Posted on 02/05/2009 2:16:13 PM PST by originalbuckeye
By CHRISTINE ARMARIO
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."
Another “burden” ...........gone!
Too bad we don’t have this on video. Confronting the truth.
I say no monetary reward for the useless mother.
And a strong rope and a short drop for the others.
Don't use logic when speaking about bottom-feeder lawyers.
Sorry, all three of these people need to be post-birth aborted:
The abortion-seeking mom for not stopping the gal from taking the kid and tossing her out;
The clinic lady for throwing the live child out;
and the abortion doctor because he’s a scum bucket of a human being.
There are no two more horrifying and shameful words in our current culture as “BOTCHED ABORTION.”
Yes.
It’s possible this woman really did have an epiphany when she saw her baby. She may be suing because it’s a way to get this story out and punish this evil doctor. I’m glad she’s suing.
So they are going to pull his license? Why is there not a charge of murder here? It fits the definition in the law and Florida is not Massachusetts.
“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.”
Sadly, with Democrats having almost absolute control of Federal spending, it is almost certain that abortion clinics will see more taxpayer funding to expand their business.
She could be suing because the “doctor” broke the law and offended people’s sensibilities and she and her lawyer can make a lot of money. I have no sympathy for any of the adults involved here.
And now we are, again, funding them all over the world.
Result of Roe vs. Wade, child abuse cases have skyrocketed!
Not only are the innocent unborn treated as garbage, even run down industrial garbage disposals found in abandoned abortion "clinics," we don't even bother to notice when a "born alive" child is treated as garbage to be carried out with the trash.
How must our Creator feel watching His creation treat their most innocent???
We are THE ONLY nation in the world that treats its innocents thusly for gain and profit of an entire industry!
FRiend, you're just wrong about that one.
As bad as abortion is in the US, other countries are far worse.
Take Russia, for example, where there are more abortions than births. Abortion is legal for "social reasons" up to the 22nd week of pregnancy. 20% of them were performed on minors. In 1964 alone, over 5.5 million abortions were performed there. Russia is now "down" to around 1.5 million abortions per year.
We have a big, ugly problem with abortions in the USA, but it could be even worse.
Huh? How so? This happens thousands of times every day in the US.
India, too. I worked with an Indian pathologist who was simply unfazed by abortion at any week of pregnancy.
I believe you have gotten to the bottom of it all Froggy. A great deal of evil has greed at its foundation. May God have mercy.. our society is truly degenerating to a level that I am afraid to even think about. And it really IS like the frog in the pot of water.
No sense of shame or sin, let alone the desire to repent.
I remember back in the 70’s once, somebody got pregnant and my mom told me that it was usually the nice girls who got pregnant (which stunned me). I asked why she thought that and she said because the “bad” girls get rid of it and nobody ever knows they were pregnant. My mom was, and remains, pretty sharp.
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