** Trigger Warning** Child Death. Title altered by Mumsnet. **Student given life in prison with no parole for dumping her baby.

[FrameyMcFrame]

www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/college-student-gave-birth-toilet-8705537
This U.S student has been given life without parole for giving birth and dumping the baby, who subsequently died.
I feel incredibly sorry for her, and angry that men never have to go through this sort of terrible ordeal. In no way do I condone what she did, but I think the way society is set up makes things like this happen. If things were easier for women undergoing unplanned pregnancy and stigmas were removed, tragic things like this just wouldn't happen. Why should this person have to suffer for the rest of her life, she's literally just a kid herself.

[Jonso]

Oh come on, in the western world there is lots of access to control over your fertility.

[WellErrr]

I posted in feminism because I think there should be more help for young people to access control over their fertility.

Well, in the western world they already have access to free, confidential contraception, abortions, and adoptions.

What more does she fucking want?

It's not society's fault she killed her baby.

It's her fault.

No matter how young she looks. She killed a baby in a really callous way and showed absolutely no remorse. Prison's too good for her.

[Bumpmadethemjump]

I was younger than her when I had my dd. I didn't decided to harm her just because I was young, it's no excuse. I also can't understand why you want men to be punished for mothers murdering their children?

[Bumpmadethemjump]

Putting her in prison prevents her getting pregnant again and doing this with the next unwanted baby.

[PirateFairy45]

Of course men don't have to go through it.

She deserves her punishment. She allowed her baby to die, she killed it.

[tranquilandia]

Well, in the western world they already have access to free, confidential contraception, abortions, and adoptions

Are you talking about the affordable care act?

[Pinkheart5915]

Putting her in prison will prevent her hurting anyone else.

Why should she be allowed to walk the streets as a free woman after killing a baby? Imagine that baby's last few minutes alive slowly suffocating in the bag like a piece of rubbish

[Soubriquet]

I do feel sorry for her

She sounds as if she was desperately in denial

But she killed that baby. She could have left it on a hospital doorstep instead of out with the rubbish

I hope she gets the help she needs in prison

[ShiroiKoibito]

I posted in feminism because I think there should be more help for young people to access control over their fertility.


So an educated young woman with access to birth control needs more help? she murdered a helpless newborn, the one person the baby should have been able to rely on, and she let her down.


www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/06/28/no-more-baby-sorority-sister-gets-life-term-for-tossing-newborn-into-trash-to-die/

In early September of 2014, Weaver visited the university’s wellness center to obtain birth control. First, however, she had to take a pregnancy test.

When her test came back positive, however, Weaver didn’t respond to the clinic’s calls, voice mails or text messages, a nurse later testified, according to the Times Recorder.

Finally, the nurse sent Weaver a certified letter.

Weaver never replied.

[Bumpmadethemjump]

She told him that the pregnancy had been "taken care of", adding that there was "no more baby".

Doesn't sound desperate to me. Just fucking evil.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

I agree with Soubriquet It is possible to feel sorry for her but it is still no excuse.

I'm also open to persuasion that the sentence may be unduly harsh , if it is out of line with other levels of sentencing for infanticide in Ohio. It is unduly harsh from a UK perspective but that is irrelevant.

[IrenetheQuaint]

Situations like this are why the UK has an infanticide law, where mothers who kill their babies, particularly in sad and difficult circumstances like this one, can be entitled to much shorter sentences than a 'standard' murder.

I think this is a good solution - as a society we don't want to give the impression that killing your newborn babies is OK, but at the same time locking up this poor woman for life is cruel and senseless.

[Bumpmadethemjump]

Poor woman?! She could have got an abortion but she choose to ignore the help she was offered and instead drunk as much as possible whilst pregnant and took drugs to kill the baby?! How can you feel sorry for that?

[WellErrr]

Killing her baby was far more cruel and senseless though.

[3littlebadgers]

I'd much rather be locked up for life than suffocated in a bag!

[Eatthecake]

I'd much rather be locked up for life than suffocated in a bag! Me too 3badgers

I wouldn't want to spent my last few minutes suffocating and I can't imagine what that poor little baby felt like.

Anybody that can do that to a baby doesn't deserve freedom

[Bumpmadethemjump]

Think this thread needs taking down to be honest, a baby being murdered in this way by it's mother isn't a feminist issue and doesn't need to be discussed in such a way.

[WellErrr]

Agree about it absolutely NOT being a feminist issue bump.

[HackAttack]

OP can you answer what consequence you think the father should have? I understand men can't face the dilemna as they can't get pregnant but still the father had nothing to do with the murder. What would you have happen to him?

[Jonso]

It's just biology- am I right in stating she didn't know who the father was?
In that case, not sure we could expect

[MrsJoeyMaynard]

I posted in feminism because I think there should be more help for young people to access control over their fertility.

I agree that it's important for young people to be able to access control over their fertility. But this young woman already had access to this. She had access to birth control via the university wellness centre. A pp has said that it's possible to access abortion up to 20 weeks in Ohio. Based on the date she gave birth, she'd have been less than 3 months pregnant when she had the positive pregnancy test, so not too far along for an abortion. And, she lived in a state that allows mothers to anonymously and legally abandon new born infants in safe places.

We are not talking about a young woman with no access to contraception or abortion here. Or about a young woman who had no legal way to safely abandon a baby.

[FATEdestiny]

For me, the debate here should be about the 'life without parole' sentence.

It suggest the rehabilitation is not possible. That 50 years from now, aged 71, that she must still pay for her crime no matter what.

A life for a life, but without the death penalty.

[SvalbardianPenguin]

She put her daughter in a bin bag. Any parent,male or female, deserves to go to prison for that.

[Uricon]

She was a grown woman and a university student. If she didn't know about the Safe Haven scheme already, a quick online search about her options would have shown it.

I have great sympathy for women who are powerless regarding their fertility and reproductive choices, because of age/culture/mental health and many other factors, but I really don't think that she was.

[mushroomsontoast]

For me, the fact she didn't respond to the calls, letters etc from the clinic just shows that she was in fact in complete denial of the whole thing. If she just didn't want the baby there were much easier ways of ending the pregnancy than giving birth on her own in the toilet and hiding the baby in a bin bag.The fact that she let it get that far suggests she was in total denial. If the baby didn't cry straight away it's quite possible that she thought (or convinced herself) that the baby was already dead.

I agree with what a pp said about infanticide... I think it should make a difference. She needs help and counselling, not being locked up for life.