By Wendy Anders

Over the past 24 hours, two abandoned fetuses were discovered discarded in public streets in Costa Rica.

Fetal abandonment is a more regular occurrence in Costa Rica than you might think. This year has seen its share of discarded fetuses in Costa Rica, which, Walter Espinoza, Judicial Investigative Agency (OIJ) director, said in a televised press statement today, is one of the “usual tasks” his agency faces.

Espinoza detailed that one of the two recent findings involved a fetus found in a trash can outside the San Juan de Dios Hospital across from the La Merced Park. At around 1:30 this morning, an indigent was rustling through some trash cans, and when they came across the fetus they alerted the police.

The other was found yesterday afternoon in Bajo Piuses de Tibás in San José when local residents were preparing to clear an overgrown area along a street and discovered a strange looking plastic bag leaking blood. They discovered a highly decomposed fetus that police said was virtually impossible to determine the age of due to its advanced state of decay.

Nothing else is currently known about the circumstances surrounding the abandonment of these two fetuses, as the investigations have just begun, said Espinoza.

Other fetuses discovered this year by police include a woman in Ipis de Coronado in San José who police determined had burned her miscarried fetus in an abandoned lot in late March.

Then, widely reported was the woman in early May who deposited her 30-32-week-old newborn in a trash can in the Bancrédito bank office in La Uruca, San José. The newborn was found still breathing inside a plastic bag, and was treated at the National Children’s Hospital. The woman was later arrested.

On June 18, police responded when a man found a green trash bag in his backyard with a 7-8 month gestational age  fetus, and on June 23, a woman found a decomposed fetus with an estimated 8 month gestational age in a trash can in Guacimo, Limón.

In reaction to these gruesome incidents, Costa Rican Legislator Fabricio Alvarado, from the National Restoration Party, initiated a proposal to establish “newborn drop-boxes” such as those existing in England and Germany to avoid newborns being abandoned in public places.

The Costa Rican Child Protection Agency (PANI) said they are studying the proposed initiative, according to Costa Rica’s daily La Prensa Libre.