You Can Come To Your Own Conclusions

You probably will anyway.

Absolutely Sick

Abortion is something that I feel very strongly about. It is murder, pure and simple. It is the taking of a life, a human being. It should not be allowed, and yet it is fought over as a "right" of the mother. Apparently, with the fetus not being human and all, it doesn't deserve any rights, according to them anyway.

If then, the fetus is not human, why would these doctors be making such a big deal over this case?

Fla. doctor investigated in badly botched abortion
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."

What bothers me the most, aside from the baby being kicked to the floor, tossed in a bag and then into the garbage like some sort of waste, is this part.

"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."

Terminally ill? Terminally ill??? That baby was just fine before these murderers decided to pump the mother full of drugs in an effort to kill the baby by premature birth. Whether or not it was supposed to be the kind of abortion where they shove a pair of scissors into the head of the baby, making sure the head stays inside the mother so it doesn't get the chance to breathe in air (therefore making it a "live" birth), the article doesn't say. It shouldn't matter. It's still a life, whether you allow that child to have air in it's lungs or not. Whether or not you allow that child to see your face, it's still a child. It has been a child all along. A difference of inches and air does not make a difference.

Something To Remember

May, 1999. My husband and I had been married about a month. We were coming home from church, heading down Sheridan Road, just past where St. Catharine's Hospital used to be. We were chatting away, and not really worried about anything in particular. And then something impacted our lives that changed us forever.

I'll start at the beginning of the story as I know it. Two boys, ages 14, were riding on the sidewalk past St. Catharine's. They weren't doing anyone any harm, they were just enjoying being outside on their bikes. A man drove by in his car, and instead of passing them without so much as a glance, decided that it would be a good day to run them over. He hit the first boy, sending him flying and landing on the grass next to the road. He hit the second boy, and drug him about 15 feet down the road. The bike stayed attached longer, maybe closer to a mile. The boys were about 10 yards or so apart. I don't remember exactly.

My husband and I came upon the scene presumably moments after it had happened. There was a crowd surrounding the second boy. We stopped a little ways before getting to them, and decided to get out and help. That was when we discovered the first boy. No one had even noticed him. At first, he was not conscious. After a few moments, he woke up. We sat with him until the ambulance came, which seemed to take forever. He wanted to find his friend, and he couldn't understand why he hurt so much. He was covered in cuts and bruises, his bike tangled in his legs. I still cry when I think about it, and it was almost 10 years ago.

The man responsible, one James Langenbach, was charged with 1st Degree Intentional Homicide, Child Abuse Intentionally Causing Great Bodily Harm, and Hit and Run Involving Great Bodily Harm. All felonies, in varying degrees. 176 years in prison, last I heard. I don't know if he's managed to get an appeal of any kind.

As I was looking over the articles today, which I try to do once a year, I realized that the man who did this, was 28 at the time of the incident. I am 28 right now, and it is incomprehensible to me to even consider doing something so horrific, and all because those boys had skin that was darker than his. It just makes me ill.

This is something that I will never forget. I cannot get the images of those boys out of my head. I cannot forget the name of the man who did this to them. When my children are old enough, I will tell them. I want them to know that there are things in this world that are not right, and that it is up to them to follow God's command to love one another and to love God, so that they never do anything like this to someone else. It may not be much, but it will be enough for me to know that I have taught them love, not hate.