Years ago I met someone who has become one of my dearest friends. We met while waiting to be interviewed on a television show. She was to be a guest too, and we became immediate friends before the camera lights turned on. Eileen has a story that makes any mother shudder and her face drain of color.
Eileen is an advocate and pro-activist for life. Her daughter, Laura, was murdered by an abortionist while on his table one fall day. Their home had always favored life. No one knew she was pregnant. Her fiancé left her pregnant on their last meeting on his way to Iraq. A girlfriend walked with Laura through the difficult decision and accompanied her to the “doctor’s” clinic to abort Eileen’s grandchild. While on the table, having been over medicated and no rescue equipment on the premises, Laura died. She was left on the table by the abortionist and was not breathing, while the receptionist, holding Laura’s hand, tried to wake her. The receptionist had no nurse’s training or medical qualification; she only had a high school diploma. The doctor left the room to conduct another abortion. After the hand holder could not revive Laura, the abortionist returned to stage a faulty rescue attempt trying to save his patient’s life. He placed tubes from an old kit found in his desk; arranging the props in random parts of her body. The EMT’s who were located across the street were finally called later for help.
Eileen and her husband were in New Jersey, seven hours away. The frantic friend who brought Laura to the clinic for the abortion called, gasping out six gripping words and crying hysterically, “Laura. Emergency room. Not breathing. Abortion.”
The quiet and tense race to drive up the coast from New Jersey to Massachusetts was a blur as my friend knew what she would find when she arrived at the East Coast hospital. No words can adequately describe the terror of that night as the Smith’s found the hospital room empty of their daughter. Eileen was escorted to the hospital basement corridor to the icy morgue to identify her beloved daughter. They had rescued and adopted Laura as a young girl, who was born in Honduras, and loved her as their own. Eileen, one night while staying in her home, told me the whole tragic story. Unforgettable was the account of the sounds of the zipper being opened to the body bag as she stood in shock seeing her beautiful and vivacious daughter lying on a cold sterile slab tagged in death.
Eileen is a research queen and her love for others and intense desire to know the truth assisted the lawyer’s quest for justice. I keep insisting that Eileen’s story of Laura must be written and even told by a movie, given the right circumstances. Due to Eileen’s persistence and tenacity, she found more information than those searching for it, as she sought to see justice served to the man who had performed thousands of abortions in his multi-million dollar business. My friend’s efforts paid off as the only abortionist, a Harvard fellow from that region, was indicted on charges of manslaughter. Sadly, his sentence was three months in a prison house that looked like a bed and breakfast on Martha’s Vineyard. From “prison” he then served a sentence of nine months house arrest in his own multi-million dollar house surrounded on three sides by water.
I admire my friend who just wanted to live a life helping others. Her chilling story and the new vision for life leaves her audiences stunned as she speaks across the nation, helping life affirming non-profit organizations raise funding to help women and families in crisis. She believes that true choices protect women and give educated alternatives and assistance than merely asking if they want to use a Visa or Master Card for their abortion procedure.
Laura’s life and story is impacting and her memory lives on as Eileen tells it. Eileen has been used to bring a new awareness to the hazards of abortions and its unsafe practices. The profitable business of abortions is in the billions and funded well. My friend, on the other hand, feels bankrupt with a broken heart and loss while still missing the love of her life and bright spot in their home—Laura Hope Smith (May 25, 1985 – September 13, 2007)
Eileen, thank you for using your sorrow to comfort those who seek answers. Your challenge to us all is to love life at all costs. May Laura’s life continue to impact others. May your bold and courageous life message save other daughters. May you be comforted as you weep.
When you choose to look past the horizon… the sky is the limit!