Woman in Scotland Sues Hospital Over Failed Abortion of Twins

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 25, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Woman in Scotland Sues Hospital Over Failed Abortion of Twins Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 25, 2005

Perth, Scotland (LifeNews.com) — A Scottish woman has filed a lawsuit against a hospital over an abortion she had in 2001. The abortion was performed on twin unborn children and one of the babies survived the failed procedure.

Jayde, the baby who survived, is now three years old and her mother, Stacy Dow, is filing suit for damages. She’s seeking the cost she will incur of raising Jayde, an estimated $600,000 plus.

"I have got a child now that I wasn’t planning to have and I believe the hospital should take some responsibility for that," Dow told a London newspaper.

The hospital, located in Perth, Scotland, failed to "take reasonable care to establish that the [abortion] had been successful," Dow said.

Dow brought the lawsuit in part because her husband recently passed away.

Dow had the abortion when she was 16 yeard-old and, weeks afterward, though she told the abortion killed both babies, she delivered one of the two children.

“After 33 weeks I went to the GP and he told me I was pregnant," Dow told the London Times. "I thought he meant I had fallen pregnant again, and I couldn’t believe it when I was told that it was one of the original pregnancies."

"They told me in the hospital that the operation had been successful and there was nothing left in the womb," she added.

Dow discussed with the newspaper how she would tell her daughter about the abortion she hoped to have.

"I still don’t know if, or what, I’m going to tell Jayde when the time comes. I just hope she understands what happened and why I did it," Dow said.

In a similar case in England, a 36 year-old woman received about $25,000 under a settlement with another hospital when one of her twins survived the failed abortion.