Family Planning Associates Medical Groupmills

Family Planning Associates Medical Group (FPA) was founded in California by Edward Campbell Allred, who is credited with inventing the “assembly-line abortion”. One of his supporters once quipped that what Ray Kroc did for hamburgers, Allred did for abortion.

FPA has grown to be the largest chain of for-profit abortion facilities in the world. The chain has grown due to Allred’s business acumen and his excellent choice of attorneys to keep him from being shut down. That I personally know of, a dozen women and girls have died from complications of abortions performed at FPA facilities.

This article will just look at deaths at FPA facilities, since there are far too many lawsuits to adequately chronicle. Some of those suits are described in the pages dedicated to specific abortionists involved. You can check out the sidebar to learn more about them.

A rocky start
The first FPA death that I know of took place in 1970. Denise Holmes, a 24-year-old Australian woman living in Texas, decided to undergo an abortion at Avalon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, on her way home for Christmas. Denise checked into Allred’s Avalon Hospital on December 21. During the abortion, Denise suffered an amniotic fluid embolism that carried pieces of fetal bone marrow into her lungs. She was pronounced dead by Allred at Avalon at 5pm.

A logical addition
In 1984, FPA bought out the already-troubled San Vicente Hospital, where Sara Lint, Natalie Meyers, Joyce Ortenzio, and Laniece Dorsey had already died. Clearly the quality of the management didn’t improve under the FPA umbrella, because Mary Pena underwent her fatal abortion at San Vicente shortly after Allred took over. Allred managed to slip Mary’s body through the morgue without an autopsy, but an alert records clerk in Mary’s home county noticed something fishy about the death certificate, and she was exhumed and the real cause of her death determined.

Meanwhile back at one of the more established FPA facilities, Patricia Chacon, age 16, died after an abortion that same year. FPA held that Patricia died of an unforeseen embolism during a second abortion procedure. Her parents say she bled to death while left unattended.

Rounding out the 1980s
In 1985, Josefina Garcia, age 37 and a mother of two, was left unattended in the recovery room after her D&C abortion on May 23. She bled to death.

The next year Lanice Dorsey, age 17, lapsed into a coma and died after an abortion at an Orange County FPA.

Abortionist Vernon WagnerIn 1988, Tami Suematsu, age 19, underwent an abortion by Vern Wagner at Riverside Family Planning, an FPA facility. After the surgery, Tami had an asthma attack causing respiratory failure, resulting in cardiac arrest. She was transported to a local hospital where she died shortly after arrival.

That same year, Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, went to San Vicente for laminaria insertion by Ruben Marmet on June 7. Later, Marmet performed an abortion, but did not remove all of the fetal parts from Joyce’s uterus. The next day, June 8, Joyce was found dead in her home from abortion complications. She left three children without a mother.

A new decade
In 1992, Susan Levy, age 30, a homeless woman, was found dead in the car she’d been living in. An autopsy and review of papers found in her possession revealed that she’d undergone a safe, legal abortion at an FPA facility. Fetal tissue was left in her uterus, causing the infection that killed her.

That same year, Deanna Bell, age 13, was brought to Allred’s Albany clinic in Chicago. She was given a massive overdose of brevitol, then inadequately resuscitated. Her abortionist, Steve Lichtenberg, never had staff call an ambulance. Nobody was contacted until he notified the coroner was notified that the child was dead.

In 1994, Christina Mora, age 18, left an 18-month old child motherless when her FPA abortion ended her life. She suffered cervical lacerations and infection.

Ta Tanisha Wesson died in 1995 after an overdose of anesthesia. Two more victims of anesthesia screw-ups were Chicago FPA patients Nakia Jorden in 1998 and Maria Leho in 1999.

FPA for the new millenium
In 2000, the family of Kimberly Neil filed suit, alleging that FPA staff failed to properly monitor Kimberly, and failed to treat her properly when she stopped breathing during the abortion. Kimberly died May 22. Maria Rodriguez bled to death during grossly inadequate care for her hemorrhaging in 2000.

In 2004, Chanelle Bryant, age 22, was given the drugs for a chemical abortion at a FPA facility in California. She was instructed to use the prostaglandin as a suppository, rather than take an oral prostaglandin. This off-label use was investigated by the CDC and FDA after Chanelle and four other US women died of infection after taking RU-486.

What’s next for FPA?

As long as the National Abortion Federation continues to allow FPA to endanger patients, more women will enter their doors believing that they will be provided with high standards of care. I have no doubt that more women will die due to this misplaced trust.