National Abortion Federation
The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is an organization of abortion practitioners. Though originally a U.S. group, NAF has expanded to include practitioners in Canada and Australia as well as many European countries. According to their web site, half of all abortions performed in the United States are performed by NAF members.
NAF was established in 1977 with the merger of the National Association of Abortion Facilities (NAAF) and the National Abortion Council (NAC).
NAF participates in a variety of activities, including lobbying efforts, public outreach campaigns, and maintaining a hotline referring women to member practitioners.
NAF annually holds a meeting to address areas of concern to abortion facilities, such as political challenges, staffing, and legal issues. Since 1981 NAF has also held an annual Risk Management Seminar to address clinical aspects of abortion practice. NAF also publishes a set of clinical guidelines for practitioners.
Contents
Members
Many noteworthy abortionists and abortion proponents are or have been member of the National Abortion Federation. They include:
Edward Campbell Allred, California abortion magnate credited with popularizing the "assembly-line abortion."
Martin Haskell, Ohio abortionist who popularized D&E or intact extraction abortions, later dubbed partial birth abortions.
Warren Hern, author of the book, Abortion Practice.
Benjamin Munson, whose South Dakota criminal abortion practice was legalized by Roe vs. Wade.
George Tiller, infamous Kansas late-term abortion specialist.
Scandal
Anti-abortion activist Mark Crutcher, in his book, Lime 5, raised allegations that NAF was harboring dangerous practitioners, referring unwitting women to physicians and facilities with a history of deaths and malpractice. Crutcher included a number of instances of death and malpractice allegations in the book. Crutcher also cited taped conversations between an employee of his and a NAF hotline counselor in which the caller was repeatedly assured that there had been no patient death at Albany Medical Surgical Center in Chicago, even though a 13-year-old patient had died there from a massive overdose of Brevital.
The first NAF death to make headlines was the death of an 18-year-old newlywed in 1977. The woman had been referred by a local women's group to Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois. Though the woman was too weak after the procedure to walk unaided, she was discharged in the care of her sister. She bled to death from a uterine tear.[1]
Perhaps the most spectacular case of a troubled NAF member was Dr. Abu Hayat of New York. Hayat made headlines in 1991 when he attempted a 32-week abortion in his office. He removed the right arm from the fetus, then sent the mother home with instructions to return the following day to complete the procedure. In pain, she instead went to a hospital where she gave birth to a maimed infant. When the news broke, New York Post reporters discovered that Hayat had performed a botched abortion the year before, resulting in the death of the 17-year-old patient. Women came forward with multiple accusations of malpractice and sexual abuse. Hayat was stripped of his license by the medical board and successfully prosecuted for the attempted illegal abortion that had resulted in the birth of the maimed baby.[2] The 1991 National Abortion Federation Annual Report lists Hayat as a member.
More recently, questions regarding the safety of the abortion drug RU-486 arose following a cluster of deaths in southern California. Two of the four dead women obtained their fatal doses at NAF facilities. One woman was prescribed the drugs at Eve Surgical Center by Dr. Christopher Dotson. At the time of the fatal abortion, Dotson had not yet completed eight years medical board probation for gross negligence and incompetence in the death of a patient. The other woman obtained her fatal dose at a Family Practice Associates Medical Group clinic,[3] becoming the twelfth confirmed abortion death at FPA facilities.
References
- ↑ "$1 million abortion suit in teen's death," Chicago Tribune, August 31, 1977, p. 1:6; Perry County (IL) Coroner's Report 6/20/77; "Abortion Clinic Sued In Death," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 15, 1979, 3A; CDC Abortion Surveillance Annual Summary 1977, p. 10-12
- ↑ Richard Perez-Pena, "Prison Term For Doctor Convicted In Abortions", New York Times, June 15, 1993
- ↑ "Abortion Pill Investigated", Covenant News, August 15, 2005
