Police: Pregnant teen beaten in effort to miscarry

[Kadie]

Police: Pregnant teen beaten in effort to miscarry

Friday, May 22, 2009

(05-22) 14:43 PDT NAPLES, Utah (AP) --

A man in Utah beat a pregnant teenager who asked him to do so in an effort to induce a miscarriage, police said Friday.

Arron N. Harrison, 21, was jailed in lieu of $10,000 bail for allegedly beating a 17-year-old girl whose name authorities haven't released. She is also in custody.

"I haven't decided who's more at fault," Mark Watkins, police chief of Naples, 130 miles east of Salt Lake City, told The Associated Press. "She was just as cold as the assailant — we're not going to treat her as a victim."

Uintah County deputy attorney Mark Thomas said he plans to file a second-degree felony charge of attempted homicide against Harrison on Friday. Harrison is expected to appear in court Tuesday and faces one to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Harrison pummeled the girl's abdomen in an effort to cause a miscarriage, Watkins said.

"Her intention was, in fact, to abort the child — to terminate the pregnancy," he said.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/22/national/a121853D21.DTL&tsp=1

[Warpy]

1. This is why abortion has to be legal, safe, and AVAILABLE

because desperate women and girls will do horrible things to try to rid themselves of an unwanted pregnancy.

I was an adult before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. I remember the horror very well.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. I remember too. I had to check the date for the article just to be sure. n/t

[glowing]

3. No surprise, Utah.. Mormon capital.. Its probaly very near impossible to find

or have access or know where to get an abortion.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Utah has parental consent laws.

The girl would probably have gotten an abortion from a doctor, otherwise.