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Abortion case: Purvi Patel will not testify

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Purvi Patel will not testify at her felony child neglect trial, WNDU reported. Charges of feticide against Patel, 33, of Granger, Indiana has attracted national attention with women’s activists opposing it.

Indiana has some of the harshest restrictions on abortion in the country.

Patel faced Class A felony of neglect charges after police said that she took drugs to terminate her pregnancy, and then left the baby in a dumpster. Patel faces between six and 20 years in prison for feticide and up to 50 years imprisonment for neglect of a dependent.

Dr Shaku Teas, a forensic pathologist from the Chicago area told the jury that Patel’s fetus “was not viable,” meaning it could not have survived outside of the womb.

Dr. Teas estimated that Patel’s pregnancy was in the 23 to 24 month range and stated that there was no evidence that the child ever took a breath. Teas said breathing “probably wasn’t possible,” given a lack of development in the child’s lungs, according to WNDU.

Patel’s father testified that he didn’t even know his daughter had a boyfriend, let alone that she was pregnant.

The father described the Patel household as deeply religious and said he prays at least two hours a day.

The father said he would have loved his daughter’s child and would have welcomed it into the family home anyway, even though the apparent father was Hispanic, not Hindu.

A drug testing expert today testified that he could not confirm the presence of abortion medications in the blood of Purvi Patel. Without evidence of drugs in the body, it may be difficult for the prosecution to prove the allegations, media reports said.

According to the charge sheet filed by Galen Pelletier, detective with South Bend Police Department, on July 13,2013, at approximately 9:24 pm, Patel presented to the emergency room at St. Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, Indiana.

She was bleeding from her vaginal area. The emergency personnel believed that she had recently delivered a child, which she denied. 

Dr Tracy Byrne found an umbilical cord was protruding. But Patel again denied she had just delivered a baby and claimed that she had not even been pregnant.  Dr. Byrne requested a second opinion of Dr Kelly, who was positive that Patel had just delivered a child.

Concerned for the child's welfare, doctors continued to question her about the whereabouts of the child. Eventually, she told the medical staff that she had delivered a baby in her home in Granger, Indiana and she did not see it breathing or moving and believed it to be dead. She then put the dead body in a bag and placed it in a dumpster behind the Super Target. She further told medical personnel that she was roughly two months along and had a miscarriage.

But doctor's believed that she had been twenty eight (28) to thirty (30) weeks post fertilization.

Fearing for the child, Dr McGuire then drove to the Super Target and began searching in the dumpsters. He also called the St. Joseph County Police, who joined in the search. They located the body in a dumpster and Dr McGuire determined that it was deceased. Dr McGuire's opinion was that the child was pre-mature and roughly thirty (30) weeks from conception. His external examination noted no reason why the child would not have survived, but cautioned that it was based only upon an external examination.

Later forensic pathologist, Dr Joseph Prahlow determined that the child was pre-mature but at least twenty eight weeks from conception. Dr. Prahlow further concluded that in his opinion, the child had been born alive and had taken a breath. Further testing and investigation are pending.

Officers secured a search warrant for the phone of Patel and found that she discussed the pregnancy with at least one friend.

Patel admitted that she had obtained two drugs from Hong Kong, in an attempt to abort the child.

Women’s rights advocates see the decision by prosecutors to apply feticide laws against Patel as part of the creeping criminalization of pregnancy in America.