Purvi Patel is the first pregnant woman to be convicted under Indiana’s feticide laws, reports PRI.
The Indian American faces 70 years in prison in a case that pits anti-abortion supporters with abortion rights advocates.
According to Indiana’s Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice, Patel felt intense pain and had been resting in her bed for several hours when the fetus came gushing out in a pool of blood.
She went to the hospital and on the way there, threw the fetus into a dumpster behind a shopping center. Doctors would eventually call police suspicious that Patel was guilty of child abuse. Patel would eventually tell doctors she had left the fetus in the dumpster. When police found the fetus, doctors declared it dead.
Prosecutors say the evidence shows Patel had discussed buying abortion drugs. Investigators found no trace of the drug in her body or proof that she actually purchased the drugs.
The case is very similar to a case against a Chinese immigrant in Indiana in 2010. That woman, Bei Bei Shuai, pled guilty to lesser charges.
You can read about that in PRI.