Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a pregnant 23-year-old Missouri woman, was strangled by Lisa Montgomery, a casual acquaintance, who cut the child from her womb and passed it off as her own.* Bobbie Jo Stinnett Bobbie Jo Stinnett (December 4,1981–December 16, 2004) was a 23-year-old pregnant woman found brutally slain in her home in Skidmore, Missouri. The accused, Lisa Montgomery, then 36, allegedly strangled Stinnett from behind and then cut the woman's unborn child, eight months , a pregnant 23-year-old Missouri woman, was strangled stran·gle v. stran·gled, stran·gling, stran·gles v.tr. 1. a. To kill by squeezing the throat so as to choke or suffocate; throttle. b. by Lisa Montgomery, a casual acquaintance, who cut the child from her womb and passed it off as her own. The child, a girl, survived; Montgomery, it is to be hoped, will not. But look at how the story has been reported. "A baby girl cut out of the abdomen of a pregnant woman ... was found alive in Kansas yesterday afternoon.... 'The child appears to be healthy and in good shape,' Sheriff Ben F. Espy of Nodaway County, Mo., told reporters" (Stephen Kinzer Stephen Kinzer is an American author and newspaper reporter. He is a veteran New York Times correspondent who has reported from more than fifty countries on four continents. During the 1980s he covered revolution and social upheaval in Central America. , New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times). Note: girl, child. Other stories use fetus, but also baby. Why not fetus only? Under the regime of Roe, an unborn child acquires humanity only when it is wanted--even if the woman who wants her is a murderous kidnapper. Isn't there a better standard? Can't we make more humane judgments (even if we don't have wiser judges)? |
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