The following is an opinion editorial written by Myra Broadway of Gardiner. Originally submitted to the Bangor Daily News and the Portland Press Herald, but never published, the op-ed appears here in its entirety.
Broadway was the Executive Director of the Maine State Board of Nursing from 1998-2015, and the Assistant Executive Director for the Maine State Board of Nursing from 1992-1997. Prior to that she worked in QualityAssurance/ Risk Management Coordinator, Pease AFB Hospital, at Pease AFB, Portsmouth, NH.
Dr. Shannon Carr, an OB/GYN physician, was one of Maine proponents’ expert witnesses at the public hearing for LD 1619, the bill to eliminate any restrictions on abortion.
Gov. Janet Mills appeared at political events with Dr. Carr and invited her for a press briefing on the bill. However, it seems little has been asked about such an important witness, and ordinary people want to know more or, at least, be able to ask questions. Many people are undecided or confused about late-term abortion ramifications and seek truth. In the absence of old-fashioned investigative reporting, curious people dig deeper.
Dr. Carr is relevant to the conversations about LD 1619, a bill that would allow abortion up to the point a baby is born, not only because she appears to be the medical expert Gov. Mills and fellow supporters have put forward to serve as the authority figure backing the bill but because of her professional experience as one of America’s providers of late-term abortions. She did this while working for Dr. Curtis Boyd at an abortion facility in Albuquerque, NM and a related facility in Texas.
A client, Keisha Atkins, was at a later stage of pregnancy when she met Dr. Carr.
Four days later, Ms. Adkins was dead – the tragic result of a botched abortion.
Botched, because it ended the wrong number of lives: not one or none, but two.
According to court documents and Dr. Carr’s own testimony in a videotaped deposition, Dr. Carr authorized and participated in the late-term abortion procedure that resulted in Ms. Atkins’ death. Ms. Atkins was injected with digoxin to “effect fetal demise” (i.e., kill the baby) and also administered appropriate drugs to induce labor. She was then sent home to await labor contractions. In late-term abortion cases, this is accepted practice: the baby’s heart is stopped and it is delivered stillborn.
In the following days, Ms. Adkins did not go into labor. Instead, she developed sepsis, possibly as a result of the dead baby remaining in her uterus. Despite arriving at the abortion facility the morning of January 3, 2017, feverish, and having difficulty breathing, she was not immediately transported to an emergency room. Instead, she remained in distress ten hours before the abortionists called an ambulance. She died on the hospital operating room table.
Following the abortion that ended Ms. Atkins’ life, Dr. Carr was named in a wrongful death and medical malpractice civil suit. Though she admitted no wrongdoing, the abortion facility and the University of New Mexico ended up settling with the Atkins family for $1.26 million. In the 2019 deposition Dr. Carr recognized the tragic outcome immediately and reached out to the patient’s mother. She anticipated litigation. She further acknowledged in the deposition that, as stated in the informed consent: “the risk of complications related to a termination of pregnancy increase as the pregnancy advances.”
The 2019 deposition leads to some hard questions, and out of respect, and in fairness to Dr. Carr, none of the major television networks or major Maine newspapers appear to have asked much, if anything.
Given that an unwelcome pregnancy should raise concern and compassion, the question arises:
Would not the best and safer option be a natural delivery with an adoption plan for the baby?
Myra Broadway, JD, MS, BSN
To read this article on The Maine Wire website, click here.