A New York man who was a pharmacist has been convicted of in connection with a case that saw him force his girlfriend to have an abortion by slipping her the dangerous misoprostol abortion drug.
Orbin Eeli Tercero was charged with criminal homicide of an unborn child, first-degree murder of an unborn child, aggravated assault of an unborn child, aggravated assault, hindering apprehension or prosecution, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. he was arrested last April by state police after reportedly having a two-year long fling with a 36-year-old pharmacist who worked at the same pharmacy despite his engagement to another woman.
Tercero told his girlfriend, after she found out she was pregnant, that he could get her the misoprostol drug — the second part of the two-part abortion drug process used to cause contractions. The woman made an appointment for an abortion but later called Tercero and changed her mind.
In a visit at her home, while she was 13 weeks pregnant, Tercero placed misoprostol pills in two drinks and in her vagina during an intimate encounter. The pills caused the woman to have a miscarriage and she drove to a local hospital, where her baby died.
Misoprostol is a prostaglandin analog drug that induces uterine contractions resulting in the expulsion of the unborn child from the womb. It is often used along with RU 486 for abortion and causes painful uterine contractions, blood loss, fever, nausea and chills.
The Star Gazette newspaper indicates the Bradford County Court convicted Tercero on Wednesday and sentenced him to four and a half months to 23 months, 29 days in prison for violating the state’s abortion law. He was also convicted and sentenced to 12 months probation on the charge of tampering with evidence and that sentence will be served following the first one. He was also fined $1,500 in connection with the case.
Since the initial charges, Tercero married the victim and he is still registered as a pharmacist with the New York State Office of the Professions.
Marie Smith of the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues commented to LifeNews.com about the case.
“The criminal conviction and sentencing of this pharmacist for forced abortion is welcome news and should send a strong signal that coerced abortion will not be tolerated. Misoprostol is a powerful drug that is open to misuse and abuse,” she said. “This case raises the question of how many more women have been the victims of the secret use of misoprostol for abortion against their will.”
Misoprostol is increasingly at the center of struggle over access to abortion around the world as pro-abortion activists seek to overturn laws which regulate where an abortion can take place and who can be defined as an “abortion provider,” Smith said. Radical pro-abortion group Ipas of North Carolina writes on its website about its work to instruct pharmacists in the use misoporostol for abortion in countries in African and Latin America where abortion is prohibited by law.
Smith added: “The tactics used to promote abortion globally are finding their way to the US. A clear example is the effort to change laws that restrict the performance of abortion to physicians only. Such laws are considered to be roadblocks to abortion activists who seek a broader definition to allow nurses and other health workers, including pharmacists, to distribute abortion inducing drugs to women for self-use at home.”
She concluded: “The conviction and sentencing in this case involves the forced abortion of a woman against her will which is clearly abusive but all abortions involve the destruction of unborn children against their will. Abortion is always violence inflicted upon children who are powerless to say ‘No’.”
