A judge in the Southern District of Florida has been fired after saying she “saved” a woman with a “very real” life-threatening illness by giving her an abortion, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
In an op-ed piece published in The Tampa Bay Examiner on Sunday, Judge Pirros lawyer, Mark Schoette, called the woman’s pregnancy a “disease” that would not have occurred without the woman and her physician, according to the paper.
“If I had known what was going on with her, I would not be a judge,” Schoettes wrote.
“She has had an extremely difficult pregnancy.
She is a very real woman with very real life-saving medical needs.
She has not had a miscarriage.
She does not have a birth defect or any other medical problems.
This was not her fault.”
Judge Pirro made the comments in response to a question by the Tampa Tribune about why a woman who was denied an abortion during her pregnancy would not receive one.
“I would just like to make one thing clear: I was not the one who chose the procedure,” Schuette wrote.
“It was the patient’s choice.”
Judge Schoets opinion also includes quotes from an abortion clinic’s staff that the woman was not allowed to attend, and a quote from the clinic’s attorney, stating that the abortion procedure was performed to save the woman from her life-altering disease.
“As a result of this tragic pregnancy, the woman would have lost her husband and a child,” Schiette wrote, according the Tribune.
“We hope that this case will serve as a warning to other judges to treat women with dignity and respect.
I have no regrets.”
Pirro was fired from her position as a judge after the Times article was published.
The newspaper reported that Judge Pirroc was suspended after she appeared to be angry at a woman during an oral argument.
The case was brought by the Florida Coalition for Reproductive Rights, who argued that the procedure could have caused a miscarriage in a woman suffering from severe, debilitating depression.
Schoette said he has asked to have the case dismissed.
