Twin Babies Aborted Two Months Apart in "Botched" Abortion.(Brief Article)

Suffering from uncontrollable crying and haunting visions, a California woman won a lawsuit against a Planned Parenthood clinic for a 1997 "botched abortion" that left one of her twin unborn children alive. The second baby was aborted more than two months later, when the woman - - after repeatedly being told that everything was normal - - discovered she was still pregnant.

As the court clerk read the jury's February 28 verdict - - an award of $672,610 - - "the woman, whose fetus lost two limbs in the abortion attempt before being terminated months later, lowered her head and wept, convinced her three-year court battle was finally over," the San Francisco Examiner reported. However, Planned Parenthood's lawyer said the case will be appealed.

The two abortions have devastated the woman, a 28-year-old Yugoslav immigrant identified only as J.B. "She is like a shattered human being," attorney Christopher Dolan told the Examiner. He said she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and will continue to receive psychiatric care.

The sad story begins in early December 1997 when J.B. had an abortion at the Planned Parenthood Golden Gate clinic in San Francisco. When she returned for a checkup on December 19, she was told that "she was fine, there were no complications," said Dolan, according to the Washington Times.

But even at the time of the first checkup, J.B. still felt pregnant, with a swollen stomach and morning sickness. She called the clinic several times. Despite the insistence of clinic personnel that everything was normal, she demanded a pregnancy test, the Examiner reported. On February 18, 1998, a urine test showed there was still an unborn baby in her womb.

Since the pregnancy was now far into the second trimester, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate gave J.B. a list of late-term abortion providers, made an apology, "and shooed her out the door," according to Dolan.

At Buena Vista Women's Center, a sonogram showed J.B. that her second baby was still alive. But one arm and one leg had been sliced off during the first abortion that took the life of the twin's sibling.