happening. This exposure could eventually help close this clinic, and others like it, out of concern for public safety,” he added, urging witnesses to file a complaint with the state medical board.