Thursday, February 5, 2009

Baby Born and put in plastic bag alive and thrown in trash

Eighteen and pregnant, Sycloria Williams went to an abortion clinic outside Miami and paid $1,200 for Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique to terminate her 23-week pregnancy.

Three days later, she sat in a reclining chair, medicated to dilate her cervix and otherwise get her ready for the procedure.

Only Renelique didn't arrive in time. According to Williams and the Florida Department of Health, she went into labor and delivered a live baby girl.

What Williams and the Health Department say happened next has shocked people on both sides of the abortion debate: One of the clinic's owners, who has no medical license, cut the infant's umbilical cord. Williams says the woman placed the baby in a plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

Police recovered the decomposing remains in a cardboard box a week later after getting anonymous tips.

"I don't care what your politics are, what your morals are, this should not be happening in our community," said Tom Pennekamp, a Miami attorney representing Williams in her lawsuit against Renelique (ren-uh-LEEK') and the clinic owners.

The state Board of Medicine is to hear Renelique's case in Tampa on Friday and determine whether to strip his license. The state attorney's homicide division is investigating, though no charges have been filed. Terry Chavez, a spokeswoman with the Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office, said this week that prosecutors were nearing a decision.

Renelique's attorney, Joseph Harrison, called the allegations at best "misguided and incomplete" in an e-mail to The Associated Press. He didn't provide details.

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."

According to state records, Renelique received his medical training at the State University of Haiti. In 1991, he completed a four-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Interfaith Medical Center in New York.

New York records show that Renelique has made at least five medical malpractice payments in the past decade, the circumstances of which were not detailed in the filings.

Several attempts to reach Renelique were unsuccessful. Some of his office numbers were disconnected, no home number could be found and he did not return messages left with his attorney.

Williams struggled with the decision to have an abortion, Pennekamp said. 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."

The complaint says one of the clinic owners, Belkis Gonzalez came in and cut the umbilical cord with scissors, then placed the baby in a plastic bag, and the bag in a trash can.

Williams' lawsuit offers a cruder account: She says Gonzalez knocked the baby off the recliner chair where she had given birth, onto the floor. The baby's umbilical cord was not clamped, allowing her to bleed out. Gonzalez scooped the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

No working telephone number could be found for Gonzalez, and an attorney who has represented the clinic in the past did not return a message.

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 Department of Health believes Renelique committed malpractice by failing to ensure that licensed personnel would be present when Williams was there, among other missteps.

The department wants the Board of Medicine, a separate agency, to permanently revoke Renelique's license, among other penalties. His license is currently restricted, permitting him to only perform abortions when another licensed physician is present and can review his medical records.

Should prosecutors file murder charges, they'd have to prove the baby was born alive, said Robert Batey, a professor of criminal law at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport. The defense might contend that the child would have died anyway, but most courts would not allow that argument, he said.

"Hastening the death of an individual who is terminally ill is still considered causing the death of that individual," Batey said. "And I think a court would rule similarly in this type of case."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For God's sake you guys are crazy biggots. Barack Obama isn't PRO ABORTION he is PRO CHOICE. You think everyone who is not 100% for you is against you, and that is just not the case. Have you ever looked as the problems we have? There are too many people on the planet already. Stop and look at how much each person consumes in a lifetime. You consume from the day you are conceived, till the day you die. Each person pollutes this planet. I seriously applaud those who choose NOT to have/conceive children. Only stupid people increase the birth rate. That picture you posted though can incite hate, and violence, and it is an extreme, and completely untrue. I find it scary that you would be so against abortion, and the violent way babies are killed but at the same time use images, that could incite and fuel hatred and violence on others. You need professional help, and I hope you truly get it. Please take down your imagery of Barack Obama. Protest and voice your opinion all you want but please don't incite hatred and violence, it hurts your cause. I highly respect your opinion, but disagree strongly with the way you attempt to gain support for your cause. I am going to go out on a limb here and say it sounds like you believe in God. "Thou shall not lie"

Anonymous said...

Hello
I do agree that the abortionists and pro-choice people currently seem or appear to be winning the abortion controversy war here. I myself am pro life. Yes guys we can have protests outside abortion clinics, silent prayer, and stuff but if pro-choice is to prevail in America we gotta send a message hard and fast that abortion will not be tolerated in America! and here's how we do it.
First we do know that when a baby is aborted now its not a fetus its a human baby and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. So we know that babies try to resist the abortionists, and fail every time. We need to look at why the babies are failing to resist. why? because they are not strong enough to resist the needles and suctions and other torture devices that the baby killers use. So what has to be done is...
first we build a giant computer system hidden in space or way way underground somewhere and give it all the protection we can. We then this advanced computer system is programmed to protect all human life, and also to do away with criminals and people such as abortionists, drug dealers, murderers and such that bring down and halt population growth. So the machine sends out probes, scans everyone on the planet and downloads all the information stored in their brains. It then makes a database of whether they are pro life or pro-choice. It then builds cyborgs that look, smell, and in almost every way look just like us but they are part machine. Every time a woman gets pregnant, shortly after conception if the super-computer knows that woman and even couple are pro-choice, and are likely to have an abortion, an invisible transporter beem takes the baby out of the womb. The machine transports the developing babies underground into organic artificial wombs. It then transports cyborg babies into the pro choice women, and into the women who will have abortions. In the meantime, the machine builds cyborg heavily-armed cyborg robots. Their mission is to destroy planned parenthood and other abortion mill workers after phase one of the plan is complete. The machine also makes fake TV and other satellites. the machine will use NASA to assist it in its mission. The satellites are heavily armed with missiles and laser-drills to destroy things and drill into the planet's crust, mantle, and core if needed, using both artificial and natural means such as lava and earthquakes to destroy the abortion industry.
So now the real babies are taken care of underground, the machine will raise all of them to be pro-life. cyborg babies replace the real babies. When doctors attempt to abort the babies, they don't realize they are cyborgs developing cyborgs...the cyborg babies resist, breaking instruments and killing employees. The satellites from above shoot nuclear weapons at the abortion clinics and other bomb-like weapons permanently destroying them. meanwhile, humanlike cyborgs roam the globe, hunting down and killing everyone that the machine knows to be pro-choice. This includes people who believe in birth control and artificial contraceptives.

the other alternative:

the machine does not make cyborg babies, instead it probes every pro choice and abortion loving person on earth. when pregnant, the machine uses a silent invisible transporter to re-write and enhance the baby's genes. When the abortionists try to kill the genetically enhanced baby, the baby destroys all the instruments then attacks the abortion clinic itself, the baby kills all abortion clinic employees then the super-computer activates the satellites which destroy the buildings. By the time thee super-machine is done, pro-choice people will be wiped out, or their memories erased and re-programmed to be pro-life people if possible. Meanwhile, cyborgs identify and kill murderers, drug dealers and other criminals. and then once the world is safe again, the new, completely law-abiding citizens live in peace on the earth.
the end.