Olympic Boxer Found Guilty of Kidnapping, Killing Girlfriend Who Refused Abortion

31.07.2023 22:11

LifeNews.com

A Puerto Rico jury found former Olympic boxer Felix Verdejo-Sanchez guilty of kidnapping charges Friday after he allegedly killed his pregnant lover and her unborn baby because she refused to have an abortion.

Breitbart reports a witness said Verdejo-Sanchez, 30, tied Keishla Rodriguez Ortiz, 27, to a cement block and then pushed her off a bridge April 29, 2021, killing her and her unborn baby.

The key witness in the trial, Luis Antonio Cádiz said the former boxer paid him to help kill Ortiz after she refused his demands to abort her unborn baby.

Cádiz told the court Verdejo-Sanchez lured the pregnant woman into his vehicle, punched her and injected her with what he believed was heroin, and then together they tied her with wire to a cement block and threw her off the Teodoro Moscoso bridge into the San José Lagoon, according to Fox News.

An autopsy later found fentanyl and xylazine, a sedative for animals, in her body, the report states. A pathologist also testified that Ortiz was alive when she was thrown off the bridge.

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Here’s more from the report:

Cádiz-Martínez said he made an anonymous 911 call days later to provide the location of the body. Cádiz-Martínez, who prosecutors said the former boxer hired to help carry out the premeditated attack, pleaded guilty last year to carjacking resulting in the death of a person and an unborn child and is due to be sentenced in August. …

Verdejo-Sánchez represented Puerto Rico at the 2012 Olympics and became a professional boxer that year.

In an interview with the newspaper El Nuevo Día, Ortiz’s parent said she met Verdejo-Sanchez in middle school and they kept in touch, but he was living with another woman at the time of their daughter’s death.

“May he live the rest of his life thinking about what he did to my daughter,” her father, Tony Rodríguez, told Telemundo Puerto Rico after the verdict.

Verdejo-Sánchez faces a mandatory life sentence. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 3.

“There are damages which cannot ever be repaired, not even by a just verdict,” FBI San Juan special agent Joseph González said in a statement. “In cases such as these, all we can do is give our all in the pursuit of justice. Today, I can say that my team did exactly that, and I am proud of their dedication. I would like to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the amazing work and the jury for their service. We did what we do and justice was served.”

Mothers frequently are forced or coerced to abort their unborn babies, and sometimes their decisions to protect their babies’ lives lead to abuse. A 2022 BBC survey found 15 percent of women of childbearing age in the United Kingdom felt pressured to have abortions that they did not want.

Often the pressure comes from an intimate partner. Another recent study from Lifeway Research found 42 percent of men whose partners had abortions said they either “strongly urged” or “suggested” that she have an abortion. In 2009, research by the Elliot Institute found 64 percent of post-abortive women said they felt pressured to have an abortion, often from a spouse or partner.

Another 2014 study found that forced abortions are common among sex trafficking victims. In “The Health Consequences of Sex Trafficking and Their Implications for Identifying Victims in Healthcare Facilities,” researchers found that 55 percent of sex trafficking victims had at least one abortion, with more than half saying they were forced to abort one or more unborn babies.

Studies also have found high rates of violent abuse among women seeking abortions and pregnant women. Often, abuse also is connected to a mother’s refusal to abort her unborn child.

LifeNews has been keeping track of reports of forced and coerced abortions as well as abuse when women refuse to abort their unborn babies. They include:

New York – Man Accused of Slipping Pregnant Woman Abortion Drugs, Killing Her Unborn Baby

Texas – Man Allegedly Hit Pregnant Girlfriend in Stomach, Hoping to Kill their Unborn Baby (Jezebel)

England – Man Accused of Murdering Dublin Girlfriend Won’t Be Charged with Killing Unborn Child (Sunday World)

Texas – Woman Arrested after Teen Daughter Says Mom Tried to Force Her to Take Abortion Pills

Nigeria – Police: Man Confessed to Strangling Pregnant Girlfriend Because He Wanted an Abortion

Virginia – Parents Sue Abortion Facility, Say Staff Pressured Teenage Daughter to Abort Her Unborn Baby

North Carolina – Man Accused of Brutally Killing Newborn, Fracturing His Skull Because Mom Refused to Have Abortion

England – Man Pushed His Pregnant Girlfriend Down Stairs Because She Refused to Have Abortion (Daily Mail)

Texas – Man Allegedly Spiked His Wife’s Drink to Force Her to Have Abortion

England – Husband Sets Pregnant Wife on Fire Because She Refused to Get Abortion

Virginia – Pregnant Woman Killed Because She Refused to Have Abortion, Navy Lt. Charged

Michigan – Detroit Man Accused of Making Threats, Demanding Pregnant Partner Have an Abortion (Click on Detroit News 4)