Detroit, MI — A Michigan abortionist has adamantly denounced the safety of using the heart medication digoxin during abortions after 18 weeks gestation, yet continues to use the dangerous drug in spite of the increased risk of complications.
Alberto Hodari complained Monday to the Detroit News about abortionists’ increasing use of digoxin in order to keep from running afoul of the Federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Digoxin is a heart medication used in an off-label application by some abortionists to stop the heart of late-term babies as the first step of a multi-day abortion procedure in order to avoid an accidental live birth. Abortionist George R. Tiller* pioneered the abortion method where ultrasound is used to locate the baby’s heart, which is then injected with the powerful drug through the woman’s abdomen. Labor is then induced, or the baby is dismembered and removed from the womb.
Hodari prefers to abort babies as old as 24 weeks using a procedure that involves the dismemberment of a live fetus that can be done in one visit.
“It was much simpler and much less dangerous than what we are doing now,” Hodari said. “But this is now the law. It’s awful. It’s unnecessary. It’s dangerous. It’s more complicated. It makes the woman go through another procedure that’s not necessary. It impacts everything we do after 18 weeks.”
“If Hodari truly believes the digoxin abortions are more dangerous, why continue to do them?” asked Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger. “Apparently Hodari would rather endanger women than turn away the money he makes doing the expensive late abortions that can cost in the thousands of dollars.”
Complications from the use of digoxin are well known to those who follow abortion news. In Orlando, Florida, the misuse of digoxin resulted in the live birth of Baby Rowan, who died after abortion clinic workers denied him medical care. In Wichita, Kansas, Tiller’s digoxin needle slipped, and Baby Sarah was injected in the head with the drug. She survived and was later adopted, but suffered a malady of medical problems. She died five years later from complications to the injuries she received as a result of the injection.
“But frankly, debate over digoxin/dead baby abortions versus live baby abortions is absurd. The result is still a dead baby. Both procedures are barbaric and hold serious risks to women,” Sullenger said. “The act of killing a pre-born baby is in itself immoral and until we can come to grips with that as a society, we never be able to value life as we should.”
* Tiller is currently facing 19 criminal charges of illegal late-term abortions in Kansas.