You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Purvi Patel Appeals 20-Year Sentence for What She Says was a Miscarriage

HeadlineMay 24, 2016

Attorneys for an Indiana woman sentenced to 20 years in prison for what she says was a miscarriage have asked the Indiana Court of Appeals to overturn her sentence. Last year Purvi Patel was convicted of feticide and neglect of a dependent, becoming the first person in U.S. history sentenced to prison for what the state said was an attempt to end her own pregnancy. Patel arrived at a hospital bleeding, and later acknowledged disposing of her stillborn fetus in a dumpster. Prosecutors accused her of taking abortion-inducing pills, even though there were no drugs found in her system, and used a discredited “float test” to argue the fetus was born alive. In a statement, National Advocates for Pregnant Women said: “[We support] Ms. Patel because we believe that there is no point in pregnancy when a woman should lose her civil and human rights. We know that arresting or bringing criminal charges against people for ending a pregnancy, experiencing a miscarriage or stillbirth, or for being pregnant and giving birth, puts all pregnant people at risk.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top