Las Vegas woman says her healthy baby survived abortion after doctors twice told her it was ‘non-viable,’ lawsuit claims

A Las Vegas woman is suing medics after her healthy baby survived a surgical abortion, despite doctors telling her that her pregnancy was not viable.

Stacy Norris says that she was told twice by doctors at Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada that her baby had no heartbeat in the fall of 2021.

Now, in her lawsuit, she alleges that doctors believed her pregnancy had not progressed and that she was faced with three options. She could either wait, take medication, or undergo a routine dilation and curettage abortion to terminate the pregnancy.

With doctors allegedly telling her that she had experienced a “missed abortion,” she chose the third option.

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“It’s incredibly traumatic,” she told KTNV. “You know you kind of just go, this was it…this was probably the last chance to have a baby.”

Speaking to the broadcaster, she revealed that the news was particularly painful because she had previously experienced a miscarriage and had long struggled with her fertility.

However, days later, Norris said she felt something was amiss.

When she returned to the medical center, Norris says in her lawsuit that she was prescribed Cytotec, an abortion inducing drug.

Although still believing doctors when they said that her baby had no heartbeat, she still sought another opinion at the nearby Centennial Hills Hospital. Norris said she felt guided by “gut instinct, maternal instinct,” which ultimately proved correct.

At the hospital, tests found that her hormone levels had skyrocketed to 97,000. That number is consistent with a healthy, growing pregnancy.

Norris told KTNV that a doctor at the hospital could not believe why she had undergone an abortion procedure.

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“He kneels down next to me in the chair, and he says, 'You know, I have to know, Why did you have a D&C?' and I went, 'It’s because I was told there was no baby,'" the mother said. "And he said there’s an eight-week-old baby with a heartbeat, and at that point, I don’t remember what happened next. I just could not believe it.”

Norris revealed that she welcomed her “miracle baby” at 35 weeks, via C-section. Her baby is now three and a half years old.

In her lawsuit, she says she is suing Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada and Dr. Sheldon Paul, the man who performed her D&C.

Disciplinary records suggest that Dr Paul performed the surgery on a viable pregnancy, which he documented as failed, and continued to describe the pregnancy as nonviable.

He was sanctioned, receiving a public reprimand and being moved into an administrative role.

Dr Jennifer Wagner, the doctor who prescribed her Cytotec, is also named in the lawsuit.

Norris, though, told KTNV she is taking action because other mothers could be facing similar problems at fertility clinics.

“If this happened to me, it’s happening to women all the time. I want them held accountable,” Norris said.

The Independent has contacted Stacy Norris’ lawyers and Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada for comment.