Woman self-aborts baby, sues to avoid prison

An Idaho woman is trying to overturn Idaho's abortion ban which is designed to prevent inflicting pain on children in the womb. The law prevents abortions of children after 20 weeks of pregnancy on the basis that an unborn child can experience pain at that time.

BOISE, ID (Catholic Online) - The woman, Jennie Linn McCormack has an incentive to file the suit. She faces charges of obtaining an illegal abortion. McCormack, self-aborted her child at five-and-a-half months, according to a police autopsy of the body.

She claimed she made the choice to self-abort the baby after considering her income, which she says was at $200-$250 per month and her other three children. To perform the abortion, she took pills that her sister helped her purchase online. She disposed of the child in a box.

Police made their gruesome find on January 9, and McCormick was subsequently charged with a felony. However, the charges later dismissed without prejudice--for lack of evidence. The without prejudice caveat means prosecutors may re-file charges at a later date, however, McCormick is now attacking the law under which she was accused. In her filing, McCormick alleges that the State of Idaho has made it too difficult for women to get abortions, which is why she chose to self-abort her baby. She claims there are no elective abortion providers in southeastern Idaho, where she lives, forcing her to go out of state to get one, which would also violate the law since it requires women to get abortions only from Idaho licensed physicians.

The penalty for violating the law is a maximum sentence of five-years in prison and a fine of $500,000. 

McCormick's lawsuit may succeed, and may serve as a test case for other similar fetal pain-based laws in other states. Central to her argument is that the law does not make exceptions for mothers who require abortions for health and safety reasons. 

The National Right to Life Committee says it feels the laws will be upheld--but the final decision, and McCormick's fate will soon be decided by a federal judge. If she is successful, she will avoid charges, to the detriment of the unborn protected by similar laws in four other states.

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