Abortion:   no informed consent

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Rochester Area Right To Life

"It's just blood..."
Malpractice suit for an abortion

At 8 weeks "it’s only blood."  What?

Anybody who’s ever looked at a picture of an 8-week fetus can see hands, feet, and face. There’s not much doubt that one is looking at a fetus, not "just blood.".

At a recent health fair, RARTL had a booth with fetal models and lots of printed material on fetal development. One young woman came up to look at the fetal models and said, "But at 6 weeks, it’s just blood." We showed her the literature and read her the description of the body systems at 6 weeks.

She stared away into the distance and said, "But they told me it was just blood."

A woman in New Jersey has sued her doctor for severe emotional distress after he told her the same thing.  She was 8 weeks pregnant.

He had told her that for medical reasons she should have an abortion. According to AP, she asked if "the baby was already there," to which he replied that "it’s only blood." Rosa Acuna is suing Dr. Sheldon Turkish; she says "the abortion caused psychological traumas including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosexual dysfunction."

The original trial court had dismissed the lawsuit, but in an appeal, the appeals court said that a failure of the doctor to provide sufficient information is a question of medical malpractice.  It's a failure to get informed consent.

Wouldn’t it be nice if doctors had to tell patients the truth about abortion the way they do about other surgical procedures?

Information Source: Associated Press; October 29, 2002 as quoted in the pro-Life Infonet


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