Charged For Crimes Against Fetus -- What About The Woman? by: Robin Marty

One of the most disturbing trends in the battle over reproductive rights is the growing attempts to establish fetuses and even fertilized eggs as having more rights than the women who carry them.  From Personhood amendments to feticide bills, the moment a sperm and egg meet, regardless of even implantation, is seen by many in the anti-choice movement to have greater importance than the pregnant woman.

Personhood amendments have a tendency to be shut down as overzealous overreaching on the part of anti-abortion extremists.  But other events occur that set the same precedent, and are much less noticed and sometimes even championed as a protection of women.

Women have already been shown in the legal system to have less value than the potential children they are carrying when you see cases regarding "criminalized miscarriage," such as the one in Utah where a young woman is being tried for having someone beat her until she lost her baby.  Then there is the pregnant woman who is in jail for attempted suicide, who survived but the baby she was carrying did not.

But a new case in Ohio is even more disturbing.  A man who forced his pregnant girlfriend by gunpoint to go to an abortion clinic may be sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempted murder.

No, not of the girlfriend.  Of the fetus.

The Washington Post reports:

Dominic Holt-Reid pulled a gun Oct. 6 on girlfriend Yolanda Burgess, who was three months pregnant, and forced her to drive to an abortion clinic, police said. Burgess, who was 26 at the time, did not go through with the procedure but instead passed a note to a clinic employee, who called police.

Prosecutors had brought their case against Holt-Reid using the state's 1996 law that says a person can be found guilty of murder for causing the unlawful termination of a pregnancy.

Holt-Reid, 28, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $40,000 fine. A presentencing investigation was ordered, and the next hearing was scheduled for June 9.

...

The Ohio fetal homicide law and statues like it in other states have typically been used to win convictions in car crashes in which a pregnant woman died and in cases involving attacks on expectant mothers. Legal experts have said they were unfamiliar with such a law being cited in a case similar to Holt-Reid's.

I would think that most people would agree that forcing someone to go anywhere by gunpoint is a pretty serious crime.  Making someone do something against her will, especially a physical procedure, with the threat of taking her life is she does not do it, is horrible.

So why is he being charged with attempted murder of the fetus instead, and why does that come with a larger punishment than what it is that he actually did -- abduction at gunpoint and attempted assault?

Because Ohio has an extremely anti-choice legislature, one that is trying to pass a multitude of different abortion restrictions which would set up numerous abortions after various gestational ages as illegal.  By using a man threatening his pregnant girlfriend at gunpoint, this case can also set a standard for charging a doctor with an "unlawful termination of a pregnancy."

If Ohio actually does manage to pass something like the Heartbeat Bill, expect any doctor who performs an abortion after the 18 days post conception point to also be charged with "unlawful termination" with a sentence of 20 years.
 http://www.care2.com/causes/womens-rights/blog/charged-for-crimes-against-fetus-what-about-the-woman/