Prosecutors have their hands full in the case of Christy Freeman, the Ocean City, Md., woman accused in the deaths of four preborn babies found on her property. Not only do they have to show a baby meets the state’s “viable fetus” statute, but also that Freeman is not covered by a disputed loophole in the law.
The American Civil Liberties Union contends that Freeman meets the law’s exemption for “an act or failure to act of a pregnant woman with regard to her own fetus.” Cindy Boersma, legislative director of the Maryland ACLU, told The Associated Press there is nothing ambiguous about the exemption. “The only reason the bill passed was because it explicitly contained that exemption,” she said.
But state Delegate Susan K. McComas, the Republican co-sponsor of the 2005 bill, disagrees. She told the AP that the exemption, added by majority Democrats, was never intended to legalize infanticide, but merely to preserve a woman’s legal right to an abortion. “We weren’t contemplating a woman doing something to her own fetus,” McComas said.
