ARTICLES

What Do They Do With Them?

Oakland Incinerator A Fetal Dump-Site

By Maggie Garcia

In the debate over abortion, one aspect that receives little attention is the question, What happens to the bodies of babies who are aborted? When a woman walks away from an abortion clinic, she leaves behind the dead body of her pre-born baby. The abortion clinic must dispose of the body. Legally, abortionists must treat aborted fetuses as medical waste. This is regulated by the California health and safety code. The code is specific as to how aborted fetuses, under 20 weeks, are to be disposed. Code section 7054.3 cites "a recognizable dead human fetus of less than 20 weeks uterogestation not disposed of by internment shall be disposed of by incineration".

A long-time employee of a Northern California pro-life organization asked, "Why are supposed allies of the pro-lifers also ignoring the question? Are there any bodies? Planned Parenthood wants you to believe there aren't any bodies. Pregnancy is just a state, a condition, a concept," the employee said. "If there are bodies, then where do they go? A German manufacturer created a baby incinerator and billed it as just the thing for your abortion clinic because it prevents any outside interference with your business. You can cremate the bodies and they go right up the chimney."

While the use of incineration for fetal disposal has not been a pro-life issue, other groups have protested the practice. If an abortionist uses incineration as the method for disposing of medical waste, environmentalists believe he or she is producing a byproduct of dangerous pollutants into the air. The effect of incinerating medical waste, which includes human tissue such as tumors, amputated body parts, blood soaked rags left over from surgery -- and aborted fetuses -- has become a prominent issue among environmental groups.

The concern that environmental groups have with incinerating medical waste arises because one of the byproducts is dioxin, "one of the most dangerous substances known to man" according to a February interview with Karen Perry of Physicians for Social Responsibility in New York. "We call it a persistent pollutant because it builds up in the body fat of animals. It's been called a human carcinogen" she said. When asked about human parts, Perry added that most medical waste is not of human origin but is composed of the disposable plastics that are widely used in the medical profession. The waste management industry defines regulated medical waste as "single-use disposable items such as needles, syringes, gloves, and laboratory, surgical, emergency room and other supplies which have been in contact with blood, blood products, bodily fluids, cultures or stocks of infectious agents."

The Oakland incinerator on East Oakland's High Street, owned by Integrated Environmental Systems, is the largest commercial medical waste incinerator in the country and the only one in Northern California. According to a study by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, "The sources of dioxins clearly migrate from somewhere ... but where they come from has not been known until now. The dubious honor of the Oakland Incinerator -- the only commercial medical waste incinerator in the state -- is that we supply dioxins to anywhere the weather patterns carry these pollutants."

A call to the Oakland incinerator parent company, Integrated Environmental Systems confirmed that they do accept medical wastes from abortion clinics. One employee said, "Yes, oh sure" when asked if the facility handled medical wastes, including fetuses, from abortion clinics. Another employee said, "I'm pretty sure that they do [pick up fetuses from abortion clinics], they pick up everything else."

But the practice of accepting fetuses for incineration is not the norm in the industry. The largest medical waste disposal company in the United States is Lake Forest, Illinois-based Stericycle. The company has offices in Southern California and 47 other states, but does not handle medical waste in Northern California. Since merging with Browning Ferris Industries in November 1999, Stericycle has refused to dispose of fetal remains since the merger because the drivers from Browning Ferris have a clause in their labor contract that allows them to refuse to accept fetal waste. Stericycle said the company will only handle medical wastes from abortion clinics if it doesn't include fetuses. "That's not our policy" sales representative Bill Rights said when asked if his company would take fetuses from abortion clinics.

Green Action spokesman Bradley Angel said the Oakland incinerator has operated for 15 years, "without conducting an [environmental impact report]." Angel said that his group is trying to rally the community to protest the levels of dioxin and mercury that are released by the incinerator. In February, Angel said Green Action spoke at the Mass at St. Elizabeth's in East Oakland, a community they believe is regularly exposed to pollutants from the incinerator. A staffer who answered the phone at St. Elizabeth's denied that the church had any speakers regarding the incinerator at Sunday Masses. "I've asked the priest and he said that he doesn't know anything about this," she said. She admitted that she knew of the Oakland incinerator but denied the parish's involvement with the issue.

Another place where aborted babies end up is in medical research laboratories, both private and public. Last year, Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics in Texas revealed that some doctors are skirting federal laws prohibiting the sale of fetal tissue and are engaged in a highly profitable business of selling fetal tissue that is procured from abortion clinics. A price list from one of these companies, Opening Lines, noted the cost of the various fetal organs that are available to researchers. One price list, dated January 1999, included a purchase order from the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Deborah Froh, the principal investigator whose name appeared on the purchase order specified that she wanted "Lung 14-24". The 14-24 is presumably the age of the fetus whose organs are being removed. Twink Stern, the public affairs officer for UC San Francisco did not return calls for comment. The California Health and Safety Code is specific as to how fetal remains are to be treated by researchers: "At the conclusion of any scientific or laboratory research or any other kind of experimentation or study upon fetal remains, such fetal remains shall be promptly interred or disposed of by incineration". Later in the same code section, the researcher is instructed not to allow the public to view the remains: "Storage of such fetal remains prior to the completion of the research, experimentation or study shall be in a place not open to the public, and the method of storage shall prevent any deterioration of the fetal remains which would create a health hazard."

Occasionally, pro-lifers will discover the bodies of aborted babies that have been kept by an abortionist in an illegal manner. Last year, the bodies of twenty babies who had been discovered stored in an abortion clinic were given a Requiem Mass in Concord and laid to rest. Other babies are not so fortunate. On January 22, on the 28th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Rev. Msgr. Edward Kavanagh of Sacramento lead a burial service at the Sacramento Sewage Treatment plant for the "aborted babies flushed into the Sacramento area sewers".

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