Atlanta sources have stated that the Indiana Court of Appeals has overturned the feticide conviction of Purvi Patel who was found guilty last year of killing her premature infant by taking abortion-inducing drugs and however the court has upheld a lower-level felony neglect of a dependent conviction, according to Associated Press. That carries a maximum prison sentence of three years.
A suburb of south bend has stated that Purvi Patel was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2015, two years after her self-induced abortion at her family’s home. The appeals court ruled that the state Legislature didn’t intend for the feticide law to be used to prosecute women for their own abortions and Patel comes from a family of Indian immigrants who settled in Granger, Indiana.
Meanwhile the state’s explanation took the interpretation of the feticide law to an even further extreme as prosecutor Ken Cotter argued, a person can be guilty of feticide even if the fetus in question survives, as long as a deliberate attempt was made to terminate the pregnancy with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus.
Chinese immigrant Bei Bei Shuai faced feticide charges two years ago in the state, and both cases highlight an emerging “gray area” for pregnant women within the US legal system.
