New York abortionist Robert Rho was sentenced to prison upon pleading guilty last month to criminal negligent homicide in the death of a woman after a botched late-term abortion.
Rho, a 55-year-old abortionist from Great Neck, New York, in Long Island, was sentenced Tuesday to serve 15 months to four years in state prison, reports the Associated Press. He admitted that when he performed an abortion on Jaime Lee Morales, 30, in 2016, he severed her uterine aorta, tore her cervix, and perforated her uterine wall.
As pro-life organization Operation Rescue observes, Jeff Lichtman, Rho’s attorney, said his client has been an abortionist for 23 years and has performed about 40,000 abortions.
“But Rho was known to cut corners on abortion procedures to save time and money,” states the pro-life watchdog group, noting the abortionist had performed an abortion on Morales at 26 weeks in just one day, rather than the recommended two- to three-day period.
“Instead of calling an ambulance for his hemorrhaging patient, he cinched her cervix closed to conceal the internal bleeding,” Operation Rescue reports. “Despite her drifting in and out of consciousness due to blood loss, Rho released Morales from his abortion facility. She died just hours later.”
Rho had accepted a previously offered plea bargain and admitted his guilt just moments before a Queens, New York, jury would have announced its verdict in a three-week trial.
The Associated Press reported Assistant District Attorney Brad Leventhal said Rho’s errors during the abortion procedure were beyond civil malpractice:
During the operation, Rho severed Morales’ uterine aorta, ripped her cervix and pierced her uterine wall. Profuse post-operative bleeding forced the doctor to perform another procedure, but that did not fix the damage, prosecutors said.
Rather than call an ambulance, prosecutors said, Rho sent Morales home with her sister, despite signs she was in grave condition, because he wanted to get back to seeing other patients.
“It’s about greed and arrogance,” Leventhal said. “Jaime Morales bled to death because this defendant did nothing.”
“We are very glad that Rho is going to prison,” said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman. “We pray he serves the full four years, but even that is a short amount of time to pay for taking Jaime Morales’ life. We wish it could have been more, especially since he remained unremorseful and arrogant throughout the trial.”