Thread: Cops:Fearful teen swallowed black market pills to kill fetus

I'm posting this in Other Topics because there's no mention of her status. She has been in the US 1 year & taking English classes.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegio ... &srvc=news

Cops: Fearful teen swallowed black market pills to kill fetus
By Jessica Fargen and O’Ryan Johnson
Thursday, January 25, 2007 - Updated: 02:17 AM EST

LAWRENCE - A tormented teen mom-to-be, spurned by her baby’s father and fearful of burdening her immigrant mother, aborted her fetus by swallowing black-market abortion pills, officials and family said.

Amber Abreu, 18, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Lawrence District Court to one count of procuring a miscarriage, a felony.

The Dominican Republic native was seeking to abort her 24-week-old fetus when she ingested the pills, intended only for use by doctors inducing labor. Soon after she gave birth to a live infant who died after four days in a hospital.

A 15-year-old cousin of Abreu, who asked for anonymity, said outside the teen’s three-decker house last night that Abreu sought to abort the fetus to spare her mother the burden of “another baby to care for.” She faulted the father, saying “he turned against her, he didn’t want to help her."

Abreu, who was arrested Tuesday, knew she was going to be a mom and told police she “felt something moving in her belly,” said Essex prosecutor Jessica Strasnick. Later, she told police: “I killed my baby,” Strasnick said.

Abreu took three Misoprostol pills, a drug prescribed legally in the United States for treatment of ulcers. Doctors also use it to induce labor. And they use it in conjuction with the RU-486 pill to induce legal abortions.

Abreu was approximately 24 weeks along when she showed up at Lawrence General Hospital Jan. 5 complaining of abdominal pain and later delivered a girl, who weighed just over one pound, according to a police report. She checked herself out against doctor’s orders three hours after delivery. The Department of Social Services took custody of the newborn, who was treated at a Boston hospital. DSS offered Abreu counseling at the hospital and after the birth, but she declined.

Abreu’s lawyer, Amanda Barker, said Abreu takes night classes to learn English and was not a flight risk. A judge set her bail at $15,000 cash. Officials said she could face manslaughter charges.

Women’s advocates say Abreu could have obtained the help she needed without resorting to the illicit prescription pills not far from where lived with her mother and two brothers in Lawrence.

“She didn’t have access to the resources to make a better decision,” said Dr. Karen Lifford, medical director at Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, whose Spanish-speaking crisis operators could have refered her to a nearby family planning clinic in Lawrence.

Virginia Reynolds, spokeswoman for Catholic Charities, said their Lawrence branch does outreach to connect with struggling Latina moms-to-be and counsel them on adoption. “One of the goals is to tell women they have options to abortion,” she said.

Abreu has been in the states for about a year. Her landlady, Kemnia Lantigua, who had a baby girl a week ago, said her shy tenant bought her purple and pink baby clothes in December. She never knew her tenant was pregnant.

“She’s so nice,” she said.

So much for family values in their community. They can make a baby, but just don't expect them to stick around after she's pregnant!

More info here.

http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/loca ... 504?page=3

Published: January 25, 2007 12:00 am print this story email this story

Reports: Fear, confusion led to failed abortion attempt
By Zach Church and Jim Patten , Staff writers
Eagle-Tribune

LAWRENCE - Amber Abreu knew she was pregnant.

A test came back negative, but she felt something moving in her stomach. Her period had not come since September. Now it was almost Christmas.

An abortion was out of the question. Abreu, 18, had done that once already. She couldn't ask her mother to pay for that again. Her mother, a Venezuelan immigrant who wanted so much for her children, would be devastated.

Distraught, Abreu turned to a friend who gave her three Cytotec pills. She took the ulcer medication pills to abort her baby, but instead gave birth to a 11/4-pound baby girl Jan. 6. Baby Ashley died four days later.

According to a 15-page report filed by the state's Department of Social Services, that is the story Abreu told investigators while her baby fought for life. And while Abreu stood in Lawrence District Court yesterday to face a charge of procuring a miscarriage, she learned she could soon face a charge of homicide.

In court, she stood in shackles and was mute and expressionless beside her lawyer. The night before, police said she had cried to investigators, "I killed my baby."

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick said the state's medical examiner's office is inclined to look at the baby's death as a homicide. Those three pills were misoprostol, known by its brand name, Cytotec. It is used to prevent ulcers but also induces labor and is a component of the abortion drug RU-486.

Outside the courtroom, Anna Rosario, who identified herself as Amber Abreu's aunt, told reporters through an interpreter that Abreu's mother had left for the Dominican Republic earlier Tuesday, before Abreu was arrested.

Rosario said she was upset and does not know what happened. She said Abreu's mother was surprised to learn of the arrest.

The DSS report that details interviews with Abreu, her mother, Martiza Rosario, and hospital officials in Boston tells the heartbreaking story of a young women terrified by her pregnancy and unaware of the help and support, both from the state and her family, available to her.

Abreu first met with investigators on Jan. 7, one day after giving birth and promptly walking out of Lawrence General Hospital, despite the protests of doctors.

That afternoon, fresh from a shower and seated in her clean, well-furnished High Street home, Abreu first gave two female investigators the cold shoulder. For 30 minutes, she buried her face in her hands, appearing "nonchalant," according to a report.

Then, Abreu told her story. Menstruation stopped in September. In November, she took a pregnancy test, unbeknownst to anyone. That came back negative.

But her mother noticed a change. Abreu lost interest in school and "only wanted to sleep," Rosario told investigators. Concerned, Rosario asked her daughter if she was pregnant. The answer was no.

Abreu had been pregnant before. Last March, her mother took her to Methuen for an abortion. That cost about $200, Abreu told investigators. Not wanting to anger her mother, Abreu concealed the second pregnancy from her.

Rosario told investigators that she felt responsible for what her daughter did. She had put pressure on her to succeed at Northern Essex Community College, telling her that she would "do great things," Rosario told investigators.

But Rosario also said she would never turn her back on her daughter. Had she known about the pregnancy, mother and daughter would have "worked it out somehow," she told investigators.

Abreu never told the baby's father, a Fitchburg man, that she was pregnant. The couple broke up late last year and the father left for the Dominican Republic. Abreu told investigators that was because he had impregnated other women, one a 13-year-old girl.

Crushed by the break-up, Abreu decided she didn't want her baby and didn't want her mother to care for her either. Amber would remind her too much of the father, Abreu told investigators. She did not contact social service workers or community organizations. She had learned nothing about birth control or what to do if she became pregnant again. She received no prenatal care. She took the Cytotec.

Investigators persuaded Abreu to visit her daughter in Boston. She took a train down on Jan. 8, just hours after learning that the state Department of Social Services was taking legal custody of Ashley. Abreu spent the night at the hospital, leaving by 8 a.m.

While at the hospital, Abreu did not sign a birth certificate. It was only after Ashley died on Jan. 10 that Abreu legally named her and signed the certificate.

Abreu was being held last night on $15,000 cash bail. She is due back in court Feb. 25 for a probable cause hearing.