A couple is suing a hospital for $1.5 million after a botched abortion led to the birth of an unwanted child.

A couple has shocked the world by demanding that a hospital pays them compensation for their 14-year-old daughter’s birth, as they had wanted her aborted.

Fifty-seven-year-old Aurora Bellandi and her 58-year-old husband Guiseppe from Italy say they love their daughter, Elisa, but they never wanted her to be born.

Elisa, who the couple call “wonderful”, says she supports her parents’ decision to sue the hospital where the failed abortion took place.

Pregnant at 43

It all started back in 2000, when Aurora was admitted to hospital with stomach pains. Doctors discovered two things: one that the then-43-year-old had an ovarian fibroma, and that she was pregnant. Doctors thought the pregnancy was risky, and Aurora and Guiseppe, who already had a 20-year-old son, March - agreed that they didn’t have the financial means to raise another child.

They decided on an abortion.

Except the abortion didn’t work.

Five months later, doctors admitted Aurora was still pregnant. By then it was too late to attempt to terminate the pregnancy again.

"Psychological trauma"

Now the couple is suing the hospital that performed the botched operation to the tune of 1 million Euros, or $AUD1.5 million, claiming that Elisa’s birth caused them “psychological trauma”.

The family has also fallen on hard times, as Guiseppe is unemployed and Aurora has developed Parkinson’s disease and they say they are unable to adequately care for their second child.

“The doctors brought her into the world. They should provide for her study and indispensable needs until she is 18,” Guiseppe told The Mail Online. “We were told that we had had to have an abortion. Other couples who get pregnant get to decide if they will keep it or not. We didn’t get to decide anything. They told us – first 'You’re pregnant and you must have an abortion.' Then, 'You can’t have an abortion.' They decided everything. As they decided everything they should bear the responsibility.”

Not a simple case

Three things are difficult to swallow with this case. The first is that even with the best care and top responsibility from hospitals, pregnancy happens. If a man and a woman have sex, there is a risk that they will conceive a child, and this is ultimately their responsibility. It’s the same argument that stands true for a man who has a one-night-stand and then says he shouldn’t have to pay child support as he never wanted a pregnancy to go ahead.

Well it did. And you do.

The second is that the family already received compensation for their daughter’s birth. The end of Aurora’s pregnancy was so complex due to her medical problems that the couple successfully sued the hospital at the time for “physical harm to the mother” - and received 120,000 Euro, or $180,000. It’s unfortunate that the family is now in even larger financial straits, but they have not been entirely overlooked by the hospital’s ordinary compensation channels, even if they claim this money went straight onto legal fees at the time.

But the final issue is the one that has struck most commentators who have read about this story - the idea that Elisa, the little girl who “should have been aborted” is alleged to support her family’s decision to sue. Guiseppe says the litigation is not indication of their love - or lack of love - for their daughter.

"They say I don't love her because I wanted an abortion. How can they say I don't love my own daughter? She is a smart, beautiful girl. She is a leader among her friends. She is not the problem. [The doctors] are the problem.”

The family say the money they want will set their daughter up for life - allowing her to attend university. As it stands, the family cannot afford new clothes or to take a holiday.

Elisa says she knows she was unwanted

According to the Mail, Elisa is entirely peaceful with her parents’ decision, and the fact that she was unwanted.

”They make it sound terrible as if I didn't know I was going to be aborted,” she says, “But I've always known. I've always felt loved by my family. We just can't afford everything.”

A 14-year-old will always support their parents’ decisions. Even a child who is abused will defend their parents’ actions. It’s only later that the scars of this sort of uncertainty and tenuous love will make themselves visible to this little girl, if indeed they’re there.

As is so often the case with these stories, there are just no winners. It’s terrible that the family is in financial difficulty. But life hands all of us challenges, and you can’t always be expected to buy your way out of them. Aurora and Guiseppe were compensated for the difficulty of the pregnancy at the time of Elisa’s birth. They say they love their daughter and want what’s best for her.

What’s best for her is that she feels unconditionally loved, through both her parents’ words and actions.

That’s more important than anything money can buy.

Do you think the parents should be suing the hospital that botched their daughter's abortion?