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<DIV id=two_col_date>November 4, 2008 </DIV></TD></TR><!--Date Ends Here--><!--================================== MAKE NO CHANGES ABOVE THIS LINE ===================================--><!--================================== all layout items below this line ==================================--><!--table layout begins here--><!--Begin COLUMN 1-->
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<H3>Laid to rest: Baby Shanice </H3>
<P class=deck_14_grey>Born during botched abortion, a little girl receives a proper burial two years later.</P>
<P class=byline_noline>DANIEL SOŃÉ | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT</P>
<P class=byline_noline_2>Published: 10.24.08</P>
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<P>There is a bright line – that means no gray area – between being inside or outside the womb. Once a baby is outside the womb and alive, it is protected by Florida law.”<BR><SPAN class=quote_attribute>– Thomas Pennekamp Jr., attorney for baby Shanice’s mother</SPAN></P></DIV>
<P><SPAN class=red>FORT LAUDERDALE</SPAN> | More than two years after her ignominious death at an abortion clinic, baby Shanice Denise Osbourne was laid to rest at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale. </P>
<P>Her small white casket was escorted by an honor guard of Hialeah police officers and Knights of Columbus. She was buried in the cemetery’s children’s section after a funeral service at Worldwide Church of Christ in Pompano Oct. 14. </P>
<P>Father Dominic O’Dwyer, pastor of St. Malachy Parish in Tamarac, conducted the graveside service. The Archdiocese of Miami donated the plot. </P>
<P>“When you see a small white casket like that, you can’t help but be struck by the reality of what happened to her,” said Thomas L. Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, which is representing Shanice’s mother, Sycloria Shante Williams, in a lawsuit against the abortion clinic. </P>
<P>Williams, 18 at the time, was 23 weeks pregnant when she went to A GYN Diagnostic Center in Hialeah to abort her child. No medical staff was present when she delivered a live baby girl, police reports say. Clinic staff, led by co-owner Belkis Gonzalez, apparently panicked. Someone later called the police. </P>
<P>“The baby was quickly stuffed into a plastic bag with bleach and then hidden from police when they came to investigate,” Brejcha said. </P>
<P>Eight days later the bag containing baby Shanice’s decomposing body was found during a second investigation by Hialeah detectives. </P>
<P>“An informant, most likely someone who worked there and saw what happened, said that the body was hidden on the roof,” said Ed Brophy, investigator for the Thomas More Society. </P>
<P>The unsuccessful abortion and suspicious actions by A GYN’s co-owner and staff led to an investigation by the state attorney’s office, which is still considering criminal charges. </P>
<P>“We cannot comment on open investigations,” said Terry Chavez, a spokesperson for the Miami–Dade Office of the State Attorney.</P>
<P>In the meantime, the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit and pro-life legal organization based in Chicago, has initiated a wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of the baby’s mother. The society has hired Miami attorney Tom Pennekamp Jr. as co-counsel. Pennekamp is a former president of the Dade County Bar Association and considered an expert on personal injury cases. </P>
<P>“We’re doing this because a criminal investigation shouldn’t take this long and produce no answer. There hasn’t been any real movement on this as far as criminal prosecution goes,” Brejcha said. </P>
<P>Pennekamp said he believes that the lack of action by prosecutors is “politics.” </P>
<P>“There is a bright line – that means no gray area – between being inside or outside the womb. Once a baby is outside the womb and alive, it is protected by Florida law,” he said. </P>
<P>The Dade County Medical Examiner determined that baby Shanice was born alive, but ruled that she died of natural causes related to having been born prematurely. Both Pennekamp and Brejcha contend that whether or not Shanice was going to die anyway is irrelevant. </P>
<P>“If you suffocate a dying person with a pillow, it is still murder. Even if he was five minutes from death, you can’t do that,” Brejcha said. </P>
<P>Suffocation is what Williams witnessed after she gave birth to Shanice in the clinic’s recovery room, Pennekamp said. The mother saw Gonzalez cut the umbilical cord and stuff the baby’s gasping body into a biohazard bag. </P>
<P>“She was awake for all that horror. To see your baby gasping for air and just scooped into a bag like that is horrifying,” Pennekamp said. </P>
<P>The abortive procedure and disposal were performed by unlicensed personnel, including Gonzalez, Pennekamp said, referring to one of the allegations in the lawsuit. </P>
<P>“Virtually everyone who handled Sycloria and Shanice didn’t have a medical license,” Pennekamp said. “I can’t even find a name for people who do this kind of thing. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time nor the last time something like this has happened.” </P>
<P>He pointed out that although that particular clinic shut down after the incident, Gonzalez opened another clinic nearby, transferring ownership to her daughter, Natali Vergara. </P>
<P>The new location is also in the lawsuit because of a “fraudulent transfer of assets,” Pennekamp said. He also is suing A GYN’s co-owner, Siomara Senises, and the doctor, Pierre Jean-Jacques Renelique. </P>
<P>“These people own a couple of abortion clinics and this isn’t the first time they’ve been busted for using unlicensed people,” Pennekamp said. </P>
<P>In 2005, the cleaning lady at a Gonzalez-owned clinic in Miramar was served with an arrest warrant for administering anesthesia to patients without a medical license, the Miami Herald reported in 2006. A GYN has since moved to another location in Miramar and continues to own a clinic in North Miami. Repeated offenses by these clinics are due to a lack of public awareness, Pennekamp said. “If someone hadn’t ratted out these rats we would have never heard about it. It would have been swept under the rug like every other incident.” </P>
<P>Raising awareness is one of the many goals of the lawsuit. </P>
<P>“This is about justice for Sycloria and her baby and to prevent these people from hurting anyone else. People need to know these things are happening,” Brejcha said. </P>
<P>“The point of this case is to make a point,” said Pennekamp. </P>
<P>“People look at this and think this must be an extreme of what’s happening with abortion in our country. Actually, we’ve got many, many similar stories,” said Joan Crown, director of respect life for the archdiocese. Unfortunately, “whenever a situation puts a bad light on abortion as a whole, we’re very slow to bring charges or to put it in that bad light.” </P>
<P>Crown commented on the fact that the Hialeah police detectives who found Shanice’s body were moved enough to attend her burial. </P>
<P>“It was very moving to see them all lined up at the graveside,” she said. “They came to recognize the life of this child, that she did exist, and to pay their respects to the mother. So that was very telling. They really are calling for something to do done, not just fines to be paid, but people to be held responsible.”</P></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR> from: <A href="http://www.thefloridacatholic.org/mia/2008_mia/2008_miaarticles/20081024_mia_burial.php">http://www.thefloridacatholic.org/mia/2008_mia/2008_miaarticles/20081024_mia_burial.php</A></DIV>
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<DIV><EM><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000bf>Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.</FONT></EM></DIV></FONT></EM></FONT></DIV>
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