A Fort Worth, Texas mother lost her unborn baby after an inmate allegedly punched her in the stomach so hard that it killed her child, according to local authorities.
Now, the inmate, Cheri Aziza Akil, 39, is being charged with murder, The Blaze reports.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said Akil attacked a pregnant hospital worker April 12 while receiving treatment at the John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.
According to the sheriff, Akil was being restrained because she was suicidal. While fighting the restraint, she allegedly punched a pregnant hospital worker in the stomach as she stood next to Akil’s bed, the sheriff said, WFAA News 8 reports.
The pregnant woman, who is not named in reports, was taken to the hospital trauma unit for care; there, doctors discovered that her unborn baby no longer had a pulse, according to the sheriff.
Akil initially was charged with credit debit fraud, driving while intoxicated and knowingly operating an illicit game room. This week, authorities added a murder charge to the list for the death of the unborn baby.
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Reports do not mention how far along the pregnant hospital worker was in her pregnancy, but Texas law protects unborn babies’ lives from the moment of conception.
Most states treat unborn babies as valuable human beings in circumstances unrelated to abortion. Unborn victims of violence, or fetal homicide, laws are on the books in 37 states; they recognize the unlawful killing of an unborn baby as homicide in at least some circumstances. However, New York and Illinois repealed their laws as part of larger pro-abortion legislation in 2019.
Homicide is one of the top causes of death among pregnant women, according to a 2021 study in the journal “Obstetrics & Gynecology.”
