On March 29, 1997, a young mother went to the Aware Woman Center for Choice for an abortion.
Soon after the abortion began, she felt piercing pain in her abdomen. She begged the abortionist to stop. She yelled “Call an ambulance! Take me to the hospital!” The abortionist, William P. Egherman, refused.
When she tried to get up, Egherman ordered his assistants to hold her down. Four pairs of hands gripped Jane’s arms and legs, rendering her immobile, and continued the abortion. She was eventually taken by ambulance to an emergency room where it was discovered that Egherman had perforated her uterus and lacerated her colon. Follow-up surgery was required to remove her now-dead baby and repair her internal organs.
The young woman, known in court documents as “Jane Doe,” filed suit against Egherman and the owners of the abortion mill, charging that their actions violated the Freedom of Access of Clinic Entrances Act (FACE).
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that FACE could also be used against people who force women to have abortion. It wrote “If the defendants restrained Roe for the purpose of preventing her from obtaining any [reproductive health services], then she has adequately pleaded a violation of FACE.”
The Eleventh Circuit also ruled that a woman suing for an unwanted abortion can remain anonymous.
Michael Hirsh of Kennesaw, Georgia, the lead attorney in the groundbreaking case of Jane Roe II v. Aware Woman Center For Choice, Inc., said that “We are most pleased that the Court has allowed my client to retain her cloak of anonymity. It was surprising that representatives of the abortion industry sought to strip away my client’s privacy. It’s just the opposite of what they’ve been saying for 28 years.”
Forcing women injured by abortion from to publically reveal their identities in lawsuits is a common tactic of abortionists’ lawyers, despite the fact that Norma McCorvey, plaintiff of Roe Vs Wade, was allowed to remain anonymous and that the arguments for abortion rights were related to a woman’s privacy. It is done in an attempt to shame women into not suing for the injuries they sustained in botched abortions.
References: Jane Roe II vs. Aware Woman Center for Choice, Inc., a Florida corporation, Edward W. Windle, Jr., Patricia B. Windle, and William P. Egherman, M.D., United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 00-10231, filed June 8, 2001; “About FACE.” Population Institute Weekly Briefing, August 7, 2001 [Volume 3, Number 20]; “Victim of Forced Abortion Can Remain Anonymous, Says the U.S. Court of Appeals.” Press Release dated August 9, 2001, from Chris Sapp, Esq.
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