Woman charged in killing of unborn child

Daily Press.com ^ | March 1, 2006 | SABINE C. HIRSCHAUER

[Lorianne]

SUFFOLK -- A 22-year-old pregnant woman shot herself in the stomach last week and aborted her unborn child, Suffolk police said Tuesday.

Police arrested Tammy Skinner of Nancy Drive in Suffolk and charged her with illegally inducing an abortion, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and filing a false police report, said Lt. Debbie George, a police spokeswoman. Skinner was due to give birth last Thursday, the day she was found with a gunshot wound in her stomach at a downtown Suffolk car dealership. Court documents filed Monday to seal two search warrants in the shooting said the Suffolk Police Department "conducted an investigation resulting in charges producing an abortion or miscarriage by Tammy Skinner."

Illegally inducing an abortion carries a maximum 10-year prison term, officials said.

[PureSolace]

It's not fair. I wanna have a kid. ah well.

[Tzimisce]

...if we can't trust her with a gun, how can we trust her with a choice?

[cgk]

Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping.

Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping list...

[cgk]

(snip)... "She seemed very happy about the baby," Hoggard said. "She was looking forward to the delivery. She must have been depressed."... "She is a good mother," said Wanda Davis, a neighbor, whose daughter attended high school with Skinner. "These kids are her life."

---

Sick. I pray her surviving children ages 1 and 4 (as in - she didn't kill them too), grow up without her presence.

[Just A Nobody]

Illegally inducing an abortion

WTHeck does that mean? You can go to a clinic or hospital and pay 100's of dollars for them to "induce" an abortion, but if you do it yourself it is illegal???

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[opinionator]

If only abortion was legal then this tragedy never would have happened.

[ECM]

Hey, Planned Parenthood employees gotta eat!

/sarc

[NautiNurse]

You can go to a clinic or hospital and pay 100's of dollars for them to "induce" an abortion, but if you do it yourself it is illegal???

--Risk is too great that could-have-been-mother will hurt someone other than her unborn if she self-induces.

--Lawyers can't make a living if deep pocket doctors are usurped by pointy household instruments.

[Just A Nobody]

--Lawyers can't make a living if deep pocket doctors are usurped by pointy household instruments.

That is what I assumed...disgusting.

[Jack Deth]

Hi, Justanobody!

Virginia was the first state (Commonwealth) to put the NRA's "Operation Exile" into effect more than a decade ago.

It's principal function is the prosesution of crimes committed with firearms. Which had and still has a significant effect on crime throught VA. Legally speaking, the mother is screwed.

I'd love for Maryland to put "Exile" in effect, but with a solidly Democratic State Assembly opposite a Republican Governor, the chances are slim and none.

Jack.

[Moshikashitara]

Not neccesarily true, though I agree with the spirit (I assume) you meant it in.

Even if abortion were legal, she could have decided against it in the "optimum" time-frame - i.e., first trimester - and then decided at a later date that she "didn't want the kid after all, so sorry. What's your return policy?" and done the same thing.

But that brings to mind the question: exactly what sort of woman is so desperate to rid herself of her unborn that she shoots herself in the stomach?

Fully expecting deadpan answers of "psychotic b!tch" or along those lines... ;)

~Moshi-chan

[Just A Nobody]

Hi Jack! Thanks for the education on VA laws...interesting. There is not enough time (or interest) to learn them all.

See you tonight?

[Jack Deth]

I'm working the late shift tonight, Justanobody.

I'll try my best to be there during the FReep, or afterwards.

Jack.

[newzjunkey]

Sick.

Will NARAL and others defend her? Will her sentence be overturned (assuming conviction) through a Planned Parenthood fight? Will she be ushered off to a mental health facility?

[newzjunkey]

The accused:

[JudgemAll]

Basicaly, it tells us that the abortion movement is nothing less than a doctor licensing lawyer movement, lawyers practicing medicine.

The abortion alley excuse does not stand in the current circumstances since it is ILLEGAL in the first place.

Now we are more worried about licensing than about the life of the child.

The hypocrisy is the same with the drug war, it's all about money for the drug companies & the government getting to tax the home activities of individuals through official business licensing, with lawyers given free reign to sue "unincorporated" family businesses.

This has never been about abortion, but about licensing the practice for lawyer gov & pimp profits.

The same thing goes with the cigarette tax making unethical profit for the gov & lawyers on the back of the addicted, like any drug pusher would, while hypocriticaly speaking for "our health" by asking to ban/license smoking clubs.

[jocon307]

"exactly what sort of woman is so desperate to rid herself of her unborn that she shoots herself in the stomach?"

She must have gone insane, she's lucky she didn't kill herself into the bargain. But, here's a woman with two (almost three) children and no husband. Great life she was already having.