On her expected due date.

Judge throws out case, saying that she had a right to cause her own abortion.

What the hell is wrong with people? ON HER DUE DATE.

She said her boyfriend wouldn’t pay for an abortion, so she carried her pregnancy to term.

Then she did the unthinkable.

Prosecutors say that on the morning she was scheduled to give birth, Skinner drove to an auto dealer’s parking lot, took a gun, and shot herself in the belly, killing the fetus in an act of self-abortion. Skinner was charged with carrying out an illegal abortion.

…

If someone else had pulled the trigger, he or she would be criminally accountable. Because it was the pregnant woman herself, no crime was committed, the court ruled.

And, the pro-choice answer for cases such as this:

According to Lynn Paltrow, executive director at Advocates for Pregnant Women, the way to prevent cases like Skinner’s is to provide low-income women easier access to abortions and reproductive health resources.

“The question we shouldn’t be asking is, ‘What crime did she commit?’ But, ‘Why didn’t she have access to abortion services? Why didn’t she have access to mental health services?’” Paltrow said.

“When Medicaid does not fund abortion. … It is totally inappropriate to turn to the criminal justice system to respond to these problems,” she said.

She most likely did have access to abortion, and mental health services. The article clearly states that it was unknown if she had explored such options. I will say that it is unfortunate that Virginia does not have a “safe-haven law” on the books…which allows a mother to drop off a newborn at a specified location without fear of criminal prosecution. However, I have to believe that there were other options available aside from shooting one’s self in the stomach.

Unreal. Or, maybe too real. The logical outcome of our culture’s advocacy of abortion as a form of birth control.

(via Hot Air)

Posted by casey on Monday, October 23rd, 2006 at 4:38 pm.