Never Had to Happen

 

Breaking: Planned Parenthood to pay $2 million in ‘wrongful death’ of Tonya Reaves

by Ben Johnson

CHICAGO, February 7, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of Tonya Reaves, a 24-year-old woman who died of a botched abortion in July 2012.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge John P. Callahan Jr. signed an Approval of Wrongful Death Settlement on January 24.

Tonya Reaves, 24

 

Under the terms of the agreement, three plaintiffs – Planned Parenthood of Illinois, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation – must pay $2 million to the next of kin, her son Alvin Jones III. He was just one year old at the time of his mother's death. After lawyers' fees and probate expenses, the child will receive $1,479,571.39. Payments begin when he turns 18, in 2029 and are guaranteed until 2071.

That's far more than the $250,000 minimum the boy's father, Alvin Jones Jr., initially listed when he sued more than a year ago.
“All sums set forth herein constitute damages on account of personal injuries and sickness,” the settlement states.
But pro-life groups in the state say the abortion provider got off easy. Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel of the Thomas More Society, said, “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.”
Documents show that Reaves died from hemorrhaging caused by a botched second-trimester dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion, which began at 11 a.m. on July 20, 2012.
 
When the abortionist and staff at the Loop Health Center Planned Parenthood facility, located at 18 South Michigan Avenue, could not stop or control her bleeding, it was clear something had gone terribly wrong.
Reaves lay on the table, writhing and bleeding for five-and-half hours before staff arranged to have her transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Rather than call 911, they had Reaves transported by ambulance at 4:30 p.m. There is no evidence they informed Northwestern medical staff of the cause of her bleeding.
When the 24-year-old arrived, doctors found she had as much as a liter of blood in her abdominal cavity.

An ultrasound found that the abortion had been incomplete. A second abortion, performed at the hospital, removed the remains of her unborn child. But despite the staff's efforts, her bleeding persisted.

A second ultrasound found that Reaves' uterus had been perforated. Though they performed an emergency hysterectomy in a desperate bid to save her life, Reaves died.
The medical examiner who performed her autopsy found a 3/16” laceration in her uterus and an “extensive perforation of the left broad ligament” slicing through the left uterine artery. The uterus looked “ragged,” he wrote, from repeated cauterization attempts designed to staunch the internal wound.

The cause of her death was hemorrhaging, a perforated uterus, and delay.
The abortion provider's behavior constituted the “abandonment of a patient,” according to a legal complaint filed by Thomas Brejcha of the Thomas More Society with the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation on behalf of his client, the Pro-Life Action League. "No known action has been taken by the IDPR to follow up on the complaint.," the Thomas More Society tells LifeSiteNews.

The document said the abortionists may be guilty of at least three separate violations of state law.
The Planned Parenthood facility's website stated that it only dispensed “emergency contraception” but did not reveal that it performed surgical abortions. That led Brejcha, Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, and others to ask whether the clinic was properly equipped to handle surgical abortions, especially the more complicated second trimester procedures.
(Story continues below)

A screenshot of the facility's website

Despite Reaves' death, Planned Parenthood set a new record in 2012 for the number of abortions it performed and the amount of taxpayer funds it received. That year, the nation's leading abortion provider aborted 333,964 babies and accepted $542.4 million in tax dollars, nearly half its budget.
“Tonya is the real face of the war on women,” Lila Rose told the Values Voters Summit in 2012.

Source:LifeSite News