In a lawsuit filed by a couple who says they were promised a girl by a fertility clinic, the baby turned out to be a boy.
New York Post reported. Robin (Robbie) Routenberg-Wilhelm and Heather Wilhelm-Routenberg specifically requested that they have a daughter after undergoing fertility treatments.
Despite their excitement, the couple was devastated when they learned they were expecting a child. Their response has now been to file a lawsuit against the fertility clinic, claiming Heather “broke down” after her son’s birth and fell into a “dark depression” after finding she was pregnant.
According to the couple, CNY Fertility Clinic in Latham, New York, assured them that they could accurately determine the gender of an embryo before transferring it into Heather’s womb. At 15 weeks pregnant, the Buffalo couple was shocked to learn that they were expecting a boy.
In Heather’s explanation, she describes how sperm and egg from Robbie were combined to create the embryo. The embryo was then transferred into her womb.
“We selected CNY because they agreed we would be able to select female embryos,” she recalled, before explaining that: “We didn’t want to have a boy because of the assaults and because of the socialization of boys — there’s constant socialization of what it means to be a ‘real man.’ People say, ‘Oh, he’s a boy, let him hit you,’ and all the camouflage and guns don’t help. It reinforces masculinity, and that’s a reminder of the assaults every time.”
She said that, while she did not have Heather’s trauma to deal with, she also did not want a boy because of enforced masculinity, saying, “We did not sign up for that.”
Upon discovering Heather was indeed pregnant with a baby boy, the couple believed the embryo had been misplaced.
“That’s when I flipped out,” Heather described, adding: “That’s when I felt my body was taken hostage.”
“We didn’t want to have a boy because of the assaults and because of the socialization of boys — there’s constant socialization of what it means to be a ‘real man,’” Heather told Klein. “People say, ‘Oh, he’s a boy, let him hit you,’ and all the camouflage and guns don’t help. It reinforces masculinity, and that’s a reminder of the assaults every time.”
Since then, they have grown to love their son as any parent would. However, they still feel that this initial connection was stolen from them by the fertility clinic.
“He’s an innocent being, he didn’t deserve any of this. The clinic messed with something so integral: our baby’s first formative years. That’s the reason I am doing this — because I love my kid so much. We think our son deserved that bond from the start,” said Heather.
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