Botched Abortion Yields Live Baby

Have you heard? A Scottish woman intends to sue the National Health Services for Scotland (NHS) for a botched abortion. Now, this isn’t extraordinary in and of itself. Did she suffer damage as a result of the procedure? Not really. Instead, she gave birth to one of the twins she thought she had aborted. She insists NHS should be responsible for the financial burden of raising the little girl, Jayde, who is now almost 4-years-old.

Mother sues NHS for £250,000 after failed abortion

MICHAEL BLACKLEY

A MOTHER who gave birth to a baby girl despite having gone through an abortion is to sue the NHS for £250,000.

In the first legal action of its kind in Britain, Stacy Dow is claiming her local NHS trust should pay to help her raise the daughter she never expected to have.

Miss Dow was 16 when she found out she was six weeks’ pregnant with twins. She decided immediately to have an abortion, and the procedure was carried out at Perth Royal Infirmary later in the same week.

She was assured by hospital staff that there was no live material visible in her uterus, and she was then given a contraceptive injection and advised that it could induce side effects such as weight gain and an erratic menstrual cycle.

When she subsequently started to experience rapid weight gain, she assumed it was as a result of the injection. But on returning to her doctor after 33 weeks, she was told one of the foetuses had survived the abortion and was only seven weeks from being born – too late for a legal termination.

On 30 August, 2001, an elective caesarean section was carried out at Perth Royal Infirmary and Jayde was born. Miss Dow, now 20, believes Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust should pay for the “financial burden” of her daughter’s upbringing. — The Scotsman

One thing absent from this story is the father. Assuming this wasn’t a virgin birth (a safe assumption to make), there had to be some sperm involved. Either Dow, now 20, won’t name the father or doesn’t know who he is. Regardless, he should be the one helping to support Jayde. Dow complains that her parents are being negatively impacted by their grandchild. Her father has had to take a second job to support Jayde . . . and Dow, although she’s not admitting this. For some reason, Dow decided to forgo continuing her education or getting a job – even a part-time job. I’m no authority figure on Scotland, but I’m pretty sure the country allows adoptions. If Dow was willing to abort, why didn’t she just release Jayde for adoption once she was born? Then, loving parents could have taken on the burden of her care.

Somehow, it just doesn’t register to Dow the hypocrisy of her situation — that she felt the mistake she made (by getting pregnant) should be so easily terminated/ignored. It’s rather ironic that she thinks the mistake the hospital made must cost big bucks. Somehow, it has escaped her that the abortion would not have even been necessary if she either hadn’t engaged in the sexual act or if she had used appropriate birth control.

I have two questions concerning this story: Who determined hospitals and medical professionals must save us from our own mistakes, such as poor eating, lack of exercise and unsafe sex? And, how do you tell a little girl that Mommy tried to abort her/kill her and the medical procedure failed, so the hospital must pay for her food, toys and education?

Wouldn’t it just be the height of irony if one day little Jayde decides to sue her mother for emotional pain and suffering over her birth and life? It seems to me she’d have a pretty good case.

You can read the full story here.

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