Life Links 5/16/11

In New Zealand, a storm is brewing over recent revelations that a 16-year-old had an abortion which was arranged by a school counselor without her parents' knowledge.


Taiwan is missing 3,000 girls who should have been born in 2010 because of sex-selection abortions.

The Bureau last month launched an investigation after it found that 10 out of every 11 babies delivered in a clinic in New Taipei City last year were boys. Nine out of every 10 babies delivered in a Taipei City hospital during the same period of time were also male.

Government officials suspected that doctors at the two medical institutions might have conducted the illegal abortions after expectant parents had viewed ultrasound scans which allowed them to predict the sex of their baby.

Under Taiwan's law, any doctor found guilty of conducting such an abortion may face a fine of up to Tw$500,000 ($17,368).

Authorities in South Africa caught an illegal abortionist after an alert hospital security guard realized something was amiss.

B4S VIP Security managing director, Zubair Gafoor, said the man’s alleged scheme involved using hospital documentation to convince women that he was a practicing doctor at the hospital.
“Once he convinced them he takes them for coffee at the hospital café where he allegedly explains how the abortion will take place.

“Our investigations have revealed that he allegedly also tells them that apart from working at the hospital he has a private ‘surgery’ behind a Gold Exchange shop in Church Street where he performs the operations.

“Here he allegedly abandons his victims once he has taken their money. Our biggest fear now is how many women he has ‘operated’ on and what has happened to them.”

The number of women in Australia who contracted hepatitis C from an anesthetist who worked at an abortion clinic has risen to 49.

Dr Peters also worked at the Fertility Control Centre in East Melbourne, the St Albans Endoscopy Centre and the Western Day Surgery in Sunshine.
But Dr Carnie says the infections appear to be isolated to the Croydon Day Surgery.

In a Herald Sun article, Victoria's Chief Health Officer Dr. John Carnie doesn't think the women were infected accidentally and we get some more background on Dr. Peters.

Dr Peters had a history of drug use and was last year convicted of possessing images of child pornography.

A West Virginia judge has upheld a life sentence on teenager who killed a pregnant woman's unborn child when he was 16.