**WARNING: This story contains graphic content that some readers may find disturbing.**
Many of you may have already heard about the case of a woman luring a pregnant woman to her home under the guise of a Craigslist ad for baby clothes and then brutally attacking the soon-to-be mother, cutting her unborn baby from her womb. The mother survived, but her baby girl did not. Unfortunately this horrific story has been all over my Facebook feed this month. I avoided it for a few days. I could tell by the headlines that it was something that would be very difficult to read. Being currently pregnant myself was even more reason I didn’t want to read it, but I finally did, and I have been praying for the victim, 26-year-old Michelle Wilkins, ever since. I can not imagine what she is going through; there are no words, so I’ll stop trying to think of something else to type here.
All of that said, I was disappointed this morning when I saw the latest update on this story from CNN with the headline, “No murder charge in case of baby cut from woman answering Craigslist ad.”
“How is this possible?!” I thought. “That baby clearly was old enough to live outside the womb, thus this is murder, plain and simple.”
Well apparently it’s not so plain and simple. According to Colorado law, the state “does not recognize a fetus as a person, unless it is capable of surviving for a period of time outside the womb,” CNN reports.
What CNN failed to mention in their article (and I honestly can’t believe their journalists would omit this important fact) is that Wilkins was seven months pregnant when the horrific crime took place. SEVEN MONTHS. Last I checked in the Rebekah Reports dictionary, that is a HUMAN, not just a “fetus.”
When my husband and I went to the doctor for our first ultrasound to confirm my pregnancy, we were shocked to already visibly see our little one’s heart beating. Then, just six weeks later, I felt the baby move for the first time. Having never been pregnant before, I was surprised but so excited by these milestones and at how early they occurred in my pregnancy; way earlier than I’d naively thought they would happen. So to read that a child who was at least 25 weeks along is not considered a human being, is just absurd to me. My baby was practically waving at me on the screen of our first ultrasound with its nearly-formed tiny arms, much less the feats a 25-week-old baby would be capable of inside or outside one’s womb.
Friday Shepard Smith reported that a Colorado coroner ruled Wilkins’ little girl showed no signs of life outside the womb. However, Lane’s own husband is the one who found the baby in his home and claims it was alive and trying to take a breath. Is breathing not a sign of life? I have so many questions for this coroner. Hopefully some will be answered when the autopsy results are released, but as of right now, I believe the coroner got this one wrong, allowing an evil woman to escape the label of “murderer” and the potential judicial sentences that could come with it.
To further my point that not to charge the suspect in this case, 34-year-old Dynel Lane, with murder is completely asinine — My husband has a friend whose child was born at 25 weeks (seven months, just like Wilkins’ baby), survived, and is now a healthy member of his family. Similarly, today while discussing the Wilkins story on “Shepard Smith Reporting,” criminal defense attorney Kisha Hebbon mentioned her own daughter was born at just SIX months old and is now 12 years old! So please Colorado, don’t tell me Michelle Wilkins’ child could not have lived for even just a “period of time” outside her womb. It is possible.
A FOX News article published Friday provides a bit more context to Colorado’s legal position on this story:
…Colorado is one of 12 states that do not have laws making the violent death of an unborn child a homicide. State legislators in 2013 voted down such a measure over fears it would interfere with abortion rights, and voters overwhelmingly agreed when they rejected a similar ballot measure in 2014. Advocates say the attack shows the need for a fetal homicide law.”
I wholeheartedly agree with those advocates.
If you would like to help Michelle Wilkins’ recovery, go here to visit the GoFundMe account set up for her.
Related Reads:
- Police praise pregnant woman in Craigslist attack
- How progressives have killed our definition of murder
- Drowning of Dynel Lane’s toddler in 2002 could get second look
Photo credit: Neil Smith, Flickr
