Cardinal Sean O’Malley boycotted the 2013 commencement exercises of Boston College because Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny was the honored speaker. Prime Minister Kenny is pushing Ireland to clarify legislation of abortion to save the life of the mother. This is a necessary response to the inquiry concerning the role of Irish law in the death of Savita Halappanavar and to the binding judgment of the European Union Human Rights Commission. The Cardinal, however, insists that even clarification of life-saving abortion is a morally unacceptable change to Irish law.

The 1983 Irish legal requirement to balance equal rights to life of both led to Savita’s unnecessary death. The law prohibited doctors from considering the grave fetal prognosis as a factor in the medical decision and demanded that every effort be made to save both lives until the mother was about to die. Doctors waited until Savita was so infected she was beyond a chance of recovery. Although it was not their intention, it was the only way to assure they avoided 14 year criminal penalties. Irish law requires doctors to make medical decisions as if the fetal life were physically separated from the mother — in other words, not fetal life. This case is an iconic challenge to these recent Catholic health care principles.

The international medical standard of care is that in complications of pregnancy, the life of the mother comes first. A US study by ANSIRH (Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health) found over half of obstetricians have recently reported ethical conflicts in US Catholic hospitals. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) consider their hospitals formal religious ministries to the poor, the sick and the afflicted although they are funded by Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and tax exempt status. Bishop Thomas Olmstead in Phoenix, with the support of the USCCB, proclaimed Sister Margaret McBride excommunicated from the church for authorizing a life-saving abortion at 11 weeks gestation. He said, “The mother’s life cannot be preferred over the child’s.” The Bishops’ principle results in substandard reproductive health care.

A fetal right to life becomes less of an advantage to a fetus as soon as that right begins to harm his or her mother. To grant a fetus an equal right to life is not the only way, nor even a good way, to signify the moral worth of fetal life. Instead of waiting for the next Indiana legislative session or the courts to further advance fetal rights, we would do our best for fetal life by investing in real and sustainable prenatal health which includes an assurance that pregnancy shall not diminish a woman’s rights of personhood.

Backline is a great organization with some of its network moving to Indiana. Backline is seeking volunteers who want to participate in a rigorous training and fulfill a commitment to volunteer on regular scheduled shifts.

http://yourbackline.org/

Talkline 1-888-493-1092. From the website, “Backline transforms awareness of reproductive decision-making and experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption. We offer new voices and ideas that challenge stereotypes, stigma and the false dichotomies that divide people and their experiences. Through storytelling and media, Backline promotes a bold, inclusive vision of equity and unconditional support for the full spectrum of reproductive possibilities.”

State of Indiana v. Bei Bei Shuai:  An Unjustifiable and Dangerous Prosecution

On March 14, 2011, the Marion County Prosecutor filed criminal charges of murder and attempted feticide against a 34-year-old kind and gentle woman with no criminal history, Bei Bei Shuai.  Ms. Shuai’s alleged crime – attempting to commit suicide while pregnant.  Suffering from severe depression throughout her pregnancy and the complete abandonment by the father of their child (her “life partner” and lover for 1 ½ years) when she was 33 weeks pregnant, she suffered a major-depressive episode and consumed rat poison.

Although attempting suicide is not a crime in Indiana, the prosecutor, for the first time in Indiana’s 200-year history, concluded that a pregnant woman should be prosecuted for murder –the most heinous crime on the books – for her suicide attempt which, in the prosecutor’s view, caused the death of her child.  The prosecutor concluded that the unprecedented prosecution should proceed without consulting any experts who have devoted their lives to maternal and fetal health and who would have advised that the criminalization of pregnant women is unjustifiable and medically unsound.

Because of the significance of this case, eighty nationally renowned and diverse health, medical, scientific, and professional organizations and experts filed five amicus curie (or “friend of the Court”) briefs in support of Ms. Shuai and against this prosecution including the leading professional association of physicians who specialize in the health care of pregnant women and their fetuses.

Medical experts uniformly oppose criminal approaches to health conditions that women experience during pregnancy because it leads to worse public health outcomes and deters pregnant women from seeking help and admitting their conditions for fear of arrest.

Perinatal psychiatrists who possess great expertise in the causes of suicide and the perverse effects of prosecuting pregnant women have advised that criminalizing pregnancy does not improve fetal health but instead contributes to fetal demise.  “Charging a woman with a crime because she became pregnant, suffered the onset of a major depressive episode and attempted to kill herself violates her rights to liberty and bodily integrity without furthering any legitimate interest in fetal health.”

The prosecution of a pregnant woman “only increases the stigma of mental health disorders and drives those who are contemplating suicide into further secrecy.”

Those who take the time to carefully review and understand the facts and issues involved in Ms. Shuai’s case will conclude that the State’s prosecution against her is unconstitutional, contrary to religious, medical, legal, and ethical principles, and is the product of discriminatory stereotypes and stigmas relating to gender, mental health, race, and poverty.

Pregnant women should be loved, respected, and provided appropriate treatment – not prosecuted and thrown in jail.

During the last week of August, 2013, a jury will be selected.  On September 3, the trial will commence in Marion County Superior Court.

Facts

On September 6, 1976, Bei Bei Shuai was born in Shanghai, China.  In accordance with China’s one child policy, Ms. Shuai grew up as an only child.  Following her college graduation, in 2000, at age 23, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, with her then husband.  In 2008, they separated.  Subsequently, Ms. Shuai fell in love with Zhi Liang Quan, a man who had been a friend for several years and was 18 years older and also separated from his spouse.  They considered themselves to be “life partners.”

After a 1 ½ year intimate relationship, in the summer of 2010, Ms. Shuai learned that she was pregnant and began to make plans for their child.  She provided monies to Mr. Quan to pay for the anticipated hospital costs.  Mr. Quan agreed he would drive Ms. Shuai to the hospital, be with her during delivery, and help raise their child thereafter.  Together they purchased baby clothes and supplies for the anticipated birth.

Ms. Shuai experienced severe depression during her pregnancy.  In October and November, 2010, Mr. Quan was with her during three prior severe bouts of suicidal expressions and attempts, even taking away box cutters from her possession.  He never took her to a hospital, called 911, or helped her obtain professional treatment.  Ms. Shuai became isolated, depending and relying upon only Mr. Quan for love and care.

In early December, 2010, Ms. Shuai and Mr. Quan planned for the baby’s arrival, buying clothes and attending a pre-natal appointment together.  On December 11, Mr. Quan, in Ms. Shuai’s presence, spoke to his estranged wife by telephone, advising her that their family had “not been existing” for a long time and he was remaining with Ms. Shuai.  Shortly thereafter, his estranged wife and two adult children traveled to Indianapolis and demanded, threatened, and pressured him to leave Ms. Shuai, even questioning whether the child was his.  At first, he assured Ms. Shuai that they would remain together.  Then, after communicating with her every day for 1 ½ years, he refused to meet with the 7-month pregnant woman or return her phone calls.

For several days, Ms. Shuai was unable to sleep or eat, became more frightened and physically ill, and worried incessantly about how she would get to and from the hospital and raise their baby alone.  She felt great shame for being pregnant and unmarried.  In her culture, she knew she was a pariah and her child would be considered a bastard.  She left multiple messages with Mr. Quan begging him to at least remain with her until after their child was born.

Finally, after several days of silence, Mr. Quan finally contacted Ms. Shuai and told her that he no longer had feelings for their baby and since their daughter had not yet been born, she “doesn’t exist.”  He further advised Ms. Shuai that he no longer wanted to be with her and their baby.  Ms. Shuai was blindsided and devastated by her beloved partner’s rejection.  He agreed to meet with her, but only because he had to return her money previously entrusted to him for hospital costs.

On the afternoon of December 20, 2010, Ms. Shuai and Mr. Quan met in a parking lot, where he threw her money back at her, told her to quit crying, and that neither she nor their child meant anything to him.  Despite knowing that Ms. Shuai was suffering from severe depression, he left Ms. Shuai alone in a parking lot, on her hands and knees sobbing and clearly emotionally unstable.

On the morning of December 23, Ms. Shuai, alone and distraught, engaged in her fourth suicidal episode,  consuming poison, which she believed would result in a painful, but relatively quick death.  (Rat poison is one of the leading substances used by women throughout the world to ensure death.  In China, it is 60 times more potent than the regulated poison found here.)

Later that day, because of the intervention of friends, Ms. Shuai was taken to a hospital emergency room in Anderson.  Despite her constitutional right to refuse medical treatment, she did not.  She confided with and relied upon the physicians’ advice and agreed to all treatments in order to save her baby.  She consented to a transfer to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis because she was expected to undergo immediate cesarean surgery and delivery.

On December 24, at about 1 a.m., Ms. Shuai was admitted to Methodist where she was placed under suicide watch and a sitter was assigned to her bedside.  Methodist did not perform an immediate cesarean surgery.  Instead, over the course of the next seven days, from December 24 to 30, Ms. Shuai was told that she and her baby were doing fine.  Health care professionals were even discussing a release from the hospital prior to the birth of the baby. Psychiatrists and other health care professionals were also providing psychological counseling and support.  During this time period, Ms. Shuai agreed to all recommended medical treatment including, but not limited to, multiple tests, the ingestion of steroids, tocolytics, other prescription drugs, the insertion of IV’s, and fetal monitor recordings.

On December 31, 2010, a doctor after examining the fetal monitoring strip finally recommended cesarean surgery, and Ms. Shuai consented.  By 10:00 a.m., she was in the delivery room, and Angel Shuai was born alive.  Following her daughter’s birth, Ms. Shuai continued to consent to all recommended medical procedures for her newborn including permission for vaccines, blood transfusions, and multiple other medical procedures.

At 4:55 p.m., just a few hours after undergoing painful surgery, Ms. Shuai visited her newborn in the NICU.  Later that evening, around 10:25 p.m. she visited her baby again, was smiling, and talking about taking her daughter home.

On January 1, 2011, Ms. Shuai visited her newborn several times and was encouraged about her baby’s progress.  She was told many times that her baby was improving.  The hospital staff was providing her with information about raising a baby, how to pump breast milk, and the support that would be available to her after release from the hospital.

On January 2, Ms. Shuai was told that the hospital needed her consent to release some pressure in her baby’s head and she signed the consent.

That afternoon, Ms. Shuai was advised by the hospital staff that there had been a turn of events and they needed to meet with her and her friends.  Ms. Shuai was told that her daughter’s brain was dead, there was no hope for her baby, and she must make the decision as to when to remove Angel from the ventilator.  Ms. Shuai questioned whether it was possible for her baby to live.  The hospital staff advised yes, but there would be “no meaning” since she would not be able to eat or walk. Ms. Shuai was told that there were no other options.

Ms. Shuai began to uncontrollably sob and grieve.  She cried until she passed out and when she came to she began crying and sobbing until she became unconscious again.  The emotional, gut wrenching process lasted for hours.  Nurses and staff were constantly checking on Ms. Shuai to see if she had made a decision.

At around 8:25 p.m., Ms. Shuai advised the staff that she was ready to hold her daughter while the ventilator was removed.  She was moved into a separate room with a chaplain and her friends present.  Ms. Shuai, deeply anguished, held her child for about 5 hours.

On January 3, at 1:30 a.m. Angel died in her mother’s arms.  Ms. Shuai became hysterical, screaming, “why can’t I die instead.”  She was taken to her hospital room, but her belongings had all been removed for her safety.  A sitter was assigned to her room until she was transferred to a secured area of the Methodist Psychiatric Unit.

From January 3, (the date of Angel’s death) until February 4 (32 days of treatment), Ms. Shuai was under extensive psychiatric care at Methodist. During that period, she arranged for the cremation of her daughter.  She was then discharged and immediately returned to work.  At nights, she slept alone with the ashes of her daughter next to her bed.

On March 14, 2011, Ms. Shuai was charged with murder and attempted feticide, and immediately incarcerated in the Marion County Jail without bail.  Murder, under Indiana law, requires immediate incarceration and no bail unless there is a finding that the State’s case is weak, i.e., the proof is not evident nor the presumption of guilt strong.

After serving 14 months in the Marion County Jail, Ms. Shuai was released on bond after the Indiana Court of Appeals found that she was entitled to bail since the State’s case was weak.

The Marion County Prosecutor could have, and should have, exercised his discretion to not file charges based upon his office’s unprecedented interpretation of the homicide laws.  The Prosecutor could have selected other felony charges such as voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, which are bailable offenses.  The decision to charge murder was a calculated decision – an attempt to force and pressure Ms. Shuai to remain in jail until she agreed to enter a plea of guilty to a lesser offense.

Attempted Suicide Is Not a Crime

It is not a crime to attempt to commit suicide.

The General Assembly, consistent with the recommendations of leading medical and public health authorities, has addressed the issue of attempted suicide as a public health issue, not a criminal matter.  Suicide is not illegal in China as well.  Pregnant women who attempt suicide are not prosecuted.  In fact, in China, a single woman who becomes pregnant would be seen as having an “illegal pregnancy,” thereby depriving the child of education and health care.

Indiana females die from suicide by poisoning more frequently than by any other method.  Pregnant women, like others, experience depression and commit suicide.  Indeed, suicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant women.

And while in the United States, more men typically complete suicide, in China, it is the opposite.

Women commit suicide by consuming rat poison and other pesticides because they are cheap, easy to obtain, and do not require a prescription.

Although pregnancy is generally perceived as a blissful time in a woman’s life, it is also a time of great vulnerability to mental illness, including depression.

Pregnant women, like the rest of the male and non-pregnant female population, cannot “snap out” of depression.  It is a physical infirmity that requires treatment and drugs to overcome.  Those suffering from severe depression cannot consciously and intentionally consider and understand their actions to harm themselves.  While many people take mental well-being for granted, for some, life is a balancing act to maintain control and stability throughout each day.

Pastor Rick Warren recently lost his son Matthew.  As he advised, his son, who battled depression, committed suicide “in a momentary wave of despair.”

Persons who commit suicide or make serious attempts to do so, are suffering from intolerable psychological pain and unable to seek counseling on their own.  To the contrary, it is their belief that suicide is the only solution to relieve their unbearable pain.

Because they are unable to seek help on their own, others must take control to ensure their well-being.

Mr. Quan, knowing that Ms. Shuai was depressed, suicidal, and pregnant made no attempt to help her seek counseling – and in fact, completely abandoned her.  Unlike Mr. Quan, friends of Ms. Shuai, when made aware of the suicide attempt, drove Ms. Shuai to the hospital to receive treatment.  For that, she was prosecuted.  Had she refused treatment, her child would not have had the possibility of birth.  Both would have died together.

The father of the child was never prosecuted by the State.  The Prosecutor’s office did not even interview him prior to the filing of the charges.  Remarkably, the State intends to call him as a witness against Ms. Shuai.

This Prosecution Affects All Women Who Are or May Become Pregnant

Based upon the Marion County Prosecutor’s interpretation of Indiana law, a woman attempting to commit suicide at any time during her pregnancy could be charged with Indiana’s homicide statutes regardless of the outcome of her pregnancy.  Creating a criminal law duty upon a pregnant woman allows prosecutors, police, and even medical providers,

the ability to subject women to surveillance and possible prosecution from the moment they become pregnant.

As a Maryland court found, applying criminal laws to a pregnant woman in relation to the fetus she carries would subject every pregnant woman who engages in virtually any injury-prone activity to criminal investigation including the:

Continued use of legal drugs that are contraindicated during pregnancy, to consuming alcoholic beverages to excess, to smoking, to not maintaining a proper and sufficient diet, to avoiding proper and available prenatal medical care, to failing to wear a seat belt while driving, to violating other traffic laws in ways that create a substantial risk of producing or exacerbating personal injury to her child, to exercising too much or too little.

A Georgia court warned that “Any woman who suffers a post-viability miscarriage could be subject to scrutiny regarding whether or not she intentionally acted to cause the miscarriage.”

Workplace and environmental hazards, such as exposure to chemicals or solvents, have documented links to stillbirths.

Numerous medical conditions and treatments, which are known to carry risk to a developing fetus, would be criminally suspect.

In addition, the choice to forgo certain medical treatments during pregnancy could be viewed as attempted murder and feticide.  As one scholar has noted, should the refusal to undergo a cesarean section be a criminal offense?

Other Unjust and Unconstitutional Prosecutions

Law enforcement officials do not always act wisely, particularly in areas where they are attempting to control the lives of pregnant women.  Although the overwhelming number of prosecutions against pregnant women in other states have been dismissed or found unconstitutional, the filing of criminal charges by law enforcement reveals the very real dangers that pregnant women face.  For example:

• A California prosecutor charged a pregnant woman with criminal neglect in part because she failed to follow her doctor’s orders to stay off her feet and refrain from sexual intercourse while she was pregnant.
• An Iowa prosecutor charged a 22-year-old woman with attempted feticide because the State claimed she intentionally fell down the stairs of her home to end her pregnancy, even though there was no harm to her baby.
• Massachusetts prosecutors charged a woman with involuntary manslaughter based upon her “decision” not to seek medical assistance in the midst of unassisted and unanticipated childbirth.
• Memphis police arrested 4 month pregnant Hispanic woman following an automobile accident even though her alcohol blood level was only ½ of the legal limit, because she was purportedly endangering her fetus.

It Is Not Scientifically Sound to Conclude that a Pregnant 

Woman’s Conduct Caused Injury to her Fetus

Like what has taken place in Ms. Shuai’s case, many prosecutors and the police often jump to immediate conclusions that simply because a pregnant woman engaged in conduct that they deemed inappropriate, that conduct causes harm to the woman’s fetus.  That is simply not the case.

Pregnancy is complicated.  Although many women suffer stillbirths and newborns die, oftentimes no one understands the cause.  As the United States Supreme Court has found, and medical experts agree, what causes death or injury to a fetus often cannot be established by scientifically sound evidence.

In North Carolina, Regina McKnight, a 21-year old African American woman, suffered an unexpected stillbirth.  Although it would later be shown that the stillbirth was the result of an infection, McKnight was convicted of child abuse because the State alleged that the stillbirth was a result of cocaine use.  After eight years imprisonment, an appellate court described the research upon which the state relied to obtain her conviction as “outdated” and found that McKnight’s trial counsel had failed to call experts who would have testified about recent studies showing that cocaine is no more harmful to a fetus than nicotine use, poor nutrition, lack of prenatal care, or other conditions commonly associated with the urban poor.

In Louisiana, a 26-year-old African American woman, went to a hospital complaining of bleeding and stomach pain.  Doctors suspected that she had given birth and contacted the police resulting in charges of second-degree murder and incarceration.  Eventually her counsel obtained medical records which revealed that the fetus could not have been older than between 11 to 15 weeks and that prior to her miscarriage she had been given a contraceptive injection that may cause a miscarriage if administered to a woman who is already pregnant.

In this case, the prosecutors inappropriately leaped to the conclusion that Ms. Shuai’s ingestion of poison was the cause of her daughter’s death without consulting any experts who would have advised that the molecular structure of the poison involved is so large that it did not necessarily cross the placenta to the fetus, much of the poison that she consumed was absorbed by charcoal treatments administered to her upon admission to the hospital, drugs were administered to Ms. Shuai which can cause bleeding in a premature newborn’s brain, and that other medical treatment decisions were made that could have affected her daughter’s survival.

Gender Discrimination

It is now legal for anyone in the Indiana who suffers from depression and attempts suicide to escape criminal prosecution – unless you happen to be a pregnant woman.  “Since time immemorial, women’s biology and ability to bear children have been used as a basis for discrimination against them.”

It constitutes purposeful gender discrimination for a state to place additional restrictions on women than men in reliance on invalid gender stereotypes, including stereotypes about women’s roles as “mothers or mothers-to-be.”

State action that burdens women because of pregnancy is gender discrimination.

The State’s prosecution is based upon the premise that a pregnant woman’s fetus is more important than the pregnant woman herself.  As summarized in a national publication addressing the prosecution of Ms. Shuai, “By elevating the fetus, or embryos and eggs, these measures diminish the humanity and dignity of all women while creating a separate legal regime for pregnant women that makes them lesser citizens.”

The Marion County Prosecutor’s focus solely on the pregnant woman’s alleged acts reveals the discriminatory nature of the prosecution.  Ms. Shuai did not become pregnant by herself.  In this case, the father was the catalyst of her emotional breakdown.  The father, who promised to care for her and their child, instead abandoned them.  He was not prosecuted.  Instead, the State has identified him as a witness against the woman he deceived and shamefully mistreated.

Selective Prosecution, Racial and Ethnic Discrimination

It should come as no surprise that the first woman to ever be charged in Indiana with murder and feticide is Chinese and an immigrant.  Research has established that the prosecutions of pregnant women have been selectively enforced and adversely and disproportionally affect pregnant women who are poor and of color.

In South Carolina, a prosecutor’s office worked out a deal with a hospital for it to refer pregnant women who tested positive for drugs to the prosecutor’s office for criminal charges.  Every women that was charged was African American with the exception of one white woman, who the nurse noted had  “a negro boyfriend.”

Although white women are far more likely to engage in conduct harmful to their baby’s health, including drinking alcohol and abusing prescription drugs, minority women are more frequently targeted for prosecution.  In the context of fetal “harm” laws and crack-baby imagery, black women are typically described as irresponsible and promiscuous and continue to be juxtaposed to that of white women who are “pure and fragile.”

“Policing wombs brings private, intimate spaces into the public theatre, creating spectacles of poor, pregnant women and their children; and these public humiliations function to visually inscribe these women’s place in the social hierarchy.”  What has been described as “womb policing” is based upon the State’s belief that women’s reproduction capabilities constitute property or chattel owned and observed by the larger community.  As one scholar has noted, these prosecutions harken back to slavery’s days where the white master owned the womb of all slaves and the children they bore.

Criminal Prosecutions Have the Tragic Effect of Encouraging Abortions

Women with histories of mental health problems, depression, addictions, and other health conditions that may prevent them from being able to ensure a healthy birth outcome, as well as women who cannot afford comprehensive prenatal care, drug treatment, and mental health services if they need them, are forced to consider terminating their pregnancies to avoid prison should they experience a miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death if this misguided prosecution prevails.

Prosecutions against women for allegedly endangering fetal health have caused women to terminate pregnancies when they would otherwise not have chosen to do so.

In North Dakota, Martina Greywind, a Native American, approximately twelve weeks pregnant, was charged with reckless endangerment based on the claim that she allegedly was inhaling paint fumes, and thus, was creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death to her unborn child.  Ms. Greywind then obtained an abortion.  As a result, the prosecutor dropped the charges since she had terminated her pregnancy.

This is not a pro-life or pro-choice case.  Both sides can agree that it is not in society’s best interest to be pro-incarceration.  The increase in incarceration of women underscores the biased, discriminatory, and disproportional application of criminal laws to women and is alarming.  In Indiana, the female imprisonment population increased by 267% from 1990 to 2011, as compared to the male population increase of 119%. “While the male population is more than twice its level in 1990, the female population has nearly quadrupled.”  See, K. Guerra, “More Women Behind Bars,” Indianapolis Star, April 14, 2103.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Murder, a criminal charge carrying a sentence of 45 to 65 years upon a pregnant woman attempting the legal act of suicide who is no threat to society, constitutes a disproportionate punishment in violation of the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment guaranteed by both the United States and Indiana Constitutions.

Prosecuting a woman for murder cannot be justified and is at odds with related laws.  The Indiana abortion laws do not criminalize a pregnant woman for not complying with the abortion statutes.  Indeed, if Ms. Shuai had obtained an abortion in her third trimester, she could not be prosecuted under Indiana abortion laws – only those performing the procedure would be held criminally responsible.

Never before in Indiana’s history has a pregnant woman been subject to a murder charge for allegedly harming her fetus.  In fact, for most of Indiana’s history, a pregnant woman who consumed any substance which allegedly could have resulted in the loss of a fetus, would only face the potential of a misdemeanor charge.  Even then, the misdemeanor statute was never enforced.  The only cases prosecuted were filed against those performing the abortion because they resulted in the painful death suffered by the woman.  After Roe v. Wade, the misdemeanor was repealed and never replaced by another criminal law directed at a pregnant woman.

The disproportionality of the charges and punishment become clear when compared to real murder prosecutions filed by the Marion County Prosecutor.  The three defendants who caused the Richmond Hill Gas Explosion killing two individuals and decimating a city block resulting in millions of dollars of damages and costs, have been charged with the murder and will be subject to the same sentence as Ms. Shuai.  The Marion County Prosecutor has charged Ms. Shuai with the same crimes as two bank robbers who shot and almost killed a pregnant bank teller resulting in the death of her twins.  The State has filed the same charges against Ms. Shuai that it filed against Paul Baird who killed his pregnant wife while she was sleeping and his parents thereafter.

Conclusion

Bei Bei Shuai deserves freedom and justice.  Every person who understands the human condition and believes in justice should join the fight to free her.

We ask that the charge of murder be dropped both as a matter of fact and a matter of law. A judicial ruling excluded the forensic pathologist’s conclusion on which the charge was based as “unreliable”. Bei Bei Shuai has served over a year in jail and lingered two years and four months without a reliable link between the poison and the death. Furthermore, the life/choice binary model of abortion debates is too simplistic to be the basis for framing public health policy and criminal charges. Prenatal murder is a contrived and novel type of murder. It is cruel and unusual to charge a grieving mother of such a thing.

We ask also that the charge of attempted feticide be dropped in the light of four values: Honesty, Health, Compassion, and Justice.

Honesty calls for the intent of the law and application of the law to match.  Feticide statutes were enacted to punish violence against pregnant women. There is no legislative history in Indiana for application of feticide statutes to charge a pregnant woman for an act that may have harmful effects on herself and her pregnancy. Honesty, integrity and due process calls for this to be treated as the suicide attempt it was.

Public Health calls for creating legal conditions for new life to thrive. Medical ethics recognize the humanity of the pregnant woman. In an emergency, everything possible should be done to save the life of the mother and optimize conditions for the baby. That optimizes the entire process of reproduction and the family. If social services are mandated or allowed to report fetal endangerment as if it were child endangerment, ethical and confidential medical care is criminalized. It will create conditions for preventable deaths such as Savita Halappanavar’s, along with that of her fetus, in Ireland.

The loss of medical confidentiality and possible exposure to investigation and arrest will deter a pregnant woman from seeking health care for depression. Furthermore, it will deter health care providers from screening for depression or behavior that may be unhealthy. Fear of being reported may coerce a woman to have an abortion she doesn’t want.  (“Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women in the United States, 1973–2005: Implications for Women’s Legal Status and Public Health”, Journal of Health Policy, Politics and Law, Vol. 38 No.2, Paltrow and Flavin, Jan. 13, 2013) For the best public health, pregnant women should be supported with confidential patient-centered health care, not state-centered criminal penalties.

Compassion calls us to recognize that pregnancy happens to women who already have chronic illness and other problems, and pregnancy usually makes them worse. To charge and incarcerate a woman for mental illness or an act that would not be a crime if she weren’t pregnant wrongly makes her a criminal, worsens her mental health, endangers her physical health, reduces her employment opportunities and brings forth new life into conditions less likely to sustain it. Compassion would assure that theoretic legal rights of a fetus must not cause a woman harm or infringe on her right to medical confidentiality.  

Justice means all people are born equal under the law. The state has a clear interest in maternal and fetal health, and experts agree that defending the rights of a pregnant woman is essential for healthy pregnancy, childbirth and families. The state’s interest must align with the reality that a pregnant woman does not biologically compete with her fetus. The fetus consumes from its mother’s body whatever it needs to grow. Although pregnancy is romanticized in the prevailing culture, in reality it renders a woman both physically and socially more vulnerable. Through all parts of our society, intimate partner/spousal violence and murder rise during pregnancy. It is unhealthy, illogical and unfair to allow pregnancy to diminish a person’s rights.

Despite the prevailing impression to the contrary, the fetus is the most sheltered, not the most vulnerable, form of human life. Birth is the first moment a fetus leaves the shelter of its mother’s body and becomes highly vulnerable. Birth is also the first moment others can participate in direct care of the baby. A fetus is submerged in fluid. A baby breathes air. These are sharp biological and social shifts. To confer the rights of personhood at the legal limit of viability (about halfway through term) does not fit the biologic reality and severely intrudes on the rights of the mother and health of both. Personhood at birth has been the foundation of equality and of healthy reproduction.

The idea of fetal rights emerged from legalization of certain abortions, but paradoxically, in context of the continuing pregnancy, fetal rights don’t help the fetus and don’t fit reality. As part of abortion politics in other states, feticide and fetal endangerment charges against pregnant women and new mothers have been disproportionately invoked against low-income women and women of color. (Paltrow and Flavin). A just and logical precedent wouldn’t legally separate the fetus from the pregnant woman and wouldn’t increase gender, race and class inequality.

For reproductive justice in Indiana, please drop all charges against Bei Bei Shuai. 

Respectfully,

Carolyn Meagher, Co-President and Sue Ellen Braunlin, MD, Co-President

The Indiana Religious Coalition in Support of Reproductive Justice

In Shadows of Innocence: Sexual Assault Among Indiana’s Youth, we take a look at the high rate of sexual assault in Indiana, and we’ll also look at states that are doing much better to find out what they’re doing differently. The ultimate purpose is to create awareness about how Indiana schools are preventing sexual assault and inspire discussion about whether policy changes are needed.

The video can be seen online here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

April 4, 2013

SATURDAY, APRIL 6 RALLY IN SUPPORT OF BEI BEI SHUAI

A rally for Bei Bei Shuai is being held Saturday, April 6, 2:00 at the City Market to express opposition to the prosecution of Bei Bei Shuai. Lynn Paltrow, founder of National Advocates for Pregnant Women is the featured speaker along with representatives from Eve Ensler’s One Billion Rising movement, Backline, Law Students for Reproductive Justice at IU Maurer School of Law, National Asian and Pacific Islander Women’s Forum, and National Organization for Women. Clergy, lawyers, health care providers, researchers, professors and others will speak.

Protesters assert that the charges of murder and attempted feticide aren’t appropriate for a suicide attempt. Suicide is not a crime in any state.

More than two years ago Bei Bei Shuai was pregnant and, in an act of desperation, sought to kill herself. Friends intervened and got her to a hospital. She was treated, survived and did everything she could to ensure the health of her baby, including undergoing preterm emergency cesarean surgery. The baby was born alive, but tragically did not survive.

Over 80 medical, mental health, public health, and health advocacy groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs on her behalf. The weight of expert opinion is that criminalizing pregnant women discourages women from seeking the prenatal care they need.

Supporters demand that Marion County Prosecutor drop all charges for three reasons:

1) Bei Bei Shuai’s medical confidentiality should never have been violated. She should never have been charged. She deserves immediate freedom.

2) Non-punitive health care for pregnant women with mental illness improves the well-being of women and newborns.

3) It is undemocratic to create a system in which pregnant women are a separate class of people with unequal rights.

Carolyn Meagher and Sue Ellen Braunlin

Co-Presidents of Indiana Religious Coalition in Support of Reproductive Justice

http://www.ircrc.org

(317) 271-5386

https://www.facebook.com/events/466211466761802/?fref=ts

The Angela Carder case illustrates how detrimental this is. Compelling Pregnancy at Death’s Door is a discussion of model end-of-life legislation that includes pregnant women. The American College of OBGYN physicians has position statements on women’s autonomy at the end of life while pregnant.

Unfortunately, the authors and sponsors of this bill did not consult an OBGYN physician in writing this law that excludes dying pregnant women from the protections it offers at the end of life.

SB 371 has also passed both house and is awaiting Governor Pence’s signature, which is almost assured. We plan to have a statement of opposition when this occurs.

HAPA urges all legislators to reject SB371.

HAPA, the Health Access and Privacy Alliance, is a coalition of religious, civic, educational, professional and health organizations working together for reproductive justice in Indiana.

Medication abortion is an early-stage procedure. The patient takes two pills after an exam by her physician. A follow-up exam ensures the pregnancy has been safely terminated.

We monitor the activity of the Indiana legislature and evaluate bills that affect reproductive health care in light of four values: Honesty, Health, Compassion, and Justice.

SB371 fails all four criteria.

Honesty calls for the stated purpose and the real purpose of a bill to match. Under the false pretense of patient safety, SB371 is intended to decrease the number of clinics that provide medication abortion. By mandating a specific dose enforced by criminal penalties, the legislature is practicing medicine without a license, criminalizing best medical practice and depriving patients of the knowledge, experience and training they seek from their doctor. If you value honesty, you will vote NO on SB371.

Health calls for doctors to follow best clinical practices. The outdated FDA protocol is three times the current best practice dose of mifepristone. Medication abortion is safe and appropriate for an outpatient setting (Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nov. 2012). Abortion is 14 times safer than childbirth (Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feb 2012). SB371 also will have unintended consequences in treatment of life-threatening ectopic pregnancy and when it is medically necessary to induce labor prior to viability. If you value women’s health, you will vote NO on SB371.

Compassion calls for more access to healthcare services, not less. The woman denied an abortion is three times more likely to descend into poverty within the next two years (Turnaway Study). Most women who seek abortion are already mothers. If you value compassion, you will vote NO on SB371.

Justice calls for equal access to safe and legal abortion. Further restricting access will perpetuate systemic racism, widen economic disparities and increase dependence on public services. If you value justice, you will vote NO on SB371.

HAPA partners request that you vote the only way that makes sense for Indiana, women’s health and their families: Vote NO on SB371.

Carolyn Meagher, HAPA Co-President Sue Ellen Braunlin, MD, HAPA Co-President
Affiliated with Indiana Religious Coalition in support of Reproductive Justice info@ircrc.org

Partners: American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana; Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Indiana Chapter; Center for Inquiry Indiana; Central Indiana Jobs with Justice; Congregation Beth-El Zedeck; First Congregational United Church of Christ; Indianapolis; Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation; Jewish Community Relations Council; League of Women Voters of Indiana, Greater Lafayette and Muncie-Delaware County; National Association of Social Workers Indiana Chapter; National Council of Jewish Women; National Organization for Women, Indiana Chapter and Indianapolis Chapter; Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana; Planned Parenthood of Indiana; Women’s Pavilion; The National Association of Social Workers Indiana Chapter; The Women’s Medical Center, Medical Students for Choice IUPUI

Free Bei Bei Shuai Now

To Indiana Attorney General Zoeller and Marion County Prosecutor Curry,

The organizations and individuals listed below respectfully urge you to drop all charges against Bei Bei Shuai.

We ask that the charge of murder be dropped. The rat poison (brodifacoum) doesn’t cross the placenta and the judicial ruling excluded the conclusion of the forensic pathologist as unreliable. There isn’t a provable link to the baby’s death.

We ask that the charge of attempted feticide be dropped in the light of four values: Honesty, Health, Compassion, and Justice.

Honesty calls for the intent of the law and application of the law to match. A suicide attempt while pregnant is not a feticide attempt. To apply feticide charges is a failure to grasp that a pregnant woman is a single, but complex, being. Suicide is not a crime in Indiana. Feticide statues were enacted to punish violence against pregnant women. There is no legislative history in Indiana for application of feticide statutes to charge a pregnant woman for an act that may have harmful effects on herself and her pregnancy. It is quite difficult for a pregnant woman to die without the death of her fetus. Proof that she knew so isn’t proof of anything. Honesty, integrity and due process calls for this to be treated as the suicide attempt it was.

Public Health calls for creating legal conditions for new life to thrive. Medical ethics recognizes the unity of pregnancy. In an emergency, everything possible should be done to save the life of the mother first and then optimize conditions for the baby. That optimizes reproduction. If social services are mandated or allowed to report fetal endangerment as if it were child endangerment, medical ethics is criminalized. It will create conditions for preventable deaths such as Savita Halappanavar’s, along with that of her fetus, in Ireland.

The loss of HIPPA rights and possible exposure to investigation and arrest will deter a pregnant woman from seeking health care for depression or a drug problem. Furthermore, it will deter health care providers from screening for depression or behavior that may be unhealthy. It may coerce a woman to have an abortion she does not want. (“Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women in the United States, 1973–2005: Implications for Women’s Legal Status and Public Health”, Journal of Health Policy, Politics and Law, Vol. 38 No.2, Paltrow and Flavin, Jan. 13, 2013) For the best public health outcome, a precedent would be set to support reproduction with health care, not criminal penalties.

Compassion calls us to recognize that pregnancy often happens to women who already have illness and other problems, and pregnancy makes them worse. To charge and incarcerate a pregnant woman or new mother for mental illness or fetal endangerment wrongly makes her a criminal, worsens her mental health, endangers her physical health, reduces her employment opportunities and brings forth new life into conditions less likely to sustain it. Compassion would assure that theoretic legal rights of a fetus must not deprive a woman of health care or infringe on her rights.

Justice means all people are born equal under the law. The state has a clear interest in fetal health, and that interest must align with the reality that a pregnant woman and her fetus aren’t biological adversaries and aren’t separate. The unity of pregnancy thrives, or fails to thrive, as one. Although pregnancy is romanticized in the prevailing culture, in reality it renders a woman both physically and socially more vulnerable. The fetus is designed to consume from its mother’s body whatever it needs to grow. Through all parts of our society, the risk of lost income, intimate partner/spousal violence and murder rise during pregnancy. It is dangerous, illogical and unfair for a woman to have unequal rights because her body is creating a new life.

Despite claims to the contrary, the fetus is the least vulnerable form of human life. Birth is the first moment a fetus leaves the shelter of its mother’s body and becomes highly vulnerable. It is also the first moment the village can participate in the raising of the child. These are sharp biological shifts. To confer the rights of personhood at the legal limit of viability (about halfway through term) does not fit the biologic reality and severely intrudes on the rights and health of both. Personhood at birth is the foundation of equality and of healthy reproduction.

The system of fetal rights emerged from legalization of certain abortions, but paradoxically, in context of the continued pregnancy, fetal rights don’t help the fetus and don’t fit reality. As part of abortion politics in other states, feticide and fetal endangerment charges against pregnant women and new mothers have been disproportionately invoked against low-income women and women of color. (Paltrow and Flavin). A just and logical precedent would legally acknowledge the unity of the pregnant condition and avoid a precedent well known to be a source of gender, race and class discrimination.

For reproductive justice in Indiana, please drop all charges against Bei Bei Shuai.

Respectfully,

Carolyn Meagher, Co-President and Sue Ellen Braunlin, MD, Co-President
The Indiana Religious Coalition in Support of Reproductive Justice
Mary Kate Dugan, President of National Organization of Women, Indiana
Amy Shackelford, Ex. Dir, Central Indiana Jobs with Justice
Penny Kiker, President, American Association of University Women, Indianapolis
Anna Gaddy, President, Medical Students for Choice, IUSM Chapter
Lela Rae McCoy, Feminist Law Society, IUPUI

Other ways to contact the prosecutor’s office:

Facebook “Marion County Prosecutors’ Office” has a field for “recommendations”.
(317) 327-3522
MCPO@indy.gov

Mr. Terry Curry
Marion County Prosecutors Office
251 East Ohio Street, Suite 1070
Indianapolis, IN 46204

The office is on Twitter @MCProsecutors.
Tweet about Bei Bei with #Hoosiers4BeiBei.

Free Bei Bei (Official) is the Facebook page for the defense team.
@FreeBeiBei is the Twitter account for the defense team.

IRCRC and others organized a Rally for Bei Bei at the City Market April 6, 2013. News video of the Rally from Channel 8 WISH TV can be seen here. About 150 protesters demand that Terry Curry drop all charges.

Lynn Paltrow, founder of National Advocates for Pregnant Women is the featured speaker along with representatives from Eve Ensler’s One Billion Rising movement, Backline, Law Students for Reproductive Justice at IU Maurer School of Law, National Asian and Pacific Islander Women’s Forum, and National Organization for Women Indianapolis. Clergy, lawyers, health care providers, researchers, professors and others spoke for over two hours.

1) Bei Bei Shuai’s medical confidentiality should never have been violated. She should never have been charged. She deserves immediate freedom.

2) Non-punitive health care for pregnant women with mental illness improves the well-being of women and newborns.

3) It is profoundly undemocratic to create legal mechanisms in which pregnant women are a separate class of people with unequal rights.

Lynn Paltrow just finished a whirlwind tour of Indiana campuses to speak on Indiana and the New Jane Crow. She spoke with the OB residents at IUMS 10:30, IUPUI law school 4:00, Butler at 7:00. On Thursday Mar 28, she spoke at IUPU Fort Wayne at  7:00. On Friday March 29, Lynn spoke at the law school in IU Bloomington.

And Lynn will be back April 6, Saturday 2:00. Rally for Bei Bei at the City Market, 222 E. Market Street, Indianapolis. Speakers will include Rev. Marie Siroky, Carolyn Meagher, Lynn Paltrow, Linda Pence, and Bei Bei. A special statement from Eve Ensler will be read.

The latest update is that the trial will be delayed until September 3, 2013. The prosecution has also asked that the court restrict spectators from wearing lapel buttons and restrict the defense from asking about the religious beliefs of witnesses or questions that generate sympathy.

Judge Sheila Carlisle earlier ruled that the conclusion of the forensic pathologist report will be excluded from the trial as being “unreliable”. Indeed it was. Brodifacoum transport across the placenta is restricted by its large molecular weight and the baby did not die of exsanguination. The Marion County Prosecutor, Terry Curry, is conferring with the Indiana Attorney General, Greg Zoeller, about whether to drop the murder charge, get another pathologist, or appeal the ruling. The murder charge will be difficult to prosecute, he says, but the attempted feticide charge does not require proof that the suicide attempt was harmful to the fetus.

The state of Indiana will put Bei Bei Shuai on trial on September 3, 2013. International attention is already focused on the novel constructions of both murder and feticide in her case. Ms. Shuai is a Chinese immigrant who had a restaurant in Indiana. She was 33 weeks pregnant with her co-owner’s child when he abandoned her to return to a family she did not know existed. She attempted suicide, was rescued, and had an early C-section in a desperate effort to save her baby. Her baby was prematurely born alive but succumbed after four days of intensive care. After five weeks of treatment for depression and grief, Ms. Shuai was charged with murder and imprisoned for over a year. This confluence of events was contrived as the never-before-seen crime of prenatal murder of a four day old baby. This advances the trend to criminalize pregnant women for unhealthy behaviors and poor outcomes instead of supporting them with proven harm reduction strategies.

The conflation of child endangerment with “fetal endangerment” undermine the standard of care for pregnant women. Medical ethics and law support doing everything possible to save the life of a mother and then optimizing conditions to nurture the fetus. A new study by ANSIRH (Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health) shows that 52% of OBGYNs have experienced ethical conflicts in Catholic hospitals about pregnancy emergencies.Prosecuting reports of “fetal endangerment” is a violation of a pregnant woman’s HIPPA rights and is substandard care.

Pregnancy already carries heavy physical, emotional, and social burdens. A woman’s risk of death by homicide and by suicide are higher while pregnant than any other time of her life. To advance the legal status of the fetus at the expense of maternal personhood does not reflect the biology of pregnancy. The maternal/fetal complex is one entity and the fetus is a dependent. Older dependent children have a stake, too. Our communities cannot thrive if we do not deeply understand pregnancy.

Many influential lawyers, doctors and clergy tend to encourage a religiously inspired Indiana ideal of financially dependent women in heterosexual marriage giving birth to more children than they want. They promote laws that compound negative consequences for those who do not conform. The pregnancies of some women are romanticized and some women’s are presumed to be social problems. These social engineering strategies of the “pro-life” political positions and opposition to marriage equality undermine public health. They have stigmatized knowledge about sexual health. Indiana ranks in 49th place in prevention of unintended pregnancy and 2nd in rape of high school age girls. Our public health markers as a nation, and especially as a state, are deplorable.

These social issues do not exist in separate silos. They interact to compound discrimination by income, race, gender and sexual orientation.

With expanded knowledge of sexual health and reproduction, access to family planning, health care, high quality child care, economic opportunity and harm reduction instead of criminalization of pregnant women, more families can raise children well. Reproductive justice is an authentic pro-life strategy for all families. That’s what Holland did, and it has the lowest abortion rate in the world and healthier families.

Old ideas are deeply entrenched in Indiana. Now is the time for Indiana clergy and people of faith to be alert, informed and stand up to build grass roots support for reproductive justice.