Expert: Pat G - 4/19/2010

Question
my nice had an abortion a few weeks ago, her uterus was puntured, so was her bowels, she had afuther operation to repaire this , she had tonhave some of her bowls taken away, she has been taken into hospital twice now , one to reopen the incision because of infection, now again because her bowels have twisted , and she may need another operation, in your professional opinion do you think this is appaling incompetance and negligent

Answer
Hello, maggie,

What happened to your niece is fairly common, unfortunately. I don't have a "professional" opinion, but I will express my opinion just the same. In my opinion, first of all, abortion itself is medically unethical. Anybody who would do one for any reason other than to save the life of the mother is negligent by definition. Doctors are supposed to "first do no harm". That means that the consequences of not acting must greatly outweigh the possible consequences of acting. A woman's body is designed to protect her child, so her body MUST be injured to produce an abortion. Whether or not the consequences are immediately apparent just depends on the individual case. In some cases, the damage doesn't show up for years, or it can cause grave harm to a future child.

The other problem is that when they do a surgical abortion, they are using a sharp knife on some very soft tissue, and they're operating blind. They can't see what they are doing. Even if they use an ultrasound, they can't really tell. They have to cut away the placenta, and they scrape the surface of the uterus. This is true even when they are doing a suction abortion. Suction abortion uses a force which is 29 times that of a vacuum cleaner. One little slip of that knife, and they have injured organs.

They probably failed to get your niece's informed consent. They probably didn't tell her what the dangers are. There is even a good chance they believe abortion is safe. Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing them. It is rare for abortionists to follow up with their patients and find out what really happens in the long run. Regardless of their personal opinion, failing to obtain a patient's informed consent by telling what the real dangers are is fraud. So I would hold that they are also guilty of fraud, since it seems unlikely your niece would choose to go through with an abortion if she knew what would happen.

In my opinion, anybody who repudiates medical ethics to do an abortion for casual reasons has repudiated his profession. He is no longer a doctor, but a quack. Abortion can still be legal, but that doesn't make it safe.

If you are asking me if you should avail yourself of legal remedies open to you (or whoever has the direct interest, such as your niece or her parents), I'll tell you that if I were in your position, I would! People like that NEED to be put out of business. But please be aware that there is a very good chance they have made themselves judgment-proof, which means collecting a judgment will be very difficult to impossible. It is still worth doing to try to get rid of them and shut them down.

I am not familiar with the law in UK about these things, but there are organizations that would know. You might want to contact the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in England: http://www.spuc.org.uk/ . Or you can contact your local organization that exists to help pregnant women. You can find the one closest to you by going to this web site:

http://heartbeatservices.org/index.php/connections/worldwide-directory

Good luck with this. I hope they get your niece straightened out, so that she can be healthy again. Please let me know how she does, and what happens.


PS

Thank you for the rating. I do appreciate hearing what you think.

That said, it's not about a lecture here. Doing an abortion is by definition negligence. And no, what happened to your niece is NOT normal. Nor is it all that common. It is far too common, however. But if it were widespread, people would stop having abortions.

I would be less than honest if I didn't level with you. Abortion is not medical care. No women ever deserves to have an abortion.

Please take care of your niece. I am praying for her.