Should pregnant women be allowed to harm their unborn children when not killing them?

Mary Sell writes at DecaturDaily.com that pro-abortion groups are complaining about a January 2013 Alabama Supreme Court ruling that recognizes that mothers should be held accountable when they expose their unborn babies to illegal drugs. Ms. Sell writes:

Alabama prosecutors began charging pregnant women, and those who had just given birth, under the law. A Russellville mother, Amanda Kimbrough, whose son died minutes after being born, admitted to using meth once during her pregnancy, but her husband argues that’s not what caused the baby’s premature birth or death.

Perhaps, Ms. Kimbrough’s husband is an unbiased expert regarding the cause of infant Timmy's untimely death but Ms. Sell gives us no reason for us to think so. Considering the fact that Ms. Kimbrough was innocent until proven guilty, it seems probable that the prosecution had far better evidence.

Abortion activist Lynn Paltrow states that recognizing unborn babies as victims of their mother’s drug addiction:

is bad for babies. When you mix child birth with criminal activity, you end up with sicker babies. If you threaten women with arrest, they are not going to come to the doctor, and you’re creating state incentives for abortions.

She’s correct that some mothers who use dangerous drugs while pregnant may kill the child through abortion rather than face prosecution for harming the baby. Where’s the sense in making it illegal to intentionally harm your baby while at the same time making it legal to kill your baby? But, of course, her conclusion that we should let women harm their unborn babies doesn’t follow. Rather, this inconsistency in the law really points to outlawing abortion.

Ms. Sell continues:

It could lead to cases like one in Indiana, in which a woman, Bei Bei Shuai, is being charged with murder and attempted feticide. Shuai was eight months pregnant when she ate rat poison in December 2010 in a suicide attempt after her boyfriend broke up with her, the Associated Press has reported. Doctors called authorities when the baby died three days after being delivered prematurely.

Let’s suppose Bei Bei Shuai waited until after the baby was born to commit suicide. With her newborn snugged safely in a car seat, she pulls the car into the garage, closes the garage door and sits there, with the car running, waiting to die from carbon monoxide poisoning. A friend saves Bei Bei Shuai but the baby dies. Should Bei Bei Shaui be charged with homicide?  How is it any different before birth?

Neither Ms. Sell nor Ms. Paltrow address this question. Reason isn’t in the pro-abortion arsenal. Instead they plunge forward with the “criminalize miscarriage” canard.

Between 15 and 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriages or stillborn births.

“Every one of those women becomes a suspect for a murder charge,” Paltrow said.

In each case cited in the article, the police had probable cause to believe that the woman had poisoned her child. In all other cases, there are no investigations of miscarriages. When abortion was illegal, in no US state were women investigated for miscarriage. See Personhood would criminalize miscarriages. Wrong.

But evidence doesn’t matter to Ms. Paltrow and to pro-aborts generally. They’ve got abortion to push and the cause is far more important than the truth.

See Pro-aborts claim that Personhood criminalizes pregnancy.