Pregnancy
Oops! Doctor Performs Botched Abortion, Forced To Pay ‘Child Support’
Here’s something you don’t hear too often (as in, ever): A 24-year-old woman in Spain gave birth to a healthy baby boy after a failed abortion. That’s right, she found out she was pregnant but decided she wasn’t ready to be a mom. So she booked herself an abortion in the city’s Emece clinic and had one performed at almost seven weeks pregnant. Two weeks later, she went for a follow-up scan and the doctor confirmed that she was no longer pregnant, that the fetus was gone.
Well, you can imagine this woman’s surprise when, months later, a fresh scan revealed she was expecting (same pregnancy, just to be clear). At that point, she was already into her sixth month, meaning it would have been illegal to abort Spain has a 22-week limit for abortions).
Fast forward six months and the woman has given birth to a healthy baby boy. That’s the good news. The bad news is that she didn’t want the baby – not at first, anyway – which is why she opted for an abortion in the first place. She sued the doctor for damages – first, for financial support and second, for emotional stress (she wasn’t sure the baby would be born healthy since a suction technique had been used to try and remove the embryo).
The doctor has been ordered to pay 1,000 euro a month for the “upkeep” of the little boy (pretty much child support) until he turns 25. How crazy is that? Not saying I disagree with it but, wow, I’ve never before heard of such a case. “There has never been a case like this before in Spain,” said Eva Munar, lawyer for the mother. “We don’t know if it has ever happened anywhere else in the world.”
Sadly mistakes do happen, but a big issue with regards to this particular incident is that the doctor has paid no attention to the scan (this according to both the mother and the judge who sentenced the doctor). “The scan lasted three minutes and I was out again,” the mother explained. “It was: ‘You are fine, off you go and carry on with your life as normal.'” (She only went back for another scan when she started experiencing major pregnancy symptoms.)
The mom has since moved in with her parents, though she initially hid her pregnancy from them out of fear of their reaction. “I am okay now, because I have had to accept things. There is no other option. I’m happy with my son,” she said. “When I have to explain all this to him, I’ll try to make sure that he feels okay about it. It was back then that he was not wanted, not now.”
Okay, so at least there seems to be happy ending to this whole debacle. Though I can’t imagine what that conversation will be like one day in the future, and if she should even be having it (though, really, that’s such a personal decision). All that really matters is that the baby was born healthy and that he is loved and supported, despite the rather unconventional way in which he entered this world.
