Major Class Action Lawsuits Target Abortion

Major Class Action Lawsuits Target Abortion

Women Injured by Abortion Urged to Join Efforts to Protect Women’s Rights

Women who have been injured physically or emotionally by abortion may have the opportunity to participate in two class-action lawsuits that have been filed recently in Missouri and Texas.

One case alleges that Planned Parenthood routinely violates the civil rights of minority women by targeting them for abortion. The lawsuit accuses Planned Parenthood of St. Louis of engaging in “mass fraud” and “genocide” by “intentionally targeting and encouraging lower income persons and those of minority races and ethnic groups to have abortions, sterilizations, and to use contraception,” in order to lower the populations of such groups.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Nicole Smith, a 27-year-old African-American mother of three who went to Planned Parenthood of St. Louis for an abortion in October 1999. Smith, who was then in her second trimester of pregnancy, alleges that although she told the counselor at Planned Parenthood that she was reluctant to have an abortion, the counselor encouraged and even pressured her to end her pregnancy.

Smith said that when she told the counselor she could not afford the $600 abortion fee, the counselor offered to lower the fee by $200. The lawsuit also states that the counselor told Smith she did not know of any side effects of abortion and that a video Smith watched about the procedure also failed to mention any complications.

Smith said that the clinic doctor then inserted laminaria into her cervix to cause dilation and sent her home. When Smith called the clinic several hours later to tell them she had changed her mind about the abortion and wanted the laminaria removed, she said she was told to wait until the next morning.

Fearing that she might miscarry if she waited, Smith went to a hospital to have the laminaria removed and was admitted after doctors noticed fluid leaking from her cervix. A sonogram performed a few days later showed her child had died in utero.

The lawsuit states that when Smith called Planned Parenthood to inform them what had happened, she was told by the nurse that she should have told the counselor she wanted the baby and that she had “set herself for all kinds of infection” by having the laminaria removed. She said the nurse also told her that the clinic would not give her any more information on her health and would not refund the money Smith had paid for the abortion.

In addition to civil rights violations, Smith’s lawsuit charges Planned Parenthood with medical malpractice and the wrongful death of her child. Johnny B. Davis, one of several attorneys working on the case, said that they are encouraging other women who had abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics to join the case if they feel they were misled, directed toward abortion or suffered physical or emotional harm.

Jason Craddock, another attorney involved in the case, said the case will be challenging, but he feels confident. “In a way, as an attorney in this case, I feel like David against the much bigger Goliath, or Gideon’s army against the much more numerous Philistines,” he said. “However, as these men knew, no one can trash the living God and not be called to account for it.”

In the second case, the Texas Justice Foundation, a non-profit public interest law firm, is suing the state of Texas on behalf of several women who say that the state does not enforce abortion facility regulations, and thus failed to protect them from injurious abortions.

The injuries mentioned in the lawsuit include rupture of the uterus, sterility, and severe guilt and depression following abortion. Several of the women say that they were injured during abortions performed by non-licensed personnel, and in some cases, by employees who were not doctors.

Another plaintiff is the mother of a minor child who was given an abortion without parental consent. The mother says her daughter, who was being treated for depression at the time of the abortion, suffered a worsening of her mental condition after the abortion and had to be hospitalized.

The suit alleges that the state of Texas routinely fails to require abortion clinics to comply with informed consent laws or to report cases in which a minor child becomes pregnant as a result of abuse. The suit also claims that the state fails to inspect licensed abortion clinics and that it has refused to investigate or cooperate with investigations by other state agencies of unlicensed abortion facilities or clinics that aren’t complying with state laws.

For more information, contact:

Missouri case: Jason Craddock (217) 523-1834

Texas case: Texas Justice Foundation, (210) 614-7157

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