Judge Furious After Prosecutors Drop Case Against Clinic That Killed Woman in Botched Legal Abortion

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jul 1, 2016   |   4:17PM   |   Washington, DC

The details of another tragic abortion case that ended in the deaths of both the mother and her unborn baby are being reported in England this week.

In a strange series of events, the charges against a British abortion doctor and two nurses who allegedly contributed to the woman’s botched abortion death have been dismissed, according to the BBC.

The case revolved around the death of 32-year-old Aisha Chithira who traveled from her home in Ireland to a Marie Stopes abortion facility in Ealing, West London on June 21, 2012, according to the report. A few hours after Chithira, who was 22 weeks pregnant when her unborn baby was aborted, left the abortion clinic, she collapsed in a taxi and later died from “extensive internal bleeding,” The Stoke Sentinel reports.

Adedayo Adedeji, the abortionist, and nurses Margaret Miller and Gemma Pullen all faced charges of manslaughter by gross negligence in Chithira’s death. However, during the past four years, news reports indicate numerous procedural problems with the case that eventually led to the charges being dropped this week.

Here’s more from The Stoke Sentinel:

The case had been beset with problems, including the key prosecution expert not being available to attend the trial. Defence lawyers argued that blunder alone made it abuse of the judicial process to continue the case.

Prosecutor Sally O’Neill QC told the court the decision to drop the manslaughter charge was taken following a review.

No detailed reasons for the decision were given in court.

Now a judge is calling for an urgent review of the case to determine why charges were brought against the doctor and nurses and “what went wrong” with the case, the BBC reports. Judge Nicholas Cooke had harsh words for the lengthy court proceedings and the time and money spent on the problematic case.

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“What has occurred must not be brushed under the table,” Cooke said. “The situation that arose is most regrettable given there was a tragic death.”

The doctor and nurses all denied any wrong-doing in the woman’s death, and their attorneys argued that the case never should have been prosecuted, the Little Hampton Gazette reports.

Marie Stopes, where the abortion occurred, is a large, world-wide abortion chain that is similar to Planned Parenthood. In 2009, Marie Stopes International reported doing 920,000 abortions in 43 countries.

LifeNews has reported several cases where women allegedly were injured or died from botched abortions at Marie Stopes facilities. In 2011, another British abortionist lost his medical license after he nearly killed a woman in a botched abortion at the same Marie Stopes location where Chithira went, LifeNews reported.

In 2010, another woman allegedly died at one of its India facilities after having an abortion when she was 10 weeks pregnant with her unborn child, LifeNews reported. According to the Republica newspaper, her family blamed her death on “shoddy” practices and the abortionist Chitra Bahadur Karki, who police later detained for an investigation.

In 2011 and 2013, two woman in Australia also died after having abortions at Marie Stopes facilities, LifeNews reported. In the 2013 case, a 42-year-old woman died days after the botched legal abortion she obtained from Marie Stopes, according to news reports at the time.

That abortion death took place at an abortion facility that had already drawn international attention because it employed an abortion practitioner who was accused of purposefully infecting more than 50 women with hepatitis C during 2008 and 2009. Anesthesiologist James Latham Peters was eventually found guilty in the case.

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