By Hilary White

RIVERSIDE, California, June 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Erica Goode died of toxic shock syndrome at the age of 21 after an abortion at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Riverside, California. Her mother, Aletheia Meloncon, has filed a wrongful death and medical malpractice suit against the abortionist group.

"I'm hoping to shed light and expose the negligent and improper care my daughter received," Meloncon said Wednesday at Schuler's Riverside office. "I hope this sends a message to Planned Parenthood."

Goode had gone for an abortion on January 31, 2007 but was taken to hospital after developing a fever. A laminaria and gauze had been inserted and Goode was expected back at Planned Parenthood the next day. But because Meloncon was not informed of her daughter's intention to have an abortion, she was not able to inform hospital staff, so treatment was delayed.

The suit names the laminaria, a medical product meant to stretch the cervix preliminary to some types of abortion, as the conduit for the infection that killed Goode. She was taken to Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley on Feb. 4 and found to be 14 weeks pregnant. Goode miscarried her unborn child on February 13 and died the next day.

Attorney Jack M. Schuler stated, "If it wasn't for the negligent medical care that Erica Goode received, she would be alive today."

"My daughter made a choice, but she didn't choose to die," Meloncon said.

Planned Parenthood, the largest and best funded abortion agency in the world, is subject to regular lawsuits from families of women who have died as a result of seeking abortions.

LifeSiteNews.com asked Mark Crutcher, president of Life Dynamics Inc., the Texas-based pro-life group, how many of these types of lawsuits are currently pending against Planned Parenthood in the US. Life Dynamics focuses on gathering new data on abortion facilities and pro-abortion lobbying organizations.

"There's absolutely no way of knowing that," Crutcher said. "It's not a matter of there being too many to track, it's that you can't find out; they're so good at covering their tracks."

Crutcher explained that lawsuits of this kind will keep coming. "Deaths and injuries, sexual assaults, all of these things are indicative of the fact that they can only attract the lowest calibre practitioners to go work at an abortion clinic."

"Some are ideological zealots, but most are the moral degenerates, washouts and losers of medicine. No one goes into medicine to work at Planned Parenthood."

Crutcher predicted that this suit against the Riverside Planned Parenthood will end in a settlement that includes a confidentiality agreement.

"The settlement will include a confidentiality agreement binding the lawyers never to talk in public about this. It's universal."





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