North Carolina Man Faces Charges in the Death of Unborn Baby

State   |   Sarah Terzo   |   Jun 21, 2012   |   5:31PM   |   Charlotte, NC

A North Carolina man is facing prison after allegedly stabbing his pregnant girlfriend and killing her unborn baby.  Aris Nichols, 39, has been arrested on the charge of “death or injury of a child in utero due to commission of a violent crime.”

The attack took place on April 26. During the assault, the woman, 21-year-old Brittney Jordan, was stabbed repeatedly. She was several months pregnant with her unborn child, a boy named Tavaris. Nichols was rushed to the hospital, treated, and eventually released. Tavares did not survive the stabbing and was later buried in a Chester County cemetery.

The charges against  Nichols are based on a  law that was passed in 2006 which allows for a maximum of 30 years in jail for killing an unborn baby during an assault or attempted murder. No one has been convicted under this law as of yet, and police took five weeks to file charges against Nichols. According to legal experts, Nichols would be guilty even if the state could not prove that the death of the baby was intentional.

Nichols has previously served time in jail for assault and drug charges. He is also being charged with attempted murder and illegal possession of a weapon. If convicted on all charges, he faces more than 65 years in prison.

House Bill 215, titled the Unborn Victims of Violence Act / Ethen’s Law, signed April 29, 2011 and effective December 1, 2011, recognizes an “unborn child” (defined as “a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb”) as a victim for the crimes of “murder of an unborn child,” “voluntary manslaughter of an unborn child,” “involuntary manslaughter of an unborn child,” “assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child,” and “battery of an unborn child.”

LifeNews.com Note: Sarah Terzo is a pro-life liberal who runs ClinicQuotes.com, a web site devoted to exposing the abortion industry.