Outcry in America as pregnant women who lose babies face murder charges

I’ve just seen this shocking article in the Guardian.


guardian.co.uk

Women's rights campaigners see the creeping criminalisation of pregnant women as a new front in the culture wars over abortion.


Woman in America are now being accused of murder, but the crime they have alleged to have committed does not sound like an ordinary killing. They are facing life in prison in over the death of their unborn child.

At least 38 of the 50 states across America have introduced foetal homicide laws that were intended to protect pregnant women and their unborn children from violent attacks by third parties – usually abusive male partners – but are increasingly being turned by renegade prosecutors against the women themselves.


South Carolina was one of the first states to introduce such a foetal homicide law. National Advocates for Pregnant Women has found only one case of a South Carolina man who assaulted a pregnant woman having been charged under its terms, and his conviction was eventually overturned. Yet the group estimates there have been up to 300 women arrested for their actions during pregnancy.


In other states laws designed to protect children against the damaging effects of drugs have similarly been twisted to punish childbearers.