Search: Raymond Showery and the abortion survivor

Somebody wanted Dr. Showery and abortion survivors. I'm assuming that they're interested in the baby he was convicted of murdering when she survived an abortion, and not in the death of Mickey Apodaca while Showery was out on bail, appealing his conviction. 

Five of Showery's employees testified against him. They said that Showery was performing an abortion in 1979 on a woman who was between five and seven months pregnant. He was performing a hysterotomy, which is basically a C-section, but with the intention of achieving the death of the baby. The baby was a girl, about a foot long, with light brown hair. The child lay curled up in Showery's hand. She was attempting to breathe. Showery held the placenta over her face. She continued breathing. Showery then dropped her into a bucket of water. Bubbles rose to the surface. Showery then retrieved the child from the bucket and put her in a plastic bag which he tied and set aside. The employees reported that the sides of the bag moved as though somebody was breathing inside it. Eventually the bag stopped moving. 

One witness said that he held the bag while Showery put the little girl in it, and that he later put the bag into the freezer where the fetuses were stored. 

Showery was convicted in 1983 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, though the body of the infant was never found and employees could not identify the baby's mother from among the facility's patients. Showery had "been convicted of a felony charge of altering his hospital's records," which hindered the state's attempts to locate the woman. The jury chose to convict him of murder even though they had the option of convicting him of the lesser charge of manslaughter. 

 A news report said that Showery, "his voice breaking and tears filling his eyes," denied all the allegations. "I never killed a baby," Showery said, "and if I'm not telling you the truth, may I die right now." 

Former employees reported that Showery falsified records on all patients over 20 weeks pregnant, saying they were just 20 weeks pregnant, and that such abortions were routine. 

One former employee, Gloria, said she assisted in abortions in which Showery would sedate the patient, dilate the cervix, and pull the fetus out with forceps. "He wanted them in pieces, but a lot of times they would come out whole." Gloria said that she saw signs of life in at least two fetuses aborted this way. 

Another former employee, Belinda, said she looked away as Showery removed a fetus through a hysterotomy incision, and that when she turned back Showery had placed the fetus in a plastic bag in a bucket "and just waited until it stopped moving." She said the fetus squirmed and wiggled for about 10 seconds. 

Former employee Anita said that for late abortions, "He walks in, closes the door, and locks it." She also said Showery instructed them "If you see any movement or anything, you don't see anything, you don't know anything," and that he asked employees to look away when the fetus was extracted. 

A former employee said the fetuses would be put in plastic bags and frozen, that employees did not know what became them but that someone removed them from the freezer. 

An autopsy on a male fetus identified as Baby John Doe #81-01, found among other fetuses in the freezer at Showery's hospital, was inconclusive as to whether he was born live due to decomposition during thawing. The fetus was just over 2 pounds, just over 13 inches long, with sparse dark hair. The autopsy also found meconium, usually found in the intestine of full-term fetuses. 

Showery denied ever performing abortions after 20 weeks, and is quoted as saying, "If that baby takes a breath, that's life. Now the department of vital statistics comes into it and you fill out death certificates. It cried once. It took life. It took breath. It becomes a person. You cannot dispose of it with hospital wastage. It must go to the mortician and et cetera." 

Showery's Family Hospital was not known to have ever filed fetal death certificates. 

Sources: New York Times April 29, 1984; DesMoines Register May 5, 1984; El Paso County Offense Report No. 00-380101; Houston Chronicle June 9, 1985; El Paso Times April 5-8, 1981, September 22, 1983, September 23, 1983; Dallas Morning News April 20, 1984; Dallas Times-Herald September 29, 1983)