Just the News reported Saturday that authorities in California have been given the green light to proceed with homicide charges against a woman who allegedly used methamphetamine while pregnant.
California’s Democrat attorney general and Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Xavier Becerra, had decried the charges, and was likely outraged by the decision by the California Supreme Court to allow them to stand.
“Section 187 of the California Penal Code was intended to protect pregnant women from harm,” Becerra said in a November statement, “not to be used to prosecute for murder a woman who has just lost a pregnancy.”
“The death of a viable fetus”
The matter is being pursued by Kings County District Attorney Keith Fagundes. According to Just the News, his executive assistant, Philip Esbenshade, has declared that the prosecution of Chelsea Becker is “not a case about abortion nor women’s reproductive rights.”
Instead, Esbenshade insisted to reporters that it is “a case about a person who did specific acts that resulted in the death of a viable fetus.”
Last week, the California Supreme Court refused to stop the case from going forward, despite hearing loud objections from Becerra’s office, which argued that such charges would place “unnecessary scrutiny by law enforcement on every miscarriage and stillbirth,” as Just the News reported.
“We will continue to work to see our laws properly applied in order to end Ms. Becker and Ms. [Adora] Perez’s imprisonments and protect women from similar prosecution in the future,” the California AG said in his statement last month.
Perez, also from Kings County, was prosecuted under similar circumstances, resulting in an 11-year sentence for fetal murder in 2018, according to The New York Times.
Becerra maintains his reputation
Becerra, in addition to being Joe Biden’s pick for HHS secretary, has long had a reputation for his outward support of abortion.
In 2017, he filed felony charges against pro-life journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt after they shot undercover footage of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of fetal body parts — likely a violation of federal law.
“The right to privacy is a cornerstone of California’s Constitution, and a right that is foundational in a free democratic society,” Becerra said in March of that year, according to The Washington Post.
“We will not tolerate the criminal recording of confidential conversations,” he added.
The post California high court affirms murder charges against woman who used meth while pregnant: Report first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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