PRO-LIFE NEWS IN BRIEF

By Liz Townsend

Mother of Abandoned Baby Charged with Murder

A tiny baby boy, abandoned in the back seat of a car after an attempted abortion, died in a South African hospital March 11. His mother and a medical clinic worker have been charged with murder for inducing labor at 25-28 weeks of pregnancy, delivering the baby, and then wrapping him in newspaper, putting him in a plastic bag, and leaving him to die.

The baby lived for three days after the attempted abortion. Doctors at Pretoria Academic Hospital told the Johannesburg Star he died of septicemia (an infection in the blood stream) due to the way he was delivered and treated after birth by his mother, Pinky Phaahla, 34, and clinic worker Elizabeth Molomo, 40.

Workers in a business located next to a clinic in Marabastad watched as a woman put a black plastic bag in a car early in the morning of March 8, according to the Star. When they investigated, they discovered the bag held a baby.

"When we arrived, the man from the panelbeating [auto repair] shop dumped the bag on the ground in front of us," police inspector Riann Klopper told the Star. "It was only after I had stared at the bloody sight in disbelief for a few moments that I saw the child move."

The baby weighed 1.1 kilograms (less than two and a half pounds) when he was taken to the hospital. According to South African law, only babies weighing more than 1 kilogram can be resuscitated. If the baby weighed just 100 grams less, he would not have been given treatment, the Star reported.

Despite the best efforts of the medical staff, however, the baby did not survive. "Doctors had tried everything but the baby did not make it," Dr. Ernest Kenoshi of Pretoria Academic Hospital told the South African Press Association.

China Tries to Limit Sex-Selection Abortions

Responding to the widespread use of abortions to kill female babies, the Chinese government announced in March that "determining the sex of the foetus and then aborting can only be done for medical reasons," Xinhua News Agency reported.

The State Commission for Population and Family Planning, the Ministry of Health, and the State Food and Drug Administration issued regulations that would restrict the use of sex-determination technology to a limited number of hospitals. Doctors must get approval from the local health department before aborting a baby because of the child's gender, according to Xinhua.

In 1998, the Christian Science Monitor reported that "[o]fficially, China bans fetal-monitoring ultrasound exams, which can reveal sex. But under the one-child, one-couple policy, husbands and wives still try to determine the child's sex. The root of the problem is deeply ingrained incentives to prefer boys over girls."

It is not known whether the new regulations will make any difference in the tragic rate of sex-selection abortions. While China continues to enforce its brutal one-child policy, parents who want to have a male child for ancestral or financial reasons may still find a way to abort girl babies.

Dutch Nurse Found Guilty of Killing Patients

A nurse suspected of killing at least 13 patients in Dutch hospitals between 1997 and 2001 will go to prison for life after a panel of judges found her guilty March 24 of killing four of them.

The judges ruled that Lucy Quirina de Berk, 41, "administered substances and or conducted treatments that caused the victim to stop breathing suddenly and die," the New York Times reported. The patients, three children and one elderly woman, died after receiving a lethal injection of drugs.

"[De Berk] went about her work in a refined and calculating way when the chance of discovery was small," said presiding judge Jeanne Kalk, according to The Guardian. "Apparently she believed she was qualified to hold the power of life and death over these people."

The trial has received a great deal of attention in the Netherlands, which officially legalized physician-assisted suicide in 2002. Most criminal sentences in the country, even of those found guilty of murder, do not exceed 20 years, according to the Associated Press (AP). The judges, however, said that a life sentence was appropriate for several reasons, including the fact that de Berk has expressed no remorse, the AP reported.

"The victims were sick and helpless babies, whose parents entrusted them to the suspect's care as a nurse," Judge Kalk ruled, according to the AP. "She caused them irreparable suffering and great grief, not only because they had to live without them, but also by denying them the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones in a fitting way."

De Berk's attorney told the AP he would file an appeal.

Pennsylvania Woman Convicted of Killing Unborn Baby

An Erie County, Pennsylvania, jury found Corinne Wilcott, 21, guilty of third-degree murder March 26 for killing an unborn baby by kicking the child's mother in the stomach during a fight, the Erie Times-News reported.

The conviction is the first in the county under the 1998 Crimes Against Unborn Child Act, which allows an unborn child to be considered the second victim of an attack.

"I'm glad the jury agreed the filing of the charges in this case was appropriate," District Attorney Brad Foulk told the Times-News. "In the eyes of the law, [the fetus] deserved to be protected. Hopefully in obtaining a conviction, we've protected other unborn babies from this fate."

Sheena Carson, 19, was 15 to 17 weeks' pregnant with a baby boy when Wilcott confronted her on June 8, 2002. Carson had been having an affair with Wilcott's husband and the baby was his, according to the Times-News.

Both women attended a party that night, and Carson testified at the trial that Wilcott came up from behind and assaulted her. Carson said that Wilcott told her, "I hope the bastard dies," the Times-News reported.

Doctors testified that they found blood clots and bruising on the placenta after the baby boy was delivered stillborn on June 14. Obstetrician and gynecologist Andrea Jeffress and forensic pathologist Eric Vey told the court that the damage indicates that the baby died after the placenta was detached from the uterine wall as a result of trauma, such as a kick, according to the Times-News.

Wilcott's lawyer told the Times-News that he would appeal the verdict, claiming that the Crimes Against Unborn Child Act contradicts state law allowing abortion. "We put a state imprimatur on abortion," Tim Lucas said after the verdict was announced. "It is perfectly legal to kill a fetus up to 24 weeks of age. But God forbid it be the result of two girls fighting outside a graduation party."

Wilcott could receive a total of 67 years in prison for her conviction for third-degree murder, aggravated assault on the baby and Carson, simple assault of Carson, and making terroristic threats. She will be sentenced May 6.