On Wednesday, 34-year-old Jerry Brown was arraigned on murder charges in the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend and the murder of her pregnant friend. Yet thanks to New York’s radical abortion law, the pregnant victim’s unborn child does not count as a victim of the gruesome murder.
Brown lay in a hospital bed and was arraigned over Skype, the New York Daily News reported. The suspect, who calls himself the “Grim Creepa” and “Mr. 187” on social media, allegedly used aa long-handled ax on Saturday to kill and nearly decapitate pregnant victim Savannah Rivera, and severely injure his ex-girlfriend Angela Valle, prosecutors said.
Brown was charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. He was only charged on one count of second-degree murder, however, thanks to the legal dehumanization of Rivera’s unborn baby.
Rivera had only recently learned that she was pregnant, and she was looking forward to the birth of her second child. Her aunt, speaking of the alleged murderer, told The New York Times, “He took two lives, not just hers. It was her and her baby she had in her womb. We want justice for two.”
Yet New York’s abortion law, signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) with great fanfare in January, removed protections for unborn babies in the criminal code. Before that law came into effect, killing an unborn baby in his or her mother’s womb violated the law against homicide. The abortion law struck down those provisions for fetal homicide however, depriving Rivera’s family of “justice for two.”
Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, mentioned this injustice on his podcast “The Briefing.” Mohler insisted that “there will eventually be justice for two. There will be justice for all when it comes to the judgment of God, but when it comes to the judgment available by the state of New York, at best, there will be justice for one murder, not justice for two.”
Indeed, Christians believe ultimate justice will prevail — and human beings have only one hope, the mercy of God offered through Jesus Christ.
Yet on Earth, demands for justice often go unanswered. In this case, Savannah Rivera’s unborn baby will not get justice for his or her murder, because New York law was changed to explicitly dehumanize him or her.
The radical abortion law did not just strike fetal homicide language from the state’s criminal code, it also redefined “person” explicitly to exclude a baby still in the womb. The law now says “person, when referring to the victim of a homicide, means a human being who haas been born and is alive.”
New York dehumanized babies killed in the womb, and now one high-profile criminal case illustrates just how horrific that is.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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