Abortionist Biskind,Aide Convicted

By DEXTER DUGGAN

PHOENIX - Because abortionist John Biskind chose to keep a tailor appointment three years ago, he could be fitted soon for a I prison suit.

Biskind was convicted of manslaughter after a month long trial here in Maricopa County Superior Court for the bleeding death of a woman whose uterus he lacerated in a late abortion in April 1998.

His abortion clinic administrator, Carol Stuart- Schadoff, was found guilty at the same trial of the lesser crime of negligent homicide.

Sentencing was set for March 20.

The dead woman, Lou Anne Herron, 33, already was the mother of two other children.

In its front-page lead story. of February 21, the state's largest daily paper, The Arizona Republic, said that Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley "described the case as the first time in Arizona that a doctor has been convicted in the death of a patient."

As the county's chief ' prosecutor, Romley had pushed hard for criminal punishment for the elderly abortionist, now age 75, for conduct that "goes beyond the pale of medical malpractice."

The Phoenix area's other major daily paper, the Tribune, reported that jury foreman Russell Craig said jurors were particularly disturbed by Biskind's own testimony "that he decided to keep an appointment with his tailor rather than return to the clinic" after he was notified by cell phone that the woman's condition was worsening.

The Republic reported that "a frantic medical assistant' told Biskind "the patient was struggling to breathe and had no pulse," but the abortionist thought paramedics "were able to treat her."

An emergency-room doctor who studied medical records in the case testified that, judging from Herron's physical condition, she had been dead for 10 to 20 minutes when paramedics arrived, the Republic said.

The Tribune quoted jury foreman Craig: "Three and a half hours she's on the gurney in the recovery room., She was never coherent, she was never ambulatory. The degree of care wasn't there. He should have done more."

County Attorney Romley, a Republican, is a supporter of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion on demand. Unlike some other public officials, however, Romley doesn't regard permissive abortion law as conferring immunity on any possible act connected to abortion.

Coincidentally, as the Biskind conviction occurred, it became known that the George W. Bush administration was seriously considering Romley for the post of federal drug czar.

The Republic said Romley would ask for a presentence hearing where he would present facts about other abortions by Biskind that went awry - evidence that jurors in this case weren't allowed to hear - including another woman who bled to death, in 1995, and a baby who was delivered alive after Biskind began performing a late abortion in 1998.

Biskind had worked at the now closed A-Z Women's Center, one of a chain of abortion facilities owned by New York abortionist Moshe Hachamovitch, an abortion entrepreneur who has had his own problems with patient deaths, investigations, and lawsuits.

Hachamovitch was forced to appear as a witness at Biskind's trial, although New York courts ordered that he was not to be photographed here, the Republic said. Hachamovitch, who testified that he performed hundreds of thousands of late abortions, reportedly feared for his own safety.

The Republic reported that Hachamovitch "said he came to Phoenix to talk to Biskind a few weeks after Herron's death to determine what went wrong the day she died. He did not say whether he reached a conclusion."

The newspaper added that Hachamovitch's "license was suspended for nine months in New York for gross negligence, gross incompetence, and inaccurate patient records. Last year, his New York license was suspended for a month for practicing fraudulently and failing to maintain adequate records."

After hitting the headlines in 1998 for Herron's death and the delivery of a live baby he intended to abort, Biskind agreed to give up his medical license.

                                                 ATypical Abortionist

Tom Takash told The Wanderer he was one of a group of pro-lifers praying outside the A-Z Women's Center the day Herron died, although they weren't aware her abortion would go amiss. Takash said they would gather outside the facility as women entered, trying to persuade them to change their minds, but the pro-lifers would have departed by the time Herron died inside in the late afternoon.

Takash is treasurer and Arizona coordinator of Children of the Rosary, a pro-life organization based here.

He told The Wanderer that the media seemed surprised Biskind would proceed to the tailor rather than rush back to care for his failing patient. But, Takash said, that's the way abortionists are, ignoring women's pain, fear, and suffering, both before and after the abortion.

He said that even if a person became an abortionist out of misguided altruism, the grim reality of pulling off babies' arms and legs every day changes him for the worse.

Cathi Herrod, legislative counsel for the pro-life Center for Arizona Policy, told The Wanderer that a number of women who had abortions attended the trial because they consider Biskind "the tip of the iceberg," representative of the uncaring way the abortion industry treats women.

"They're angered by how the abortion industry treats women," Herrod said, adding that they have a goal of exposing how abortionists hurt and lie to them.

Herrod pointed out that a feature article the Republic did about people attending the proceedings, "Biskind Trial Has Packed in Crowds," failed to mention these aborted women angry about abortion practice. Herrod declined to suggest why the Republic left them out of a story that even included mention of a "Japanese judge studying the American justice system [who] hasn't missed a day" of the trial as he takes notes.

Although giving Biskind's career and trial extensive coverage, the Republic has viewed Biskind as a bad abortionist, not abortion on demand itself as bad - much the same slant as that of local highprofile abortionist Dr. Brian Finkel. The Republic, paraphrasing, said Finkel considers Biskind "an incompetent doctor who deserves to pay for his mishandling of Herron's abortion."

Biskind's sentence could range from probation to 12 and a half years in prison. Clinic adn-iinistrator Carol Stuart-Schadoff's sentence could range from probation to up to three \and three-fourths years in prison. She was convicted for failing to schedule a registered nurse in the recovery room and delaying appropriate aid for Herron.

The defendants' attorneys said they'd appeal the convictions.

"As the trial continued, the Republic reported on February 6 that a few days earlier, a woman had to be hospitalized and given an emergency hysterectomy following an abortion at a different clinic, one run bv local abortion pioneer Dr. Robert Tamis, on East Cambridge Street. Tamis was reported as saying that after the abortion, the woman, whose name wasn't mleased, started vomiting and felt I'shocky." Three decades ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand, Tamis had boldly opened an abortion facility downtown on Phoenix's main north-south street, Central Avenue.)

                                             A Large Pool Of Blood

Testifying at the Biskind trial, emergency-room physician Dr. John Gallagher, who also trains paramedics for the Phoenix Fire Department, condemned the treatment Herron received, the Republic said. The paper reported that Gallagher, reviewing medical records, said they contained undeniable signs that the 33 year old . . . was bleeding to death ... and Biskind should have recognized those signs."

News stories of the trial frequently referred to a large pool of blood collecting under her body.

The Republic said: "Gallagher testified that Herron was in trouble at 1:25 p.m., just 16 minutes after she was taken into the recovery room. He said that if he had been treating her, he would have ordered more intravenous fluids and blood and immediately called 911 so paramedics could have taken her to a hospital and into an operating room.. . ."

                                       As her last hours ticked away

... Herron at times became combative, anxious, and frightened, and felt her legs go numb, all clear signs of severe blood loss, Gallagher said. Biskind was in the recovery room at one point, trying to calm Herron as she begged to know what was happening to her, according to earlier testimony."

Gallagher said she needn't have died. The clinic delayed for three hours before calling paramedics.

County Attorney Romley said the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners should send cases to him to be prosecuted instead of allowing bungling doctors to continue to practice, the Republic reported on February 21. Romley said the medical board should have stopped Biskind after the earlier woman bled to death in 1995.

The Republic said that if Romley doesn't see improvements, he'll go to the state legislature next year seeking tougher laws.

                                    Anti-Newspaper Sentiment

A February 21 Arizona Republic editorial, while calling the convictions of the abortionist and his aide "justice," said that pro-life protests against abortion "have reduced the options available to women seeking a legal medical procedure.... Arizona needs to examine the extent to which the volatile debate over reproductive rights limits access to medical care. "

This was the same line taken in 1998 by the local Planned Parenthood head, Bryan Howard, when Biskind first hit the headlines. The Republic at that time reported Howard said the foes of abortion had created the climate for unsafe abortion facilities because abortion had been given a bad reputation.

Shane Wikfors, executive director of Arizona Right to Life, told The Wanderer, "I absolutely resent the spin [the February 21 Republic editorial] put" on the case, suggesting that violent pro-lifers scare off responsible abortionists.

Coincidentally, the Republic's ombudsman, Richard de Uriarte, had just written a February I I column headlined, "Abortion Issue Inflames Anti-Newspaper Sentiment." He wrote, "Those Americans who strongly oppose abortion generally resent the media as well. They feel journalists are biased against them.... Unfortunately, we don't always work hard to disabuse them of those notions.

The ombudsman stated that prolifers "grumble that Planned Parenthood is regarded as an unbiased source of unimpeachable information," but a pro-life reporter would be about as welcome as a streetwalker.

When the Republic reported Biskind's conviction on February 21, its regular page 2 Letter to Readers feature sought to explain how the paper first took an interest in Biskind in 1998. The Letter said a police tip led the paper to look at Biskind's records, which uncovered the Herron death. Those stories began running in July 1998.

This Letter mystified pro-life activists who had tried unsuccessfully for weeks in 1998 to interest the media in the scandal. Cathi Herrod, of the Center for Arizona Policy, told The Wanderer that only about three days after Herron died, she recalled talking to a person who was trying to stir media interest in the story. The May 1998 newsletter of Children of the Rosary carried a front-page item, "Woman Dies From Abortion April 17 in Phoenix," which lamented that "there has been no news coverage on this unnecessary tragic death."

Through investigation pro-lifers had learned the victim was named Herron, the mother of two young children, although the newsletter item got her given name partly incorrect, calling her "Mary" instead of "Lou" Anne Herron.

Asked why she thought the Republic now would portray itself as oblivious to the story until a police tip, Herrod suggested to The Wanderer that the Republic isn't about to admit it learned facts from prolifers.

Meanwhile, there was an interesting comment from Sydney Hay, half of an early-morning radio team on KCTK here who sometimes appears as the conservative voice on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect network TV show. Hay, a Republican activist, told local listeners that she hoped the Biskind story goes national so she could comment on it on her next Politically Incorrect appearance.