While we are deeply respectful of your serious concerns about the practices and methods of abortions at this hospital, we have concluded that there is no basis for legal action by this office against the Hospital or its employees, agents or staff at this time.
In an August 2004 email discussion with Stanek, Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn quoted IDPH spokesman Tom Shafer stating, apparently in reference to Stanek and another nurse, Allison Baker: "[W]hat they were alleging were violations of existing law. ... We took (the allegations) very seriously."
Zorn wrote further: "Shafer told me that the 1999 investigation reviewed logs, personnel files and medical records. It concluded,
'The allegation that infants were allowed to expire in a utility room could not be substantiated (and) all staff interviewed denied that any infant was ever left alone.' "
From Zorn's 2004 blog post:
As you well know, Jill, the Illinois Atty. General's office, then under abortion foe Jim Ryan, was quite concerned about your allegations and directed the Illinois Dept. of Public Health to conduct a thorough investigation of the claims made by you and Allison Baker.
Why?
"Because what they were alleging were violations of existing law," IDPH spokesman Tom Shafer told me yesterday. "We took (the allegations) very seriously."
Shafer told me that the 1999 investigation reviewed logs, personnel files and medical records. It concluded, "The allegation that infants were allowed to expire in a utility room could not be substantiated (and) all staff interviewed denied that any infant was ever left alone."
Shafer was quick to add that neither he nor the IDPH report concluded that your testimony was untruthful or exaggerated to help advance your anti-abortion views -- simply that their investigation did not substantiate the allegations.
People will twist things whichever way they can to try to make them fit their own views. We all do it sometimes. But all these smears against Obama are simply not justifiable. They have tried to paint him as different, dangerous, unpatriotic -- only one of those is true.
Barack is different.
He's a black man who can inspire passion in the hearts of those who want the world to be a little bit better place to live in. He's someone who was raised by his white grandparents, who sometimes had to rely on food stamps to make ends meet. He's someone with a good mind and an even temperament who remains calm in the midst of a storm.
He's the most scholastically accredited top-tier candidate for president that we've had in several decades.
He graduated from Columbia University, and then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. He was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He could have gone into private practice at any firm he wanted, making tons of money. But he decided that he wanted to work for the betterment of his community instead. He worked as a community organizer and Civil Rights Attorney. He taught classes in Constitutional law, and was offered a tenured professorship at at one of the nation's premier law schools, the University of Chicago. He served as a state senator of Illinois for 7 years.
Joe Biden earned his JD (Juris Doctorate) at Syracuse University and while a senator, has been teaching constitutional law at Widener University.
