Planned Parenthood to Pay $2M Settlement to Family of Botched Abortion Victim
Planned Parenthood is set to pay $2 million to the family of a botched abortion victim in a wrongful death settlement, a circuit court in Illinois decided late last week. Pro-lifers say the punishment does not go far enough.
"The fact that Planned Parenthood has been allowed to merely pay 'hush money' to the victim's family without any further consequences is a slap in the face to every woman who walks through the doors of the nation's largest abortion provider," said Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel of the Thomas More Society.
The law group had filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation in February 2013 to investigate the death of 24-year-old Tonya Reaves, who died following a late-term abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility in Chicago on July 20, 2012.
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According to Thomas More Society, Reaves did not receive proper medical treatment following the botched abortion at the Planned Parenthood clinic, and after she was finally transferred to a hospital, Planned Parenthood staff failed to provide the hospital with sufficient information.
The law group detailed the events behind the incident in another report, and noted that the Planned Parenthood facility where Reaves had an abortion apparently was supposed to offer only limited services, and not what the surgical abortion staff attempted.
"Any physician taking responsibility for performing surgery in such a sub-par setting, who inflicts the ultimate 'harm' (death) on his or her patient, is not even remotely 'properly qualified or competent' to render such potentially fatal surgical services, which is 'dishonorable, unethical or unprofessional conduct' or 'questioned activities' that flout regulatory norms," Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, said in February 2013.
Breen stressed that Reaves' death "demonstrates the dire need for increased inspection and regulation of Illinois abortion clinics." "Abortion clinics in this state are not held to the same standards as other outpatient surgical facilities, despite the fact that the average clinic performs hundreds of invasive surgeries each year," he said.
Pro-life leader and motivational speaker Walter Hoye shared with LifeNews that it is disappointing that Planned Parenthood will not be punished further.
"In my opinion, Planned Parenthood is guilty of criminal negligence, depraved indifference, and gross medical incompetence," Hoye said. "Now that the case is settled, we will never know how a jury would have reacted."
The wrongful death settlement petition and the court's approval can be read on the Thomas More Society website.
