Indiana Woman Sentenced To 20 Years Under Feticide Law

[moonbladem]

Comments

[frelling_tralk]

I'm not totally clear on the case here and how far along the pregnancy was, but surely carrying a baby to (almost?) full-term and then discarding the body in the trash, is very different to criminalising abortion

[ayashi]

In other articles I've read it says the baby/fetus was around 24-28 weeks along. There's also some debate over whether the baby was born alive since apparently one of the tests they used to prove the baby was born alive has been discredited (lung float test)? I don't know much about that though.

[maladaptive]

The lung float test is about as valid as testing whether a witch floats.

[givinguponyou]

I'm all for abortion as an option. Throwing your still alive with a chance of survival baby in the trash, though? Totally unacceptable. She could've left that baby at a hospital, church, anything but thrown it away. I actually feel like crap like this gives abortion an even worse rap.

[mimblexwimble]

She had a miscarriage. They had zero evidence that she induced abortion.

[givinguponyou]

A miscarriage happens before the baby is viable. This says she delivered prematurely. I would need more specifics to form an opinion but if she was 24+ weeks along, she should have gotten help. Even if she didn't want the baby, and could have turned it over instead of throwing it in the trash.

[omimouse]

24 weeks does not = viable. It does not, it does not, IT FUCKING DOES NOT = VIABLE.

(I'm beginning to think the universe saves this shit up to start dumping around the annivesary of my failed-at-26-weeks-pregnancy for some fucked up reason, because so far we're at five years, and haven't had it not happen for any of them.)

[ginger_maya]

This article is an absolute mess. It does not specify how far along she was, whether she was trying to induce a birth or give herself an abortion or whether the fetus - baby? - was born alive and then thrown out in the trash.

It's one thing to criminalize abortion, completely another to complain about prosecuting someone who threw out a live baby in the trash.

[frelling_tralk]

Right, it's confusing because it talks about her being penalised for inducing an abortion, but also talks about her giving birth prematurely to a live baby and not seeking medical help for it. Surely she shouldn't be prosecuted under an abortion law if the baby was carried to full-term and born alive?

[moonshaz]

I agree so much. Reading this article, I have no bloody idea what happened with this woman or her baby. I went looking for information and found this, which explains things a little better. However, even that article says the precise truth about Patel’s pregnancy, or whether or not she did something that caused the fetus to be born prematurely is still unknown

[maladaptive]

What, you think two mutually exclusive charges is fishy, or something? Pffft, nonsense.