{"id":57768,"date":"2015-01-01T11:13:14","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T16:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=57768"},"modified":"2015-01-01T01:45:34","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T06:45:34","slug":"protect-your-child-or-go-to-prison-its-a-choice-that-no-mom-should-have-to-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/protect-your-child-or-go-to-prison-its-a-choice-that-no-mom-should-have-to-make\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect your child or go to prison: It’s a choice that no mom should have to make"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Antonio Pena believed in the right to choose \u2013 his own right, anyway. In 1999, Pena chose to drive his fist into Jaclyn Kurr\u2019s abdomen.\u00a0Kurr reminded her boyfriend that she was pregnant with quadruplets and, after a second punch, warned him not to do it again. He doesn’t seem to have taken\u00a0her warning too seriously, though.<\/p>\n

That probably changed when she stabbed him.<\/p>\n

At her manslaughter trial, Kurr argued that killing Pena was justified by the need to protect their children. The judge didn’t agree. Although Michigan law does permit the use of deadly force to defend the lives of others, Judge Richard Lyon Lamb declared that<\/a> \u201cthere are no others\u201d in this case. Because the fetuses \u201cwould have only been sixteen or seventeen weeks in gestation at the time of the stabbing,\u201d Judge Lamb felt that none of them could be considered \u201ca living human being.\u201d Jaclyn Kurr was subsequently convicted and given a five- to twenty-five-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kurr\u2019s conviction got reversed<\/a> on appeal, with the court ruling that a mother can defend a child in her womb even when her own life isn’t in danger. But while that\u2019s now the law in Michigan, it\u2019s not true in a lot of other states. As a result, women can be forced to choose between defending their children and going to prison.<\/p>\n

The scenario isn’t just a hypothetical one, as pregnant women are frequently targeted<\/a> for violence. That often happens when they resist a partner\u2019s demand to have an abortion, and attackers can quickly escalate from throwing punches to using guns<\/a>, knives<\/a>, explosives<\/a>, gasoline<\/a>, and blunt objects<\/a>. It\u2019s not surprising then that the CDC lists homicide as\u00a0a leading cause<\/a> of death during pregnancy.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Americans United for Life<\/a> drafted a model bill called the Pregnant Women\u2019s Protection Act<\/a>. The legislation specifies that a woman may use whatever force is needed to protect her preborn baby from criminal violence. Earlier this year, a version of it<\/a> was introduced by South Carolina state senator Katrina Shealy.<\/p>\n

Although Sen. Shealy’s effort was unsuccessful, we need to make it clear that this issue isn’t going away. After all, the right to defend your child is among the most basic. Expectant moms shouldn’t be punished for exercising it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antonio Pena believed in the right to choose \u2013 his own right, anyway. In 1999, Pena chose to drive his fist into Jaclyn Kurr\u2019s abdomen.\u00a0Kurr reminded her boyfriend that she was pregnant with quadruplets and, after a second punch, warned him not to do it again. He doesn’t seem to have taken\u00a0her warning too seriously, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":45346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[390,3109,3110,3111,3112],"yoast_head":"\nProtect your child or go to prison: It's a choice that no mom should have to make - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/protect-your-child-or-go-to-prison-its-a-choice-that-no-mom-should-have-to-make\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Protect your child or go to prison: It's a choice that no mom should have to make - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Antonio Pena believed in the right to choose \u2013 his own right, anyway. In 1999, Pena chose to drive his fist into Jaclyn Kurr\u2019s abdomen.\u00a0Kurr reminded her boyfriend that she was pregnant with quadruplets and, after a second punch, warned him not to do it again. 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