TORRINGTON – Charges against a woman who gave birth to a baby under the influence of methamphetamine were dropped after her defense attorney successfully argued the charging statute doesn’t consider a fetus a person until birth.
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TORRINGTON – Charges against a woman who gave birth to a baby under the influence of methamphetamine were dropped after her defense attorney successfully argued the charging statute doesn’t consider a fetus a person until birth.
Barbara Stewart, of Torrington, is a free woman after her attorney, Charles MacDonald, cited holes in Wyoming statutes that don’t define a fetus as an unborn or preborn child, and that a person isn’t a mother until a live birth occurs.
Stewart gave birth to a child that was born under the influence of methamphetamine in August of 2019. She tested positive for the presence of meth, as did the child. She was charged with felony child abuse and delivery of methamphetamine to a minor - but, according to MacDonald, Stewart was not a mother when she ingested the drug, and the child wasn’t a person.
In the motion to dismiss the charges, MacDonald wrote that the charging statute doesn’t define the unborn child as a person.