Purvi Patel, a 33-year-old woman, born to Indian immigrants, was on Monday sentenced to 20 years in prison by an Indiana court.

Her crime? She has been accused of foeticide — illegally inducing one’s own abortion — and allowing her baby to die.

Patel left her stillborn foetus in a dumpster behind a shopping centre, according to The New York Times. The prosecution said that the stillborn child was dead within seconds of being born. Patel was charged with child neglect, and later with killing her foetus.

Patel told a police detective she became aware of her pregnancy three weeks prior, after she started getting cramps, back in July 2013. Patel also said that she didn’t want her parents, who are strict Hindus, finding out about the pregnancy, which was the result of an affair she had with her co-worker.

The police was alerted about the ‘suspected child abuse’ by Dr. Kelly McGuire, whom Patel met at the emergency room of St. Joseph Regional Medical Centre. The doctor, who accompanied the police to the dumpster, said the baby was about 30 weeks old and could probably have survived after birth.

Contrary to Patel’s claims that she had had a miscarriage, she was found guilty of taking illegal abortion drugs. She was prosecuted for taking illegal medication and for letting her baby die after the self-abortion failed. The Indiana law under which Patel was convicted bans “knowingly or intentionally terminat[ing] a human pregnancy” with any intention other than producing a live birth, removing a dead foetus or performing a legal abortion.

Patel has become the first woman in US legal history to be charged, convicted and sentenced for foeticide – for ending her own pregnancy, according to the group National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW).

The sentencing has ignited a public debate. According to pro-choice activists, Patel’s conviction means that foeticide laws, initially passed to protect pregnant women from providers of dangerous illegal abortions and other sources of harm, are now being used against them.

What this conviction means is that anti-abortion laws will be used to punish pregnant women.
– Lynn Paltrow, Executive Director, National Advocates of Pregnant Women, New York to NBC News.

Patel’s defense attorney, among other commentators, have argued that the prosecution couldn’t simultaneously accuse Patel of killing her unborn child and of abandoning a living one.

The two charges against Patel—foeticide and felony child neglect—appeared to contradict each another: If Patel killed the foetus with pills while it was still in the womb, that would suggest there was nothing she could do to save it once it was born.
– Slate Magazine