Wisconsin Man Who Tried to Cause Girlfriend’s Abortion Has Hearing Delayed 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 3, 2007
Appleton, WI (LifeNews.com) — A Wisconsin man who charged with trying to get his girlfriend to have an abortion by secretly slipping her the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug has had his initial hearing delayed. Manishkumar Patel posted a cash bond of $750,000 for his bail on Saturday and the hearing will now take place January 30.
Patel, a 34 year-old who is reportedly wealthy, is charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for trying to cause his unnamed girlfriend to abort her twin babies.
Because Patel was released, Outagamie County Court was not required to have a hearing within a 10-day time limit normally used after a criminal has been charged.
According to an AP report, Patel appeared before Commissioner Brian Figy and answered several questions before he was released. Despite posting bond, Patel must visit with officials at a reporting center twice a week until the hearing.
During the hearing, Thomas Zoesch and former Outagamie County Circuit Judge Brad Priebe appeared on Patel’s behalf.
Former Atty. Gen. Peg Lautenschlager said she is representing the victim and that the woman is considering filing a civil lawsuit against Patel in addition to the criminal charges he already faces.
The woman in question had a recent miscarriage and another one 10 months ago and Patel is suspected of causing them both. He could face 94 years in prison on the charges.
The woman says she believes Patel had given her mifepristone, or the RU 486 abortion drug, which has been responsible for the deaths of thirteen women worldwide (and six in the United States) and injuring more than 1,100 women in the U.S. alone.
News reports indicate Patel may have purchased the drug illegally from India.
Pro-life groups are saddened by the case but encouraged that an unborn victims law they pressed for is being used to hold Patel accountable for possibly trying to kill the woman’s two unborn children.
"Without Wisconsin’s Fetal Homicide Law, there would be no basis on which to charge Patel in the death of the child," Susan Armacost, the legislative director of Wisconsin Right to Life, told LifeNews.com.
"As horrible as this situation is for the child’s mother, she can at least be comforted by the fact that her child is recognized as a victim under the Fetal Homicide Law and that the death of her child is a crime in Wisconsin," Armacost added.
Wisconsin’s Fetal Homicide Law was enacted in 1998.
The law recognizes unborn children as separate victims when they are killed or injured as the result of violence directed toward the unborn child’s mother or the unborn child by a third party. The law applies regardless of the gestational age of the unborn child.
