SOUTHWEST KANSAS REGISTER

June 24, 2001

In its June 1 edition, The Wall Street Journal published stories and photos of a teenager who died as a result of a botched abortion and another girl who has been in a coma for eight years since she had an abortion the day after her 18th birthday.

The two young women were beautiful - one Hispanic, one Anglo - both in the bloom of youth with their whole lives stretching before them like a long letter they had yet to write.

"My daughter, Maria, was only 18 years-old when she reluctantly decided to have an abortion at a prestigious women's hospital," wrote her mother, Deborah Cardamone, in the full-page advertisement sponsored by Priests for Life.

"Originally, she had planned to put her baby up for adoption, but a medical-social worker at the hospital pressured Maria to have an abortion, because allegedly Maria had damaged her baby because of anti-depressant medication she had taken."

Maria's abortion began at the hospital at 1 p.m., but by 11 p.m., the abortion still had not been completed.

"I wanted to stay with Maria, but she insisted that I go home because it was getting so late," her mother lamented. "I kissed her good-night, saying 'I love you ...see you in the morning.' That was the last time I saw her alive."

Eventually, Cardamone learned that her daughter died from a botched abortion that caused her body to be invaded by a fast-acting blood infection called "septicemia," which killed her within 24 hours. "We also learned that the hospital social worker never saw Maria's sonogram or discussed the results with her concerning her baby's condition, which would have changed everything," Cardamone said.

The sonogram report read, "No abnormalities detected." Had Maria been told this, her mother said she never would have had the abortion.

Christi Stile went into full cardiac and respiratory arrest and slipped into a coma after she began hemorrhaging during her abortion. "Today, eight years later, my daughter, Christi, is still in a coma," wrote her mother, Kay. "She is in a permanent vegetative state."

Father Frank Pavone of the Archdiocese of New York, who serves as national director of Priests for Life and a columnist of the Southwest Kansas Register, commented: "All over the United States, women have been severely hurt - physically, psychologically and emotionally - and many have died from so-called 'safe and legal' abortion."

Abortion is one of the most unregulated surgical procedures in the nation and the most frequently performed surgery. It is time, as Priests for Life insist, to call an end to this violence toward women and their babies.

It is time for a full investigation of the abortion industry.