Mom Of Slain Teen, Unborn Fetus Backs Change To Indiana Law

INDIANAPOLIS - Less than a year after the fatal shooting of her daughter and unborn grandchild, an Indianapolis mother is pushing for legislation that would change an Indiana law centered on crimes resulting in the loss of a fetus, WRTV reports. The news outlet says Jennifer Lee's 18-year-old daughter Brittany McNew was shot in the pelvis and killed in May 2017 when someone fired into a west side home, dying two hours later at Eskenazi Hospital. Republican Indiana state senator Aaron Freeman has authored that change, Senate Bill 203, which provides that murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter and feticide crimes can happen against a fetus during any stage of development, WRTV reports, but the offenses do not apply to a lawfully performed abortion.

The current law provides that these crimes may only be committed against fetuses that have attained viability (the age around 24 weeks old), when a fetus could be able to live outside the mother's womb depending on medical support.

WRTV reports the bill could expand the number of court filings for killing fetuses that have not yet attained viability, and was referred to the Indiana state Senate Committee on Corrections and Criminal Law on Jan. 3.

27-year-old Jonathan McGee was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with McNew's death, in addition to being charged with aggravated battery inflicting an injury that causes the loss of a fetus.

WRTV says no date has been set on when the Committee on Corrections and Criminal Law will hold a hearing on the bill, but an online petition for the bill has received nearly 4,000 signatures

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