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Thursday, October 19, 2006

Judge Dismisses Charges Against Woman Who Shot Her Baby

Back in May I posted a story about a woman who, because she allegedly could not afford an abortion, shot herself in the stomach on her due date in order to kill her unborn child so that she would not have to raise it.  At that time a judge had dismissed the criminal case against her because a woman cannot be found guilty of killing her own unborn child because she has a right to an abortion (the law against late-term abortions in Virgina, where this took place, was overturned by the courts previously).

The state appealed the case, and today we learn that a circuit appeals judge has affirmed the lower court’s ruling stating that this woman cannot be held responsible for murdering her unborn child on her due date.

The reasoning behind all of this astounds me.

Let me first point out that the fact that had someone else aside killed this woman’s unborn child against her wishes they would be found guilty of murder.  Yet, because in this instance the mother decided that her child should die there is no crime.  Which makes absolutely no sense.  Why should an unborn child’s status, and thus its constitutionally protected right to live as per the 5th amendment, hinge upon the mother’s opinion as to whether or not she wants the child?  Why, under current law, is an unborn child a life worth protecting only if a mother thinks it is worth protecting?

And what’s the difference between an unborn baby in the womb on its due date and a baby that has been born?  If this woman had killed her child after it emerged from her womb she would undoubtedly be held as a murderer, but because she shot the child while it was still in her womb she’s guilty of no crime?

This is absolute lunacy.

The truth of the matter is this: Life begins at conception.  Trying to draw a line at any point after conception and saying “before this point there is no life, after this point there is life” is just an exercise in futility.  Once a child is conceived it begins to develop and change, a process that lasts well into adulthood.  Drawing a “life/no life” line in between two points of the child’s development in the womb is every bit as absurd as trying to draw it in between the child’s learning to crawl and learning to walk.

To be quite honest with you, I expect this woman’s case to be a pretty massive blow to the pro-abortion crowd.  I just can’t imagine that Americans won’t recoil in horror at the legal freak show legalized has brought to.

Comments

Avatar for Mickey

Tens of thousands of good people would be willing to addopt that child.

She’s dirt.

Mickey on October 19, 2006 at 01:52 pm

dd: So, every child born is the mother’s sole responsibility, then.  Fathers have no rights, just obligations.


If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

robert108 on October 19, 2006 at 02:42 pm

The father has no rights, just obligations and the people have no right to balance the rights thru the political process.

Irrational and unjust.


What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.


The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on October 19, 2006 at 02:46 pm

If you have no say in whether or not your child is born, the rest is just BS.


If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

robert108 on October 19, 2006 at 03:12 pm

That makes me sick.

Zsa Zsa on October 19, 2006 at 04:26 pm

This whole thing is insane. How can this not be murder? How is afull term baby not a human being. and...maybe someone can answer this...aren’t there laws in some states where the mother can be prosecuted for endangering a fetus if she uses drugs or serious alcohol while she’s pregnant? If someone could be prosecuted for that, then how is this not murder?


Election ‘08 - We Are So Screwed

Pilgrim on October 19, 2006 at 04:38 pm
Avatar for Anarchist Vegan: The Final Insult

What do you have to do to get committed to a mental hospital these days? I would have thought shooting yourself in the belly to kill an unborn child would easily be enough.

Should have used a bigger gun.


What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.


The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on October 19, 2006 at 05:09 pm
Avatar for LoadTheMule

I don’t understand why y’all don’t get it.  The phrase “woman’s right to choose” must be taken literally, because that’s what it means.  She gets to choose the definition and status of whatever-it-is that’s growing within her womb--and she gets to make that choice on an arbitrary and frequent basis…

If she chooses to carry it to term and does so, it was and is a baby…

If she chooses to have an abortion and does so, it was just a mass of cells (no matter how fully developed)…

If she chooses to carry it to term for part of its gestation period then changes her mind and has an abortion, it was a baby while she ‘wanted’ it and became just a mass of cells when she decided to abort it instead…

This phenomenon sets up a very unique situation.  The woman has the singular, total and irrevocable right to determine the status of the unborn whatever-it-is to the exclusion of anyone else.

At any point in the gestation she can choose to classify it as a baby or just a mass of cells.  She can decide to keep it or void it from her body with no responsibility or penalty in either case.  She can do this right up until the time the whatever-it-is is 4/5’s of the way out of her womb in what will be called “birth” if she chooses to keep it as a baby or “partial birth abortion” if she chooses to void whatever-it-is from her body.  Therefore:

If she shoots herself in the belly then tells the judge she wanted to keep the baby, at that point she could be charged with a felony…

If you shoot her in the belly, whether you are a criminal is determined by her definition of the status of the whetever-it-is.  If she says it’s a baby, you’re screwed.  But if she says it’s just a mass of cells she was gonna get rid of anyway you’re home free because you were just helping her to abort it…

Male sperm donors (they aren’t “fathers” unless and until the female decides she has a “baby” inside her) have no rights relative to determining the status of whatever-it-is.  No rights--none, period.  If the woman decides it’s a baby, then you become the “father” with definite responsibilities and some rights (which vary from state to state).  If she decides to abort the mass of cells, you have no rights because there’s nothing over which TO have rights.  Baby?  What baby?  There’s no baby here…

Finally, it’s true that post-delivery a woman can be charged with having abused the baby thru the use of drugs/alcohol/etc during her pregnancy.  But that is only after delivery.  The act of delivery was the woman’s way of deciding that the whatever-it-was was a baby.  Hence she has retrospective responsibilites for it’s care and good health.  Had she opted instead for a partial birth abortion it wouldn’t matter how irresponsibly she had acted in terms of drug/alcohol use.

In other words boys and girls, “right to choose” means exactly that--absolute right.  See how simple that is?

And don’t you forget it.

Regards…

LoadTheMule on October 19, 2006 at 08:41 pm
Rob
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In other words boys and girls, “right to choose” means exactly that--absolute right.  See how simple that is?

I understand that the courts have ruled that women have an absolute right to choose whether or not their unborn children are actual babies or just meaningless clumps of cells, but that’s only good in the abstract.

In the real world an unborn child, on its due date, is not a clump of cells simply because the mother doesn’t want it...and no tortured interpretation of abortion rights in the constitution is going to change that.


When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

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Rob on October 19, 2006 at 08:50 pm
Avatar for LoadTheMule

In the real world an unborn child, on its due date, is not a clump of cells simply because the mother doesn’t want it...and no tortured interpretation of abortion rights in the constitution is going to change that.

Which simply points out the absurdity of the entire issue.  I am constantly amazed by any Right to Choose Advocate’s attempt to keep a straight face while trying to rationalize how the “abortion” dichotomies make sense.  The advocates can’t because the dichotomies don’t.  The longer I let them talk, the more convoluted and tortured their logic becomes.  How pathetic.

Regards…

LoadTheMule on October 19, 2006 at 09:12 pm

And what’s the difference between an unborn baby in the womb on its due date and a baby that has been born?

There is none, which makes our “outrage” against infanticide so inane (especially among those in theso-called “pro-choice” crowd).
Dave_Comet on October 19, 2006 at 09:16 pm

Murdering a child inside the womb or outside the womb is still murder either way you look at it!

Zsa Zsa on October 20, 2006 at 12:44 pm
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