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Couple tests Texas law protecting unborn
Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | 3/4/05 | LISA FALKENBERG

Posted on 03/05/2005 11:26:36 AM PST by freespirited

LUFKIN, Texas -- The would-be teen mother arrived by ambulance last May, her belly bruised, the twin fetuses she carried for five months gone and her lips tightly sealed.

Authorities assumed 16-year-old Erica Basoria had been beaten and charged her boyfriend, 18-year-old Gerardo "Jerry" Flores, with murder under the state's new law protecting the unborn.

But it wasn't that simple. Basoria told authorities she had been trying to kill the fetuses for weeks and finally asked Flores to help by stepping on her stomach.

"When I was four months pregnant, I began to show, and at that time I decided that I should have gotten an abortion," Basoria wrote in an affidavit.

Although Flores faces prosecution, Basoria can't be charged because the new law - like many others across the nation - bans prosecution of mothers on the grounds that they have a legal right to end pregnancies. The case has attorneys on both sides questioning the fairness of a statute that considers one person's crime another person's constitutional right.

"How can two people conspire to do something like this and only one of them be punished? How can that be fair?" defense attorney Ryan Deaton asked.

Prosecutor Clyde Herrington said it was startling that "they completely leave the female out of the criminal penalty."

"It doesn't seem entirely fair," Herrington said.

The couple had been dating just over a year when Basoria became pregnant in January 2004. They talked about the future, and Flores, a senior at Lufkin High School pursuing a soccer scholarship, said he offered to delay college a year until Basoria graduated.

The pregnancy changed everything. Both were scared. Neither had a job. And there were two babies.

Basoria didn't return calls for comment, but wrote in an affidavit that her family encouraged an abortion: "They said I was too young to have children."

Flores' mother, Norma, shunned the idea, saying "It's a life that wants to live."

At four months, when the mirror betrayed her first bulge, Basoria wanted out. She feigned taking prenatal vitamins and jogged when she wasn't supposed to.

"About two weeks before the miscarriage, I started hitting myself," Basoria wrote. "I would do this every other day and I would use both of my fists when I did this. I would hit myself 10 or more times."

Then she turned to her boyfriend.

"I said I didn't want to do it," he recalled. But she kept pleading, he said, until he agreed to step on her.

The night of the miscarriage, the couple fought and Flores acknowledged to police "accidentally, probably" hitting Basoria in the face, though Basoria said he wasn't regularly abusive.

Later, he awoke to Basoria's screams and found her crying, bleeding and hunched on the toilet. Flores' mother and sister went to the hospital and Flores stayed behind, cleaning up the blood and returning to bed.

Flores has since been charged with capital murder, though prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty. He remains in jail, awaiting a trial date. His family learned of his arrest from TV and couldn't believe the charge.

"Murder sounds like when you go out there and kill somebody. But the baby's unborn," said Flores' sister, Maira. "It would have been different if they were born already and he killed them."

A co-author of the state law said it was intended to protect women and unborn babies from domestic violence, drunken drivers and other assaults.

"We didn't consider a case as ridiculous as this," said Rep. Ray Allen, a Republican. "I feel sad for these immature, stupid people. But the law is what the law is."

Roger Enriquez, a criminal justice professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said prosecutors should consider the couple's ages.

"This is a classic case here of individuals who are not mature enough to make these decisions on their own," he said.

Flores still calls Basoria regularly, adorns her letters with roses and teddy bears, and says they may get back together if he gets out.

"She feels bad. I forgave her. She'll do anything to help me out."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; domesticviolence; femaleimmunity; murdercharges; texas
Here we go again. What planet do these kids live on?
1 posted on 03/05/2005 11:26:37 AM PST by freespirited
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To: freespirited
What planet do these kids live on?

One where brutal, cold-blooded murderers are spared the death penalty?

2 posted on 03/05/2005 11:30:52 AM PST by ppaul
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To: ppaul

God help me.

I wish this monster would have died during the miscarriage.


3 posted on 03/05/2005 11:34:15 AM PST by Phoneman
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To: freespirited
But the baby's unborn," said Flores' sister, Maira. "It would have been different if they were born already and he killed them."

Say What??? There's STUPID, then REALLY STUPID, and then this person.
4 posted on 03/05/2005 11:34:46 AM PST by politicket
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To: freespirited

I don't think they are testing the law, they are showing the problem with it. Men aren't the only members of society who are messed up.


5 posted on 03/05/2005 11:34:55 AM PST by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: freespirited
unbelievable....
"Murder sounds like when you go out there and kill somebody. But the baby's unborn," said Flores' sister, Maira.

6 posted on 03/05/2005 11:35:52 AM PST by 3rd Order
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To: Mr. Blonde

There are days like this when one reaches the horror saturation point; when too many pennies have become too many dollars and the sins seem to be accumulating faster than my ability to deal with them and I no longer want to hear of them. Computer off.


7 posted on 03/05/2005 11:40:50 AM PST by Shisan (Jalisco no te rajes.)
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To: 3rd Order

At least those poor little babies are safe in the arms of God. People like my SIL and many others would have loved to have adopted them.


8 posted on 03/05/2005 11:44:23 AM PST by Cloverfarm (Children are a blessing)
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To: freespirited; NYer; Alouette; missyme

"This is a classic case here of individuals who are not mature enough to make these decisions on their own,"

Abortionist's Favorite Bumper Sticker:
If you can't trust me with a CHOICE
How can you trust me with a CHILD?

And I have come to "agree"... YES! Remove the choice to make babies...castration would help in this case. So would sewing up that 16-year old vixen's crotch. God's wild creatures take care of their young better than Godless, Leftist humans do.


9 posted on 03/05/2005 11:55:00 AM PST by The Spirit Of Allegiance (ATTN. MARXIST RED MSM: I RESENT your "RED STATE" switcheroo using our ELECTORAL MAP as PROPAGANDA!)
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To: freespirited
How very stupid this pair is!

Too stupid to know the babies were marketable for $$. Some couples would have been glad to adopt the babies and paid handsomely and legally to do so.

I hope that when the girl does want to have a baby one day, it won't be possible due to this abortive procedure preformed by her current boyfriend.

10 posted on 03/05/2005 12:08:02 PM PST by the Deejay
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To: the Deejay

One can only hope...


11 posted on 03/05/2005 12:14:01 PM PST by LongElegantLegs (Please be nice; I'm a n00b)
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To: freespirited
Roger Enriquez, a criminal justice professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said prosecutors should consider the couple's ages.

"This is a classic case here of individuals who are not mature enough to make these decisions on their own," he said.

Just to make sure I'm up to speed here;

Teens aren't mature enough to earn the death penalty for commiting a capital crime, but

Teens are mature enough to make the choice to have an abortion without parental consent, but

Teens both are, and are not mature enough to be held accountable if they try to combine the two by beating the pregnant girl to kill her unborn twins?

12 posted on 03/05/2005 12:22:58 PM PST by Can i say that here?
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To: LongElegantLegs

All she did was invite Jerry to do a little dance called "Put Your Little Foot"
Geesh! How can you kill an unborn anything?
Caramba! Thees ees a Krazee World!


13 posted on 03/05/2005 12:23:00 PM PST by CBart95
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To: Can i say that here?
Maybe, instead of the chair, they could messily dismember them and call it an extremely late-term abortion?
14 posted on 03/05/2005 12:30:59 PM PST by LongElegantLegs (Please be nice; I'm a n00b)
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To: All

She was 16 and he 18, so what about STATUTORY RAPE charges? Doesn't Texas have SR laws on the books?

"Authorities assumed 16-year-old Erica Basoria had been beaten and charged her boyfriend, 18-year-old Gerardo 'Jerry' Flores, with murder under the state's new law protecting the unborn."


15 posted on 03/05/2005 2:27:14 PM PST by totherightofu
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To: Shisan

Ditto,

I have to go vomit.

F H


16 posted on 03/05/2005 2:34:09 PM PST by Fish Hunter
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