BY GRETCHEN KEISER

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Midtown Hospital was the subject of scrutiny 15 years ago after a pro-life worker brought to light state certificates revealing 14 babies had survived second trimester abortions in a three-year period at the facility.

The details were reported by The Georgia Bulletin in April 1983 based on research initiated by pro-life volunteer Nancy Creger from the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta.

Death certificates revealed that in 1980 10 babies survived abortions at Midtown, in 1981 three survived and as of October 1982 one had survived.

One baby lived for 13 hours and five minutes, the longest time; one died in 20 minutes. In addition to the 13-hour survivor, seven others lived for more than an hour, ranging from one hour and 45 minutes to six hours and 20 minutes.

Death certificates gave no indication any of the 14 were transported to the neonatal unit at Grady Hospital or any other facility specializing in the care of premature babies. Midtown Hospital asserted that transporting a surviving baby to a hospital was the attending physician’s decision to make.

Nine of the 14 death certificates listed “hospital disposal” or “Midtown Hospital” under the category of “cemetery or crematory name.”

The administrator of the hospital in 1983 asserted this meant Midtown had taken responsibility for the remains, not that the remains were disposed of on Midtown premises. But the details of what happened during those hours of life remained hidden from the public.

The relevant section of the Georgia Code in 1983 referred to the possibility of a baby surviving an abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy and said if this happened medical aid must be rendered. There was no reference in the Code to a baby surviving a second trimester abortion.

Interviews in 1983 with Department of Human Resources (DHR) officials revealed no clear protocol for treating infants surviving abortions. In response to the publicity, Midtown Hospital was asked by DHR to draft new guidelines for caring for surviving infants and did so, although the guidelines differed little from prior ones and left to the physician at the abortion facility the decision as to what to do.

Nationally “live births” were being referred to as “the dreaded complication” in abortion clinics because they confronted medical staff and women paying for abortions with a surviving baby, often injured by the effects of a saline abortion.

In June 1983, the first outdoor pro-life service and march in Atlanta was held in Woodruff Park in response to the disclosure of these infants’ births and deaths at Midtown.

An ecumenical service, featuring a talk by visiting Christian pro-life speaker Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer and prayer by Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan, attracted 2,000 people from a cross-section of the area’s congregations. After the service, the group silently marched through downtown and past Midtown Hospital.

Grady Hospital acknowledged in 1983 that two “live birth” babies had been cared for in their neonatal unit in the prior six years, unrelated to the 14 Midtown births. Both died, although one baby lived for more than six months in the neonatal unit.

In 1983, 26 weeks of gestation was cited by specialists as the norm for premature babies to survive.

Midtown in 1983 advertised abortions from seven to 24 weeks of pregnancy. In 1998 the clinic advertised abortion care from five to 26 weeks of pregnancy.

But the possibility of “live births” at Midtown was being eliminated at the abortion facility a year after the 1983 disclosure.

In August 1984 The Georgia Bulletin reported that an experimental procedure had been developed at Midtown Hospital that injected an adult dose of the medicine digoxin directly into the heart of the five-month-old fetus in the womb, killing the baby. The woman would then go through labor and delivery of the dead infant. The mean abortion time with digoxin induction was reported as over 14 hours.

The procedure had been used approximately 600 times at Midtown Hospital by then, according to a report given Aug. 16, 1984 at a family planning program held at Grady Hospital. The presentation was given by Dr. James Waters, who had been medical director of Midtown Hospital until several weeks prior to the presentation and who also performed abortions as part of his private practice.

Waters said Midtown Hospital had had no “live births” in 1983 or, so far, in 1984.

Digoxin normally was used to correct and control abnormal heartbeats and heart failure in adults and children. A pediatric cardiologist at Emory University interviewed by The Georgia Bulletin said a proper dose of digoxin administered to a pregnant woman could correct an abnormal heartbeat in a baby.

By contrast, what was being done in digoxin induction abortion was injecting a poison into the baby’s heart and circulatory system, the specialist said, causing the baby’s heart to stop.

At the time the administrator of Midtown Hospital refused to discuss the procedure or whether or not women who received digoxin induction abortions were aware they were taking part in an experimental procedure and gave their consent.

The procedure at that time was unfamiliar to all those contacted by The Georgia Bulletin in the medical and pro-life field. A spokesman for the federal Food and Drug Administration was also unfamiliar with this use of the drug digoxin, but said once a medication is approved for one use, a physician is free to use it for any other use “to benefit a patient” and the definition of benefit is left between the patient and the doctor.