Posted on Sun, Sep. 17, 2006

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Viability of fetus root question in clinic probe

BY SUSANNAH A. NESMITH, DAVID OVALLE AND JACOB GOLDSTEIN

McClatchy Newspapers

MIAMI - When witnesses told police a baby was born alive and later died at a Hialeah, Fla., abortion clinic, Miami-Dade prosecutors found themselves trying to determine when a fetus becomes a viable baby.

If the fetus found at the clinic was at 22 weeks of gestation, as the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner believes, health care experts say the decision is a fairly easy one. The fetus wasn't viable.

Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hoague said her office is still gathering evidence in the case, including two sonograms done on the mother before the baby was born.

"There are lots of questions that medically I don't have the answer to yet," Hoague said. "You're talking about a fetus that could be aborted legally."

A witness told police that someone at the clinic put the baby on the roof of the building when police first searched for it, casting suspicion on the whole incident.

"They hid the body from us for eight days," Hialeah Police Deputy Chief Mark Overton said.

Hialeah police are pushing for indictments. They say the clinic staff should have called 911 and sent the baby -- a girl -- to the hospital.

"This has to be a homicide, an unlawful killing. It could be manslaughter, but we believe it falls in that realm," Overton said.

Prosecutors aren't so sure.

Hoague plans to present the evidence to medical experts to determine if the fetus was viable. But it will be at least several weeks before a determination can be made.

The case began July 20 when an anonymous woman called from a pay phone outside the clinic, saying a baby had been born alive and was killed by employees.

The next day, detectives located an 18-year-old who said she gave birth at the clinic.

She told police she went for an abortion on July 19 and clinic employees gave her drugs to begin dilation. The next day, the teen said, she went to the clinic to complete the procedure. When she told the clinic staff she wasn't feeling well, they put her in a recovery room while she waited for the doctor to arrive.

In the recovery room, she said, she suddenly gave birth.

She told detectives she saw the baby gasping for five minutes as clinic staffers began shrieking, according to a search warrant.

On July 22, detectives searched the clinic but did not find the baby. Five days later, a source told police the baby had been tossed on the roof.

On July 28, investigators raided the clinic again. This time, they found the baby in the clinic in a red biohazard bag.

The medical examiner estimated the mother was 22 weeks pregnant.