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Message: <blockquote data-quote="faulkton" data-source="post: 2282877" data-attributes="member: 561910"><a href="http://imageshack.us" target="_blank"><img src="http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2586/skinner75lb9.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>SUFFOLK - A judge Thursday ended the prosecution of a woman who shot herself in the stomach to end her full-term pregnancy, ruling that the felony abortion charge could not be used in her case.Tammy Wynette Skinner, 23, no longer faces criminal charges for shooting herself on Feb. 23. Her only conviction is a misdemeanor for filing a false report to police, when she initially told officers a man had shot her.She received a suspended 30-day jail sentence in May and was assessed a $1,464 fine.The focus now shifts to legislators, who will decide whether they want to clarify the law.The statute, which dates at least to 1950, sets a penalty for any person who illegally produces an abortion or miscarriage with intent to destroy the unborn child. Parker agreed with Skinner's attorney that the statute could be used only against third parties, such as a doctor performing an illegal abortion."It's almost a certainty" that the case will prompt legislation in 2007, said state Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach. The question, he said, is whether it will pass.Lead prosecutor Marie Walls said there was no way her office could continue prosecuting Skinner after Circuit Judge Westbrook Parker's ruling."It's a matter for the legislature to address," she said. "The statute is not terribly clear."Kevin Martingayle, Skinner's attorney, said state courts in Florida and Georgia have struck down similar cases. But he found no other Virginia case in which a woman was prosecuted for an act against her unborn child.Stolle, who heads the Senate Courts of Justice Committee, said he and other legislators had believed the law in question already applies to expectant mothers.But he added that "reasonable people could disagree on this point."Skinner, a mother of two, showed little emotion during Parker's ruling. Afterward, away from reporters, she sobbed with her family, Martingayle said. She left the courthouse, saying simply, "I'm just glad it's over so I can move on with my life."In his ruling, Parker said that "as much as everyone in this courtroom despises what this defendant did," he had to decide solely whether the law applied to Skinner.Martingayle had argued that if the case against Skinner were allowed to proceed, it opened the door to other prosecutions in Virginia. Any woman whose actions unwittingly caused a late-term miscarriage could be vulnerable, he said. Martingayle said it would take only a police officer's suspicion that a miscarriage was intentional to open a criminal case.Skinner told police she was beginning to have contractions when she shot herself, according to her statement to police. She told the detective she had discovered her pregnancy too late to have a legal abortion and that she was dealing with stress from the child's father. She said she had contemplated several ways to abort her child, including punching herself in the stomach and drinking bleach. The ruling was the second time a judge dismissed the felony charge. A lower court judge did so in May, prompting prosecutors to go to a grand jury and secure a direct indictment during the summer.Mary Petchel, president of the Tidewater Chapter of the Virginia Society for Human Life, called Skinner's case especially tragic because the young mother had a way out. Virginia has a safe haven law, passed in 2003, that allows mothers and fathers to give unharmed newborns within two weeks to hospitals or rescue squads without the threat of prosecution for neglect, Petchel said."It's just so sad that these young girls panic," she said.• Reach Dave Forster at (757)222-5563 or <a href="http://mailto:" target="_blank">dave.forster@pilotonline.com</a></blockquote>

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