Attacker Kills Woman 5 Months Pregnant, New York’s New Abortion Law Says Her Baby Isn’t a Human Being

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Feb 8, 2019   |   12:25PM   |   Albany, New York

New York’s new abortion law does not just strip away abortion restrictions that protect late-term unborn babies. It also denies justice to pregnant mothers and unborn babies who are victims of violent crimes.

The law’s repeal of the New York fetal homicide law means the person who stabbed a pregnant woman Sunday in Ridgewood, New York, killing her and her unborn baby, can no longer be charged for the baby’s death.

The Times Ledger reports police are searching for suspects in the brutal stabbing of Jennifer Irigoyen, 35, of Rego Park, and her unborn baby. Police said someone called 911 after finding Irigoyen bleeding heavily in the vestibule of a building on Myrtle Avenue early Sunday morning.

Police said the woman had multiple stab wounds on her torso, neck and hands; she was transported to the hospital where she was pronounced dead shortly afterward. They said she was about five months pregnant with her unborn baby, who also died as a result of the attack.

The New York Post reports more:

The killer targeted the 35-year-old woman’s stomach, according to the building super, who said she watched surveillance video footage that captured the murder.

“He’s got a knife! He’s going to kill the baby!” shouted five-months-pregnant Jennifer Irigoyen around 1 a.m. as her attacker pulled her from her third-floor Ridgewood walk-up and down the stairs to the building’s entranceway, horrified witness Maurice Roman Zereoue told The Post.

Police are investigating the slaying as a domestic incident and seeking Irigoyen’s boyfriend for questioning, high-ranking NYPD sources said.

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A neighbor who only gave her first name, Kristin, said she heard a man and Irigoyen arguing loudly and then the victim “yelling … about wanting to protect her baby.’’

Irigoyen had an older child as well, the AP reports. She was a real estate agent and a professional Latin ballroom dancer, instructor and choreographer, according to the report.

It appears that her unborn baby was targeted directly in the attack, but that does not matter under the new law. Until birth, there are no consequences for killing a baby in New York.

And it’s because of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a supposedly Catholic lawmaker. In January, he signed a radical pro-abortion law that not only expands late-term abortions but also repeals the state fetal homicide law. These common-sense laws, on the books in 37 states, recognize the unlawful killing of an unborn baby as homicide in at least some circumstances.

“Tragically, New York women are less safe from violence now than they were before the passage of the Reproductive Health Act,” Fordham University Professor Charles Camosy wrote in an op-ed for the New York Daily News.

He pointed to the high rates of violence against pregnant women in America, citing a study in the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health that found nearly half of the pregnant women who died in Washington, D.C. during an eight-year period were homicides.

Here’s more:

Overall, homicide is now the second-leading cause of injury-related death for pregnant women in the United States. Punishing assailants in such cases for attacking two human beings is the least we can do to protect these vulnerable women.

But when confronted with a choice between refusing to punish illegal abortion in the criminal code and giving women this added protection from violence, the governor of New York chose to the former.

Cuomo is not alone. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo is backing a similar bill to expand late-term abortions and repeal the fetal homicide law in her state. These governors are not protecting women’s rights by urging the repeal of such laws. They are allowing criminals to get away with fewer consequences for attacking a pregnant woman and her unborn child.