In a remarkable New Mexico legal case, the estate of an unborn child who died during an abortion at 26 weeks has received a $200,000 wrongful death settlement, raising significant questions about the legal recognition of unborn children and their rights.
The case, Wabbington v. Boyd, arose from an abortion performed in 2020 and was settled and dismissed with prejudice on Sept. 14, 2026. Attorneys involved in the case have described it as the first time an aborted child’s estate has received compensation through a wrongful death claim.
The lawsuit was brought by the child’s mother both individually and as the personal representative of Baby Wabbington’s estate. According to LifeSiteNews, citing court documents reported by Live Action News, the unborn child was described as a “26-week-old viable fetus.”
A final order appointing a personal representative stated that Baby Wabbington was considered a “person” under New Mexico’s Wrongful Death Act and was “entitled to equal protection under the law of New Mexico and the United States.”
That recognition is particularly significant because abortion remains legal in New Mexico. The settlement itself does not change the state’s abortion laws or establish a new binding precedent.
The lawsuit centered in part on allegations that the mother was under the influence of methamphetamine when she consented to the abortion and therefore was not capable of providing valid informed consent.
According to the complaint, the providers knew or should have known about her history of methamphetamine use. The lawsuit alleged that despite “having knowledge” of her substance-abuse history and signs of intoxication, the providers proceeded with the consent process.
The complaint further alleged that the mother was not informed about alternatives that could have allowed her to continue her pregnancy while receiving help for her drug use. According to court documents cited by LifeSiteNews, from Live Action, there was no discussion of “reasonable alternatives including continuing the pregnancy with meth cessation support and referral to treatment.”
Attorney Mike Seibel, who represented the plaintiffs alongside attorney Justin Hall, sharply criticized the circumstances surrounding the abortion.
“The abortion industry preyed on the mother’s vulnerable condition for profit … failed to properly inform her of programs to help her substance abuse … [and] failed to properly consent her,” Seibel said, according to Live Action News.
The lawsuit also contained troubling allegations concerning what happened to the child’s remains.
The complaint accused the providers of unfair trade practices, including “offering funeral services for aborted babies without any intent to transfer the aborted babies to the funeral home.” The mother had reportedly requested that her child’s remains be released to a funeral home, but the lawsuit alleged that the remains were instead placed in medical waste and destroyed.
Seibel said the case was unusual because the legal action was brought not only on behalf of the mother, but also on behalf of her unborn child.
“This is the first time that an abortionist has ever been sued for the wrongful death of a baby,” Seibel told Live Action News. “There have been numerous cases for injuries to the mother, but in this case both the mother and the baby’s estate sued.”
“This case recognized the baby to have an estate, and receive compensation for wrongful death, as a ‘person’ under New Mexico law,” he added.
For Catholics, the case touches directly on the Church’s longstanding teaching about the dignity of human life before birth. The Catholic Church teaches that human life “must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception” and that the unborn child possesses human dignity that does not depend upon whether civil law recognizes it.
The case also highlights an unusual tension in New Mexico law: an unborn child may be recognized as a person for purposes of a wrongful death action while state law continues to permit abortion.
Seibel described that tension in stark terms.
“You can collect for the death of the unborn baby as a person, but you can still murder the unborn baby under New Mexico law,” he said.
He believes establishing legal rights for unborn children could have broader implications for the personhood debate.
“In order to establish personhood, we must establish that the baby has rights. The more they have rights the less you can just kill them. The more rights we establish, the better our case for personhood becomes,” Seibel said.
The $200,000 payment resulted from a negotiated settlement rather than a trial verdict. Therefore, the settlement should not be understood as a judicial finding that the defendants committed the acts alleged in the complaint or admitted liability.
Still, the case represents an unusual intersection of abortion law, wrongful death law and the legal status of unborn children — one that is likely to draw considerable attention from Catholics and others involved in the continuing debate over whether civil law adequately recognizes the dignity and rights of human life before birth.
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THE LEFT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WOMEN IN CRISIS TIMES AND MURDER THEIR CHILDREN AND LEAVE THEM ALONE AFTER THEY GET THEIR MONEY I HOPE GODS JUDGEMENT TURNS ON THE LEFT