Posted on 10/18/2009 12:09:58 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out
A judge has released a 17-year-old Vernal girl from jail after ruling she did not commit a crime when she allegedly paid a man to beat her in an attempt to end her late-term pregnancy.
The release, which came after the girl’s mother obtained a second opinion on her daughter’s no contest plea, has incensed some lawmakers who argue the ruling skirts laws governing legal abortions in Utah.
“The judge is absolutely stretching,” said Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman. “There’s no way the judge believes the Utah Legislature left open this loophole. I guarantee it will be closed this next session.”
Eighth District Juvenile Court Judge Larry Steele sided with attorney Rich King, who argued under Utah law and around the country women are not held criminally liable for soliciting an abortion.
“Women may use any procedure or method of terminating pregnancy, by abortion or by miscarriage, and they cannot be charged with a crime,” King said.
Judge Steele called the girl’s actions to end her seven-month pregnancy “shocking and crude” in a four-page ruling Thursday, but said her actions “fit the definition for an abortion. As such, she cannot be held criminally liable for her actions pursuant to the Utah abortion statutes.”
Prosecutors had argued the girl’s failed attempt was not a legal abortion, which in Utah can only be performed before the fetus is able to survive outside the womb by a physician licensed to perform abortions in a medical facility. But Steele said a law protecting women who seek abortions from prosecution does not include the word “medical” when referring to procedures used to abort a fetus.
“The Legislature clearly understood the difference and intended the difference,” Steele wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
Conspiracy to practice “medicine” without a licence.
Huh?
How does a mother get a second opinion on a no contest plea?
What are we becoming? Are we a nation of people no better than a common pack of dogs?
If it was his child he should be horse whipped.
From what little I have heard the judge applied the law as written which is as it should be. He isn't supposed to read the minds of halfwit legislators who couldn't fill a fast food order correctly.
Just one more reason nationalized health care should be rejected with a thunderous NO!
I do not see how this judge can be allowed to be a judge or how this girl can be allowed to get custody of whom she was trying to kill
The legislators usually farm out the writing of laws to lobbyists. I guess this went to an unpaid staffer or something. And of course nobody bothered to read it.
What got me was a legislator complaining about the judge's decision then saying the "loophole" would be fixed. Take some responsibility for crying out loud.
“girl can be allowed to get custody of whom she was trying to kill”
Me neither. They just make a “law” saying the baby’s not a “whom” until he or she is fully outside the vagina.
The crazy part is that a majority of people at least partially believe that. If it weren’t so, there would be a lot more people praying & holding signs outside the mills.
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