UNM Lashes Out Over Release Of Disturbing 911 Recording of Abortion Emergency

By Cheryl Sullenger

Albuquerque, NM – The release of a dramatic 911 recording made last February where a woman could be heard struggling for life has UNM Center for Reproductive Health abortionist Tony Ogburn and a spokesperson for UNM lashing out in the news media, claiming the woman’s privacy rights have been violated.

Ogburn gave comments to the New Mexico Daily Lobo critical of the release of the public record while Billy Sparks, Executive Director of Communications and Marketing of Health Sciences Center at UNM wrote a letter to the editor defending the abortion clinic.

“It is more likely that they are upset that we found out about this life-threatening abortion complication than they are about patient privacy,” said Operation Rescue Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger.

“The incident raises standard of care issues at UNMCRH and brings attention to the fact that the University of New Mexico, a publicly funded institution, is up to their ears in the abortion business training UNM students and profiting from the taking of innocent human life through abortion. It’s no wonder these people are upset we released the 911 recording.”

The 911 recording was obtained through a public records request by Tara Shaver of Project Defending Life (PDL), who forwarded it to Operation Rescue. At least one news reporter later obtained the same 911 recording through its own public records request. The recording mentions the patient’s first name and age, but does not give enough information to specifically identify her.

“There is a move by abortionists to hide behind the privacy rights of their patients to cover up their own mistakes,” said Sullenger. “They don’t want anyone to know the truth about the real dangers women face during an abortion, especially in the later stages of pregnancy. Some abortionists cling to a façade of respectability, but the hard truth is that abortion does not draw America’s best and brightest. That is why abortion tragedies are all too common and all too often swept under the rug.”

In fact, four additional calls to 911 for life-threatening abortion complications during a recent 15-month period were placed from another abortion clinic in Albuquerque, Southwestern Women’s Options, revealing a range of complications from hemorrhaging after a first trimester abortion to a uterine rupture during a late-term abortion. [Watch all four SWO 911 videos.]

At least one of those patients was transferred from the SWO abortion clinic to UNM Hospital for emergency treatment.

“In Albuquerque, we have documented that life-threatening abortion complications occur at the shocking rate of about one every three months,” said Sullenger. “UNM is an abortion supplier, profiteer, and enabler that plays a large part in creating a climate where abortion abuses are hidden or minimized. This places women at unnecessary risk, and that is why we document and expose this kind of bad behavior. Hopefully, it will help women avoid abortion and raise the awareness needed to prompt lasting social and political reforms.”

PDL has maintained a sidewalk counseling presence outside the UNMCRH abortion clinic and opened a pregnancy help center across the street earlier this month in order to offer women practical assistance life-affirming abortion alternatives to women facing crisis pregnancies.