By Patrick B. Craine
MONTREAL, Quebec, October 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last Thursday, a 19-year-old Montreal woman almost died following a botched second-trimester abortion, reports Le Journal de Montreal.
Christelle Dupuis-Labelle, who has an 8-month-old baby, was three months along in her pregnancy, and so was referred to CLSC des Faubourgs, one of the few abortuaries in Quebec that does abortions after 12 weeks.
The baby was aborted at 9:00 a.m., after which Dupuis-Labelle spent two hours recovering. She then went to the bathroom and found that she was bleeding heavily. “There was lots of blood,” she said. “I told a nurse, but they let me go anyway.”
Not wanting to be alone, she joined her boyfriend for a 45-minute drive to St. Jerome, during which the bleeding worsened and the pain became difficult to bear.
They went to St. Jerome hospital, arriving at about 1:00 p.m., and she was given an emergency operation along with a blood transfusion. “Every step I took, it flowed,” she said.
Afterwards, Dupuis-Labelle was told by hospital staff that she may have died had she arrived five minutes later. “[The doctors] saved my life,” she said.
She was discharged Tuesday after five days in the hospital.
“It traumatized me,” she said of the experience.
The young woman tried to reach the abortionist several times after the operation, but then decided to lodge a complaint with the Jeanne-Mance Health Centre and the Quebec College of Physicians. “I intend to do it,” she said. “It's important. This is not acceptable. I thought I was traumatized from the abortion, but I am more so from what has happened after.”
She indicated that she does not yet know whether she will able to have more children.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Quebec Health Minister Exempts Abortion Facilities from New Surgical Clinic Law
Quebec Health Minister Backing Down on Safety Measures for Abortion Mills
Campaign Life Coalition Praises Quebec Government's New Abortuary Safety Requirements
Quebec Abortuaries Set to Cease Abortions, Can't Meet Basic Safety Standards of New Bill