A failed abortion equals free money.

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BOSTON -- 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.

Whos to say she was truly pregnant at that time?
Women give birth at 8, even 7 and a half months along all the time.

And if she didnt want a child THAT BAD.. why not adoption?
She has left this child in a house hold where it will be constantly reminded it was not wanted.

Lovely.. just lovely..

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How does one not do an abortion correctly? Confused

Unless there were twins.... Crying or Very sad

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or she was not pregnant at the time?

Or she was, the abortion was correct, and she had sex again with in a few days..

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Would a woman's body be ready to become pregnant again a few days after an abortion?

Not to be indelicate, but if she were unaware of her pregnancy two months before she gave birth I imagine she's rather obese. Could that cause difficulties during an abortion procedure? Certainly could cause a problem with ultrasound and fetal heartbeat detection. Then again, peeing on a stick is rather simple....

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Yes.
You can get pregnant in about 2 days after an abortion.

For some,it could be earlier I assume.
All it takes is for the bleeding to stop so that the fetus can attach to the walls of the uterus.

This could EVEN happen while the woman is bleeding. Of course, that is a very rare thing.. but it could happen none the less.

Sort of like the odds of a woman getting pregnant during her period.
it can happen ANYTIME there are sperm and an egg present, blood or not.

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I don't think you can assume that the child will be reminded that it was not wanted nor can you assume that she did not want a child in the absolute. Besides, too many "wanted" children are raised by people who should never have had children and have their lives ruined because of it.

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I'm no expert, but I seem to remember this coming up in one of my paralegal classes and the argument was that a child is a blessing / provides it's own rewards or something to that effect and therefore there are no grounds for a lawsuit based on cost of raising the child when an unwanted child is born.

The exception for medical costs when the child has medical problems is because that presents a hardship and I suppose the blessing / rewards are not the same. Rolling Eyes

It was a point of major discussion within the class for the majority of the morning session. I don't remember exactly, but it may have also had something to due with having to pay child support.

Adoption probably would have been an option for this woman. I wonder why she didn't do that.

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squinney wrote:

The exception for medical costs when the child has medical problems is because that presents a hardship and I suppose the blessing / rewards are not the same. .

^^
even I would limit that to payment only for problems that are proven to be caused by the abortion procedure and nothing more.

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don't think you can assume that the child will be reminded that it was not wanted nor can you assume that she did not want a child in the absolute.

True. You have a point.

I guess what I should be saying is... how , I wonder, would it feel for a young person to KNOW that their parents truly attempted an abortion on them.
She may be completely happy she has the child now, and 100% grateful the abortion was NOT a success.. but this child will undoubtedly know they were a failed abortion. Even as far as to know that their mother attempted to sue to afford them.
THAT has to be a really hard blow for a child.

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I suppose the woman may have been obese. Obese women generally find conceiving more difficult than their slimmer sisters: my brother's wife was able to conceive after losing 25 pounds. Since the egg does float free for a brief distance within the body cavity (that is one of the causes behind ectopic pregnancies) for a short distance, I would guess that fat keeps the egg from properly travelling to the uterus.

The other thing is that she's 45 and while she may have been 43 (at the youngest) when this all started, that still means she was perimenopausal, if not menopausal. This could mean that her periods are so irregular that she would have difficulties in tracking the beginning of a pregnancy. Also, she might have wanted an abortion as a general precaution against giving birth to a child with Downs Syndrome or some other birth defect due to her advanced age at conception.

Which could mean that any child she had could have a limited potential as an adoptee. Children who aren't perfect often linger as wards of the state.

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plainoldme wrote:

The other thing is that she's 45 and while she may have been 43 (at the youngest) when this all started, that still means she was perimenopausal, if not menopausal. This could mean that her periods are so irregular that she would have difficulties in tracking the beginning of a pregnancy.

That hasn't been established and it is not a certainty at any rate. Not every woman in her 40's is perimenopausal.

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Not every woman at 45 is perimenopausal? I wasn't but my grandmothers both went through menopause late. But, consider that perimenopausal can be a ten year stretch of time. Besides, a friend was diagnosed as perimenopausal at 33.

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A failed abortion equals free money.

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