By Kathleen Gilbert
HIALEAH, Florida, October 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A civil suit has been launched against the owner of an abortuary for the murder of a newborn baby girl who, having survived an abortion, was stuffed into a medical waste bag filled with bleach and discarded. The girl’s funeral was held in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday, two years after her death.
Florida lawyer Tom Pennekamp Jr., former president of the Dade County Bar Association and an expert in major personal injury cases, has joined forces with the Thomas More Society of Chicago to press charges in the case surrounding the death of Shanice Denise Osbourne.
In July of 2006, the child’s mother, 22 weeks pregnant, went to the A Gyn Diagnostic Center in Hialeah complaining of stomach pains after her attempted abortion, according to Christian Newswire. Witnesses said that while waiting for the doctor to arrive, baby Shanice was born, and for a few minutes struggled to breathe. One member of the unlicensed staff of the center then cut the umbilical cord, threw it and the baby into a red biohazard bag, and walked out.
A witness called police to report the infanticide, but when police arrived the body was missing. When the police investigated days later following a second tip, they discovered the infant’s partially-decomposed body still in the bag. The body had apparently been hidden on the roof of the abortion clinic. (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06073103.html)
A later autopsy released by the pro-life group Operation Rescue (OR) confirmed that the child was born alive; air found in the lungs proved that Shanice had been able to breathe. But the Dade County Medical Examiner report claimed that the cause of death was “natural,” due to Shanice’s “extreme prematurity” at 22 weeks’ gestation. (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/dec/06120405.html)
Last year the Thomas More Society, a pro-life law center, intervened, and together with activist Ed Brophy gathered evidence of the infant’s alleged murder at the hands of the abortion clinic staff.
“Not only Shanice’s mother, who was shocked to see her infant born, gasping for breath, and then disposed of before her eyes, but also a clinic worker witnessed what took place,” said Tom Brejcha, president and senior council of the Thomas More Society.
The society said that the expert they hired to review the autopsy results “critiqued the coroner’s botched findings” and found evidence incriminating the staff’s actions as the direct cause of the infanticide. Under the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Law, a person is found to have committed murder if he or she refuses to give legal protection and full medical attention to a child born alive, no matter the stage of development.
The lawsuit brought against the clinic over the murder of baby Shanice is now in process. According to the society’s press release, the owners of the clinic shut down A Gyn, but simply moved a few blocks away, where the abortions continue.
Brejcha attended Shanice’s funeral yesterday, noting the Worldwide Christian Center Church of Pompano Beach was filled to the brim with mourners. Shanice’s remains were later buried in a small white coffin at Ft. Lauderdale’s Queen of Heaven cemetery.
“It was very, very moving,” said Brejcha.
Among the pro-life leaders who spoke at the funeral was Rev. Jim McGarvey, Director of Development for Hope Women’s Centers. Offering his condolences to the child’s mother and family, he said that only truth and grace can comfort mourners as they wrestle with the callous slaying of innocent life.
“If we overlook the spiritual we remove the possibility of ever experiencing the comfort, healing and restoration that is available to those who have been so dramatically touched by the death of Shanice,” said McGarvey. “If we overlook the spiritual we will never make the progress necessary to see that this never happens again.
“So this morning, I encourage you to see the tragedy of the death of Shanice from the vantage point of the cross. It is true that in her death evil triumphed over good, wrong defeated right, deception was victorious over truth.
“But the final chapter has yet to be written,” said Rev. McGarvey.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Baby Born in Waiting Room Murdered at Florida Abortion Clinic
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06073103.html
Autopsy Confirms “Aborted” Baby was Born Alive at Abortion Clinic
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/dec/06120405.html
Florida Abortion Clinic Loses License Over Murder of Born-Alive Infant
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06081008.html
See National Right to Life files on the BAIPL:
https://www.nrlc.org/Federal/Born_Alive_Infants/index.html