By Mary Szoch

This week, members of Congress demanded the D.C. medical examiner preserve the bodies of five unborn babies recovered from abortionist Cesare Santangelo’s Washington Surgi-Clinic until autopsies are conducted. The injuries to these babies’ bodies suggest their deaths may have been the result of partial-birth abortions or infanticide. Despite these possible federal crimes, the Justice Department has recommended destruction without autopsies.

While the Biden administration may be colluding with the D.C. government to cover-up this evidence that suggests Santangelo performs illegal partial-birth abortions or commits infanticide, there is other evidence that the government cannot get rid of — a little boy who just celebrated his fourth birthday.

Four years ago, I was connected with a woman from D.C.‘s Department of Human Services who learned of a request for Medicaid funding for an abortion at Washington Surgi-Clinic. The DHS worker said the baby was healthy, and the mom — who was thought to be seven and a half months pregnant — was looking into abortion but had also given permission to quietly look for an adoptive family. The DHS worker asked if I could help. She said she was pro-choice but that what the doctor was going to do wasn’t an abortion. It was murder.

What followed was an overnight effort to find parents willing to adopt the baby. Within hours, five families volunteered.

The next morning, I spoke with the mom considering abortion or adoption. She told me her story of periods of homelessness, abusive relationships, and efforts to get back on her feet. I asked her what she would want for her child if she chose adoption. She said the family didn’t have to be perfect, but she wanted her baby to be safe, to have a bed, and to live in a good school district.

She listened in disbelief as I told her she was an incredible mom and shared about the families willing to welcome her child into their families. She told me she didn’t want to have an abortion but just wanted to go to Santangelo’s abortion clinic for information.

We made plans to meet for lunch after her appointment, but that never happened.

Instead, her caseworker received a text that the mom began the three-day process of later-term abortion.

Thankfully, that isn’t the end of this story.

Legal later-term abortions are a multi-day process where the unborn child is killed prior to delivery. One way to do this is for the abortionist to inject the baby with digoxin (a feticide that stops the heart from beating) — use laminaria (seaweed sticks) to dilate the cervix — and then, days later, deliver a dead baby.

I assumed the doctor began a legal abortion, so as I waited for text updates, I prepared to comfort a mom whose child had been killed.

After hours of trying to locate the mom, the caseworker found her at her apartment in pain. The mom said that Santangelo inserted laminaria to begin the abortion and sent her home. Visibly shaken with regret for her decision and crying in pain, the mom called the clinic to ask what to do if she no longer wanted to abort her child. Santangelo didn’t take her call.

Along with the caseworker and two pro-life women, we met at the nearest hospital where the mom asked the doctors to save her baby.

The first step was to remove the laminaria. The doctor counted as he removed them: 3, 4, 5 … 25. The doctor was horrified. The damage to the mom’s body was catastrophic.

We prayed as doctors worked to save the mom.

Then, weighing in at two pounds, three ounces, a spunky little boy was born. 

We couldn’t understand how this baby could be born alive, until we realized Santangelo hadn’t used the digoxin to kill the baby. His plan was to begin the induction process first and kill the child second.

Today, I have pictures of this beautiful baby who is alive because his mom is a hero and because a pro-choice DHS worker saw the plan to take his life for what it was — murder. 

Had Santangelo’s plan succeeded, this little boy may well have been born alive with the same chubby cheeks, upturned lips, and sweet button nose — except he would have been subjected to the same gruesome violence as the five unborn babies whose bodies were recovered from Santangelo’s abortion business.

Cesare Santangelo must be exposed and stopped. All the D.C. medical examiner needs to do is look — or in the case of the “D.C. Five” — do an autopsy. Basic human decency and justice for the D.C. Five depend on it.

Mary Szoch is the Director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.