Apologies if this has already been in a diary today...
Purvi Patel, a South Bend Indiana woman, was sentenced to 41 years for feticide and felony neglect of a dependent on March 30, 2015. She is ordered to spend 20 years in prison due to the sentences being served concurrently.
In 2013 Ms. Patel presented to the Emergency Room with heavy vaginal bleeding. Although she denied having been pregnant at first eventually she said that she had had a miscarriage and discarded the fetus in a dumpster.
From RH Reality Check:
In order to support the contradictory charges of feticide and felony neglect of a dependent, the state was required to prove that Patel both âknowingly or intentionallyâ terminated her pregnancy âwith an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus,â and that she neglected a dependent.
A charge of feticide requires a dead fetus, while a charge of neglect of a dependent requires a live birth.
Apparently this isn't the first time an Indiana woman has been prosecuted under that state's feticide laws, which exist in several states, but are (ostensibly) intended to prosecute those performing illegal abortions or those that harm a pregnant woman and cause her to lose the fetus.
Again from RH Reality check:
Patel is the second pregnant person in Indiana to be charged under Indianaâs feticide law, and the first person to be charged, convicted, and sentenced for the crime of feticide in the United States. Another Indiana woman, Bei Bei Shuai, was charged for the crime of feticide after she attempted to commit suicide when she was eight months pregnant.
Shuai survived, but her daughter did not. The feticide charge against Shuai was ultimately dropped after Shuai accepted a plea deal of criminal recklessness, a Class D misdemeanor.
I read The Handmaid's Tale recently. This is some seriously scary stuff happening in this country.
And Indiana, glad my brother moved away so I don't have any reason to travel there.
[http://rhrealitycheck.org/...] Link to RH Reality Check article