Shocking Planned Parenthood Malpractice Leads to Death of Baby
A Planned Parenthood employee's mistake led to tragedy
Through her diligent work, Rachel MacNair has uncovered over 150 lawsuits filed against Planned Parenthood. They are on our site, Problems at Planned Parenthood, which also documents failed health inspections, negative reviews, 911 calls, and patient deaths at Planned Parenthood centers across the country. I will be doing a series highlighting some of the more egregious lawsuits.
Here is the first in the series
A woman whom I will call CL, to protect her privacy, filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Planned Parenthood of Southern New England and Nurse Midwife Gannon Ward. CL went to Planned Parenthood in Danbury, Connecticut. Her lawsuit concerned the loss of her baby boy through a shocking case of malpractice.
On February 10, 2020, CL went to the Danbury Planned Parenthood and had an ultrasound, which was performed by Ward. CL had just had a positive pregnancy test. She wasn’t seeking an abortion but merely wanted information about her pregnancy.
Ward performed a transvaginal ultrasound. After looking at the ultrasound, she dated the pregnancy at 6 weeks and 3 days. She also determined that there was no embryo present – just an empty sac, indicating an incomplete miscarriage.
Gannon told CL that she wasn’t pregnant with a living baby and recommended the abortion pill to allow CL to expel the empty sac and remaining tissue. CL agreed, took the first pill (Mifeprex, a version of mifepristone), and then the second drug in the abortion regimen, misoprostol.
As the misoprostol began to work, CL experienced very severe cramping. According to the lawsuit, around 3:00 AM on or about February 12, 2020, she delivered a “deceased but intact male fetus” in her home.
A later examination showed that her baby weighed 474.5 grams. He was estimated to be 22 weeks of gestation.
CL named him Shawn Kyle Brady.
Somehow, nurse midwife Gannon Ward mistook a fully formed baby at 22 weeks for a 6-week empty sac. It’s hard to believe a medical professional could make such a drastic mistake. But she did. And it led to the death of a baby boy.
A coroner’s examination of Baby Shawn showed “no identified anomalies” – he had been completely healthy before CL took the abortion pill.
Baby Shawn may have survived had he been born alive and given medical care. A recent study found that 40% of babies born at 22 weeks survive if treated.
CL’s ordeal didn’t end with the death of her son. She suffered “significant blood loss requiring transfusion.” It turned out that CL had a medical condition that made a second-trimester abortion by induction very risky. She had a uterine fibroid, which caused the hemorrhaging that could have killed her. Gannon never informed CL of the “greatly increased” risk of a late-term abortion.
CL filed suit against Gannon and Planned Parenthood.
The lawsuit stated, “Baby Brady was a viable male fetus, capable of living outside the womb and capable of independent life apart from his mother.”
CL sued for the death of her baby and for her own “severe psychological, physiological, and emotional distress.”
CL also sued on behalf of her baby’s father and on behalf of her son, Shawn, himself.
From the lawsuit:
As a direct and proximate result of the aforementioned medical negligence of the defendant, Kyle Shawn Brady was killed in utero. But for the medical negligence of the defendant, Kyle Shawn Brady would have been born alive.
…Kyle Shawn Brady is entitled to damages for his pain and suffering, as well as for the full value of his future life.
It’s appalling that someone giving medical care at Planned Parenthood couldn’t tell the difference between an empty sac at six weeks and a fully formed, viable baby, old enough to be born alive.
Unfortunately, I was unable to determine the outcome of the lawsuit, but it’s hard to believe that Planned Parenthood and Gannon could’ve mounted much of a defense.
CL experienced a terrible tragedy as well as a life-threatening complication, and a baby died due to Planned Parenthood’s negligence. This is just one of the cases of medical neglect and malpractice at Planned Parenthood.
You can read about more problems with the Danbury Planned Parenthood and other Planned Parenthood facilities in Connecticut on the Problems at Planned Parenthood website’s Colorado page.
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Sarah Terzo covered the abortion issue for over 13 years as a professional journalist. In this capacity, she has written nearly a thousand articles about abortion and read over 900 books on the topic. She has been researching and writing about abortion since attending The College of New Jersey (class of 1997) where she minored in Women’s Studies.
Permission is given to pro-life organizations to repost or reprint this article, but please include the following:
This article originally appeared on Sarah Terzo’s Substack. You can read more of her articles here.