{"id":241130,"date":"2021-03-04T15:37:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T21:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=241130"},"modified":"2021-03-08T14:51:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T20:51:11","slug":"ohio-woman-dumped-baby-online-abortion-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/ohio-woman-dumped-baby-online-abortion-drug\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio prosecutors: Woman dumped viable preborn baby’s body after taking abortion-inducing drug"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An woman has been indicted on a charge related to the disposal of her baby in a motel trash can in October in Monroe, Ohio.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Houck, 30, was indicted on Monday on a charge of gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony, according to local Journal-News<\/a>. The baby was believed to have been between the ages of 23 and 27 weeks and would have therefore been capable of surviving outside the womb with medical assistance. Law enforcement was not able to determine if the baby girl had been born alive.<\/p>\n

“It was still considered to be viable, but you didn’t have evidence of a live birth,” said Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell. “Based on our evidence, we believe she intentionally ordered a drug online to essentially induce an abortion.”<\/p>\n

Abortion is legal up until birth in the United States, but in Ohio, it is only legal after 20 weeks in cases<\/a> in which the life or health of the mother is at risk. (Intentionally killing a preborn child is actually never medically necessary<\/a>.) Yet, Fornshell said that taking an abortion-inducing drug even after viability is not a criminal offense if the mother does it herself. Ohio’s 20-week abortion ban<\/a> includes a clause that states the mother cannot be found guilty of a crime if she has an abortion after 20 weeks.<\/p>\n

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Preborn child at 24 weeks<\/p><\/div>\n

Reports do not indicate what specific type of abortion drug Houck obtained online. However, the drug typically referred to as the “abortion pill” is known as mifepristone, and it is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be taken only up to 10 weeks. It carries significant health risks for women including hemorrhaging, infection, incomplete abortion, and death. The abortion pill has been found to be four times<\/a> more dangerous than first-trimester surgical abortion. In the abortion pill regimen, mifepristone is paired with a second drug, misoprostol, which causes contractions to expel the body of the baby. Misoprostol is not regulated by the FDA in the same manner as mifepristone.<\/p>\n