Ex-doctor who drowned fetus paroled

Man who ran El Paso abortion clinic was convicted of murder in '83

By Associated Press
Published July 21, 1989

EL PASO -- A former doctor who drowned a fetus shortly after delivering it during an abortion was released on parole Thursday after spending five years in prison.

Raymond Showery, 61, was released about 1:30 p.m. from the Walls Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in Huntsville, spokeswoman Dana Hudgins said. He is to report to the parole board upon arriving in El Paso, where he will live with his son, Roger, said parole officer Jim Yates.

He will be under the supervision of a parole officer until April 1999, according to records.

Mr. Showery, who ran an abortion clinic on El Paso's predominantly Hispanic South Side, was convicted in 1983 of delivering a fetus during a July 1979 abortion attempt, then drowning her and disposing of the body. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Employees of the abortion clinic testified at the trial that Mr. Showery delivered the 5- or 6-month-old female fetus by a procedure similar to a Caesarean section. Witnesses said the baby was breathing, so Mr. Showery tried smothering her with her placenta, then immersed her in a bucket of water. They said they saw the baby kick and bubbles escaping from her mouth.

The body was never found, and neither was the mother. The murder conviction without a corpse was believed to the nation's first against a doctor.

Records of the abortion were never recovered, and Mr. Showery insisted that it never took place.

While Mr. Showery was free on appeal bond in the murder case in 1984, a woman named Mikey Apodaca bled to death during an abortion at his clinic. He was charged with involuntary man-slaughter, but the charges later were dropped.

Authorities revoked his appeal bond after the woman's death, and he has remained in the El Paso County Jail or the Texas Department of Corrections since.

The Texas Board of Medical Examiners revoked Mr. Showery's medical license after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the murder conviction.