Victim of attempted abortion in Tennessee will need medical support for life
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (Christian Examiner)—A Tennessee woman has been charged with attempted murder because of an alleged failed abortion attempt. According to the Daily News Journal, police arrested Anna Yocca last Wednesday and jailed her on $200,000 bond. The arrest came three months after the alleged abortion attempt.
A mother's selfish attempt to crudely kill her own son directly caused an innocent child to suffer grievous injuries that will plague him for the rest of his life.
Police say Yocca was 24 weeks pregnant when she filled a bathtub with water and attempted to self-abort the baby with a coat hanger. When she began bleeding, she worried about her own safety. Her boyfriend took her to the hospital where she delivered a baby that weighed just 1.5 pounds.
Though the baby's life has been saved, Detective Tommy Roberts reports "that his quality of life will be forever harmed" because of injuries sustained in the failed abortion. According to an article in The Daily Beast, the boy has significant damage to his eyes, lungs and heart and will require oxygen for the rest of his life.
"The whole time [Yocca] was concerned for her health, her safety, and never gave any attention to the health and safety to the unborn child," Sergeant Kyle Evans, a spokesman for the Murfreesboro, Tenn., police, told local CBS affiliate WTVF. "Those injuries will affect this child for the rest of his life, all caused at the hands of his own mother."
According to the TV station, nurses and doctors who treated Yocca, the 31-year-old spoke at the hospital about wanting to end the pregnancy.
According to the Washington Post pro-abortion activists are arguing that Tennessee's recent tightening of restrictions on abortion make women like Yocca more likely to turn to unsafe alternatives. In the state of Tennessee, women must make two trips to a clinic—48 hours apart— before undergoing an abortion. The National Women's Law Center says that 59 percent of the state's women lived in a county without an abortion provider as of 2010.
The Daily Beast article suggests that before last July when the tougher abortion restrictions were passed, the state was a "destination" for women in the South looking to have an abortion.
Cherisse Scott, founder and CEO of SisterReach, a pro-abortion advocacy group, blamed the Tennessee legislature, for the episode saying the charges against Yocca are "unacceptable."
Calvin Frieburger called "pro-abortion spin" on the case "pure evil" in an opinion article for Live Action News.
"A mother's selfish attempt to crudely kill her own son directly caused an innocent child to suffer grievous injuries that will plague him for the rest of his life," Frieburger writes. "We don't know exactly how debilitating his conditions will be, but at the very least pain and limitations will loom over a childhood that should have been filled with love, laughter, learning, and playing, thanks to the very person who was supposed to comfort and protect him."