An Idaho couple has launched a lawsuit against abortion giant Planned Parenthood after their drug-induced termination failed to have the desired effect. After the abortion medication failed to destroy the fetal life, Bianca Coons and her partner Cristobal Ruiz decided to sue the organization for costs associated with the raising of “an additional unplanned child.”
What is the background?
Bianca Coons was approximately six weeks pregnant when, in 2016, she and her partner decided to get an abortion. Attempting to avoid the mandatory waiting period in their home state of Idaho, the pair took a 700-mile trip down to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they visited a Planned Parenthood clinic. According to the lawsuit, the couple felt compelled to get a termination because they were “destitute and attempting to maintain and limit the size of their family.”
They also noted that, as a result of the waiting period, attempting to get an abortion in Idaho would have meant allowing the baby to grow further, noting that they did not want to choose abortion if the fetus was further developed.
What went wrong?
According to the Albuquerque Journal, Planned Parenthood offered Bianca a medication abortion, which involves taking two separate drugs (mifepristone and misoprostol) to induce premature labor and cause the subsequent death of the fetus. Planned Parenthood itself describes the termination method as a “safe and effective way to end an early pregnancy.”
Having returned home to Idaho the day after ingesting the medication, Coons began to suffer from severe nausea. After being rushed to a local hospital, doctors determined that her baby was alive and well, and monitored a perfectly healthy heartbeat. After contacting Planned Parenthood, Bianca was instructed to take the second dose of medication, which she confirmed to have already ingested.
Shortly after this, the abortion clinic informed the Coons that she may require another abortion procedure. Aside from the obvious cost, however, Bianca said she was also morally conflicted about aborting her child at a later date.
“The fetus had now developed to somewhere around nine weeks,” the lawsuit noted. “Ms. Coons could not morally sanction further action to terminate the fetus.”
What happened next?
If the situation wasn’t complicated enough, Planned Parenthood then informed Coons that her baby could be born with birth defects as a result of the destructive medication she had taken. The couple’s son was born then born a month early “with jaundice and blood sugar issues.”
The lawsuit claims that the parents are worried their child will carry “a defect or injury into adulthood” and are thus demanding $765,000 in compensatory damages.
“The defendant’s failure to properly supervise and administer the abortion service directly resulted in the failure of the pregnancy termination which resulted in injury to plaintiffs’ interests in family planning and their interests in financial planning for the future of their family,” the lawsuit reads.
In addition to two separate Planned Parenthood clinics, the couple is also suing the hospital in Boise where Coons sought treatment, along with various medical personnel.
“The abortion pill usually works, but if it doesn’t, you can take more medicine or have an in-clinic abortion to complete the abortion,” Planned Parenthood notes on its website.