Planned Parenthood Regional CEO Denies Patient Death

We wanted to give you an update on our story yesterday in which a woman was evacuated from the Everett Planned Parenthood abortion clinic by ambulance. Christine Charbonneau, CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest (formerly Western Washington), responded yesterday afternoon by email.

In the email she admitted that the plaintiff victim was a patient (and not an employee as some have speculated), but denied that the client was deceased as some eye-witnesses had feared. She claimed "patient is very much alive, stable and getting care appropriate to the situation."

She attempted to downplay the seriousness of the situation, saying that they had "evidently ... transferred [her] to a hospital for observation."

Ms. Charbonneau, who probably doesn't want the victim thinking about lawsuits and going after her organization's $40 million bank account, claimed the reason her employees formed a wall was not to try to hide the state of the patient, but rather that "client asked for privacy so the client’s face was covered when wheeled outside, to avoid being harassed and photographed by protestors (sic)."

And while Ms. Charbonneau did not admit that the client was the victim of a botched abortion, she didn't deny it, and she knows that's certainly the public's operating assumption, since Friday is an abortion day at their Everett facility.

We have asked Ms. Charbonneau for independent documentation of her claims beyond the self-serving assurances of an organization which is hardly at the zenith of its public credibility. Since we have some familiarity with the behavior of 40 Days for Life volunteers, who pray for and reach out to Planned Parenthood's abortion clients with love, we asked for some evidence to substantiate her claims that they would seek to harass or photograph clients, especially those being taken away on stretchers.

It's also important to note that the only person to move along the sidewalk to view the paramedics entering and leaving the Planned Parenthood, and take photographs, was an AIW reporter who had already been praying at the site for 3 hours. The other vigil participants continued praying in the usual spot and increased the fervency of their prayers when told that a woman had been hurt. They never gawked or ceased to pray.

To paraphrase the President, let us be completely clear: the only photos we have ever published of women patronizing Planned Parenthood are those leaving in emergency vehicles.

Unless there is a reporter at the scene, a lawsuit or public testimonies of post-abortive women, the public is unaware of just how dangerous "safe and legal" abortion is.