Indiana– Purvi Patel, 33 was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison in the killing of a fetus and child neglect.
This, after delivering a baby she said was stillborn and throwing it in a dumpster. The case is the first time a woman has been convicted of feticide for ending her own pregnancy.
In July 2013, she showed up at the emergency room of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in the town of Mishawaka, bleeding heavily. Doctors quickly realized she’d lost a pregnancy, and she confessed that she’d left the fetus in a dumpster. Patel became a criminal suspect and was later interrogated in the hospital after receiving surgery to remove her placenta.
In addition to the charge of neglect, prosecutors later added a charge of “feticide” based on text messages found on Patel’s phone showing that she took miscarriage-inducing drugs purchased online. Toxicologists could not find any trace of such drugs in her body or that of the fetus, but the evidence was enough to convince a jury that Patel had committed feticide, a charge normally used against those who harm pregnant women, not pregnant women themselves.
Patel is the first woman convicted of feticide in Indiana, and only the second to be charged. Chinese immigrant Bei Bei Shuai faced feticide charges two years ago in the state, and both cases highlight an emerging “gray area” for pregnant women within the US legal system.
