Vermont mom wants twin fetuses recognized as children
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Patricia Blair, of Bennington, talks about her accident from her hospital bed. AP Photo |
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By WILSON RING The Associated Press - Published: August 14, 2009
LEBANON, New Hampshire— A Vermont woman whose 6-month-old twin fetuses died after a car crashed into the family van wants them to be legally recognized as children, which is not the case under current state law.
A law change could mean stiffer penalties for drivers convicted of causing such deaths. But it also could reignite a debate over abortion, with proponents concerned that a revised law could conflict with the 1973 Roe vs. Wade U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.
Patricia Blair, of Bennington, said she and her husband still were getting over losing a baby girl because of childbirth complications last year when they suffered their latest loss Monday. She said she wants to be the voice for the fetuses that were growing into a boy and girl until they died inside her after the crash. She and her husband, Randy, considered them miracles, she said.
"They're babies. It just makes no sense to me how anyone can say 'they're not babies, they're a fetus,'" said Blair, 38, who is recovering at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. "We need to speak for them. If I can do something for these two I am going to do it."
No charges have been filed in the case, however, investigators are looking into the possibility that drugs may have been a factor, Bennington County State's Attorney Erica Marthage said without giving additional information.
There are 36 states that have some form of fetal homicide law; Vermont is not one of them.
State prosecutors are governed by a 1989 state Supreme Court decision that says people cannot be charged with killing a fetus in a car crash. That decision cited a common law tradition dating back to the 17th Century that says a fetus has to be born alive before it can get legal protection in such cases.
The Supreme Court said it was up to the Legislature to change the law.
But State Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that in his 18 years on the committee the issue has never come up.
"It's something we'd consider," Sears said Thursday.
Cheryl Hanna, a professor at the Vermont Law School, said the fetal homicide laws across the country have changed in recent years. In some cases the laws have been tools in the nation's ongoing abortion debate, she said.
"Pro-life advocates have seen passing fetal homicide laws as the basis for undermining Roe v. Wade," Hanna said.
She said she's doubtful the Vermont Legislature, which she described as one of the most pro-abortion rights legislatures in the country, would change the law.
"Having said that, the loss to Mrs. Blair is no less significant and real to her. It's a shame that there's not a very good way for the law to legitimately recognize the loss to her," Hanna said.
Blair said she doesn't know yet how to go about getting her fetuses — or others' — recognized as children.
"If I had some direction I am sure I could be a loud enough voice," she said.
The crash happened on U.S. Route 7 less than a mile from the family's home. Randy Blair was airlifted to Albany Medical Center while Patricia Blair was taken by ambulance to Dartmouth Hitchcock, considered the best place for the twin fetuses, which were just beyond 24 weeks of gestation, considered the outside limit at which a premature child can survive.
Randy Blair still is hospitalized in Albany. The couple's two children, ages 7 and 8, also were injured in the crash but have been released from the hospital and are being cared for by relatives.
The other driver was Kelly Cook, 22, of Pownal.
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