Miami abortion clinic owner threw newborn away

[JBond]

Miami abortion clinic owner threw newborn away.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...0,900628.story

MIAMI - An abortion clinic owner is accused of delivering a live baby during a botched procedure and then throwing the infant away.

Belkis Gonzalez, 43, of Miramar, was arrested Tuesday and charged with practicing medicine without a license and tampering with evidence, both felonies, said Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's office. If found guilty, Gonzalez would face at least a year in prison and up to 15 years.

The teenage mother, Sycloria Williams, has filed a lawsuit alleging that Gonzalez knocked the infant off the chair where she had given birth, and then scooped the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red plastic biohazard bag, and threw it out.

The clinic's doctor, Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique, had been scheduled to perform the procedure, but Williams went into labor after being given drugs to dilate her cervix and waiting for hours for Renelique to arrive, the suit said.

The doctor has said he had been on his way to the Hialeah clinic when he was called to treat another patient who was bleeding.

Last month, the Board of Medicine revoked Renelique's license for committing medical malpractice, delegating responsibility to unlicensed personnel and failing to keep an accurate medical record.

Williams was 23 weeks pregnant when the incident happened in 2006.

Authorities were unable to definitively determine the cause of death -- and Gonzalez's role in it -- because the baby's body had decomposed by the time it was found eight days later, said Griffith, the attorney's office spokesman.

Gonzalez posted $50,000 bond and was released from jail Tuesday before a bond hearing scheduled for this morning, Griffith said.

Williams struggled with the decision to have an abortion, Tom Pennekamp, a Miami attorney representing Williams in her lawsuit against Renelique (ren-uh-LEEK') and the clinic owners. She declined an interview request made through him.

She concluded she didn't have the resources or maturity to raise a child, he said, and went to the Miramar Women's Center on July 17, 2006.

Sonograms indicated she was 23 weeks pregnant, according to the Department of Health. She met Renelique at a second clinic two days later.

Renelique gave Williams laminaria, a drug that dilates the cervix, and prescribed three other medications, according to the administrative complaint filed by the Health Department. She was told to go to yet another clinic, A Gyn Diagnostic Center in Hialeah, where the procedure would be performed the next day, on July 20, 2006.

Williams arrived in the morning and was given more medication.

The Department of Health account continues as follows: Just before noon she began to feel ill. The clinic contacted Renelique. Two hours later, he still hadn't shown up. Williams went into labor and delivered the baby.

"She came face to face with a human being," Pennekamp said. "And that changed everything."

At 23 weeks, an otherwise healthy fetus would have a slim but legitimate chance of survival. Quadruplets born at 23 weeks last year at The Nebraska Medical Center survived.

An autopsy determined Williams' baby -- she named her Shanice -- had filled her lungs with air, meaning she had been born alive, according to the Department of Health. The cause of death was listed as extreme prematurity.

The case has riled the anti-abortion community, which contends the clinic's actions constitute murder.

"The baby was just treated as a piece of garbage," said Tom Brejcha, president of The Thomas More Society, a law firm that is also representing Williams. "People all over the country are just aghast."

Even those who support abortion rights are concerned about the allegations.

"It really disturbed me," said Joanne Sterner, president of the Broward County chapter of the National Organization for Women, after reviewing the administrative complaint against Renelique. "I know that there are clinics out there like this. And I hope that we can keep (women) from going to these types of clinics."

[DFWJC]

If true. Whether you are pro or anti abortion, you have say that is murder.

[masomenos]

Horrible.

How is the cause of death listed as "extreme prematurity" and not abuse? Also, why name your baby if you plan on having an abortion?

[nathanlt]

Well, if God is not the giver of life, then this story is not a big deal.

However, if He is the Creator, and all of us in this nation are accountable for allowing barbarians such as this doctor and this clinic to continue operations, aka murder.

[MetalHead]

I remember vividly when my two boys were born.
Witnessing the miracle of life is one of the greatest gifts God has given us.
That being said,I cannot fathom how anyone would terminate the life of an innocent,defenseless newborn.

It takes a special brand of sick,depraved and flat out evil to do this.
How did we get here?

[masomenos]

Originally Posted by nathanlt

Well, if God is not the giver of life, then this story is not a big deal.

However, if He is the Creator, and all of us in this nation are accountable for allowing barbarians such as this doctor and this clinic to continue operations, aka murder.

No, this is a big deal regardless of the existence of god.

[nathanlt]

Originally Posted by masomenos85

No, this is a big deal regardless of the existence of god.

See, you have a God-given conscience that tells you this is wrong, whether or not you believe God is real!!

[SuspectCorner]

Originally Posted by nathanlt

See, you have a God-given conscience that tells you this is wrong, whether or not you believe God is real!!

Now prove that his conscience is God-given and not naturally inherent to him - or even acquired. Show me how this couldn't possibly be the result of his own critical thinking. Or do you assert that any and all morality must necessarily come from God?

[masomenos]

Originally Posted by SuspectCorner

Now prove that his conscience is God-given and not naturally inherent to him - or even acquired. Show me how this couldn't possibly be the result of his own critical thinking. Or do you assert that any and all morality must necessarily come from God?

Whoa whoa, slow down, let's not get carried away. Me, thinking critically? You overestimate me sir.

[daschoo]

Originally Posted by nathanlt

Well, if God is not the giver of life, then this story is not a big deal.

However, if He is the Creator, and all of us in this nation are accountable for allowing barbarians such as this doctor and this clinic to continue operations, aka murder.

that is a rediculous statement. this particular incident is horrendous regardless of whether you believe in god or are pro or anti abortion. your follow up that it is only bad because god gave you a concience is your own belief you have nothing but faith to back that up. fair play to you for having said faith but you have to accept that others will not otherwise you come across as, since this is a family board, condescending to say the least. and i very much doubt that it is god's will that if a woman is locked in a room for a week and repeatadly raped by her father she in nine months time has a deformed child to give up her plans for the future for as a permanent reminder of her ordeal. an extreme scenario i know but with your black and white outlook she should

[Joe Rod]

Sick, just sick that a person could do something like this. The gift of life so easily thrown away like trash. Where are the morals in people like this????

Sorry, stepping of the soap-box.

[iceberg]

Originally Posted by nathanlt

See, you have a God-given conscience that tells you this is wrong, whether or not you believe God is real!!

dude, go to church if you need to cause all i can say is

YOU MUST BE CONFUSED IF YOU'RE PREACHING TO ME.

[nathanlt]

Originally Posted by daschoo

that is a rediculous statement. this particular incident is horrendous regardless of whether you believe in god or are pro or anti abortion. your follow up that it is only bad because god gave you a concience is your own belief you have nothing but faith to back that up. fair play to you for having said faith but you have to accept that others will not otherwise you come across as, since this is a family board, condescending to say the least. and i very much doubt that it is god's will that if a woman is locked in a room for a week and repeatadly raped by her father she in nine months time has a deformed child to give up her plans for the future for as a permanent reminder of her ordeal. an extreme scenario i know but with your black and white outlook she should

No, in that scenario, the child could be given up for adoption. The life God gives is precious!

Murder is WRONG!

[Rogah]

Originally Posted by daschoo

that is a rediculous statement. this particular incident is horrendous regardless of whether you believe in god or are pro or anti abortion.

I don't understand the logic in that statement. Obviously if you are anti-abortion then you would be upset with this incident. But why would someone who is pro-abortion be upset?

Let me put it another way. If someone is comfortable with a doctor going into a woman's uterus to terminate an unborn child, then where's the logic in calling being upset if that child happens to take 60 seconds to travel through the birth canal first? Is there some sort of magic pixie dust in the birth canal that fundamentally imparts onto the baby "human being" status? Why is it perfectable acceptable one minute and then "horrendous" the next?

[ScipioCowboy]

Originally Posted by daschoo

that is a rediculous statement. this particular incident is horrendous regardless of whether you believe in god or are pro or anti abortion. your follow up that it is only bad because god gave you a concience is your own belief you have nothing but faith to back that up.

And the assertion that a person's sense of right and wrong is purely the product of natural causes is also faith-based. The application of morality is largely an intuitive and arbitrary process, regardless of whether the basis for that application is secular or religious in nature.