A superintendent in Washington Heights was tying up a garbage bag on Tuesday evening when he felt an errant piece of plastic. He reached into the bag to put it in the recycling bin, and to his horror, he said, “that’s when I saw the baby.”
The police said Thursday that they had charged Yaribely Almonte, 20, who had lived in the building, with self-abortion in the first degree, a misdemeanor charge that has been used only a few times in New York State. Although it was unclear how old the fetus was, the charge applies when the abortion occurs after 24 weeks of pregnancy, when it is legal only if a woman’s doctor says her life is in danger.
“When I found the baby, I didn’t know if it was real at first,” said the superintendent, who declined to give his name. “It was so bad.
“After that happened, I just stayed in my apartment for a while because I didn’t feel well.”
He said Ms. Almonte had rented a room in the building, at 191st Street and Wadsworth Avenue, for a short while and had moved out recently. She was not very talkative, he said, and he believed that she had dropped out of school a few years ago.
Abortion rights advocates say that home abortions, with medications like misoprostol or herbal concoctions, are a phenomenon in Latin American cultures, despite the widespread availability of safe, legal abortions in New York City. They may happen because of a lack of insurance, but also because the women mistrust the medical system, the experts said.
“It’s been well discussed in the Latino community that there’s an issue about health and safety and the use of medication outside of a doctor’s care for pregnancy termination,” said Elizabeth Toledo, a public relations consultant for abortion rights groups.
The police said the fetus was born dead, and a law enforcement official said it was male, with the umbilical cord still attached. They did not offer any details of a motive but said they based their charge on Ms. Almonte’s own statements.
Ms. Almonte was released and is due back in court Jan. 3. She could not be located for comment on Thursday, and it was not clear who was representing her.
“This woman has my sympathy,” Greg Pfundstein, executive director of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, an anti-abortion group, said Thursday. “This appears to be a clear case of desperation.
“I wish she had known there are people who would have helped her through this, including the New York Catholic Archdiocese.”
He added that the archdiocese, through Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, “recently renewed its pledge to help any woman who finds herself pregnant and in need.”
The state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services said that since 1980, four other women had been charged with self-abortion in the first degree or in the second degree, a lesser charge that can apply when the attempt is not successful. Three of those cases, from Nassau County in 2006 and 2010 and from Monroe County in 2000, ended in dismissal.
A first-degree case in Wayne County in 2006 resulted in a sentence of conditional discharge, meaning the charge would be dismissed if the woman did not get into trouble again.
Source
The police said Thursday that they had charged Yaribely Almonte, 20, who had lived in the building, with self-abortion in the first degree, a misdemeanor charge that has been used only a few times in New York State. Although it was unclear how old the fetus was, the charge applies when the abortion occurs after 24 weeks of pregnancy, when it is legal only if a woman’s doctor says her life is in danger.
“When I found the baby, I didn’t know if it was real at first,” said the superintendent, who declined to give his name. “It was so bad.
“After that happened, I just stayed in my apartment for a while because I didn’t feel well.”
He said Ms. Almonte had rented a room in the building, at 191st Street and Wadsworth Avenue, for a short while and had moved out recently. She was not very talkative, he said, and he believed that she had dropped out of school a few years ago.
Abortion rights advocates say that home abortions, with medications like misoprostol or herbal concoctions, are a phenomenon in Latin American cultures, despite the widespread availability of safe, legal abortions in New York City. They may happen because of a lack of insurance, but also because the women mistrust the medical system, the experts said.
“It’s been well discussed in the Latino community that there’s an issue about health and safety and the use of medication outside of a doctor’s care for pregnancy termination,” said Elizabeth Toledo, a public relations consultant for abortion rights groups.
The police said the fetus was born dead, and a law enforcement official said it was male, with the umbilical cord still attached. They did not offer any details of a motive but said they based their charge on Ms. Almonte’s own statements.
Ms. Almonte was released and is due back in court Jan. 3. She could not be located for comment on Thursday, and it was not clear who was representing her.
“This woman has my sympathy,” Greg Pfundstein, executive director of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, an anti-abortion group, said Thursday. “This appears to be a clear case of desperation.
“I wish she had known there are people who would have helped her through this, including the New York Catholic Archdiocese.”
He added that the archdiocese, through Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, “recently renewed its pledge to help any woman who finds herself pregnant and in need.”
The state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services said that since 1980, four other women had been charged with self-abortion in the first degree or in the second degree, a lesser charge that can apply when the attempt is not successful. Three of those cases, from Nassau County in 2006 and 2010 and from Monroe County in 2000, ended in dismissal.
A first-degree case in Wayne County in 2006 resulted in a sentence of conditional discharge, meaning the charge would be dismissed if the woman did not get into trouble again.
Source
:\
Catholic Church, you have a ways to go if you want this dream of yours to become a reality.
Frankly, if I was facing an unexpected pregnancy, the last people I'd turn to would be the Catholic Church.
Not all Latin@s are religious, of course, but the church often does hold a very big place in our hearts. This poor woman...she faced a very hard decision, and apparently she thought she was alone. :(
But I'd be interested to know how they will charge her, if they charge her... I'm not sure they should though
Abortion is treated so differently according to the country
It's as if the current system isn't working.
"helped" her how exactly - by trying to guilt her into keeping the baby and telling her it's a sin to get an abortion blah blah blah? HMMM WONDER WHY SHE DIDN'T CONTACT THEM
This isn't a case of infanticide - the fetus was stillborn according to police. This isn't a case of someone without a medical license performing an abortion on someone else. This is a woman who was obviously desperate and in a dire situation, performing a procedure on her own body. Obviously we shouldnt be encouraging self-surgery, but making safe, abortions available to those who need them.
Pressing criminal charges against a woman whose options were so scarce that she resorted to self-aborting? That helps no one.
But, conservatives obviously don't care about that.
"Almonte, who also has a 3-year-old daughter, told investigators that she had taken an herbal tea before delivering the baby, who was stillborn."
So a 20 year old woman who already has a child and can only afford to rent a single room for the two of them takes an herbal tea to abort (presumably, even though her statement said nothing about intent), and gives birth to a stillborn. And she is being charged under NY law that states abortion after 24 weeks is "murder". Give me a fucking break, NY. Who exactly are you protecting here? It certainly isn't the mother, nor her already living, breathing three year old child.
Edited at 2011-12-04 09:03 pm (UTC)
Arresting this woman is just cruel and inhumane, and the fact this is a crime you can be charged with is ridiculous. It doesn't help anyone.
Because of course it's about a lack of knowing, and not at all about not wanting what they call "help."