Register for E-mail alerts. Comment on articles. Sign up today, it's easy.
Close
The Washington Times Online Edition

Abortion doctor loses state license

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) | The Board of Medicine on Friday revoked the license of a Florida doctor accused of medical malpractice in a botched abortion in which a live baby was delivered, but ended up dead in a cardboard box.

The board found Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique in violation of Florida statutes by committing medical malpractice, delegating responsibility to unlicensed personnel and failing to keep an accurate medical record.

Mr. Renelique and his attorney declined to comment after the hearing.

The Department of Health said Mr. Renelique was scheduled to perform an abortion on a teenager who was 23 weeks pregnant in 2006. Sycloria Williams had been given drugs in advance to dilate her cervix. According to the complaint, she gave birth at a Hialeah clinic after waiting hours for Mr. Renelique to arrive. The complaint said one of the clinic owners put the baby in a bag, which was thrown away.

Police found the infant’s decomposing remains a week later. A medical examiner determined the cause of death was extreme prematurity, the complaint states.

At Friday’s hearing, Mr. Renelique told the board of his lifelong quest to be a doctor. He said there are generations of physicians in his family, and that he decided to follow the same path after seeing his father treat patients.

Mr. Renelique described saving a woman’s life during the second year of his medical residency in Haiti. He later left his home country to work and train in the United States. It was never his intention to do abortions, he said.

“That was not part of my goals when I came to Florida,” he said. “But I had to do it to survive.”

No criminal charges have been filed in the case, but the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is investigating. On Friday, several Republican legislators called on the office to prosecute the person responsible for the baby’s death.

“These events are nothing short of murder,” state Rep. Anitere Flores of Miami said. “It is our duty to call for immediate charges to be filed to ensure that no other young women become victims of this clinic.”

Mr. Renelique said he met the patient a day before the abortion. According to the Department of Health, he gave Miss Williams a drug that dilates the cervix. He said he told her to come in the next day at 10 a.m. “for safety,” and planned to later examine her before the abortion.

Mr. Renelique said that as he was en route to the clinic, he was called to treat another patient who was bleeding.

When he arrived to treat Miss Williams, she was bleeding, but no one told him she’d already delivered, Mr. Renelique said. He began the procedure, and realized there was no baby. A sonogram detected nothing.

“That’s when one of the employees came to me and said, ‘Doctor Renelique, what are you looking for?’ ” he recalled. “I said, ‘I’m looking for a fetus.’ And she said, ‘What fetus?’ ”

The employee then told him that Miss Williams had already delivered.

Story Continues →

View Entire Story
Comments
blog comments powered by Disqus
You Might Also Like
  • President Obama speaks Feb. 13, 2012, about the "Community College to Career Fund" and his 2013 budget at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va. (Associated Press)

    Obama unveils fiscal 2013 budget proposal

    By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times

  • President Barack Obama speaks about the "Community College to Career Fund" and his 2013 budget, Monday, Feb. 13, 2012, at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

    Social Security reserves forecast to run dry in 2022

    By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

  • **FILE** This photo from Dec. 13, 2011, shows workers inside Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. (Associated Press)

    Arizona lawmakers: No more teachers’ dirty words

    By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times

  • In Case You Missed It
    Happening Now

          Independent voices from the TWT Communities

          The Tygrrrr Express

          A politically conservative and morally liberal Hebrew alpha male hunts left-wing vipers.

          Red Thread: An Adoptive Family Forum

          The Red Thread is written for that special tribe: adoptive families and those who hope to be.

          Appalachian Chronicles

          Enjoy the musings of this irreverent and humorous Appalachian American student of life, using her own unique experience as the springboard.

          The Sports Philosopher

          A statistically slanted view of sports, brought to you by a disciple of the Bill James movement.