By Al Riskowski, Nebraska Family Council

As Lincoln Right to Life volunteers stood outside the Lincoln Planned Parenthood clinic silently protesting abortions they began to pray and intercede as they watched an ambulance arrive.   They knew something had gone terribly wrong inside the clinic. 

It would soon be discovered that a 40-year-old Nebraska woman needed an emergency hysterectomy because of an abortion that nearly took her life.  The lawsuit filed in early September stated that she lost four liters of blood, 80 percent of the average woman’s blood volume.   She also stated the abortion procedure caused her excruciating pain.

Lincoln attorney Jefferson Downing, who filed the lawsuit in Lancaster County District Court, as well as a complaint with the Nebraska Health and Human Services Department on behalf of the woman, said his client felt violated by the treatment she received at the clinic.

“Our client has filed these complaints to bring to light the negligent actions of Planned Parenthood and Dr. (Meryl) Severson,” Downing said in a prepared statement.  He said the woman is identified as Jane Roe in the lawsuit to protect her privacy.

Apparently the woman did not know who to contact about the lawsuit.   She asked her boyfriend, the father of the aborted child, to look in the yellow pages.  By chance Jeff Downing was called about filing the complaint.  Jeff is on the board of Family First and a strong Christian.  

Dr. Severson, who performed the abortion, resigned from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in March 2001 after performing an elective abortion in 2000 in violation of university policy. He joined Planned Parenthood in May 2001.

The plaintiff is claiming negligence and battery in the lawsuit, and is seeking $36,850 for past medical expenses and unspecified damages for physical pain and mental suffering, permanent injury and lost income.

Neither defendant is covered by protections under the Nebraska Hospital-Medical Liability Act, which sets limits on damage amounts, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, the woman was about eight weeks pregnant when she contacted Planned Parenthood in July and scheduled an abortion at the South Street Center .

The woman and a friend arrived at the clinic at 9 a.m. Aug. 17, and, according to the suit, the woman had an ultrasound, which indicated a tilted uterus.

After a wait of several hours, the woman was taken to an examination room and given an injection in her cervix, the lawsuit said. She then heard a suction sound, felt pressure in the uterus and “immediately complained of excruciating pain.”

When she told Severson and the attendants to stop, the suit said, the doctor replied, “We can’t stop.” Three employees then held the woman down while Severson completed the suction, according to the lawsuit.

Afterward, the woman felt sharp pain, nausea and was bleeding, the lawsuit said. While in the recovery area, her friend tried to help her to a bathroom, but she passed out, fell to the floor and suffered the first of three seizures, the lawsuit said.

Lincoln Fire and Rescue was dispatched to the clinic, and took her to BryanLGH Medical Center East.

A signed operative report from a physician at the hospital said the woman had experienced a “catastrophic perforation” of the uterus during the abortion.   The report stated, because of the “extensive nature of the trauma,” the physician summoned a second doctor and they performed an emergency hysterectomy on the woman.

Leaders of Lincoln ’s Right to Life raised questions about the quality of care at the clinic.   Sandy Danek said, “we have concerns for those women who enter this abortion facility for the care they are given and the safety they are under.  The lawsuit realizes our fears that women are at great risk here.”

Every Friday Lincoln Right to Life organizes volunteers to pray outside the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic while women from all over Nebraska come to abort their babies. 

Please keep this lawsuit, Jane Roe and Jeff Downing in your prayers.  It has been a long standing desire on my part to see this clinic closed and the area turned into a memorial park dedicated to all the lives taken in this facility.

I thank Lincoln Journal Star and Lincoln Right to Life for help with this article.