Abortionist completes late-term abortion in hotel room, takes baby in ‘bag’ back to facility

A late-term abortion procedure committed on a nearly 23-week-old preborn baby ended with abortionist Shelley Sella delivering the infant inside a hotel room shortly after the procedure began, then transporting the baby in a “bag” back to the abortion facility. The horrific details were unearthed in a court deposition in the rape case of Eric Jerome Lacy,  and were made public by Jamie Jeffries, owner of the blog ProLifeWife.

Sella works for notorious late-term abortionist Curtis Boyd at Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the victim was taken, according to the deposition passed on to Live Action News by Jeffries. SWO commits multi-day late-term abortions, noting on its website that it offers “no overnight accommodations,” but claims “[s]everal hotels in the area offer discounted rates for a medical stay….”

Lacy was arrested in 2018 after Arkansas officials discovered that he impregnated his 12-year-old step daughter and attempted to force her to abort the baby. According to Eldorado News, “The assault was discovered when the child’s mother learned she was pregnant. The woman had sought medical attention for the pre-teen, who had reportedly complained of stomach pains for about a month.”

Court documents surrounding the case indicated that the abuse began at the end of 2017, and due to threats, the child did not tell her mother. After forcing the victim to take a home pregnancy test, Lacy made the victim “drink wine in an effort to cause her to lose the baby,” because he “need to knock it out of her,” the document states. But, his efforts failed and the pregnancy was later discovered after the child began to complain about stomach pains and was taken to the doctor. According to the document, when medicine did not help the victim, her mother returned and that doctor scheduled an ultrasound at the hospital.  On March 22, 2018, the ultrasound confirmed that the child was estimated to be approximately 23 weeks and 4 days pregnant. Authorities were immediately notified and an abortion was scheduled by the mother for March 27, 2018.

Enter late-term abortionist and SWO medical director Shelley Sella, licensed to practice in California, New Mexico, and Texas. SWO employees roughly fifteen staffers. Sella admitted in her deposition to committing “tens of thousands” of abortions. Sella was questioned by Carla Gibson, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney representing the State of Arkansas, and stated that the victim and her mother consented to the second trimester D&E abortion procedure. The baby was estimated to be 22 weeks 4 days, according to Sella’s ultrasound, which differs slightly from the hospital ultrasound previously mentioned.

“So, following the consents and, again, we spoke with her privately, and with her mother, then I began the procedure for her that involved an injection of Digoxin into the fetus to cause demise, and insertion of laminaria, which are dilators that are placed in the cervix, the bottom part of the uterus, to help it open overnight,” Sella stated. “Following those procedures, she was taken to the recovery room. And, after that, she left with her mother. I don’t know who else was with her, but she left to go back to her hotel where she was staying.”

Sella was then asked to describe the type of procedure the child would undergo, and replied, “For her, because the pregnancy was further advanced, it would involve preparing the cervix, and the next day, proceeding with extracting the pregnancy with instruments. That’s known as a D&E, dilation and evacuation.” This gruesome dismemberment procedure is described in the video below by former abortionist Anthony Levatino:

2nd Trimester Surgical Abortion: Dilation and Evacuation (D & E)

Baby delivered (aborted) inside hotel room

Sometime in the evening, Sella said the clinic got a call that the victim was in active labor at the hotel.

“Either her mother, or another person who was with her, called our on-call person; we have someone on call 24 hours a day, a phone counselor, and said that she was in labor. I was, then, called and I went to see her at the hotel…. She was in active labor. She was in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet…. So, what I did was I cut the cord, and I placed it in a bag,” Sella stated.

Sella confirmed that she brought the “bag” with her.

Nothing in the deposition indicated whether the baby was delivered dead or alive.

“I brought [victim’s name redacted by Live Action News] and her mother, and maybe another person, I really don’t remember that, with the pregnancy, with the fetus, we went to the clinic, and there I was met by a counselor… the counselor was with her when we went to the procedure room for the next step, which was removing the placenta. The placenta had not been expelled in the hotel…. I labeled the bag. I placed her initials and the date and the gender of the fetus, and I placed it across the bag, including my initials and the date… then, placed in the refrigerator.”

Sella’s notes showed this took place on March 27th at 8:15 p.m.

“I was in attendance for delivery, extraction of placenta — delivery, comma, extraction of placenta. I was the only one to have contact with POCs — that is products of conception — until I placed them in a bag in the refrigerator after labeling bag with patient’s initials, date, gender of fetus. Tape placed across bag with my initials SS, date — comma, date…. So, after the placenta, then I did a D&C, which is just removing any excess fluid from the  uterus, making sure — and then assessing her bleeding, making sure she’s not bleeding too much, and, then, taking her to the recovery room.”

“The way it [ the baby] came out was breech,” Sella added.

Sella is one of a handful of late-term abortion providers in the country and she previously worked for the late George Tiller in Kansas. Tiller also had arrangements with local hotel operators where he would send pregnant patients while they awaited the completion of their abortions. In Live Action’s 2013 undercover investigation, (see video below) SWO staffers can be heard instructing the undercover investigator that if she goes into labor while at the hotel, she should “unlock the door to the hotel room – get your cell phone and just sit on the toilet.”

Inhuman: Undercover in America's Late-Term Abortion Industry - New Mexico

In 2019, a jury found Lacy guilty of rape. He was sentenced to 50 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

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