Mien condemns dumping of babies
Mien condemns dumping of babies
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi
condemned yesterday the dumping of aborted fetuses and dead
babies.
She accused those involved in the abortions of being inhuman
and immoral, and urged police and related agencies to thoroughly
investigate the case.
The people who conducted the abortions and later dumped the
bodies could be charged under Article 341-349 of the Criminal
Code, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, she
said.
However, Mien acknowledged that the 1992 Health Law No. 23
Article No. 15 allows abortions for certain medical reasons.
"Surely it should not be occurring in such large numbers and
for extramarital reasons," she said.
On Friday, the bodies of 11 babies and fetuses were discovered
in three plastic bags which had been dumped at a garbage site on
Jl. Warakas in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.
Mien reiterated that mothers who have an abortion should be
held responsible for their actions.
She accused the women of being ignorant about their babies.
"They want to find a shortcut by aborting their babies and
they don't care about what the doctors or the clinics do with
their aborted babies."
City police chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata said that police had
questioned three medical personnel in connection with the
dumping.
A nurse and a midwife from North Jakarta, and a forensic
doctor were summoned by police to provide information about the
alleged abortion practices.
Hamami rejected reports Monday which claimed that police had
arrested three doctors from a clinic in Central Jakarta for
allegedly offering abortion services.
"The investigation is still underway and the people who have
been summoned to police stations have not been arrested. They are
being asked to give us information," he said.
A team of forensic doctors from University of Indonesia
confirmed yesterday that the babies had been aborted.
Doctor Djaja S. Atmadja said that one of the dumped babies had
gestated for eight months and its lung condition indicated that
it was born alive.
"But we still can't figure out how it died."
He said the team also found some body parts of four fetuses
aborted between five and eight months gestation; four fetuses of
less than five months gestation, the heads of two fetuses, five
legs and three backbones.
He said that further microscopic testing and probably DNA
profiling would be conducted.
"If the body parts come from different individuals then the
number may be as high as 22."
The plastic bags with the babies and fetuses, also contained
women's clothes and medical instruments believed to have been
used in abortion practices, he said.
There were two catheters, seven sets of laminaria (a kind of
seaweed) and 23 pills used for abortion purposes in final-stage
pregnancies.
"Such abortions can be carried out within 15 minutes, so you
can imagine how many babies a clinic would need to dump if they
had more than 20 clients every day," he said.
A legal clinic in Central Jakarta could abort 60 pregnancies a
day, he said. (04/06/cst)