Deux adolescents de 17 et 19 ans viennent de voir leur vie brisée par une nouvelle loi de l’Etat.
 
Le Texas dispose d’une loi destinée à limiter drastiquement l’accès à l’avortement volontaire: elle institue une période d’attente de 24h, exige que les docteurs montrent des photos de foetus à leurs patientes, leur expliquent dans les détails l’accomplissement chirurgical de l’IVG, les avertissent que celui-ci peut provoquer le cancer du sein, et force les obstétriciens à conserver les identités des femmes souhaitant avorter dans leur fichiers. Par ailleurs, la loi interdit d’opérer un avortement ailleurs que dans des hopitaux ou dans des centres de chirurgie ambulatoires.
 
Apparemment c’est cette dernière régulation qui induit en pratique l’interdiction de l’avortement: très peu d’hopitaux pratiquent l’avortement et les tarifs sont tout autant prohibitifs que les conditions d’accès (examen moral et psychologique des patientes de la part de la direction hospitalière); parmi les centaines de centres chirurgicaux, aucun n’opère d’avortement.
 
En conséquence, dans la panique, une jeune fille de 17 ans a été ammenée à demander à son fiancé de l’aider à provoquer une fausse couche après qu’elle n’y soit pas arrivée seule. Les deux jeunes gens ont réussi dans leur entreprise, mais le jeune homme de 19 ans a été condamné à la perpétuité (avec peine de sureté de 40 ans) pour double-meurtre de foetus (car la mère aurait pu donner naissance à des jumeaux si la grossesse était arrivée à terme). Les jurés n’ont pas souhaité le condamner à la peine capitale, mais rien ne le leur interdisait, au contraire.
 
Car une autre loi, plus récente, criminalise le meutre d’un foetus! La loi définit qu’une personne – disposant de tous les droits individuels et de leur protection – existe à partir du moment de sa conception. Le Texas donne ainsi les mêmes droits au foetus que pour toute personne physique. Au Texas la plupart des meurtriers sont condamnés à mort.
 
Pour ceux qui douteraient encore du mélange délirant entre religion et justice, la déclaration finale du procureur est limpide: “Faites-lui répondre de ce crime des plus impies!”
http://ruby.eurisko.fr/posts/show/36

This is the intersection of stupid kids, stupid laws, mendacious legislators, and fanatical prosecutors. It's what happens when states ban access to otherwise legal abortions and kids don't know where to turn. And if circumstances and the law had been slightly different, Bauereiss probably would have prosecuted Erica Basoria too and sought the death penalty for both.
 
It's like living under the Ayatollahs in Iran. It's simple barbarism.

http://www.lufkindailynews.com/new [...] 5277737347
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
 
Nineteen-year-old Gerardo Flores of Lufkin was sentenced to life in prison Monday in a landmark test case of a state fetal protection law. An Angelina County jury deliberated just under four hours, finding him guilty on two counts of capital murder for his part in killing his unborn twins.  
 
The case will be appealed, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court, defense attorney Ryan Deaton said after the verdict.  
 
Most fetal murder cases involve attacks by strangers, said Assistant District Attorney Art Bauereiss, who prosecuted the case. The facts in Flores' case were a bit unusual, but the evidence supported a guilty finding, he said.  
 
"Most of the family is very pleased with the verdict," Bauereiss said.  
 
Flores' girlfriend, Erica Basoria, 17, was led sobbing from the Angelina County Courthouse by her mother and older sister. While her family testified against Flores, Basoria stood by his side, maintaining she was involved in causing the at-home miscarriage.  
 
Flores' mother, Norma Flores, stood in stunned silence, surrounded by family members for several minutes after her son was led away by Sheriff Kent Henson.  
 
Under state law, a woman cannot be charged for causing the deaths of her own fetuses for any reason. A similar federal law went into effect in April 2004, a month before Flores was charged.  
 
Bauereiss told jurors he was focused on Flores. He couldn't help that Basoria was outside the reach of the law, he said. If the babies had been killed after being born, it wouldn't have been so controversial, he said.  
 
"Think what a horrible crime this would be,” he said. “We wouldn't hesitate to label it for what it is.”  
 
The law includes the definition of a person — with full rights to legal protection — as existing from the moment of conception. Prosecutors chose not to pursue the death penalty against Flores, meaning he received an automatic life sentence with parole possible after 40 years.  
 
Basoria, then 16, was five months pregnant when Flores stepped on her bulging belly more than once the week before she gave birth prematurely in a bathroom at Flores' house the night of May 6, 2004. The defense said she hit herself at the same time, making it impossible to tell who killed the babies. Testimony alleged both may have wanted a miscarriage so the babies wouldn't infringe on college and social plans.  
 
His girlfriend coerced him into it, Flores said in a taped police interview played at trial in which he demonstrated stepping on her. Bauereiss repeated the clip for jurors during his emotional closing statement.  
 
No one would ever know the potential those unborn lives could have held, he said. Family would never get to see the boys' first steps, teach them to tie their shoes or take prom pictures.  
 
Worst of all, he said, Flores' own children could not save themselves.  
 
"Those babies could not raise their hands in self-defense to say, ‘No, Daddy, no, Daddy!'” Bauereiss said, emotion nearly choking his words. Basoria's family members sat a few rows behind him, tears rolling down their cheeks.  
 
"Hold him fully accountable for this most unholiest of crimes," he finished.  
 
Deaton begged jurors in his closing statement to give Flores something besides capital murder, choosing instead among injury to a child or manslaughter, with a wider punishment range. State District Judge David Wilson on Monday morning denied Deaton's motions to include jury instruction on several other choices, including criminally-negligent homicide.  
 
The case was tragic, just two kids in love making mistakes, Deaton said. But it was Basoria's fault for egging Flores on, he said.  
 
"She invited violence into their relationship," he told jurors.  
 
Flores has 30 days to file an appeal.