Woman: Clinic Didn't Help Baby Born Before Abortion
Medical Facility Says Incident Did Not Happen
POSTED: Friday, April 29, 2005
UPDATED: 12:07 am EDT April 30,
2005
Several pro-life groups are calling for an investigation of an Orlando doctor and clinic Friday after a woman claims she did not receive help after giving birth before a scheduled abortion, according to Local 6 News.
A complaint with the state alleges that a woman in her 30s, who was about 5 months pregnant, went to the EPOC Clinic and Family Planning Center on Virginia Drive for an abortion.
The woman claims she followed the procedures to begin the process but when she returned the next day to complete the process she said there was no doctor present and she went into labor, Local 6 News reported.
According to the complaint, the woman delivered the baby in the bathroom of the clinic. She claimed that the newborn died shortly after birth, Local 6 News reported.
Several organizations allege that the clinic is not just guilty of mishandling the abortion but of failing to help the woman when she needed medical attention.
"Here her child is in the bathroom, looking up at her, and forgive me for being so frank, in a toilet," Christian Defense Coalition Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney said. "She is hysterical, begging the health care providers to call 911 and they refuse to do it."
A spokeswoman for Dr. James Pendergraft said the incident did not happen.
"This is a very fine medical facility and Dr. Pendergraph is a very fine, board certified highly respected medical doctor," Doctor's spokeswoman Marti Mackenzie said. "It absolutely never happened."
Local 6 News reported that Pendergraft has been at the center of controversy before. He served several months of a four-year sentence for a fraud case in Ocala, Fla., according to the report.
The woman who is making the claim is planning an independent autopsy on the child's body, Local 6 News reported.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
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