Today: July 09, 1998 at 9:30:41 PDT
Full-Term Fetus Nearly Aborted
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX (AP) -- Realizing something was wrong after he had begun to abort what he believed to be a 23-week-old fetus, a doctor instead delivered a full-term baby girl. She suffered a skull fracture and cuts on her face.
The 6-pound, 2-ounce girl suffered the injuries during what began as an abortion at A-Z Clinic, which terminates pregnancies through the 24th week. A Texas couple is to adopt her, said police spokesman Sgt. Mike Torres.
The mother, 17, came to the clinic June 29 seeking to undergo a controversial procedure termed by opponents as "partial-birth" abortion, investigators said. Ultrasound testing at the clinic determined her fetus was 23.6 weeks.
The teen-ager returned the following day to undergo the late-term abortion procedure, in which a fetus 20 to 24 weeks old is partly delivered through the birth canal and its skull is drained.
During the procedure, Dr. John Biskind realized the pregnancy was in its 37th week, halted the abortion and delivered the infant, police said.
An attempt to reach Biskind at his Scottsdale home drew no response Wednesday. The clinic turned away questions without comment.
Dr. Carolyn Gerster, chairwoman for AZ Right to Life, said the average weight for a fetus is about 2 pounds at 24 weeks and about 6 1/2 pounds at 36 weeks.
"Sounds like a grave error was made in estimation of the size," she said. "With an ultrasound, there shouldn't be that kind of discrepancy."
Authorities were investigating.
Biskind, who has been licensed in Arizona since 1981, was censured by the state medical board in 1996 for "gross neglect" in the case of a 26-year-old woman who bled to death following an abortion, board records show.
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