A man charged with murdering his pregnant girlfriend has had the charges related to killing her unborn baby dropped — thanks to New York’s new abortion laws.
Anthony Hobson, 48, was arrested on Friday for Sunday’s grisly murder of Jennifer Irigoyen, 35, who was five months pregnant. He is accused of brutally stabbing her to death — and deliberately killing her unborn baby.
Initially, Hobson was charged with murder and second-degree abortion by Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. However, the abortion charge has now been rescinded, thanks to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new Reproductive Health Act.
A witness told the New York Post that Irigoyen was screaming, “He’s got a knife! He’s going to kill the baby!” as Hobson dragged her from her apartment building.
“The defendant is alleged to have shown no mercy and no regard for human life when he repeatedly and purposely plunged a knife into this expectant mother’s abdomen, torso and neck,” Brown said in a statement.
A DA spokeswoman told the New York Post that the abortion charge “was repealed by the Legislature, and this is the law as it exists today.”
The RHA legalized late term abortions beyond 24 weeks to protect the health of the mother and removed abortion from the criminal code.
The Post notes that the New York State Catholic Conference had warned that the new law “removes accountability for those who would harm unborn children outside the context of medical termination of pregnancy.” It is sad that they were proven correct so quickly.
