A Minnesota woman is facing manslaughter charges this week after she allegedly drank so much alcohol while pregnant that her baby died.
Fox News reports an autopsy found that the newborn baby girl’s blood alcohol level was .234 when she died.
On Wednesday, Rianna Marie Cameron, 29, of Rogers, Minnesota, was charged with second-degree manslaughter in her daughter’s death, according to the report.
The Rogers Police Department said officers responded to an emergency call Dec. 30 when the baby’s father reported finding the newborn unresponsive on the floor and Cameron disoriented. According to the reports, the baby’s umbilical cord still was attached to Cameron; she was 34 weeks pregnant when she gave birth.
Police said the baby girl was not breathing and her skin was purple when they arrived. They said they performed CPR until an ambulance arrived to transport her to a local hospital, and she was pronounced dead a short time later.
WCCO 4 reports Cameron allegedly admitted to police that she has a drinking problem, and had been on a “bender” the day of her baby’s birth and death. Police said she admitted to drinking about a liter of whiskey within 3 ½ hours.
Later, her blood alcohol level was determined to be .21, and an autopsy of her daughter showed her blood alcohol level to be .234, the report states.
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A criminal complaint says the baby died from “complications of acute ethanol intoxication and unsupported delivery.”
Authorities said Cameron has a history of alcohol abuse, and records show she went for treatment 15 days before her baby girl died.
The tragic case comes just days after a similar report out of Tennessee. There, a woman is facing first-degree murder charges after her newborn twins died prematurely with illegal drugs in their system.
These cases are drawing national attention from abortion activists, some of whom argue that the mothers should not face charges. They also claim these cases are proof that pro-life advocates just want to punish and control women.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The pro-life movement has no interest in punishing or oppressing women. Many pro-life leaders are post-abortive women and men themselves who understood only too late the lies of the abortion industry. They came to the pro-life movement understanding that unborn babies deserve to be protected and their mothers deserve to know the truth that the abortion industry lies to and manipulates them for profit.
Many also recognize that women frequently are pressured or even forced to abort their unborn babies by abusive parents or partners.
What’s more, the pro-life movement historically has opposed punishing mothers for abortions. When abortions were illegal prior to Roe v. Wade, women were not prosecuted for having abortions and current abortion restrictions, such as the ban on partial-birth abortions, do not punish women either.
Pro-life advocates’ goal is to protect human lives. The movement’s goal is not just to make abortion illegal, but to make it unthinkable so that every life – every child, mother and father – are protected.
