Pregnant mom to be charged with killing her preborn baby if DUI
Of course, the inconsistencies in American law become glaring in tragedies like this. Say Jessica Bruce had been on her way to abort her baby. Killing her preborn child 15 minutes later under that circumstance would have been perfectly legal, while in this case Bruce faces up to 15 years in prison. Here we see a perfect example why it is only a matter of time before polar opposite laws re: the preborn become impossible to ignore.
According to ABC News, May 13:
A pregnant GA woman, who led police on a high speed chase, will likely be charged in the death of the 24-week-old baby she was carrying.
Police said Jessica Bruce, 21, refused to stop her car Wednesday night when they tried to pull her over for speeding. Bruce fled, struck a car, spun into oncoming traffic and was hit by another car, totaling her vehicle and killing the fetus, authorities said….
Investigators said Bruce, who was clocked by radar driving 85 mph in a 65 mph zone in a suburban neighborhood outside Atlanta, needed to be cut from the wreckage of her car and taken to the hospital. The woman in the 1st car she struck was also taken to the hospital….
Authorities are still awaiting the results of an autopsy performed on the fetus and a toxicology test given to Bruce. They believe Bruce was drunk at the time.
The results of those tests will determine how prosecutors proceed. Based on preliminary information, it is likely Bruce will be charged with “feticide by vehicle,” according to Douglas Co. DA David McDade….
The maximum penalty in GA for vehicular feticide carries a 15-year prison sentence.
McDade said investigators are awaiting the autopsy to determine whether the fetus died as a result of the collision….
“The investigation is ongoing,” McDade said. “An autopsy is being performed on the child and there will almost certainly be criminal responsibility. Under the GA statute it doesn’t matter the age of the child as long as it was alive just prior to the incident.”
24 states recognize the “fetus as a victim” in specially written laws that deal with the death of a fetus in drunk driving cases, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Georgia is exceptional in that it’s the only state with a specific law pertaining to what it calls “feticide by vehicle.”
In several states the age of the fetus at the time of death changes the penalty. 7 states have laws that punish someone deemed responsible for the death of a fetus from the time of its conception.
In other states penalties begin at 7 weeks or 12 weeks.
5 states consider a fetus a person whose death can result in a full-fledged murder charge when in the “quickening state” at 16-18 weeks. Another 3 states charge a suspect with murder only once the fetus is deemed viable, that is at least 28-weeks-old and capable of surviving outside the womb, according to MADD.
Update on the baby’s autopsy, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 13:
Jessica Bruce is in fair condition at Grady Memorial Hospital Thursday. She underwent an emergency C-section Wednesday night after being cut out of her wrecked Pontiac, but the child did not survive, said Douglas Co. Coroner Randy Daniel.
The fetus was transported to the GBI crime lab where an autopsy on Thursday determined the child died from injuries sustained in the crash, Daniel said. The woman was about 6 to 7 months pregnant, he said.
It’s strange that AJC was one of the few news outlets to call the baby a “child” in the headline and in various places throughout the article, which is grammatically acceptable if not politically incorrect, but went on to call the baby a “fetus” after s/he was born, which is absolutely grammatically incorrect.
[HT: reader Jane G.; screen shot via ABC News]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
feticide by vehicle
Now that is a new one. Perhaps this was her preferred method of abortion rather than surgical or chemical. I note that they said she totaled her car and killed her fetus. the most important is totaling her care, I guess. Also they say child and fetus in the same story. Twisted logic..they can’t make up their minds can they?
Words matter and stories like this show the hypocrisy of abortion. She could have legally killed it by another method and called it choice. Stories like this help our side
“Quickening” has got to be the most ridiculous arbitrary (and archaic) line for legislators to draw, considering that mothers in 2nd and subsequent pregnancies report movement earlier because they know what it feels like when their little ones are active. So, my second daughter ‘quickened’ around 14 weeks, and her older sister, later than that.
So, if an autopsy could confirm Ms. Bruce had had the likes of Carhart inject potassium chloride into her child’s heart the day before, no one would be legally responsible for the death. What a schizophrenic society we live in.
Yet another life having valued because it was wanted. Life has value, despite its origins, whether its wanted or not. When will the legislators get it? You can’t have it both ways.
There’s two sides to this story. One side is that thank God, the baby is considered a person and so, worthy of protection by law. The other side is rather gruesome, as this very same child at the very same gestation stage would have had NO right to live and be protected whatsoever if his/her mother DECIDED to kill the baby during abortion…. Sorry, this doesn’t make ANY sense at all for me….
So if she accidentally killed her baby in a car crash – let’s give her 15 years, if she purposely and consciously did it with a help of a doctor – she excercised her right to “choose”….
I think America would definitely benefit from a full-on whole country referendum to decide wether they protect all unborn or let them be killed any way the mother chooses to.
Believe it or not, this accident occured less than 5 min from my house!
I saw the local news coverage about it yesterday, and was surprised when I saw one local article with the headline “Unborn Child Killed After Woman leads police on chase”.
I almost fell outta my chair, and said to my husband: Convienent that it’s an “unborn child” when it’s wanted, and a “fetus” when it’s unwanted.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/23538595/detail.html
Klynn73 you are so right this is schizophrenic and SICK and yes ArkCatholicGirl you cannot have it both ways. God help us. The womb is indeed the most dangerous place for babies, the place that should be the most safe, nurturing and protective place has now become a death chamber if your mother “chooses” to have her cervix dialated, your body dismembered and mutilated with a curette and them have your body suctioned out with powerful vacuum.
Wrong, Ashely.
According to Guttmacher as of May 1, 2010:
“Gestational Limits: 38 states prohibit abortions, generally except when necessary to protect the woman’s life or health, after a specified point in pregnancy, most often fetal viability.”
http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_OAL.pdf
So if 38 states have gestational limits, then 13 (they are including district of columbia) HAVE NO GESTATIONAL LIMITS AT ALL.
Of those states who DO have gestational limits, there are several states who still go beyond 24wks.
Right Kristi, and “women’s health” can be defined as “depression” which makes it completely useless.
“Depression” is considered a “medical” reason and can be claimed by any woman at any gestational age. There is no real protection for babies at any stage of pregnancy.
@ashley
“A medical reason” wouldn’t be too hard to obtain here, I am sure. We’re dealing with a very pregnant woman who is drunk. Her possibly being an alcoholic or mentally ill would likely qualify and also there’s a possibility of FAS or other disability for the child, from having been exposed to alcohol.
Jocelyn, she doesn’t even need a “medical reason” in Georgia. On-demand abortion is legal here for any reason up until the third trimester! We have clinics here that advertise up thru 26wks 6 days for elective abortion.
Ashley,
I felt my baby was a baby from the first moment I had any idea I was pregnant. I practice Natural Family Planning (NFP) so my chart told me several days before I even took a pregnancy test. The EPT pregnancy test confirmed what I already suspected–I was pregnant with a BABY. Termonology and “feelings” don’t change what IS. The baby IS a baby no matter how early in development he or she is.
Just because a woman doesn’t “feel pregnant” doesn’t change that she IS. Feelings come and go, especially when pregnant when emotions run hot and cold.
I knew I was going to have a baby and that abortion wasn’t an option because from the very moment my child was conceived that child was a person. The developments later on just confirmed what I had known from the very start of when I knew I was pregnant. Babies don’t just suddenly become babies magically at some distant time in the pregnancy, they always are babies from the very moment an egg and a sperm join together. What else can they possibly be? We’re all masses of cells and tissues, we all develop and change in how we look and function, but it doesn’t change we are human persons, just like conception and birth don’t change that the fetus is a baby from the very moment that sperm joined with that egg.
I know a lot of women who know they ARE Pregnant and that the feelings have nothing to do with the reality which is a pregnant human woman is pregnant with a human child.
Like I said, a woman’s feelings doesn’t change what is. And what is…is that the pregnancy is a baby from the very moment of conception. Egg + sperm = human baby. That’s what they do, egg + sperm has never equaled anything else. That’s basic biology.
I don’t give a sh!t about toddlers, to be honest. They have very little worth to me. I really don’t believe that a toddler is something to get all worked up about and treat like a full grown person, though.
If you disagree with the above, Ashley, then I suggest you reconsider your logic. Human beings do not grant worthiness to other human beings. Either all have inherent value, or value is arbitrarily determined to benefit the powerful. See also: the Holocaust, Cambodian genocide, Sudanese genocide, slavery.
Which side of human rights history do you want to be on?
Ashley – No swearing allowed. Thanks.
Ashley,
Roe V Wade legalized abortion.
Doe V Bolton allowed abortion through all 9 months of pregnancy.
They were handed down the same day.
I’ve never seen parents mourn a miscarriage at 8 weeks the way they would if their ten-year-old was killed in an accident.
Of course you haven’t seen it, Ashley. Who would come to you for comfort over their loss through miscarriage?
I did mourn my child in exactly the same way I would mourn over my born children, and I know many, many women who have and still remember and grieve over the loss of their babies (less than 16 weeks) years after the fact. Just because you haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.
Grief over miscarriage is most of the time a silent and lonely grief, because women are afraid to share their feelings of extreme pain because of insensitive people like you, Ashley. They feel forced to grieve alone.
I’m sorry that you have not been able to get over your abortion, Ashley. It has to be very difficult.
Ashley, how does your mom know it’s isn’t the same? Has she ever lost a born child?
Also, how does ones feelings about something change reality? There are women who don’t feel anything when their born children die. Does that mean that born children are not human beings? Your logic is arbitrary and illogical.
“I’ve never seen parents mourn a miscarriage at 8 weeks”….
What an insensitive thing to say!!!! Do you even know any parents who lost their babies in miscarriages? I do! My childhood friend experienced two of them… Their first miscarriage happened around 12 weeks (if I’m not mistaken)and they were even able to see the body of the baby. My friend mourned a very long time, she had a depression and needed therapy. I don’t think they had a funeral, though I never asked her that, she’s very sensitive to this topic and we live in different countries. Other of the miscarriages happened at 4 weeks gestation, and you can bet they mourned that baby too! He/she was already part of the family and my friend had to go back to therapy so that things wouldn’t go back to full-blown depression. And I’ve known her for 25 years, she’s such a positive, optimistic, strong person. So, please, Ashley, save your insensitive remarks about people who experienced miscarriages.
Happy to inform that in between the miscarriages they had a healthy and happy baby boy, which they say is the only joy and hope in the sadness they have about their lost babies.
Ashley, were Susan Smith’s children real people?
After all, she took them and drowned them, without feeling any remorse for it, or any grief after their passing.
According to your logic, if they were not grieved over by their mother, they must not be human beings.
Ashley,
YOU might not have seen a woman mourn a child lost to miscarriage, but I have, more than once. I know women who have had more than one miscarriage who have mourned each one with heartfelt grief.
I’ve seen women cry over miscarriage.
I’ve seen at least one woman cry over a miscarriage that took place when she was only 2 weeks along.
I’ve seen women remember the exact dates of the miscarriage and can tell you exactly how old their child would be today if they hadn’t had the miscarriage.
YOU might not have seen this, but I have.
Ashley, I can understand why a friend of yours who has miscarried might not come to you for comfort. If you don’t view embryos as any big deal (since they don’t mean sh*t to you), then why would a grieving woman confide something that personal to you?
Typically, we seek out those who would give us comfort or at least be supportive and sympathetic in a time of loss.
Add me to the list of people who know women who have grieved significantly over an early miscarriage.
“the “embryos are equivalent to toddlers!” argument is stupid and will never work with me. No one–at least not anyone sane–grants as much worth to an embryo as a baby.”
Instead of dismissing the argument offhand, why don’t you make an attempt to dismantel it philosophically. Tell me why an embryo is not equivalent to a toddler.
Beyond human DNA, what makes a human entitled to personhood?
“No one–at least not anyone sane–grants as much worth to an embryo as a baby.”
Ashley, I would grieve the loss of my husband significantly greater than I would the loss of you. However, this does not make him inherantly ‘worth’ more than you.
I miscarried my baby at 8 weeks. I cried for weeks and ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. It’s been three years and I still cry about him. The loss of this child is towards the top of my list of my life’s traumas and I have had quite a few.
I can understand that if you deny the reality of something, it cannot be traumatic for you. Humans are able to severly rationalize traumatic events, including murder.
I am also interested in hearing your response to what Lauren asked of you. Why is an embryo not equivalent to a toddler?
Peace.
Ashley…I knew a girl who took an EPT 5 days before her period was due and it was positive. About a week or so later she started bleeding. The doctor was pretty sure she had had a very early miscarriage but couldn’t confirm it with absolute certainty since it was soooo early. Yet this girl cried and cried and went into a deep depression over a “clump of cells” and yes at this point the baby truly was only a ball of cells but human nonetheless and alive. This had still been HER BABY and she mourned her offspring as such.
I found out I was pregnant via bloodwork. I was 13 days pregnant. The instant love I felt for my son who was a ball of cells was STRONG. If I had lost him I know I would have grieved deeply.
But as someone else pointed out, other people’s emotions towards us do not determine our humanity. My son was human in the womb because he was, not because I “wanted” him. I want a Coach bag for my birthday. Is it now human? Afterall, I want it!
I’m really confused now too, Bethany.
How does a woman, who has felt her child moving within her, go ahead and extinguish its life? Is it because she doesn’t look into her baby’s face?
Why not give the child up for adoption?
And I don’t understand your shock, anyway. Sean has liberals on all the time. Bob Beckel was on with me, who’s a hardcore left-winger and disagrees with me on ALL the economic and national security issues.
“It’s too bad you can’t accept I’m a successful person for my age (24), got on Fox, and am still pro-choice”
Yup, look up the word ‘success’ in the dictionary and there’s Ashley. Oh wait, her pic’s next to the word ‘arrogant’ too. Wow, again you find her beautiful face by the word ‘denial’.
Would it make you feel better about your abortion if you post a picture of your tampon here Ashley?
Hang tight. Maybe your photo holding your tampon will appear next to the words ‘class act’ in the dictionary soon.
Ashley, where did I dispute that you are talented? I think you are a talented writer.
And exactly what would that have to do with anything? The fact that you had to bring that up makes me wonder if you are insecure about yourself.
I can’t help but think that it is very odd that you are so liberal when you write in some places, but conservative when you write in others. Maybe you haven’t figured out who you really are yet?
Ashley, I can understand having internal conflict… I would love to think that one day you would take a stand for life and use your talents to protect babies who can’t speak for themselves.
I can definitely understand about wanting a baby so much… I hope that one day you will be blessed with one, and with a man who will be committed in a relationship with you and who will be supportive when you have a baby. There are some good guys out there…I know sometimes it doesn’t always seem like it, but they are out there.
Please, please Ashley for your sake and your future children’s sake, don’t disregard getting married before you have a baby. Please, please don’t base major life decisions on feelings but on truths.
I don’t know if this could be the case with you but women who have had an abortion often ‘feel’ an urge to have a baby fairly soon after. My friend had an abortion at age 19. She didn’t ‘feel’ ready to have this baby. However just two years later (when she had no more money, had dropped out of college and started drinking and doing drugs) she ‘felt’ ready to have a baby with a divorced man with 5 small children who was 20 years older than herself. I think there is a name for this.
Ashley, please keep reading the comments from the wise people who post here.
A wise person learns from her own mistakes. A wiser person learns from others’ mistakes for there is not enough time to make them all yourself.
” Sometimes I think abortion is horrible and want to be pro-life, other times I want to be strongly pro-choice. Internal conflict? Probably.”
That’s your conscience. Believe it or not many of us were once pro-choice, some even strongly so. For all your protestations, I’m glad to read that you can see the horror of abortion.
Keep praying Ashley and listen to that little voice! The Truth is waiting for you. If your BF treats you well and he is prolife and you love each other, these are very good signs for a healthy marriage. My parents (both prolife) dated for 9 months, married and had my brother 12 months later. They are still very happily married 46 years later. I personally believe that if your BF is totally prolife, he deserves to marry a prolife woman so I pray you will think hard about your mindset. It does end up being a big issue over the years.
I married the father of my first son when he was three. He had pressured me to abort our son but I am thankful I never buckled. I rationalized he would come around and I could change him. Had I been raised differently, I think I might have aborted. I am now married to a prolifer and what a difference! I have found there is a huge difference in the mindsets of prolifers and proaborts.
You will find nothing but love and concern from the prolifers here (although I admit some of us can be a bit sarcastic at times — this is out of frustration at least on my part in trying to get through to others who I believe are in denial in one way or another.)
Peace.
Ashley: I’m 23 (24 in less than a month), and I’ve got “baby cravings” too, although financial/educational circumstances mean that I’m not going to be able to get married until I’m nearly 26. Hang in there. :)
Good morning, former embryos!!!
I have to go make breakfast for my four former embryos now but wanted to hop on to say HAVE A GREAT DAY!!
From Carla, a former embryo
Good morning to Carla and all Former Embryos,
Good day to you too!!! Off to see my former embryo play in his first baseball tournament of the season.
From Praxedes, a potential senior citizen
Ha ha ha! Carla, you are one great former embryo if I may say so!
My son has a t-shirt that says “former embryo” and he gets a lot of comments on it when he wears it. It really makes you stop and think…weren’t we all embryos once? I am glad my mom gave a s**t about me when I was one. Or else I wouldn’t be here and neither would my beautiful little boy.
:) You are one of my fave former embryos, Sydney!!
I love when you say to a proabort that we were all embryos once they say that it would have been fine with them if they had been aborted!! Good thing they weren’t aborted so they could make a statement as freakin stupid as that.
thought this was about jessica and killin her child not about smashing who is right and wrong on how far you can be to have an abortion. jessica is a stupid dope head that needs to get he r life straight and stop gettin pregnant and aborting children anyways and needs to take care of the child she has and stop smoking up the dope and letting her mom raise her child. i hope she does get to go to prison. some one else could have raised that child and loved it you should think about people who cant have children before you go gettin pregnant and killin kids 2x’s a year!