Maine High Court: No Damages in Wrongful Birth Suit

PORTLAND, Maine - Maine's highest court has ruled that a Newport woman who gave birth after a federally supported health care center in Albion failed to install a temporary birth control device cannot recover damages.
 
Kayla Doherty says she received a procedure at the health center in February 2012, but later learned the device - which is inserted into a patient's arm - was never installed.
 
She gave birth in June 2014 and then sued Merck and the U.S. government, seeking $250,000 in damages under the state's wrongful-birth statute.
 
The Morning Sentinel reports that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled Thursday that Doherty's claim doesn't satisfy the standards of the statute.
 
The court says temporary birth control implants, including the one she thought was installed, aren't legally recognized as sterilization procedures.