Medical license stripped from Florida abortionist whose clinic killed born-alive infant

Miami, Fla., Feb 7, 2009 / 05:19 am

The Florida Board of Medicine on Friday revoked the medical license of an abortionist who headed a clinic where a staffer allegedly placed a live baby girl in the trash after an abortion failed to kill her.

The board found Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique guilty of medical malpractice and delegating responsibility to unlicensed personnel, the Associated Press reports.

This move follows the Jan. 27 filing of a suit on behalf of Shanice Denise Osbourne, the infant girl who was killed in July, 2006. The suit alleges that Shanice was born alive and then murdered by the defendant, abortion clinic owner Belkis Gonzalez, the Chicago-based Thomas More Society reports.

Shanice’s mother Sycloria Williams had decided to abort her pregnancy after learning she was pregnant in July 2006. The Miramar Woman Center in Miramar, Florida referred her to abortionist Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique, who works at a Hialeah abortion clinic.

He inserted laminaria sticks to dilate Williams’ cervix and prescribed additional medication to be taken that night to prepare for the procedure the next morning at the Hialeah abortion clinic.

On the morning of July 20, 2006 Williams arrived at the clinic feeling ill and in severe pain from the medication the night before. Dr. Renelique was not present at the clinic, where no one else had any kind of medical license.

The clinic’s receptionist gave Williams the drug Cytotec, which induces labor and dilates the cervix.

Williams began to suffer worse nausea and cramping and the staff gave her a gown and placed her in the clinic’s recovery room area.

“There she waited for hours in severe and increasing abdominal pain without medical staff available,” a statement from the Thomas More Society claims.

While Williams began to position herself for birth as the chemically-induced labor progressed, the staff instructed her to “keep your legs together and sit down.”

Williams, bracing herself with the arms of the recliner chair she was sitting on, lifted herself and her water broke.

She delivered a live baby girl onto the seat of the recliner.

“The baby writhed and gasped for air, still connected to Williams by the umbilical cord. Immobilized by shock, Williams watched clinic owner Gonzalez run into the room, cut the umbilical cord with a pair of orange-handled shears, stuff the baby and afterbirth into a red biohazard bag and throw the bag into a garbage can,” the Thomas More Society alleges.

Around 3:00 p.m. or an hour later, the abortion doctor arrived at the clinic and sedated Williams. The doctor’s medical records did not indicate that Williams had delivered a live baby who was killed at the clinic.

Anonymous callers notified police at least three times about the live birth and murder. A search warrant executed by police on July 22, 2006 found medical records but could not find the baby’s remains.

Another anonymous caller six days later told police that the baby’s body had been hidden on the roof, though responding police did not find the baby’s body there.

Still another anonymous tip led police to acquire a search warrant and find the decomposing body of the baby in a cardboard box in a closet at the clinic. DNA confirmed the baby was Williams’.

A Miami-Dade County medical examiner performed an autopsy which reportedly showed that the baby’s lungs had been filled with air before she was killed, proving she was born alive.

The examiner blamed the death on “extreme prematurity,” which the Thomas More Society claimed ignored eyewitness testimony reporting that the baby was killed.

The Thomas More Society says it took interest in the case when the Miami Herald quoted a law professor who argued that if the baby wasn’t “viable” the case could not be considered homicide.”

Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, called that view “dead wrong.”

“A disabled or dying patient may not be 'viable' in the sense of being able to live very long or without help, but if you kill them, it's murder. This was a case of infanticide, and we're not going to let it go ignored or unpunished.”

The Thomas More Society says it tried to secure a second autopsy but prosecutors would not release the baby’s body or take action to begin criminal proceedings.

An investigator and expert pathologist were retained by the Society. The expert examined the autopsy slides and other facts of the case, concluding that the acts and omissions of the abortionist and the clinic staff were causative factors in Shanice’s death.

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"This case will trumpet to the world that abortion clinics are places of barbarism where mothers as well as their babies are at serious risk," Brejcha said. "Moreover, this case should put some sharp teeth into the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. As we struggle to end the scourge of legal abortion in this country, we must hold the line against infanticide!"

The lawsuit also targets thirteen defendants including Gonzalez, abortionist Dr. Renelique and their conglomerate of four South Florida abortion clinics. They are being sued for unlicensed and unauthorized medical practice, botched abortions, evasive tactics, falsifying medical records and the killing, hiding and disposing of the baby.