Georgia Teen Killed for Refusing Abortion
News Briefs
New York Man Convicted on Abortion Charge
A New York man who pleaded guilty to assaulting his pregnant ex-girlfriend has become the first person convicted of committing abortion in the state since 1971. Prosecutors charged Jeremy Powell, 20, with forcing his way into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment through a window and beating her after she refused to have an abortion. The woman, who was about three months pregnant, later suffered a miscarriage.
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Georgia Teen Killed for Refusing Abortion
A Georgia teen is dead and her ex-boyfriend has been charged with murder after the girl refused to have an abortion, police say.
Stephanie Nicole Burnett, 16, was beaten with a steel barbell and stabbed repeatedly on April 21, police said. Burnett’s brother found her body in a parking lot next to their house the next day. Burnett’s ex-boyfriend, Matthew John Wiedeman, 16, and 17-year-old Raymond Anthony Soto were charged with luring Burnett out of her house and then killing her in the parking lot. Both teens will be tried as adults, with additional charges possible if an autopsy reveals Burnett was pregnant. Police said witnesses told them Burnett told Wiedeman she was pregnant and wanted to have the baby, but Wiedeman wanted her to have an abortion.
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Supreme Court Upholds Woman’s Right to Sue Anonymously in Abortion Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand a lower court ruling allowing a Florida woman to sue an abortion facility anonymously. The woman, known as Jane Roe II, filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Jacksonville, Florida, after suffering a botched abortion. Her attorney, Michael Hirsh, argued she had a right to sue anonymously because of the so-called “right to privacy” surrounding abortion.
Pro-life advocates had been watching the case closely because the Court, in order to find against Jane Roe II, would have had to rule that the “right to privacy” established by Roe v. Wade no longer existed.
