ADF and FPC file suit over forced, botched abortion

The Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Policy Council of West Virginia have filed suit against the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia and its abortionist, Rodney Lee Stephens, on behalf of a woman, Itai Gravely, who claims Stephens forced her to proceed with an abortion against her will and then left her baby’s head in her womb.

The suit alleges that Gravely changed her mind before the abortion process began when the clinic could not provide her with adequate anesthesia. Ignoring her pain and instructions to not begin the abortion procedure, Stephens directed employees to physically restrain Gravely and proceeded with the abortion, according to the suit.

Shortly thereafter, the lawsuit claims, Stephens announced that he was finished and sent Gravely home where she continued to experience severe pain and heavy bleeding. When she called Women’s Health Center and said she could not drive and was in too much pain to take public transportation, the center declined to assist her, she says. Gravely then called an ambulance and was taken to the emergency room of a hospital  where she learned that the abortionist had left parts of the unborn child--including the baby’s head--in her womb.