Our Request for Correction to The Washington Post

Dear Washington Post Editor, Author Jada Yuan, and corrections department,

It has come to our attention that The Washington Post’s May 10th article titled “The New Mexico Provider Trying to Save Abortion for Texas Women” includes false and misleading statements regarding our client, Jane Doe, who was arrested at Franz Theard’s abortion facility.

In your article while discussing protests and opposition to Theard author Jada Yuan wrote “The last time they had called the police a man and his wife were both hauled to jail, and then tried to sue Theard for wrongful arrest, which was dismissed.”

In truth Dr. Theard did not call the police on a man and woman who were there to oppose him but on his own patient after botching both her medical and surgical abortions. The well documented event occurred on September 1st, 2020, and video of the arrest clearly shows Dr. Theard’s patient, Jane Doe, crying in pain and begging for answers as she is cuffed and taken away without receiving any medical treatment or the medical records she was seeking. Her extremely concerned husband, who was fully compliant as the video evidence shows, was also arrested. Jane was taken to jail having received no treatment for the medical emergency she was experiencing. She thankfully sought emergency medical care after being released and was treated for an infection.

Jane was charged with disorderly conduct and Dr. Theard moved forward with charges against her. Our attorney fought for her in court for a number of months before the criminal charges were dismissed by the court. She has not yet filed a civil suit and the dismissal of her case was not for “wrongful arrest” but was in fact dismissal of the criminal charges her own doctor pursued against her.

In addition to pressing criminal charges against his patient Dr. Theard also refused to give Jane access to her own medical records following her botched abortion for over 120 days which resulted in subsequent medical board complaints as those records do in fact belong to the patient and she has every right to them. Again our attorney fought on behalf of Jane and eventually Theard was forced to release her medical records to her. Those records only validating Jane’s statements on what had occurred while she was a patient of Dr. Theard.

All of this information is easily confirmable in video, police, and court record and should have been looked into before making statements on what did or not occur. Jane deserves far more after all she has experienced than to be falsely portrayed as a criminal who filed a dismissed lawsuit. As a publication that claims “democracy drives out darkness” one would hope that your authors would take a truly democratic and less biased approach when making statements regarding the arrest of a young woman who was in fact an abortion patient herself at the time.

What may seem like one harmless sentence to your author is in fact devastating to Jane and invalidating to her experience as one of Dr. Theard’s patients. After reading your article, and the falsehoods in regard to her experience Jane had this to say, “I was a patient of Dr. Theard’s during covid. I was treated horribly when I sought help from this clinic. I was judged and belittled by the clinic you praised. Dr. Theard claims women are worried they’ll be arrested upon returning to Texas but I say women should be worried of being arrested at Dr. Theard’s clinic upon his request just like I was. Your mention of me as a “wife” who was hauled off to jail completely dismissed what I actually was, and that is Dr. Theard’s patient who he hurt.”

Please see the below records that show the inaccuracy of your author’s statement or feel free to confirm our statements via public records. We do kindly request you make the appropriate edits to your article clarifying the inaccuracy and we sincerely hope your authors will strive harder to present accurate information regarding the events they feel obliged to make comments about.

Thank you in advance for your willingness to correct this easily avoidable error.

Sincerely,

Jamie Jeffries

Executive Director, Abortion On Trial