Worker finds deceased 27-week baby inside San Diego porta-potty

A baby was found dead in a porta-potty on Monday in San Diego, California, and police are attempting to locate the baby's parents.

Key Takeaways:

• The body of a baby boy estimated to be 27 weeks gestation was found in a San Diego porta-potty by a sanitary worker in the tank among the human waste.

• Police detectives from the homicide unit are investigating the case, and an autopsy is being carried out to determine if the baby was born alive.

• Unhoused individuals who live in the parking lot near the porta-potty held a memorial for the baby boy.

The Details:

According to 10 News, a sanitary worker with Diamond Environmental Services was cleaning portable bathrooms on Monday at 1:30 in the afternoon on Mission Bay in San Diego when the worker found a baby boy inside a tank among the human waste.

Detective Christopher Leahy from the San Diego Police Department's Homicide Unit said the baby boy was about 27 weeks gestation at the time of his birth, which means he would have been old enough to survive outside the womb. Babies born as young as 21 weeks have survived with medical assistance.

"We don't know how it happened, so we don't know if the mother intended to discard the child, but we're hoping to identify who the mother is and have a conversation with her," Leahy said.

CCTV camera footage is being reviewed and witnesses are being gathered. The baby is also undergoing an autopsy to determine if he was born alive. The results of the autopsy will ultimately determine what charges the person or persons who left the baby will face. Those charges could range from improper disposal of a body to homicide.

California law generally requires the remains of stillborn babies after 20 weeks to be buried or cremated.

Cynthia Green, who has been living in the parking lot, used what little money she had to buy flowers, balloons, and a card in memory of the baby boy. She said she is guarding the bathroom:

"He's an angel. That baby could've grown up to be anything in the world. I'm protecting this bathroom because no one should be allowed to go into this bathroom and disrespect this baby that was left here."

Memorial grows in Mission Bay for infant who died after being discovered inside portable restroom

The memorial started by Green grew and individuals gathered to pray for the family. One man told CBS 8 San Diego, "It hurts deeply and down deep inside you feel the pain, and I just hope whoever did this, they found the person, they hold them responsible and the person can get help if they need it."

Leahy noted that California, like every state, has a safe haven law that allows parents to anonymously surrender an infant within a certain amount of time at a designated safe haven location. In California, an infant 30 days old or younger can be surrendered at a fire station or hospital, no questions asked and without fear of prosecution.

The Bottom Line:

CBS called the situation "tragic" — yet in California, babies can be aborted at this baby's same gestational age of 27 weeks, and even up until 40 weeks. After 22 weeks, an abortion is typically carried out using the induction method; the abortionist injects the child with a drug to cause the baby to go into cardiac arrest (often, this is the drug digoxin, a cardiac medication used off-label). Labor is then induced and the mother gives birth to a stillborn baby.

However, after the Biden administration lifted safeguards on the abortion pill, individuals have been able to easily access abortion drugs online with zero medical oversight — even including predatory men. While the abortion pill is FDA-approved through 10 weeks gestation, women can order the drugs and take the pills well beyond that due to the "no-test" abortion pill protocol, increasing both the physical risks to the mother (incomplete abortion, hemorrhage, and infection) as well as the risks of the baby being born alive and then abandoned.