Friday, June 26, 2015

MY TAKE ON THE MARIANAS VARIETY STORY: ABORTION DOCTOR SPEAKS OUT

Abortion doctor speaks out

Dr. Griley is reported to have said that the only space on the reporting form he has not filled out is the space for “Date of the last live birth. 

Point 1: the Abortion Report for 2014 shows that the abortion doctors entered “Not provided” for the following:
  • Patient’s Age 3
  • Patient’s Ethnic Origin 3
  • Place of Residence 2
  • Previous Pregnancies 10
  • Highest Education 172
  • Blood Type 6
  • Last live birth 57
  • Method of Contraception used 4
  • Type of procedure done after abortion 1
  • Abortion procedures 2

The report is a compilation of the numbers turned in by both clinics so we can’t tell which doctor did not provide the required information. However, at least in once case we can see that Dr. Griley is not being truthful. The number of “not provided” for “Highest Education is 172. The abortion report shows that Dr. Freeman (Women’s Clinic) only did 50 abortions in 2014. This means that  even if Dr. Freeman entered “not provided” 50 times, Dr. Griley had to have entered 122. Yet he tells us that the only thing he didn’t fill out was “Date of last live birth."

Point 2: Dr. Griley tells us that the reason he didn’t fill out “Date of last live birth” is because “that information is available at the hospital.” First, Dr. Griley DOES NOT get to decide what he will fill out and what he won’t because of what information might be available elsewhere. The law requires HIM to provide the information. Second, his assertion is laughable because women on Guam have had babies at places other than GMH. 

The MV story says that I attributed the drop in the number of abortions to “incomplete reporting.” Actually I attributed the drop to the abortion problem on Guam becoming more well known as well as the legislation The Esperansa Project has advanced, particularly Informed Consent which gives a woman information about her options. I also contested what was reported by Dr. Freeman in another news story that the drop was due to better birth control programs. 

The MV story says that I said that the physicians are supposed to turn in the Checklist Certification but clinics have not done so. That is incorrect, I said that the law requires the abortionists to turn in the NUMBER of checklist certifications on a monthly basis and they have not done so. Unfortunately this error allows Dr. Griley to evade the reason why he did not do so when he says the checklist is confidential and is not to be transmitted to DPHSS. He is correct. However, Griley is required to turn in the number of certifications and he turned in nothing.


The MV story incorrectly reports that I referred to a rape case and called it coerced abortion. While the incident reportedly involved rape, I did not refer to it as a rape case. I referred to it as a potentially coerced abortion because - as reported in a previous MV story (2/17/15) - the doctor refused to perform the abortion because it appeared that the mother was forcing the daughter to get the abortion. Because informed consent is now required by the the person upon whom the abortion is to be performed, the doctor apparently decided not to proceed. This is an example of how the Informed Consent law is supposed to work. 

1 comment:

  1. Off topic, but just listening to NPR and a Dutch women's group is using a drone to deliver abortion pills into Poland. Unbelievable! http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/24/abortion-drone-border-poland-germany-women-on-waves

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