Abortion is horrific and unacceptable primarily because it intentionally kills human beings, but it is also horrific because it harms women — emotionally and sometimes even physically. Nearly 15 years ago, Priscilla Dray was horribly injured after a botched abortion, which left her septic and required the amputation of all four limbs in order to save her life. Now, after a years-long search for justice, she is finally getting her day in court.
In July of 2011, Dray underwent an abortion at Bordeaux University Hospital in France. She was 35 years old and had three other children at home; she and her husband felt they couldn’t handle another child, as she had just given birth earlier that same year. They agreed to an abortion, which was committed in the maternity ward of the hospital. An IUD was also inserted, and at first, it seemed everything went as doctors planned.
Dray was sent home, but by the next morning, she had a fever and was in pain, so she returned to the maternity ward. An intern removed the IUD and took some samples, but then sent her home again. The next day, back in the maternity ward, antibiotics were finally prescribed… but even then, no one bothered to administer them until late in the afternoon, despite Dray having been diagnosed with sepsis.
At this point, Dray was having trouble breathing, and said her hands and feet were freezing.
Sepsis is a condition caused by an infection, in which the immune system begins to attack the body, harming a person’s organs in the process. If left untreated, it is fatal. Sepsis is a known complication of both chemical and surgical abortion, and some women have died from this complication — including Amber Thurman, Christin Gilbert, and Keisha Atkins.
For Dray, the condition nearly was fatal; the sepsis had progressed so much that her limbs had turned necrotic, and she was given just a 5% chance of survival. Doctors were forced to amputate both of her legs, as well as her right forearm and left hand.
“I trusted [them] and this is the state they put me in,” she said. “They killed me, and normally I should have died.” She had to undergo more than 50 operations, including one in which metal rods were inserted into her tibias to help with her prosthetic legs. And in that time, she was separated from her children, which was even more traumatic.
“I didn’t see my baby for three months,” she said, referring to her infant at home. “They took away all those moments of happiness. I don’t think there’s anything worse.”
Ultimately, she flew to the United States to receive treatment at her own expense, including a hand transplant.
The hospital was fined, but not much more action was taken, leading Dray into a years-long fight to see her negligent doctors brought to justice. But finally, two of those doctors appeared in Bordeaux Criminal Court, facing charges of involuntary injuries with incapacity.
Shockingly, one of the doctors seemed to have learned nothing from the ordeal, saying that if he had to do it all over again, he would still simply remove the IUD and send her home. “It’s hard to hear,” he said, “but I would have the same attitude as 14 years ago.”
Dray responded, “It’s awful. It makes my blood run cold. He shouldn’t be practicing anymore.”
In court, Dray testified about how there was a five-hour gap between the time she was prescribed antibiotics and the time she received them. “They didn’t believe me, I had to beg,” she said. “They took me for a bourgeois woman who was putting on a show.”
She is now on a mission to ensure something like this never happens again, though the unsettling mindsets of the doctors responsible seems to indicate that it almost certainly will.
