Utah Man Pleads Guilty to Forced Miscarriage, Gave Girlfriend Abortion Drug
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 16, 2010
Grand Junction, CO (LifeNews.com) — A Utah man who formerly resided in Colorado has pleaded guilty to giving his pregnant girlfriend the second part of the two-part abortion drug in an attempt to force her to have an abortion. This is the latest incident in what is becoming a growing national and international phenomenon.
In this case, 31-year-old Jared Merril faces a felony charge of unlawful termination of pregnancy.
The Grand Junction Sentinel newspaper indicates Ahlstrom pleaded guilty to that charge in court today.
He is not covered under a plea agreement and, as a result faces an open sentence that could net him anywhere from probation to 12 years in prison on the class four felony charge. Mesa County District Judge Thomas Deister will determine the sentencing on May 3.
After he moved from Colorado to Utah, Ahlstrom sent emails to his former girlfriend saying he had given her misoprostol to cause an abortion.
He allegedly obtained the drug, which is an ulcer medication that is misused in the two-part RU 486 abortion drug process to cause contractions and expel the body of the dead unborn child, in Mexico.
Ahlstrom’s ex-girlfriend told police officials he had asked her to have an abortion but she refused, so he attempted to end her pregnancy by giving her the drug without her consent.
The two went hiking and the unnamed woman eventually gave birth to a stillborn baby boy delivered at 16 weeks into the pregnancy. Ahlstrom admitted in the emails, coming 18 months after the miscarriage, that he gave his girlfriend the drug.
Ahlstrom admitted he gave her the drug twice by lacing her food with it. He eventually moved out of their home they shared together following the pregnancy.
The Grand Junction Police Department says Ahlstrom turned himself in to Utah authorities without incident.
Suspicions were raised when the girlfriend wanted to have the baby’s remains examined and Ahlstrom lobbied her to have the baby cremated but did not want the ashes.
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