Maryland Man Tries to Cause Girlfriend’s Abortion by Spiking Her Drink 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 16, 2007
Galea, MD (LifeNews.com) — A Maryland man is in police custody after being accused of spiking his pregnant girlfriend’s drink with a cattle hormone in an attempt to cause an abortion. The case is the latest in what has become a national phenomenon of boyfriends or husbands attacking their pregnant partners to kill their unborn children.
In this case, 25-year-old William Stanley Sutton III added the ProstaMate to a soft drink his 21-year-old girlfriend Lauren Ashley Tucker was about to consume. The chemical is given to cows to stimulate pregnancy or cause an abortion in certain circumstances.
Tucker drank the concoction and reported to doctors later that it tasted foul and burned her throat as she drank it. She told police Sutton told her that the soft drink would help her upset stomach.
Sutton is the father of the baby and Tucker told authorities he wanted her to have an abortion. She refused.
According to an AP report, Sutton went to the hospital on August 9 and complained of a possible poisoning.
Both Sutton and her 15 week-old unborn child survived the incident and Sutton has been charged with reckless endangerment, assault and contaminating Tucker’s drink. Police are also investigating whether Sutton spiked Tucker drink on a previous occasion.
AP reported that Sutton said he didn’t intend to cause Tucker any harm, but admitted he wanted her to have a miscarriage and to cause the baby’s death.
He has been released on a $50,000 bond and a judge has instructed him not to contact Tucker during the trial.
The case brings more attention to violence against pregnant women, especially those whose refusals to have abortions spark violent rage in their partners.
Maryland is one of 35 states that have a law protecting pregnant women and their unborn children and providing them with justice when they are injured or killed in an attack.
Some 25 of the states, allow prosecutors to bring forth two charges at any time during the pregnancy for death or injury to both mother and child and another 10 states, including Maryland only protect women and children in the latter stages of pregnancy.
A 2005 Maryland law says prosecutors may bring charges in the death of a baby only if the unborn child is past the point of viability.
