A Burlington woman who was accused of trying to illegally end her pregnancy will not be charged in the case. Twenty-two-year-old Christine Taylor of Burlington was charged with attempted feticide after police say she intentionally fell down the stairs of her home to end the pregnancy because she didn’t want any more kids with her husband, who had left her.
Des Moines County prosecutor Lisa Taylor said new information received led them to dismiss the charges. She says they dismissed the charges based on information from Taylor’s doctor who said Taylor had not reached her third trimester of her pregnancy. Taylor said that in order for her to be found guilty of the charge of feticide, the mother would have to be in the final trimester of pregnancy.
She said the woman was initially arrested based on that belief. The prosecutor says officers were acting on the information that Taylor had given to the health care providers and the investigating officer, which was that she had just entered her third trimester of the pregnancy.
According to an interview with the Des Moines Register, Christine Taylor suggests that she was wrongfully accused based on personal views of medical workers and police. She maintains that she was not trying to kill her baby and says she was distraught and tripped and fell.
Both police and Taylor have said no harm was done to the baby. If the trial had moved forward, it would have been the first case of feticide prosecuted in the state of Iowa.
By Bryan Nichols, KBUR, Burlington