This Baby Was Born Alive After an Abortion and Then Left to Die

During a botched late-term abortion, a baby was born alive at an abortion facility in Florida. The baby’s mother desperately pleaded with abortion workers to summon help to save her child. She even got her friend to call 911. But the workers were determined that the baby should die.

In April 2005, “Angele” aborted her 22-week-old preborn baby. She was in her 30s, divorced, with two children. She didn’t feel she could handle a third child.

Angele chose a Florida clinic that has since been shut down, called Orlando Women’s Center. It was also referred to as the EPOC Clinic.

Below, you can see a screenshot from its website (now down).

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Here is an ad for Orlando Women’s Clinic from the local Yellow Pages.

An Abortion Procedure Started in Florida

Angele chose abortion, but she didn’t want her baby to suffer. She had named him Rowan. She chose an induction abortion, where Rowan would be delivered intact, rather than a D&E, where he would have been dismembered with forceps.

She hoped to minimize Rowan’s suffering further by having the abortionist give an injection of digoxin into his heart to kill him before delivery.

An abortion procedure during the latter part of the second trimester is a two-day affair. On the first day, the abortionist inserted laminaria, small sticks that expand inside the woman and slowly dilate the cervix. For the procedure, Angele was given a sedative.

She recalls how painful it was, saying, “The injection burned a lot as it went in. … The discomfort was distracting. I still felt the ‘lams’ as they were being inserted.”

Even though Angele had asked for a digoxin injection, she says the abortionist, Harry Perper, never administered it. She remembers the abortion workers discussing doing the injection, but claims it was never done.

She felt as though Perper was rushing. She describes him as, “a very fast-moving, hyperactive type of person.”

Angele went back to the hotel where she was staying overnight. Rowan continued kicking, and this confused her. She thought he was supposed to be dead. When Rowan was still kicking in the middle of the night, Angele considered calling the facility’s after-hours hotline to ask them if something had gone wrong. In the end, she decided not to call.

The next morning, Angele took the pills that were meant to cause her to go into labor and expel her supposed-to-be-dead baby. She arrived at the clinic at 9 AM. Staff told her that the doctor wouldn’t be in until 2 PM. They put her in a room and told her that if she delivered before then, she would have to stay to be examined by him.

They left her to go through labor, unattended and with no significant pain medication, all alone in a dirty room. All they gave her was a blanket and a heating pad.

Left Alone to Deliver in a Filthy Room

How filthy was the room? In Angele’s own words:

In Angele’s own words:

I came back to the sofa, (they both really smelled awful), wrapped up in the wet and sour-smelling blanket, then decided it was better without it. I rocked back and forth on my hands and knees, trying to hold the heating pad to my stomach to both relieve the pain and try to stay warm.

I was looking down and saw little smears and spots of dried blood on the floor and an old cotton ball with blood on it by the fabric-covered sofa across from me.

Noticing how dirty it was and how no one was in the room or even nearby in the hallway began to make me nervous and uncomfortable.

Her contractions started and became extremely painful. After all, she was going through full-blown labor with a premature child. At one point, Angele pleaded with one of the abortion workers, Violene, to give her something for pain.

She also told Violene that she believed she was about to deliver.

Violene briefly examined her, told her she wasn’t ready, and left again.

Angele went into the bathroom and sat on the toilet. Thinking it would hasten her labor and believing she wouldn’t deliver for some time, she pushed. Angele says, “In one agonizing push, I felt and heard something come out… I just held my head in my hands for a moment.”

She looked down and saw her baby in the toilet.

She began sobbing and lay down on the floor, gripped with intense remorse. She stared at her son, appalled that she’d given birth to him into a toilet.

Rowan Was Born Alive

Then she saw him move. Angele says:

His right leg moved. He curled up a bit like he was cold; I screamed for Violene! No one came. I managed to get to the doorway, pants down, blood everywhere, and yelled again. I went back to my baby. I heard her say she’d be right there.

I showed her Rowan, told her he was alive and moving, and to call 911!

She took a quick look, said he’s not moving now and she’d be back to take care of things while walking out. I called her again. I was touching Rowan softly, and he moved again.

I called her back. Rowan jumped, I think, startled by the loud sound of my calling for help. I showed her that he was moving and alive. I begged her to hurry and call 911, now!

Here is a picture of Rowan that Angele took with her cell phone:

Violene told Angele that she would go get her supervisor. Then she left again. But the minutes ticked by, and Violene didn’t return.

As time passed, it became clear to Angele that Violene wasn’t going to summon help.

A Desperate 911 Call

Angele grabbed her phone and dialed a friend, pleading with her to call 911 and send paramedics to save her baby.

Angele was afraid that if Violene or any of the other employees heard her on the phone with 911, they would force her to hang up and maybe take her phone. At this point, she knew they didn’t want her baby to live.

You can listen to the 911 call here.

Here’s the transcription:

OFD [Orlando Fire Department]: What is the address of the emergency?

Friend: 609 West Virginia Street. The EPOC Center.

OFD: 609: West Virginia? One moment, please.

Friend: … A friend of mine called from the abortion clinic, and her baby was born alive.

OFD: Okay. Do you know the closest intersection? Did she call you on a phone?

Friend: Right, she called me off her cell phone.

OFD: Okay. Did you ask her to call 911? Because …

Friend: She asked me to call because she was back there with no kind of … They were just telling her to leave it … this is gross but … leave it in the toilet, you know, and let it die.

OFD: Is she in a house?

Friend: She’s in the clinic, the abortion clinic.

OFD: Okay.

Friend: Correct. EPOC. Center. Oh my God! I’m freaking out!

OFD: Did she call from a cell phone?

Friend: She called from her cell phone.

OFD: Okay. What did you say? She was having … the baby just came out?

Friend: Right. She was getting an abortion, and the baby came out, and it was still living. And they’re wanting it to die.

OFD: Okay. And she’s inside the clinic?

Friend: Correct.

OFD: Okay. Let me give a call to the county. Hold on. Actually, do not hang up. Just hold on the line, okay?

Friend: Okay.

DISPATCHER CALLS COUNTY

OFD: Hi can you look up a couple of addresses for me. I have a 911 caller on the line with a baby. She’s in an abortion clinic, and the baby is born, and it’s still alive. They don’t know for how long.

OCFR [Orange County Fire and Rescue]: What would we be going for?

OFD: Uh, it would be for an obstetrics. It’s a female that’s in the center, I guess for … it’s an abortion clinic, but the baby was born, and it’s alive at this moment, and they don’t know for how long.

OCFR: Oh!

TRANSFER TO ORLANDO FIRE DEPARTMENT

OFD: Orlando Fire Department.

Friend: I need an ambulance to 609 Virginia Drive in Orlando.

OFD: 609 Virginia Drive?

Friend: Correct.

OFD: Okay, and what’s going on there?

Friend: Uh, it’s the women’s clinic. Uh, my friend was having an abortion, and the baby was born alive.

OFD: Okay, you said the baby was born?

Friend: Correct.

OFD: Okay, hold on one second for me.

Friend: Okay.

OFD: 609 Virginia Drive?

Friend: Correct.

OFD: What’s the business name?

Friend: Uh, EPOC Clinic for Women. E-P-O-C.

OFD: EPOC Clinic for Women? Okay. Is there a phone in the building?

Friend: Yes.

OFD: Okay, can you call me from that or just pick up that phone and dial 911?

Friend: Uh, well I’m not there. She’s there. She called me, and they’re not allowing her to use the phone there.

OFD: Okay.

Friend: But they’re wanting the baby to die.

OFD: She wants the baby to live?

Friend: Correct.

OFD: Okay.

Friend: She was expecting it to not be alive, and it is.

OFD: Okay. I’m going to get help out there.

Friend: Okay.

OFD: Just stay on the line with me.

Friend: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

OFD: Okay the baby’s been born?

Friend: Correct:

OFD: How long ago, do you know?

Friend: Uh, she just called me. It wasn’t 10 minutes ago. And said that the baby was born and it was alive, and they were wanting her to leave it in the toilet. And uh … just let it die. And uh … she’s not wanting that to happen.

OFD: Okay, we do have help on the way like I said. We’re going try and call the center as well as have someone on the way.

Friend: Thank you very much.

OFD: Your welcome.

DISPATCHER CALLS WINTER PARK FIRE DEPARTMENT

OFD: Hi. Can you respond with us to 609 Virginia Drive?

Ambulance: For?

OFD: Uh, this is supposed … This is the EPOC Center E-P-O-C Center for Women. We are going for a lady that is in an abortion clinic. She says that the baby has been born ten minutes ago, but the center wants to kill the baby and will not let the mother call 911.

Ambulance: Woah!

OFD: Uhm hmm! So we have a third party calling because the mother did call 911 … uh …call a family member.

Ambulance: Okay, so we are the way now. Alright. okay.

Alone With Her Aborted Baby

Angele sat alone with her son. No one came in to check on her and Rowan. She says he reacted to her voice as she spoke to him, trying her best to comfort him:

I stayed beside Rowan talking to him, telling him how strong he was being and how proud I was of him. I told him God must really want us to be together for him to make it through everything he had just been through, and that Mommy was so sorry but so happy to have a chance to love him.

I told him he was a strong little miracle and that I couldn’t wait for him to meet his brother and sister. I just kept touching him, trying to warm him with my hands and talking to him so he would not feel any more afraid than he already must.

Finally, Rowan stopped moving.

She cradled him and prayed, filled with remorse for choosing to undergo the abortion. His body started growing called, and Angele realized he was dead.

An abortion worker finally came into the room. The worker demanded she hand over her baby’s body. Angele refused and held on to Rowan.

The worker left briefly, but soon arrived with others. They all pressured her to hand over the body of her dead child.

Officials Turned Away at the Door

Meanwhile, the police (not the paramedics) showed up at the clinic.

It later came to light that the paramedics had arrived, but a clinic worker, thought to be Violene, told them that a patient had merely “passed some tissue” and that “the physician had the situation under control.”

Violene convinced them not to enter the clinic.

There was no doctor at the facility when the police arrived. Angele had given birth alone, with no doctor in the building. In fact, she never saw the doctor at all that terrible day.

Apparently, patients delivering alone and with no medical care was business as usual at the EPOC Center.

Angele overheard Violene tell the police that Rowan hadn’t been born alive.

Angele confronted Violene:

I stared hard at her and said, “Violene, you saw him moving. That is when you were supposedly going to get your manager and ‘take care of it.’

You stayed away until Rowan died. I don’t care what you say, you and I both know he was very much alive. We know the truth.” She said nothing and turned away.

Staff Threw Her and Her Friend Out of the Clinic

The doctor still hadn’t arrived. Angele had been told the doctor would examine her after the abortion to confirm that everything was all right. But the abortion workers seemed to want nothing more than to get her out of the facility as fast as possible.

Angele’s friend had arrived at the facility by this time, and the abortion workers threw them both out of the clinic. Before dismissing her, they gave Angele a bag of medicine, but no instructions on how to take it. And no medical exam of any kind.

They dismissed a woman who had just given birth without even examining her. Anything to get her out of the facility. I wonder if they were afraid she might influence other women coming in to have abortions?

Angele wanted an autopsy to be performed to prove Rowan had been born alive. The local coroner refused to do it.

The Autopsy

Eventually, after pressure from pro-life groups, an autopsy was performed by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jan C. Garavalgia. Unfortunately, she could not determine whether Rowan had been born alive. There was no air in his lungs. Had there been, it would’ve provided a definitive answer.

The autopsy did determine, however, that Rowan was never injected with Digoxin. A careful examination found no needle marks anywhere on the baby’s body. There was no injection site.

Nothing in the autopsy disproved Angele’s story. After all, she never claimed Rowan breathed, cried, or gasped.

Unfortunately, there was also no proof that he’d been born alive.

However, Dr. Garavaglia stated it was “probable” that Rowan’s heart had been beating when he was born. But without solid proof, nothing could be done.

Therefore, no action was ever taken against the abortion facility for Rowan’s death. No one was ever held responsible.

Orlando Women’s Clinic continued to operate until 2018, when the facility lost its license to practice because of multiple botched abortions and failed inspections.

A Heartfelt Letter Full of Remorse

Angele later wrote a letter to Operation Rescue’s Troy Newman in which she said in part:

Thank you very much for your kindness. It is amazing the out pour of kind words and support I am receiving after Rowan’s death.

I wish that I had such a network and support before, I would still be pregnant …I hope that women will see my humiliation and remorse and seek forgiveness if they are post abortive.

I want to do everything in my power to see that this does not happen to other babies or mothers.

I want women in crisis pregnancies to see that whether they are of 6 weeks or 28 weeks gestation, that abortion will haunt them for the rest of their lives. I would like for them to know that no matter how little you want the pregnancy itself, you will want, love and cherish your child…

It is very shameful to step forward and admit publicly that I have been so wrong as to “choose” to take the life of my child. On the other hand, if it will accomplish any or all of the above, then it is my duty, isn’t it?

Angele is deeply sorry for aborting Rowan. She will probably struggle with guilt and grief for the rest of her life. She hopes more than anything to convince other people not to have abortions.

She was brave to come forward and share her story.

I don’t know where Angele is now, but I hope she has found healing.

LifeNews Note: Sarah Terzo covered the abortion issue for over 13 years as a professional journalist. In this capacity, she has written nearly a thousand articles about abortion and read over 850 books on the topic. She has been researching and writing about abortion since attending The College of New Jersey (class of 1997) where she minored in Women’s Studies. This article originally appeared on Sarah Terzo’s Substack. You can read more of her articles here.

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