"A fake abortion provider lures in desperate poor women..."

[Troubleshooter]

I don't generally weigh in on the abortion debates, but this one really, really bothers me.

A fake abortion provider lures in desperate poor women and then keeps them hanging until it's too late.

"Jane Doe Four" is a 22-year-old single mother. Her one-year-old son suffers from severe hemophilia B and must take four injections every day and wear a helmet and knee and elbow pads whenever he is out of bed.

Jane struggles to support her son financially and keep up with the demands of his medical care. So last fall when she found out she was pregnant again, and the fetus was male, meaning it was likely to be a hemophiliac as well, she knew she had to get an abortion.

There aren't a lot of places to get an abortion in Louisiana, where Jane lives. She looked in the phonebook and found a listing in New Orleans for Causeway Center for Women. She called the number and spoke to a man with a soothing voice and reassuring manner who promised to get her in contact with a private practice physician who would perform an abortion at low-cost. He warned her to stay away from abortion clinics, saying they provide poor medical care and have multiple malpractice suits filed against them.

He promised to set up an appointment for her to have the procedure the following Saturday at 4 p.m. He said he couldn't give her the doctor's name or address for confidentiality reasons, but he would call on Friday with the details.

He never called.

Later, when she contacted him again, he said the doctor who was supposed to do the abortion had been called out of town, and he rescheduled the appointment. That appointment was broken as well. This continued for three months.

Every time Jane expressed her anxiety and sense of urgency to the man, he came up with good excuses for the rescheduling and reassured her that abortions are performed up to 30 weeks of pregnancy in New Orleans. Finally, Jane realized this man was never going to help her get an abortion. By the time she figured it out and went to another abortion provider, however, it was too late. She would have to carry the baby.

Since she had been expecting to abort, she had not gotten prenatal care or taken any other measures for the fetus's health.

"He always made me feel very comfortable and seemed understanding," she said, in her declaration in a class action lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights against William Graham on June 7 in a Louisiana district court. "On at least one occasion I spoke to him on the phone for 45 minutes. I was very busy during that time, and did not stop and think about what seemed to be unthinkable - that this man was not being honest and was actually trying to prevent me from obtaining, rather than helping me to obtain, an abortion."

It turns out Jane was not alone. Graham, whose name Jane never knew, has allegedly done similar things to many other women. His yellow pages listing, Causeway Center for Women, is similar to a legitimate abortion provider, Causeway Medical Center, meaning women who hear about Causeway or have appointments there often end up calling him instead.

[lumberjim]

the lying prick is probably doing it in the name of jesus.

[jaguar]

That has to be false representation of some sort, someone needs to fuck this guy up, badly. Goddamn fundies need to be removed from the genepool for the good of the species.

[Troubleshooter]

The article goes into quite a bit more detail about three other cases against this one guy alone as well as discussing an apparent trend.

[jaguar]

whoops I should read, he's being sued 6 ways from sunday, good, I hope he's bankrupted.

[Catwoman]

If only his mother had aborted...

[Carbonated_Brains]

Maybe she still can!