Woman charged with Feticide in Indiana

[Mermaid]

I thought this was an April Fool's joke. This shit should NOT happen. Ever.


http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/indiana-has-now-charged-two-asian-american-women-feticide-n332761?cid=par-aff-newsweek-wdiv_20150331

On Monday, the state of Indiana sentenced 33-year-old Purvi Patel to 20 years in prison on charges of feticide - an act that causes the death of a fetus - and neglect of a dependent. She received a 30-year-sentence on the felony neglect charge, 10 of which were suspended. A six-year sentence for feticide will be served concurrently.

Patel is the first woman in the U.S. to be charged, convicted and sentenced on a feticide charge. Reproductive rights activists are outraged.

"What this conviction means is that anti-abortion laws will be used to punish pregnant woman," says Lynn Paltrow, Executive Director for National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Patel was arrested in July 2013 after she went to the emergency room, bleeding heavily, at St. Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, Indiana. Despite initially denying the pregnancy, Patel eventually admitted to medical authorities that she had a miscarriage and threw the stillborn fetus in a dumpster.

According to Sue Ellen Braunlin, doctor and co-president of the Indiana Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice, Purvi was most likely 23-24 weeks pregnant, although prosecutors argued Patel was 25 weeks along in the state's opening argument. The prosecution confirmed on Monday that the baby died within seconds of being born.
Patel's lawyers argued that she panicked when she realized she was in labor. Patel comes from a conservative Hindu family that looks down on sex outside marriage, and the pregnancy was a result of an affair Patel had with her co-worker.

"Purvi Patel's conviction amounts to punishment for having a miscarriage and then seeking medical care, something that no woman should worry would lead to jail time," said Deepa Iyer, Activist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland's Asian American Studies Program and former director of South Asian Americans Leading Together.

Despite Patel's claim that she gave birth to a stillborn child, prosecutors argued that Patel gave birth to a live fetus and charged her with child neglect. Prosecutors also claimed that Patel ordered abortion-inducing drugs online and tried to terminate her pregnancy, but a toxicology report failed to find evidence of any drugs in her system. Patel is the first woman to be sentenced under Indiana's feticide laws but she isn't the first woman to be charged. In 2011, Bei Bei Shuai, a Chinese American-woman, was held in prison for a year before feticide charges against her were dropped as part of a plea deal. Shuai was reportedly suffering from depression and tried to commit suicide while pregnant. She survived, but the fetus did not.

"Instead of receiving the medical support and counseling [Shuai] so desperately needed, the state charged her with murder and attempted feticide," said Iyer.

Iyer says that the fact that the only two women charged with infanticide are Asian American is important to note because women of color often lack access to basic health care, counseling, and other reproductive health resources.

"Immigrant women of color, such as Bei Bei and Purvi, remain vulnerable to the exploitation of laws like these in a myriad of ways, as we have seen in how they have been treated by the state of Indiana," said Iyer. "The cultural issues that the prosecution decided to drag into this case reflect stereotypes about Asian-American women and reproductive health which may not necessarily be true in this case."
The Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law's 2013 study on arrests and forced interventions on pregnant women in the U.S. found that approximately 71 percent were low-income women and 59 percent were women of color.
"For these women, the additional fear of arrest may altogether prevent them from seeking critical and necessary physical or mental health care during their pregnancy," said Miriam Yeung, Executive Director of National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

Yeung believes that the Asian-American community needs to be more intentional and open about having conversations around reproductive and mental health. Asian-American youth, says Yeung, report the strongest amount of stigma around sex and reproductive health of any group. Asian-American women also have one of the highest suicide rates in the country.

"We know that our community is very progressive on the issue of abortion. 78% of AAPIs [Asian American Pacific Islanders] believe in some form of legal abortion," said Yeung. "However, despite our supportive values, we are not openly discussing reproductive health. As a community, we need to begin taking steps to de-stigmatize reproductive health and mental illness and integrate care and service around these issues into routine medical care."

[Aletheia]

Leave it to a Christian influenced government to think senseless torture is the answer to complicated problems.

[Mermaid]

This is a very real example if the Christian right doing terrible harm to the people. This is such an outrageous story, I can't believe it's real.

[Munch]

Wow.. Indianas just fucked. And I thought Texas was bad..

[Johan]

What would jesus do? He would have the bitch arrested and thrown in prison apparently. I fucking hate people.

[SGOS]

Living under the boot of Christian oppression.

[Munch]

Living under the boot of Christian oppression.

Oh now just remember, Christians are an oppressed group, their beliefs held at ransom by the evil atheists and gays and minorities.

[stromboli]

Now you know where personhood laws lead to. I don't know if these laws have been challenged in the higher courts, but they certainly should be.

[Aletheia]

Wow.. Indianas just fucked. And I thought Texas was bad..

Um... you can still get an abortion in Texas, it's harder to find the clinics and you'll probably have to drive at least 100 miles if you're in a rural area. Furthermore, a woman can get an abortion and I've never heard of anyone serving jail time for it. However, I do remember a case in Dallas where a guy was randomly shooting his gun and shot a pregnant woman in the belly. I believe he was charged with murder for that.

We still have the abortion clinics periodically shot at, but such things are not legally sanctioned.

[Hijiri Byakuren]

None of this has anything to do with Christianity, of course.

[Munch]

Um... you can still get an abortion in Texas, it's harder to find the clinics and you'll probably have to drive at least 100 miles if you're in a rural area. Furthermore, a woman can get an abortion and I've never heard of anyone serving jail time for it. However, I do remember a case in Dallas where a guy was randomly shooting his gun and shot a pregnant woman in the belly. I believe he was charged with murder for that.

We still have the abortion clinics periodically shot at, but such things are not legally sanctioned.

thats.. why I said 'and I thought Texas was bad', meaning I thought Texas was backwards, which it is, but no way near as backwards as Indiana?

[Aletheia]

thats.. why I said 'and I thought Texas was bad', meaning I thought Texas was backwards, which it is, but no way near as backwards as Indiana?

I understand - just didn't want the hear another "Texas is cousin-fucking, ass-backwards theocracy" because Indiana's dumb shit stirred up a reminder about Texas. It just reminds me that I'm still stuck here and surrounded by other states of similar stupidity. I'm an atheist, I'm bisexual, I'm female, and I'm low-income... none of which bodes well when you're in Texas.

[Munch]

well just to make it clear, if I say a state, or country is shit, and the people in those states or countries are  backwards, I'm not applying that to people who are intelligent, progressive and with the times, as they are the exception.

[Aletheia]

well just to make it clear, if I say a state, or country is shit, and the people in those states or countries are  backwards, I'm not applying that to people who are intelligent, progressive and with the times, as they are the exception.

Meh... I wouldn't worry about it. Stress in real life has been getting to me lately and has been influencing my posts.

[Solomon Zorn]

The local news (CBS affiliate) portrays her as throwing a newborn into a dumpster. That's the first I heard that it was 11 to 12 weeks premature. Which brings up a problem in Indiana: we don't get all the facts.