Historical Char-Meck Abortion - Illegitimate Birth Statistics

Carolinas Medical outlines Abortion and Crack Baby information

Crack Baby Costs total $2,340,032 for 109 babies ($21,468 per Baby)

155 Abortions performed during the same period

(Carolinas Medical prohibits its Doctors from performing "elective" abortions but does not prohibit its facilities from being used)

For the 10 months in 1999, there were 55 newborns of drug addicted mothers, of which 96% were related to cocaine. For 2000, the trend was similar at 54 with 76% cocaine related. The total charges for the 109 infants for hospital care was $2,450,032 (or $21,468 per baby) - significantly higher than a normal delivery.

For the 54 infants in 2000, the zip code breakdown was as follows:

28216 7.8% (Inner-city)

28 204 7.9% (Inner-city)

28205 5.9% (Inner-city)

28206 11.8% (Inner-city)

28208 15.7% (Inner-city)

TOTAL for the above = 49.10%

All Others 50.9%

The "All others" included zip codes consisting of 1 case or 2% of total.

For the period of March 1999 to December 1999, 80 legally induced abortions were performed as follows:

Maternal Factors: 22 (27.5%)

Fetal Factors: 16 (20%)

Unknown Reason: 42 (52.5%)

 

For the period of January 2000 to October 2000, 75 were performed as follows:

Maternal Factors: 23 (31%)

Fetal: 16 (21%)

Unknown Reason: 36 (48%)

Those with "Unknown Reason" do not necessarily imply that they are elective. There were cases where there was not another associated discharge diagnosis provided by the attending physician.

The Full Text of 2001 Carolinas Medical Letter

Dear Commissioner James:

In your communiqué of January 21, you requested specific data and asked some questions related to abortions and addicted infants. We do very few abortions as noted below. The elective abortion service ended at Charlotte Memorial in the mid-seventies. Today we try to refer all those who request elective abortions to other facilities in the area.

Of interest, we do so few that the most recent review of the OB-GYN residency program by accreditation organizations raised the concern as to whether our residents were getting enough experience with this procedure. Our OB-GYN residents average less than five abortions over their three year residency; whereas, the national average is over 20 per resident. Our faculty advised the accreditation organizations that rather than increasing the number of abortions the residents perform, experiences with spontaneous miscarriages would be used to fulfill the experience requirements.

As it relates to the legal level of 20 weeks of pregnancy, we strictly adhere when we have a mid-trimester interruption, and we require ultrasound confirmation on the gestation period.

In responding to your request, we abstracted information from our computerized patient database. Unfortunately, this file does not include every single piece of information on a patient’s hospital stay. The documentation of the gestation age would be in the individual patient’s paper chart, which we did not survey.

Abortions to save a mother's life are very rare. The clinical situations in which this would be considered include cases of severe heart failure, renal failure or in-patients with cancer when a delay in treatment to allow completion of the pregnancy would impair the potential survival of the mother. Occasionally, a pregnancy must be interrupted to assist with maternal resuscitation in major trauma, but that is very rare.

We converted all of our core systems in March of 1999; thus the data below is for 20 months, from March 1999 to October 2000 for Carolinas Medical Center and University Hospital.

• For the period of March 1999 to December 1999, 80 legally induced abortions were performed as follows:
  • Unknown Reason: 42 (52.5%)
  • Maternal Factors: 22 (27.5%)
    • Diabetes
    • Mental Disorders
    • Other Ectopic
    • Leiomyoma
    • Symptoms re: genitalia
    • CVD mother
    • Kidney Disease, mother
    • Malignancy in mother (rectum/anal canal, cervix, breast)
    • Molar pregnancy
    • Cervical Incompetence
    • Primary Pulmonary Hypertension
    • PROM
    • Uterine abnormality
  • Fetal Factors: 16 (20%)
    • Abnormal products of conception
    • Suspected fetal anomalies
    • Chromosomal Anomaly
    • CNS Malformation
    • Intrauterine Death

• For the period of January 2000 to October 2000, 75 were performed as follows:

Those with "Unknown Reason" do not necessarily imply that they are elective. There were cases where there was not another associated discharge diagnosis provided by the attending physician.

Regarding restrictions on abortions, other than the legal limitations, we do not restrict private physicians. For our faculty and residents, as noted earlier, we normally refer all elective requests to other facilities in the area.

Regarding infants born at CHS facilities to drug addicted mothers, we used the same database and periods noted above. We looked at the following discharge diagnoses:

• Fetal alcohol syndrome
• Fetus/newborn affected by
• Narcotics
• Hallucinogenics
• Cocaine
• Drug withdrawal syndrome in infants or newborns

For the 10 months in 1999, there were 55 newborns of drug addicted mothers, of which 96% were related to cocaine. For 2000, the trend was similar at 54 with 76% cocaine related. None of these infants died while at CHS. As it relates to your question on the mothers taking their children home, we do not keep computerized records on whether the mothers were allowed to take their infant’s home. CHS would, of course, cooperate with any County or other agency that had custody authority for the infant. DSS may have actual records on this or other infant custody issues for Mecklenburg County.

• For the 54 infants in 2000, the zip code breakdown was as follows:
  • 28216 7.8%
  • 28204 7.9%
  • 28205 5.9%
  • 28206 11.8%
  • 28208 15.7%
  • All Others 50.9%

Note, the "All others" included zip codes consisting of 1 case or 2% of total. The total charges for the 109 infants for hospital care was $2,450,032.

Please give me a call at 704-355-2154 if you have any questions with the enclosed.

Sincerely,