Indiana: Purvi Patel faces 20 years imprisonment for ‘feticide’

Indiana: An Indiana judge sentenced 33-year-old Purvi Patel to 20 years of imprisonment for ‘feticide’ and neglect of a dependent, as reported in the Washington Post.

According to the group National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), the verdict makes Patel the first woman in the US to be charged, convicted and sentenced for ending her own pregnancy.

Patel, who is an Indian immigrant living in South Bend, Indiana, was arrested in 2013 after seeking help in an emergency room for excessive bleeding. She had an umbilical cord protruding from her vagina.

After denying she had been pregnant first, Patel later revealed that she had given birth to a stillborn. As reported, Patel told investigators that she dumped the fetus that wasn’t alive in a plastic bag outside her house.

A police investigation recovered the fetus and charged Patel with killing her baby. Her documents then showed she was two months pregnant and had a miscarriage.

"I assumed because the baby was dead there was nothing to do," she had told the police in an interview as reported in the South Bend Tribune, a local newspaper. "I've never been in this situation. I've never been pregnant before," she allegedly told the police from the hospital.

The 33-year-old's case has also drawn alarm from women's rights groups, who say Patel is being jailed for having a miscarriage.

Patel’s case isn’t the first instance in which a woman has been accused under fetal homicide laws, say reproductive rights advocates.