Jennifer Raper, 45, gave birth to a daughter on December 7, 2004 after a failed abortion.  Last week, the mother filed a complaint against the two responsible doctors and Planned Parenthood for the failed abortion, seeking damages including child-rearing costs.

The mother discovered that she was pregnant in March 2004 and sought an abortion, for financial reasons, through Planned Parenthood on April 9, 2004.  The abortion ”was not done properly, causing the plaintiff to remain pregnant,” according to the complaint.

Raper claims that she then proceeded to a second doctor who failed to detect her pregnancy, even though she was 20 weeks pregnant at the time.

It was only after Raper went to the ER in late September of 2004, for treatment of pelvic pain, that she learned of the failed abortion and that she was pregnant.

As with all Massachusetts medical malpractice suits the complaint will have to be screened by a tribunal consisting of a Superior Court judge, a lawyer, and a doctor to determine whether the case has merit to go to trial.

Raper alleges that Planned Parenthood and the associated doctor were negligent for failing to end her pregnancy and that Eleonu, the second doctor, was negligent for failing to see she was still pregnant.

The state’s high court ruled in 1990 that parents can sue physicians for child-rearing expenses, but limited those claims to cases in which children require extraordinary expenses because of medical problems.

Raper’s suit fails to mention any medical problems involving her now 2-year-old daughter.