'Fetal personhood' laws claiming more rights of women

By Grace E. Howard / For Progressive Perspectives

On Oct. 17, the North Carolina Court of Appeals terminated a woman’s parental rights because of abuse that occurred when she was four months pregnant. Why? Because, as the court ruled, “life begins at conception.”

The implications of this are serious, and extend far beyond child custody. The case involves a woman raising three children, two of whom are her own, with a man so physically abusive that he had caused her to have multiple miscarriages. In 2016, when the woman was around four months pregnant, an incident in the home (details are often scant in child abuse cases) resulted in severe injuries to one of the children. Both parents were charged with felony child abuse. The woman lost custody of her two children and some months later gave birth to a baby referred to in court documents as “Opal.”

In October, a court terminated the woman’s parental rights to Opal, in part because they determined that it had been “residing in the home” as a 4-month fetus where abuse of another child had taken place.

North Carolina law permits termination of parental rights to a child in the event that the child was living in the home when abuse occurred.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-fetal-personhood-laws-claiming-more-rights-of-women/