Page 5 - ARUBA TODAY

U.S. NEWS Monday 7 May 2018
A5

Doctor pleads guilty in fatal abortion

By VERENA DOBNIK Long Island, was arrested
Associated Press in October 2016, three
NEW YORK (AP) — A New months after Morales died.
York doctor who says he's Morales, who lived in Buf-
done 40,000 abortions is falo, New York, had come
awaiting sentencing after to Rho's clinic in the Flush-
pleading guilty to criminally ing section of Queens with
negligent homicide in the her sister, desperate to get
2016 death of a woman an abortion, for which Rho
who was six months preg- charged $6,000, witnesses
nant and bled to death. said. She had only learned
The case in Queens Crimi- a week earlier that she was
nal Court marks one of the pregnant.
rare legal instances of crim- Profuse post-operative
inal prosecution of a doctor bleeding forced the doc-
over a medical error, but tor to perform another pro-
Assistant District Attorney cedure that did not fix the
Brad Leventhal said that Dr. damage, prosecutors said.
Robert Rho's mistakes went Lichtman said the botched
beyond civil malpractice. abortion was a tragedy but
"It's about greed and ar- was not a crime.
rogance," Leventhal told He said Morales never told Associated Press
jurors last week during Rho that she suffered from
closing arguments in the medical conditions that tion. He also was convicted tions, snipping the spines
month-long trial. He said made her prone to more of murder for performing of infants born alive during
30-year-old Jaime Lee Mo- intense bleeding. extremely late-term abor- the procedures.q
rales "bled to death be- After her death, the doctor
cause this defendant did closed his clinic and surren-
nothing." dered his medical license.
Rather than call an am- Americans United for Life,
bulance, prosecutors said, an anti-abortion law firm
Rho released Morales for and advocacy group
her sister to drive her home based in Washington, is-
in the Bronx, despite signs sued a statement Friday
she was in grave condi- saying that Morales' family
tion and had collapsed in "received some measure
a bathroom of Rho's clinic. of justice," but "the truth
Morales fell unconscious in is that the type of behav-
the car. Medics respond- ior described in the Rho
ing to a 911 call took her to trial — not following best
the hospital, where she was medical practices, using
pronounced dead. untrained staff, failing to
Rho's attorney reached a properly monitor vital signs,
plea deal with prosecutors not maintaining a sterile
Friday after jurors said they environment, etc. — are all
were deadlocked. It spares very common in abortion
the 53-year-old physician clinics across America."
from facing up to 15 years Even before Morales' abor-
in prison on the original tion, the doctor had been
charge of second-degree investigated by state of-
manslaughter, equivalent ficials over concerns that
to reckless homicide. he was performing proce-
Instead, Rho admitted he dures improperly and us-
was negligent with Mo- ing assistants who lacked
rales' abortion, leaving medical training, witnesses
her bleeding uncontrolla- said at the trial.
bly with a severed uterine The last criminal prosecu-
aorta, ripped cervix and tion in New York over a
pierced uterine wall. mishandled abortion was
The lesser charge comes in 1995, when obstetrician
with prison time of up to David Benjamin was con-
four years. But Rho's attor- victed of murder after a
ney, Jeffrey Lichtman, says patient bled to death from
he may end up with only a rip in her uterus during an
months in prison when he is abortion.
sentenced on June 26. Philadelphia doctor Kermit
Lichtman called it a "monu- Gosnell was convicted in
mental victory." 2013 of involuntary man-
Rho, who lives with his fam- slaughter after a patient
ily in the Lake Success sec- got a fatal overdose of
tion of Great Neck, on sedatives during an abor-