Indian- American woman’s prison sentence sparks debate over laws
For the foeticide charge, she was sentenced to 6 years in prison to run concurrently with neglect of a dependent sentence
Washington, April 2: The stiff 30- year prison sentence for an IndianAmerican woman for female foeticide and child maltreatment has sparked a debate in the US on how prosecutors are using laws designed to protect expecting mothers to criminalise women for terminating a pregnancy.
Purvi Patel, 33, was sentenced on Monday on the neglect of a dependent charge to 30 years in prison with 20 years executed, 10 suspended. She will also serve five years probation. For the foeticide charge, she was sentenced to 6 years in prison, to run concurrent- ly with her neglect of a dependent sentence, ABC News reported.
Reproductive rights activists believe the sentencing of Patel, who lives in Indiana, highlights how US prosecutors are using laws designed to protect expecting mothers to criminalise women for terminating a pregnancy. “While no woman should face criminal charges for having an abortion or experiencing a pregnancy loss, the cruel length of this sentence confirms that foeticide and other measures promoted by anti- abortion organisations are intended to punish not protect women,” said Lynn Paltrow Executive director of national advocates for pregnant women in a statement.
Patel is not the first woman in the US to have been arrested and charged with a crime for terminating her own pregnancy or based on allegations that she had attempted to do so, it said. This case, however, is the first time any woman has been charged, convicted, and sentenced for the crime of foeticide for having attempted to end her own pregnancy, it said. Patel comes from a family of Indian immigrants who settled in Granger, Indiana, a suburb of South Bend.
Patel in July 2013 went to a hospital emergency room suffering from heavy vaginal bleeding. She denied that she had been pregnant, but eventually told doctors that she had miscarried and placed the stillborn foetus in a bag and placed the bag in a dumpster.