John Andrew Welden admitted to giving his girlfriend the abortion drug Cytotec, telling her it was instead amoxicillin for an infection she didn’t really have. Within hours, his girlfriend, Remee Jo Lee, miscarried the 6-week-old embryo that she had already named Memphis.
According to the facts of the case, Welden had forged the name of his father, Dr. Stephen Welden, on a prescription for Cytotec. He took Lee to his father’s medical offices for an ultrasound. The next day, he filed any identifying marks off of the Cytotec, making them look as close to amoxicillin as he could. Welden then admitted to giving Lee the pills, telling her it was for an infection and she needed to take it. He even called her as he drove to work to ensure her compliance.
Unfortunately for her, she did as she was told. Lee miscarried, and said she bled for a month. All she has of the child she had been so eagerly awaiting is a framed ultrasound image. The judge concurred that Lee had an “absolute, constitutional right to decide whether to take that baby to term.”
According to information from interviews with sheriff’s investigators, Welden’s reasons had included having another girlfriend, and being overwhelmed by the notion of having a child when he didn’t intend to marry the mother. In a statement made at his sentencing hearing, Welden voiced a beaten remorse and begged the mercy of the court..
The prosecution had allowed Welden back in September to plead guilty to lesser charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and tampering with a consumer product instead of charging him with murder under the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act”, which would have involved a mandatory life sentence. With the lesser charges, the maximum sentence would have been 15 years.
Welden has now been sentenced to 13 years and eight months in a federal prison (likely a minimum-security work camp) for the crime. He has also been ordered to pay $28,000 in restitution to Lee. Welden will serve three years of probation after his future release.
