By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Although rarely reported by the mainstream media, abortion-related violence is a common occurrence in America. In just the past week, a victim of infanticide was finally given a burial date, a woman who refused an abortion was beaten by her ex-boyfriend and two Georgia women were sentenced after forcing a girl to drink turpentine in order to induce an abortion.
In the first of three cases reported by Life News, an unborn child was killed after an attempted abortion in Miami, Florida. The case of baby Shanice Denise Osbourne triggered a large investigation of abortion businesses in southern Florida after the child’s 18 year-old mother gave birth to the child a day after it was supposedly aborted at the GYN Diagnositc Center in Hialeah. The mother had returned to the clinic the day after the abortion complaining of stomach pains when she gave birth in the waiting room.
Officials say an anonymous caller alerted police to the birth and subsequent killing of the child. Police were unable to find the baby’s body for several days with some people suspecting it had been hidden on the roof of the clinic while police were searching the building. However, the body was eventually discovered eight days later in a biohazard bag. An autopsy revealed the child was alive and breathing at the time of birth.
Nearly 26 months after the incident took place, baby Shanice will receive a proper burial on Oct. 14.
A second case, also in Florida, involves a 22 year-old Fort Myers man who is being sought by police for allegedly assaulting his pregnant girlfriend after she refused to have an abortion. The 18 year-old woman, who is four months pregnant, told police the suspect drove her to a remote part of town and told her to have an abortion. When she refused, saying abortion was against her beliefs, he started slapping and punching her.
“(The suspect) told (the victim) one way or another, she was not going to have the baby, that it would never be born,” Deputy Charmaine Smith told the News-Press. “(The suspect) told her to make a decision, either she would get rid of the baby or something would ‘happen’ to her.”
The young woman convinced him to take her to a nearby hospital after promising to tell the police someone else had hit her. If arrested, the suspect will face charges of aggravated battery and false imprisonment.
This type of violence against pregnant women who refuse to get abortions is so prevalent that 36 states and Congress have approved unborn victims laws holding criminals accountable for killing or injuring both mother and child.
The third case occurred in Columbus, Georgia where two women were sentenced to probation and community service after their September, 2006 attempt to force a 16 year-old girl to drink turpentine in order to induce an abortion of her unborn child. Police arrested the mother and two cousins of the girl.
The teenager was reportedly three months pregnant at the time of the attempted forced abortion and there is no word on her health or that of her unborn child.
Police found out about the attempted forced abortion after the girl told her school guidance counselor about it. They had already been monitoring the girl, who may have been the victim of sexual assault and that act could have led to her pregnancy.
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