Online chat rooms this week have been abuzz with talk about a celebrity video and its underlying message of woman empowerment and the freedom to choose, it purportedly pushes. Meanwhile across the world, an Indian lady in the US is battling for two choices deeply embedded at the heart of the Feminist Movement: a woman’s right to her own body and her right to give life.

Purvi Patel, a 33-year lady of Indian-origin in Indiana has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for aborting her child. The first woman in the US to be sentenced for such a crime, Patel has been charged with ‘neglect of a dependent’ and feticide.

Currently 38 states in the US have fetal homicide laws.

Even without getting into the technicalities of the case, the outrageous punishment meted out to her is receiving near unanimous condemnation.

The Guardian in a piece written by Jessica Valenti categorically states: It isn’t justice for Purvi Patel to serve 20 years in prison for an abortion. As per Indiana state law, Patel is charged with feticide or causing the death of a fetus. Patel says she had a miscarriage when she was 23-24 weeks pregnant and did not knowingly abort her child.

Ironically a law that was put in place in Indiana to stem illegal abortions, is now being used to target the very constituency it is supposed to protect: pregnant women.

Patel’s conviction has triggered off debate on the larger issue of reproductive rights which sits at the crux of the Feminist Movement. “While no woman should face criminal charges for having an abortion or experiencing a pregnancy loss, the cruel length of this sentence confirms that foeticide and other measures promoted by anti-abortion organisations are intended to punish not protect women,” said Lynn Paltrow Executive Director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) in a report published in The Hindu.

In Patel’s case what is really perplexing are the contradictory charges of feticide and ‘neglect of a dependent’ she has been charged with. I mean, how can any individual be guilty of both?

As online magazine Slate says: “Somehow, Indiana Managed to Convict a Woman of Both ‘Feticide’ and Child Neglect.” Clearly the US law is being misused by the state to settle ideological scores. Instead of supporting any woman struggling to cope with an unwanted pregnancy, as it should, it chooses to prosecute them under two tenous charges.

Patel, brought up in a conservative household may have been apprehensive of how her parents would react to her affair and the child that was conceived from it. That is perfectly understandable. In India she could have walked into any registered medical centre and exercised her right to choose till 20 weeks of pregnancy. No questions asked.

The Quint whole-heartedly endorses freedom of choice. Be it relationships, careers, lifestyles or sexuality; everyone should be free to choose the path they want.

Choices are important. Because making the right one, sets us free.

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