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A Florida woman named Tonuya Rainey has been jailed for illegally aborting her daughter's 24 week old baby boy and throwing him in the trash, and is now facing charges of "illegally terminating a pregnancy, child abuse and improper disposal of human remains." Her daughter said that the baby was "breathing and moving his arms after birth," a piece of information that horrified the presiding judge, causing him to increase her bail by over $170,000 for what that he called a crime "tantamount to murder." Following is the story: According to police and prosecutors, [Rainey] gave her 16-year-old daughter a pregnancy-ending combination of drugs, then disposed of the fetus in a plastic garbage bag, police and prosecutors said. But, according to a search warrant that's part of the case, Rainey's daughter told police her baby, a boy, was breathing and moving his arms after birth. Though Rainey hasn't been charged with murder, that detail made the Broward County Click here for restaurant inspection reports Court judge balk at allowing Rainey's release after she posted $14,000 bond. "I believe that what has allegedly occurred is tantamount to murder," Hurley said at a bond hearing Friday... When [Rainey's daughter] told her mother she was about 24 weeks pregnant, her mother gave her "round, white pills" to terminate the pregnancy, the police document said. According to Miramar police spokeswoman Yessenia Diaz, those pills were a two-drug combination, once known as RU-486, that is now sold under prescription to induce abortions at home. Rainey did not get the pills from her workplace, Diaz said. The teen told police she experienced severe cramps, then at 3 a.m. on March 6 gave birth while seated on a toilet. She said she lay the infant on a bed and saw him breathing and his arms moving. She did not hear the baby cry. Rainey and a friend then picked up the newborn and took him to the bathroom, according to the search warrant application. The next time the teen saw her child, he was clothed and in a small box. It's not clear in the warrant application whether the infant was alive at that time. Babies are occasionally born alive from around 22 weeks old, especially when the pregnancy ends by means of drug-induced abortion. Consider this similar story, that takes place at an abortion clinic, rather than at home: 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... [Williams] 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... [and] 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. These stories are remarkably similar, with little difference besides the location of the abortion, yet the abortion clinic owner and the abortionist face only a few penalties from the state medical board, as no legal charges were filed, while Rainey has been taken to jail and faces some serious legal ramifications for her actions. There appears to be a bias in the courts favoring the abortionist and abortion clinics over those who do exactly the same thing at home, as the penalties for the abortionist are so much more lenient. The Federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (which President Obama voted against in a state version of the bill, incidentally) that was passed in August of 2002 states that any child born alive, even from an induced abortion, is to be offered the same medical treatment due a person at any age, and cannot be left to die, or it is considered to be murder. In both these cases, investigations were being conducted as to whether or not to bring more serious legal charges, possibly as a result of this bill. Is our society willing to overlook and brush aside the horrific results of abortions at legal clinics for political reasons, while focusing more attention on what will be less politically charged because it simply deals with individuals? Contact: Bethany French Source: Pro-Life Blogs Publish Date: March 27, 2009
The IFRL is the largest grassroots pro-life organization in
Illinois. A non-profit organization, that serves as the state
coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
society. The IFRL is composed of people of different political
persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
dedicated to restoring the right to life to the unborn, and protection
for the disabled and the elderly. Click here to learn more about the IFRL. |
