Pro-Life Group Upset Abortion-Infanticide Case Dropped

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 21, 2011   |   1:34PM   |   Miami, FL

The pro-life group Operation Rescue, which was one of the leading organization to expose a grisly abortion-infanticide case, is upset charges have been dropped against the abortion business owner responsible.

As LifeNews.com reported last week, the case against Florida abortion center owner Belkis Gonzalez who was arrested on two felony counts related to the death of a baby in a bizarre abortion case, has been dropped because witnesses have changed their story.

In the abortion incident, a young woman named Sycloria Williams went to the GYN Diagnostic Center abortion facility in Hialeah, outside Miami, for an abortion. She had laminaria inserted and went back the next day for the abortion but, instead, gave birth to a baby named Shanice. Abortion practitioner Pierre Renelique did not show up for a scheduled abortion, causing Shanice to be born alive. When that happened, Gonzalez allegedly stuffed the baby’s body in a biohazard bag and tossed the bag on the roof when local officials stopped by to investigate after they received a tip. The baby’s body had decomposed by the time authorities found it a week later.

Miami-Dade prosecutors told the Miami Herald that they have abandoned the case after defense attorneys asked a local judge to dismiss the case. Prosecutors agreed, according to  Ed Griffith, a Miami-Dade State Attorney’s spokesman.

“We spoke with both the Hialeah police and the prosecutor’s office in this case numerous times. The police indicated to us that they wanted Gonzalez charged with a homicide, but prosecutors dragged their feet every inch of the way,” said Cheryl Sullenger, of Operation rescue, in response.

The case prompted outrage from the pro-life community and even the Florida Legislature called for charges against Gonzalez.

Sullenger said: “Nevertheless, it took nearly three years for prosecutors to finally charge Gonzalez and that was only after public pressure was brought to bear. Two more years of what has become known as “defense by delay” followed, knowing that the longer the case drug on, the more likelihood that witnesses would change their testimony or drop from the case. That is exactly what eventually happened.”

Operation Rescue contacted Griffith, who told the pro-life group this morning: “Everyone wants to use common sense. There was no common sense involved in this case. We went strictly on the letter of the law. The physicians backed away from the position that she was practicing medicine. We had no prosecutable case.”

“There’s little doubt that prosecutors did not aggressively pursue this case,” said Sullenger. “When abortion is involved, it can be very difficult to get justice because of a political climate that seeks to protect abortionists at any cost. That is beginning to change, but this case illustrates that there is still a long way to go.”

Sullenger expressed to Griffith that this action would only make it more likely that Gonzalez would reoffend at the cost of the life or health of additional women and babies. The concerns were shrugged off by Griffith.

OR president Troy Newman also commented on the situation, and said, “There is no fundamental difference between what Gonzalez did to Baby Shanice and what Kermit Gosnell did to babies at his ‘house of horrors’ in Philadelphia. The lack of common sense lies with the prosecutor’s office, not with the law.”

Shanice’s mother, Sycloria Williams, has since expressed remorse for the attempted abortion and has filed a civil suit against those responsible for her baby’s death.

“If there is to be any justice for Shanice, now it will have to come through the civil court. We pray that case will continue to move forward and bear a positive result. Abortion workers must be put on notice that they are not above the law, and that eventually their misdeeds will catch up to them in a court of law,” said Sullenger.

The abortion practitioner in the case, Pierre Renelique, saw the Board of Medicine revoke his medical license in February, 2009.