Listen Live
St. Jude Give Monthly 2024
Praise 104.1
CLOSE

 

141002-cramblett-payton-645a_324983896281903960c26cf57237242d.nbcnews-ux-720-520

A white Ohio mom is suing a sperm bank for sending her vials from a black donor, saying her biracial 2-year-old daughter will be stigmatized by her family and the “intolerant” town where they live and has to travel to get her hair done.

Jennifer Cramblett thought she was being inseminated with a white man’s sperm in 2011 and only discovered after she was pregnant that the Midwest Sperm Bank sent the wrong batch, according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

The child, Payton, is now 2 years old and already experiencing prejudice in Uniontown, where 98 percent of the residents are white, court papers say.

“I am happy that I have a healthy child,” Cramblett stated. “But I’m not going to let them get away with not being held accountable.”

Cramlett’s lawyer, Thomas Intili, says his client “lives in an all-white community in eastern Ohio. She did not encounter any African-American people until she entered college. Not all her friends and family members are racially sensitive.”

 As an example of the difficulties the family faces, the suit cited hair care for the toddler.

“Getting a young daughter’s hair cut is not particularly stressful for most mothers, but to Jennifer it is not a routine matter, because Payton has hair typical of an African American girl,” the suit says. “To get a decent cut, Jennifer must travel to a black neighborhood, far from where she lives, where she is obviously different in appearance, and not overtly welcome.”

“I don’t want her to ever feel like she’s an outcast,” Cramblett said.