Alabama: pregnant woman shot in stomach is charged in fetus's death
A woman from Alabama who was
shot in the stomach while pregnant – with the bullets killing the fetus – has
been charged with manslaughter. Marshae Jones was
reportedly five months pregnant when she was shot by another woman in December
outside a shop in Pleasant Grove, near Birmingham. On Wednesday, Jones,
27, was indicted by a Jefferson county grand jury on a manslaughter charge and
is expected to be held in Jefferson county jail on a $50,000 bond, while the
woman accused of shooting her walked free, reported AL.com.
The case has raised
alarm among pro-choice groups who say it is shocking evidence of how the
state’s restrictive abortion laws are now being used against pregnant women. “The investigation
showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby,’’ said Lt Danny
Reid of Pleasant Grove police following the shooting, reported AL.com in
December. “It was the mother of the child who initiated and continued the fight
which resulted in the death of her own unborn baby.”
It comes after the
Alabama governor, Kay Ivey ,signed a bill in May banning
abortion in almost every circumstance – including rape and incest – posing a
challenge to Roe
v Wade, the landmark 1973 supreme court judgment that guaranteed abortion
rights across the nation. Alabama is one of 38
states with fetal homicide laws that recognize a fetus as a potential victim... read more: