Idaho couple sues Planned Parenthood after failed abortion procedure results in ‘unplanned child’
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Michael Katz, Idaho Statesman
An Idaho couple is suing Planned Parenthood after they say a failed abortion procedure led to the birth of “an additional unplanned child.”
The Albuquerque Journal reported Wednesday that Bianca Coons and her partner, Cristobal Ruiz, have named two Planned Parenthood branches, a Boise hospital and “various medical personnel” in a lawsuit seeking $765,000 in damages, and “damages for breach of contract, unfair trade practices, violation of consumer protection laws and emotional distress, among other claims.”
The Journal reported that “the family of four was ‘destitute and attempting to maintain and limit the size of their family.’”
Coons’ child was born a month early, and “the family continues to worry that he ‘may carry a defect or injury into adulthood,’” according to the suit.
Planned Parenthood sent Coons a letter, “warning that the medication she had taken can cause birth defects,” the Journal reported.
According to the Journal and the lawsuit, Coons and Ruiz traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in February 2016 to procure an abortion and bypass Idaho’s mandatory waiting period. Coons, who was about six weeks pregnant, attempted to get an abortion via oral medication, which is legal 10 weeks into a pregnancy.
A so-called medication abortion uses two different medications to end a pregnancy, according to Planned Parenthood’s website.
After taking the first round of medication, Coons returned to Boise and was hospitalized with nausea; it was then that couple found out the fetus had not yet been aborted.
At that point, Coons was told by a local doctor through Planned Parenthood to take the second round of medication, the Journal reported. Coons was then told to get blood work to see whether the medicine worked, and it was there that Coons said, “she would like to have a second medication abortion if she was still pregnant.”
Coons was told that if she returned to New Mexico, the abortion would be free; if done in Boise, it would have to be paid for.
Coons said she could not afford another abortion attempt, the Journal reported, and followed through with the pregnancy. By March “the fetus had now developed to somewhere around nine weeks. Ms. Coons could not morally sanction further action to terminate the fetus,” according to the lawsuit.
In a statement to the Journal, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson said that she “was unable to comment on pending litigation, and out of respect for patient privacy, she could not discuss specific patients.”