Botched abortion outrages pro-life, pro-choice factions
TAMPA, Fla. — 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.
But 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 said 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 receiving 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 and the clinic owners.
The state Board of Medicine is to hear Renelique’s case today in Tampa and determine whether to remove his license.
An autopsy determined Williams’ baby — she named her Shanice — had filled her lungs with air, meaning she had been born alive, according to the Health Department.
The state attorney’s homicide division is investigating, though no charges have been filed.
Joseph Harrison, Renelique’s attorney, called the allegations at best “misguided and incomplete.” He didn’t elaborate.
The case has riled the antiabortion 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,” Joanne Sterner, president of the Broward County chapter of the National Organization for Women, said 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.”
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 where the procedure would be performed the next day — July 20, 2006.
Williams arrived in the morning and was given more medication.
The Health Department 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 Belkis Gonzalez, one of the clinic owners, came in and cut the umbilical cord with scissors, placed the baby in a plastic bag and put the bag in a trash can.
No working telephone number could be found for Gonzalez.
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