CHICAGO, Ill., Mar. 4 /Christian Newswire/ -- On March 3 criminal charges were filed against Belkis Gonzalez, co-owner of a Florida clinic where a teenager sought an abortion, but instead gave birth to a baby girl on July 20, 2006.
Gonzalez, 43 years old, has been charged with a second-degree felony count of unlicensed practice of a health care profession resulting in serious bodily injury and a third-degree felony count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. Prosecutors allege that Gonzalez threw the baby in the trash and hid her body from police.
Gonzalez is one of many defendants in a wrongful death civil suit brought last month by the Chicago- based Thomas More Society together with Miami lawyer Tom Pennekamp on behalf of Sycloria Williams, the teen who gave birth to the baby.
"While we most certainly welcome the bringing of criminal charges against Ms. Gonzalez, whose abortion business represents nothing less than a serious public health hazard, we must express our grave disappointment, indeed our outrage, that no homicide charges have been brought on account of the wrongful death of this little girl," said Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society.
"Not only the coroner's report, but also eyewitness testimony, prove that this infant was born alive then brutally killed. That constitutes homicide under the law of Florida and treating it as anything less than that ignores fundamental legal principles and offends simple human decency. We demand that Dade County's law enforcers add a homicide charge, or at least an attempted homicide charge, without any more delay."
On February 6, the Florida Board of Medicine permanently revoked the license of Pierre Jean- Jacques Renelique, the physician who was supposed to have performed Williams' abortion, but showed up too late -- after Williams had given birth to a live baby.
For more information, please see Thomas More Society's January 30 Christian Newswire press release announcing the filing of the wrongful death lawsuit against Belkis Gonzalez and others.
CONTACTS:
Tom Ciesielka, TC Public Relations (312) 422-1333, tc@tcpr.net
Tom Brejcha, Thomas More Society (312) 782-1680; (312) 590-3408 (cell)
