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Confusion, fear led to failed abortion attempt


LAWRENCE, Mass. —

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 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. The baby 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.

How can she be charged with homicide for actions done before the victim obtained legal personhood?

I smell Bull s**t here.

'Lest we start charging pregnant women with child neglect for smoking during pregnancy, or start jailing them for homicide if their pre-mature infant dies because of smoking/diet related complication.

She had learned nothing about birth control or what to do if she became pregnant again.