By Carol Gentry, St. Petersburg Times

Dr. Harold J. Ticktin told state investigators he didn’t know the 16-year-old Tampa girl was so far along in her pregnancy when he began performing her abortion, records show. Ticktin said he stopped the abortion as soon as the age of the fetus became clear.

After a delay of five hours, records say, the pregnant girl was taken by ambulance from the All Women’s Health Center of North Tampa to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. The dead fetus – a girl – was delivered by Caesarean section. The teen-ager remained hospitalized for eight days, but according to the records, she has recovered.

Abortion of a fetus after 24 weeks of pregnancy is a violation of Florida law. The fetus that was aborted weighed 1,065 grams (about 2-1/4 pounds), indicative of 28 weeks’ gestation, the records show. But Dr. Lee R. Miller, associate medical examiner for Hillsborough County, told investigators he couldn’t be absolutely sure of the fetus’ age.