USF student accused of killing girlfriend’s unborn child
A USF pre-medical science student is facing first-degree murder charges after tricking his girlfriend into taking pills that resulted in the death of her unborn child.
John Andrew Welden, 28, is being charged by federal prosecutors of intentionally disguising Cytotec pills, a stomach ulcer medication that can be used to induce an abortion, as Amoxicillin and giving them to his girlfriend, Remee Lee, 26, who was six weeks pregnant with the couple’s child.
According to an article in the Tampa Bay Times, Welden forged the signature of his father, an OB/GYN, to obtain the medication, and provided them to Lee, who told civil court judges she wished to keep the baby.
Lee visited Welden’s father earlier to confirm the pregnancy, and though she hadn’t heard from him after, Welden told her his father had prescribed her the antibiotics for an infection.
The Times article stated that Lee told judges that the day before she lost the fetus, Welden asked to take the medication back, but Lee refused.
Welden faces charges up to life in prison for first-degree murder as the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act considers fetuses as having a state of humanhood as victims of crime.— Staff report
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