Woman sues abortion doctor

When Rosa Acuna was six weeks pregnant and deciding whether or not to have an abortion, she asked her doctor if the baby was "already there." She said Dr. Sheldon C. Turkish told her, "Don't be stupid, it's only blood."

Acuna had the abortion but now she is suing Turkish, saying he misled her about the child's development and she has suffered "emotional distress" for the death of her unborn child. The New Jersey Supreme Court denied her case on September 12, saying that the court "will not place a duty on doctors when there is no consensus in the medical community or among the public."

Robert P. George, professor at Princeton University and member of the President's Council on Bioethics, served as an expert witness in an earlier stage of the case. George told WORLD on the Web, "The doctor did not tell the truth, did not tell her what is actually known as a matter of biological fact, as set forth in the leading human embryology textbooks." Contrary to Turkish's assertion that the baby was "only blood," at six weeks gestation an unborn child has lungs, a beating heart, and the beginnings of a face, arms, and legs.

Acuna said she felt pressured into having the abortion, George reported: "If people claim to support the right to choose abortion, if they think it should be a matter of choice, they should be scandalized that this woman was lied to and denied the information she needed to make the choice she wished to make."

He said the decision was not surprising, given the New Jersey Supreme Court's liberal leanings. A similar case in a less liberal state might have different results: "It would have been a very significant case if it had come out the other way."