Man Sues Pair Who Impeded Abortion by His Comatose Wife

A man whose fight to obtain an abortion for his comatose wife reached the nation’s highest court filed a $10-million lawsuit Thursday against a hospital and the anti-abortion activists who opposed him.

“My family and I feel that these strangers had no right to interfere with our family tragedy and decision,” said Martin Klein, 35, an accountant from Upper Brookville.

He said his wife is out of the coma and making steady progress, although she is unable to speak.

The lawsuit names North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and anti-abortion activists John Short of Farmingdale and John Broderick of Syosset.

Klein’s wife, Nancy, who was four months pregnant, was left comatose by a December car accident. Some doctors said she might have a better chance of recovering if an abortion was done, but the hospital said Klein had to get a court order appointing him as his wife’s guardian.

Klein went to court in January seeking guardianship, but Broderick and Short fought him fiercely, losing each time but appealing all the way to the Supreme Court. The abortion was performed on Feb. 11 at North Shore after Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall refused to hear the appeal.