Woman Sues for Failed Abortion. Your Thoughts?
 

Saw this article today. Just wondering what you all thought about it. I consider myself pro-choice but I'm wondering why she didn't choose adoption.

BOSTON Mar 7, 2007 (AP)— A Boston woman who gave birth after a failed abortion has filed a lawsuit against two doctors and Planned Parenthood seeking the costs of raising her child.

The complaint was filed by Jennifer Raper, 45, last week in Suffolk Superior Court and still must be screened by a special panel before it can proceed to trial.

Raper claimed in the three-page medical malpractice suit that she found out she was pregnant in March 2004 and decided to have an abortion for financial reasons.

Dr. Allison Bryant, a physician working for Planned Parenthood at the time, performed the procedure on April 9, 2004, but it "was not done properly, causing the plaintiff to remain pregnant," according to the complaint.

Raper then went to see Dr. Benjamin Eleonu at Boston Medical Center in July 2004, and he failed to detect the pregnancy even though she was 20 weeks pregnant at the time, the lawsuit alleges.

It was only when Raper went to the New England Medical Center emergency room for treatment of pelvic pain in late September that year that she found out she was pregnant, the suit said.

She gave birth to a daughter on Dec. 7, 2004.

She is seeking damages, including child-rearing costs.

Raper and her lawyer, Barry C. Reed Jr., refused comment when contacted by The Boston Globe.

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood said the organization does not comment on pending litigation.

Neither doctor responded to requests for comment.

Raper alleges in the suit that Planned Parenthood and Bryant were negligent for failing to end her pregnancy and that Eleonu was negligent for failing to see she was still pregnant.

The state's high court ruled in 1990 that parents can sue physicians for child-rearing expenses, but limited those claims to cases in which children require extraordinary expenses because of medical problems, medical malpractice lawyer Andrew C. Meyer Jr. said.

Raper's suit has no mentions of medical problems involving her now 2-year-old daughter.

As with all medical malpractice suits in Massachusetts, Raper's complaint will have to be screened by a tribunal consisting of a Superior Court judge, a lawyer, and a doctor to determine whether it has merit to go to trial.

Here's a link to the article as well.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2931334

It was my understanding that the small print on abortions was always that it was not 100% effective...just like condoms.

I know we all learned in 7th grade health class, that the only way to be sure to not be pregnant is to be...(say it with me) ABSTINENT. :)

I am very interested to see how this case turns out though. Hopefully it doesn't drag out for too long. How would feel to know that the lucrative case your mother is fighting is regarding how she didn't want you to begin with???:confused: :o :(

People sue for everything!

Doesn't it make sense to sue for failed surgical procedures, in general?

Not just like condoms. Condoms are preventive just like other forms of birth control. That's why their failure rate is expected and makes sense.

Abortions are supposed to target an ENTITY and remove it, right? Why shouldn't patients expect it to be 100%?

I agree with you. We are not talking about a condom that broke. We are talking about someone who PAID for a procedure that was not correctly carried out. That can be construed as malpractice. Power to her. I would not want to be her kid who finads out in 20 years that Mommy tried to get rid of me and we have that Porsche Jeep in the driveway because it didn't work.

WoW!
 

You are so right. This is a very litigious world that we live in. I can see her suing if something went dreadfully wrong and that's why it failed, but to sue simply because the event didn't take place...hum. The whole experience is life threatening, I thought, so hopefully her health is okay. More than suing, maybe what she needs is some counseling, to make sure that her mental health is okay.

7th

Isn't this still malpractice, even considering the small print? (Maybe our lawyer friends can enlighten us). It doesn't surprise me she sued.

The question
 

Good question Heather, but, does a woman seeking an abortion sign a statement declaring the release of liability? Not that the statement would remove the Doctor from being responsible in the event of a woman's death. What are the legal or jurisdictional statutes concerning abortions, considering the fact that they aren't legal in some states? And, maybe somewhere in the language, it may state something about abortions not being deemed a necessary surgery or operation. I don't know, I'm just wondering.

7th

I agree with Chaos that this needs to be looked at more generally as a botched surgical procedure--one that the patient paid for. Take out the issue that it was an abortion.

This is a 45 year old woman who felt she could not afford to have the child. That includes the medical costs of having the baby. That also might explain why she didn't consider adoption--she would still have the medical costs with no guarantee of an adoptive family to pick them up.

As for abstinence. Come on, let's not be naive. I envy her for having an active sexual life :D . And at the age of 45 she may be going through menopause, which could make one think they can't get pregnant anymore because of irregular or missed monthlies.

Bottom line is she paid to have a medical procedure done, the procedure was botched so now she is suing for malpractice and to recoup the future costs associated with the mistake. IMO, no different than other such lawsuits where a procedure was not done correctly and the lawsuit includes on-going medical care.

ETA: My guess is that the fine print about not being 100 percent effective may be for preventive measures such as vasectomies and tube ligations.

I am almost sure that it is elective surgery except in cases where it is to save to mother's life. I figure it is a medical procedure. She PAID for it. Even if she did sign a release, if you look at it like a contract(I pay "X" amount of dollars for a service), it that service is not performed, that is a breach. That doctor and Planned Parenthood are about to up some duckets...

sidenote: i thought Planned Parenthood did abortions for free or low-cost?

if the abortion was free, could she even seek $? i mean, it sucks but can the "you get what you pay for" maxim work here?

on another note, (and these are more legal questions) when children are killed, dont parents tend to sue for the dollar amount of the expected financial worth of the child? i remember something about a teenager who was killed and the lawsuit was for the $ he couldve made had he went to college, graduated and worked a healthy career (i forget what the field was).

i can KINDA see how this works if your child(ren) is/are approaching adulthood, but if the kid is like 3 or 4, then that doesnt really work...

my point to all that was, if parents can sue when their child dies (therefore no longer making them a parent, then that logic says an adult can sue when their child lives (making them a parent, in this case when she didnt intend to be).

man, talk about "the customer is always right"

ETA: i also don't believe that this woman is suing purely for "financial reasons." that is her and her lawyer's cover to make this lawsuit as cut and dry as possible. i mean abortions happen because the pregnancy is UNPLANNED. which is why PLANNED Parenthood swoops in and is "supposed to save the day." but they just made it worse. well, the doctors anyway.

AND ANOTHER THING. when women are artificially inseminated, they are paying for a service, yet its known that pregnancy is not 100% guaranteed. are abortions going to start being advertised as "not 100% effective?" will you have to go to the doctor for a follow-up, to make sure that sucka aint kickin anymore? (i know, that's kinda insensitive)

I just need for people to stop trying to pimp the system. Abortions are not 100% effective! So instead of being angry at the drs maybe she should be made at herself for having no self control in the area of sex!! This angers me because there is much more to this abortion issue than she is even thinking of.

again, lets stop being naive here. ppl are going to have sex. ppl are going to make bad choices in who/when/why/how they have sex. sex is weird, ish happens you know? so instead of blaming a woman for the right to choose to have sex with who/when/why and how and blaming her for the choices she made after that...

that's like telling someone who gets hit by a drunk driver "well maybe if you werent on the road late at night where you KNOW people may be drunkdriving, this may not have happened." are you gonna blame the victim for having no self-control in the desire/need to drive? or are you going to poin the finger at the person who ACTUALLY did wrong?

the failed abortion was NOT this woman's fault. not one but TWO doctors screwed up. not only was the procedure done wrong, but it wasn't even noticed by the next doctor!

let's not even get into the issue of pre-natal care: lots of women are inaccessible to such and given that this women got an abortion (or tried to) at a Planned Parenthood and her reasoning being "financial reasons," i cant imagine her access to proper pre-natal care (ie a trusted doctor she could continuously visit that would track her pregnancy and know her needs) was all that great.

p.s. anyone having a tongue-in-cheek moment about the woman's last name?

Pimp the system! The system is flawed anyway. Why do you think docs have to carry malpractice insurance. Have you read about the increase of medical mistakes? What if the child had been born with deformities, because of the botched procedure? (and we don't know that for sure.) Would you be more sympathetic? And why didn't the second doctor realize she was still pregnant?

More self-control! You make it sound as if this woman was wantonly having sex. And even if she was, as a person who has been 45, I know that the body can send off false signals. And guess what wanting sexual intimacy does not stop at age 35!!!!! And the article doesn't go into it, so for all we know the father could be her husband.

Again, imo this is not an abortion issue, it is a botched medical procedure issue. And unfortunately they are made more often then we would like to think.

It is easy to be judgemental of others when you think you are above a particular "sin."