Life Links 4/6/10

In New York, a man named Orbin Tercero has been arrested and is charged (by Pennsylvania authorities) with "criminal homicide of an unborn child, first-degree murder of an unborn child, aggravated assault of an unborn child, aggravated assault, hindering apprehension or prosecution, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence" after he allegedly killed his unborn child using misoprostol, a drug used to expel the unborn in RU-486 chemical abortions. Tercero is a (ex?)pharmacist who was engaged to another woman.

Tercero told the woman he could use the drug misoprostol to induce a miscarriage. The victim told Tercero she would get an abortion instead.

The victim, however, made a Feb. 24 appointment for an abortion but changed her mind. She called Tercero to tell him she would keep the baby.

In late February, on the victim's birthday, Tercero visited her at home and used misoprostol he allegedly stole from Wegmans pharmacy to cause the miscarriage.

Without her knowing it, Tercero put one pill in her vagina, one in her juice and one in her water. She was 13 weeks pregnant at the time.

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry has signed three prolife bills into law. The bills were introduced after a court struck down a law which contained multiple prolife provisions.

• Senate Bill 1890, which makes abortion on the account of the sex of the unborn child illegal. It revokes or suspends the license of any provider who violates this law.

• SB 1891, which creates the Freedom of Conscience Act. An employer cannot discriminate against an employee by refusing to accommodate that person’s religious beliefs as it pertains to abortion, human embryos, fetal transplants or euthanasia.

• SB 1902, which regulates the prescription of RU-486, or mifepristone, and its use in inducing an abortion.

All three measures had enough support in the Legislature — at least two-thirds — that they contained what is known as an emergency clause, which allows the measures to take effect immediately.

Public works employees in Louisiana found a 20-week male child in a sewer pump.

The parish Coroner’s Office determined that the fetus was a boy and estimated he was 20 weeks old and weighed 141 grams, said Don Moreau, chief of operations for the Coroner’s Office.

“It was born alive,” Moreau said. “But it probably wasn’t viable, meaning that it wouldn’t have lived long outside of the mother.”

He said that he believes the fetus came through a toilet and into the sewer system....

“It was a fully formed baby. When our employee looked into the pipe this morning, he knew right away it was a boy,” Moreau said. “But it was really, really tiny.”

Members of the assisted suicide group Final Exit pleaded not guilty to charges that they helped a man kill himself.

Goodwin and three other members of the network were arrested in February 2009 in John Celmer's death at his north Georgia home. The arrests came after an eight-month investigation where an undercover agent posing as someone seeking to commit suicide infiltrated the group.