Luke Bryan told the Scottish Sun newspaper that his daughter, Abbie Nesbit, was “ecstatic” at having her first child. But the child she had already named Jamie was stillborn at 20 weeks after Abbie had been brutally attacked by a drunk man “who broke into her family’s house and flung her across a table,” explained reporter Joe Duggan.
However “Currently thugs who assault pregnant women – and cause them to lose their babies – can be charged with child destruction, [only] if the baby is after 24 weeks gestation,” according to Duggan. Adding further grief, Duggan writes that “Abbie was too devastated to go to court, and the case has now been discontinued by the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service].”
The heartbroken Abbie, who is 23, told Duggan that she was more than 13 weeks pregnant when she was attacked on August 11.
Abbie told the Sun, “I was in so much pain, I was in agony. …I couldn’t walk and I was bleeding, I was really worried about baby Jamie.”
Abbie went to hospital, but she was told the discharge was normal.
But following a scan, she was told the baby had a one per cent chance of survival.
She decided not to have an abortion, hoping Jamie might survive.
But on September 26 she started to give birth and was rushed to hospital, where she was told baby Jamie was dead.
Abbie had a stillbirth that evening. …
Jamie was buried in a tiny white coffin, scattered with blue and white flowers and carried by his dad, Jamie Bennett.
Abbie’s father, Luke Bryant, has started a petition to bring in ‘Jamie’s Law’ which has had more than 7,200 signatures. The goal is to change the 24 week marker to 16 weeks, “when a heartbeat can clearly be seen on a scan.”
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“It won’t help us, but at least baby Jamie will have a legacy forever,” she told Duggan.
Her dad added
‘How many more people have to go through this before something is done about it?
‘It’s devastated our family – we’ve lost a family member, we’ve lost so many things we could have done together. It would also help victims of domestic violence, I want to give them a voice.’
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
