By Gudrun Schultz

PERTH, United Kingdom, March 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A young woman who gave birth to a daughter, after a failed abortion left one of her twins still alive, is suing for damages against the hospital that carried out the procedure.

Stacy Dow, 21 years old, discovered she was pregnant with twins when she was 16, reported the BBC yesterday. She decided to abort her babies. Following the abortion she was given a contraceptive injection and told to expect weight gain and irregular menstruation as side effects.

When she went to her doctor months later, she found one child had survived the abortion. Ms. Dow was only seven weeks away from giving birth. At that late stage of pregnancy she could not have another abortion. Late-term abortions are illegal in the UK unless the mother’s life is in danger.

Ms. Dow is suing the Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust for £250,000. She wants to cover the “financial burden” of raising her five-year-old daughter, Jayde.

She also wants compensation for being forced into the difficulties of being a single mother, for the emotional and psychological distress she suffered after discovering she was still pregnant, and for the “pain and discomfort” of having her daughter by Caesarean section.

The hospital wants the claim thrown out. Hospital officials say Ms. Dow’s daughter is “normal and healthy”, and £250,000 is an excessive claim. They also say no contract between the hospital and Ms. Dow was entered into, and she was never guaranteed a successful abortion.