Twenty-year sentence handed to Purvi Patel for death of foetus condemned by women’s groups

Patel was arrested in July 2013 after she went to the emergency room, bleeding heavily, at St. Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, Indiana. Although she initially denied the pregnancy, Patel eventually admitted to medical authorities that she had a miscarriage and threw the stillborn fetus in a dumpster.

On Monday, the state of Indiana sentenced 33-year-old Purvi Patel to 20 years in prison on charges of feticide - an act that causes the death of a fetus - and neglect of a dependent. Patel is the first woman
in the U.S. to be charged, convicted and sentenced on a feticide charge.

Prosecutors allege that Patel purchased abortion-inducing drugs from a website based in Hong Kong. No evidence of the drugs were found in her system. Patel admitted to buying the drugs, but police were unable to find any evidence of that purchase. Meanwhile, Patel's lawyers argued that she panicked when she realized she was in labor. Stating that Patel comes from a conservative Hindu family that looks down on sex outside marriage, and the pregnancy was a result of an affair Patel had with her co-worker.

Patel is the first woman to be sentenced under Indiana's feticide laws but she isn't the first woman to be charged. In 2011, Bei Bei Shuai, a Chinese American-woman, was held in prison for a year before feticide charges against her were dropped as part of a plea deal. Shuai was reportedly suffering from depression and tried to commit suicide while pregnant. She survived, but the fetus did not.


Deepa Iyer, Activist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland's Asian American Studies Program and former director of South Asian Americans Leading Together said "Purvi Patel's conviction amounts to punishment for having a miscarriage and then seeking medical care, something that no woman should worry would lead to jail time"  .

Patel's case has also drawn alarm from women's rights groups. One organization, National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), commissioned a study in 2013 that found hundreds of arrests of pregnant women for allegedly harming their fetuses since abortion became legal in 1973. Poor women and women of color, NAPW says, are more likely to be arrested and prosecuted.

 Iyer says that the fact that the only two women charged with infanticide are Asian American is important to note because women of color often lack access to basic health care, counseling, and other reproductive health resources.

"While no woman should face criminal charges for having an abortion or experiencing a pregnancy loss, the cruel length of this sentence confirms that feticide and other measures promoted by anti-abortion organizations are intended to punish, not protect, women," NAPW executive director Lynn Paltrow said in a statement.


"For these women, the additional fear of arrest may altogether prevent them from seeking critical and necessary physical or mental health care during their pregnancy," said Miriam Yeung, Executive Director of National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

Yeung believes that the Asian-American community needs to be more intentional and open about having conversations around reproductive and mental health. Asian-American youth, says Yeung, report the strongest amount of stigma around sex and reproductive health of any group. Asian-American women also have one of the highest suicide rates in the country.

Culled