Pro-choicers often maintain a legal abortion is safe abortion, however complications from legal abortion occur more often than most people think. Recently, a prominent of late-term abortionist, James Pendergraft, was sued by a woman he injured during an abortion.
This is not the first time this abortionist has been in trouble. Pendergraft, who owns five abortion clinics in Florida and one in Washington DC, has had his medical license suspended four times. His offenses include botched abortions, dispensing drugs without a license, making false threats which he blamed on pro-life activists, and performing abortions too late in pregnancy. His last brush with disciplinary action occurred in January of 2010 when he caused a woman serious injuries while aborting her 19 week pregnancy. He was also in trouble for performing abortions later than the law allowed. The woman he injured had to go to the hospital to have the fetus removed. The woman had to have a hysterectomy.
Pendergraft’s latest legal troubles are due not to a baby he killed but to a baby he failed to tell. In November of 2001, Carol Howard became the patient of Pendergraft. She went in for an abortion at 22 weeks. Her daughter was born alive but seriously injured by the abortion. The daughter suffered massive birth defects and is now 10 years old. The mother sued Pendergraft to cover the daughter’s medical expenses. As severely handicapped child, those medical expenses are significant. The girls problems include cerebral palsy, paralysis on one side of her body, lung damage, and brain damage.
Howard won the lawsuit. Pendergraft was ordered to pay her $18,255,000 in punitive damages, $18,000,000 in compensatory damages and over $400,000 in court costs. This money will go towards the expensive medical care that the girl requires.
Pendergraft is still performing abortions despite having his license revoked four times. He is an example of a doctor who gets away with injuring many women and yet still continues a lucrative practice. His late-term abortion clinic in Washington DC advertises on the Internet. He seeks women patients from throughout the United States who come to have their babies aborted as late as the third trimester. Pendergraft does these abortions by injecting poison into the fetal heart and then causing the woman to go through labor to deliver the dead baby. Many of the women who come to him are carrying babies that are handicapped or otherwise ill. They do not want to continue the pregnancy for fear that the child will suffer or be difficult to care for. Others just do not want to be pregnant because of life situations or experiences.
Women seeking late-term abortions should be aware of whether there doctor has any pending lawsuits against him or whether he has ever had his license revoked. Just because abortion is legal does not mean that it is always safe.
Read about more abortionists who got into trouble.
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