When a pregnant woman is assulted and loses her baby, why do those criminals face manslaughter charges?

Question

I mean, why does the baby count as a person in that case, but not in the case of abortion? Isn't it either a person with rights or not?

Answer 1

Yeah, that is messed up. I guess it only counts depending on whether the woman wanted it or not. That's sad.

Answer 2

Right on!!  Isn't it hypocritical to say it's murder when a pregnant women losses a baby due to assult but yet it's just her exercising her womanly rights when she aborts.

You can't have it both ways.

It's either murder or not.

For me it's murder to kill the unborn.

Answer 3

I don't understand that one....

perhaps something the law refers to as "criminal intent"?

Answer 4

This is not the law across the board. In the US, some states have laws that define the fetus as a human being and someone can be faced with manslaughter if an attack on a pregnant woman causes her to loose the fetus, whereas other states have laws that do not define the fetus as a person, and so therefore someone would not face manslaughter charges on behalf of the fetus. And then there are some states that make a distinction between a person and an unborn child, but termination of the unborn child through bodily harm of the woman can be charged as manslaughter to a different degree.

Answer 5

That's a good question.

Maybe it's because the mother actually wanted the child? I don't know. Like if you stole something of mine I didn't care about, I wouldn't report it missing. But if I did want it, you're screwed. That's morbid, isn't it?

It doesn't make sense.

Answer 6

When this idea was first proposed, many who believe that women should be allowed to make decisions for themselves objected on the grounds that, if it went through,then all the sub-human morons who wanted to control women's lives would then use it to justify the government forcing women to carry pregnancies to term.

Guess they were right.

Answer 7

I guess mothers have sole say in what constitutes a life or not.

Answer 8

One is a crime. The other isn't.  Accept it and move on.

P.S.- Neither fetus is a person with rights.

Answer 9

They don't, in countries apart from the US.  In the Bible, the perpetrator would pay a fine, not face murder / manslaughter charges :-)

Answer 10

woman's body, woman's choice.........it wasn't her choice when she got assaulted.

Answer 11

Feminist double standards.

Answer 12

If a pregnant women is murdered; the killer is only charged with a double manslaughter if the baby is past a certain term.