Man Kills Girlfriend Refusing Abortion, Hides Body in Trunk

State   |   Andrew Bair   |   May 3, 2012   |   1:21PM   |   Baltimore, MD

Last Friday, Prince George’s County Police in District Heights, Maryland found pregnant 23-year-old Jasmine Nichelle Moss dead in the trunk of a car.

Her estranged boyfriend, 22-year old Nathan Cedric Rogers, who lives just a block from the crime scene, is under arrest. He is being held without bond and awaits a hearing on his competency to stand trial. Friends of Moss report that she was pregnant with Rogers’ child.

While Moss was set on carrying the child to term, Rogers had urged her to get an abortion. According to Moss’s friends, once it became clear Moss was not going to get an abortion, Rogers denied the child was his. The couple reportedly broke up shortly after Rogers found out about the pregnancy.

Police found Moss with stab wounds to her upper body in the trunk of a car parked around the block from Rogers’ home. Rogers’ neighbor Kim Jarmon reported hearing commotion coming from Rogers’ home on Friday evening. She told police, “I didn’t realize what it was. I heard the lady crying or moaning and making noises, but she never said words, and there was never another voice.”

Tragically, stories of violent crimes committed against pregnant mothers and their unborn children are not uncommon. Earlier this year, just a several minutes’ drive from where Jasmine Nichelle Moss and her unborn child were killed, a D.C. pregnant mother was attacked in the middle of the night and her unborn child stabbed to death. While the laws of 36 states, including Maryland, regard the death of the baby as a homicide, the District of Columbia does not.

In response to that case, National Right to Life Legislative Director Doug Johnson said, “This case provides another demonstration that in our nation’s capital, an unborn child has absolutely no right to life at any moment prior to birth. In the eyes of current local law, nobody died in this crime – not unless prosecutors can prove that (the child) was born alive before he died. Under current D.C. law, the unborn child is a complete legal non-entity, even during the final months of pre-natal development.”

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act, passed in 2004 and signed into law by President Bush, recognizes an unborn child as a second victim in a crime committed against a pregnant mother. This statute could be used in the case of Jasmine Nichelle Moss in order for justice to be exacted for her life and that of her child.

Truly appalling is the opposition of abortion advocates to laws like the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Abigail Eve wrote on the Change.org blog, “Bestowing personhood on fetuses creates an immediate rift between a woman’s right to choose and a fetus’ “right to life.” It would be naive to believe that this rift will not exploited. So, while it may be uncomfortable to make this case, using a tragedy to promote an anti-choice agenda is downright disturbing.” The blogger then provides a link to a petition to urge elected officials to repeal the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.

It is worth noting that not only radical pro-abortion bloggers oppose these efforts to protect pregnant mothers and their unborn children, but many elected officials currently serving also oppose these statutes. That list includes several incumbents up for reelection in 2012 like Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Ben Cardin (D-MD).

Others include 2012 candidates for Senate including Congresswomen Shelley Berkley (D) in Nevada and Tammy Baldwin (D) in Wisconsin. Republican Congressman Ron Paul, who has not yet suspended his presidential campaign, also voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. President Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden voted against the UVVA while serving as a senator from Delaware.