A 21-year-old woman who was four months pregnant was shot and killed in Hartford in April and police said her boyfriend is accused of hiring a hitman to kill her.
Authorities said Carlton “CJ” Bryan, 21, of Windsor, hired a hitman to kill his girlfriend, Shamari Jenkins. On Friday, the prosecutor said they believe it was over Jenkin’s decision not to have an abortion.
Jenkins was shot in the back of the shoulder when she pulled over her Honda sedan at Magnolia and Mather streets on April 29.
The bullet traveled through her torso, said police. She was rushed to St. Francis Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Bryan was a passenger in the car at the time of the shooting and was not hurt in the shooting. After investigating, police said they believed he was involved in planning Jenkin’s murder.
“Any type of situation where a pregnant woman is killed, often the boyfriend or father becomes someone you would take a minimum look at,” said Lt. Foley of the Hartford Major Crimes Division.
Research has shown that when an abusive male partner is unwilling to accept or tolerate the birth of a child, the woman may become the victim of verbal or physical abuse aimed at compelling her to submit to an unwanted abortion.
According to one study of battered women, the target of battery during their pregnancies shifted from their face and breasts to their pregnant abdomens, which suggests hostility toward the women’s fertility.
Studies further show that the leading cause of death during pregnancy is homicide.
In one study of violent deaths among pregnant women, three out of every four were killed during their first 20 weeks of pregnancy. Women are literally being killed for refusing to abort.
The biggest factor leading women to have abortions is lack of support from their male partners.
Withheld support, encouragement to abort, demands for abortion, threats, and violence are all methods on a spectrum of ways in which men pressure women to abort unborn children — children that women are willing to welcome but whom their male partners reject.
Domestic violence is one of the leading causes of unwanted abortions.
It is most certainly true and rings true with the victims of domestic violence and with women in general.
Unwanted Abortions
The phrase “unwanted abortions” [and the] goal of stopping “unwanted, unnecessary, and unsafe abortions” is hard to dismiss. Even while this issue has been off the radar screen, the public is already inclined to believe that coerced abortions are a common occurrence.
The phrase “unwanted abortions” even resonates with many women who freely consented to their abortions, yet deeply believe that it was a negative, unwanted experience.
Moreover, by repeatedly using these words, it helps to embed the phrase “unwanted abortions” into the national lexicon, which in turn reinforces the public’s perception that abortion is an “unwanted” thing.
Further, since unwanted abortions are so common, expressing an understanding of why women abort — even against their consciences and maternal desires — strongly connects with those post-abortive women who fit that profile.
They [appreciate the effort] for caring, for understanding, for taking their side, and for working to spare other women what they have been through.
http://www.physiciansforlife.org/content/view/1166/26/
Scientists met this week in New York to discuss recent scientific evidence regarding abortion as a form of growing violence against women and girls. Indiscriminate practice of abortion is correlated with coercion, a history of sexual abuse, violence during pregnancy, intimate partner violence and with psychological consequences that may lead to suicide.
The scientific evidence was discussed in the meeting “Public Policies to reduce maternal mortality, a holistic focus on maternal health” by Doctors Monique Chireau, Donna Harrison, Eoghan de Faoite and Elard Koch in parallel to the 57th Session of the Commission of Women Status of the United Nations, whose priority theme is the “elimination and prevention of all types of violence against women and girls”, which continues until March 15th.
The scientists discussed different epidemiological studies, showing that:
- A significant and growing proportion of induced abortions occur due to coercion by the intimate partner of the pregnant woman.
- A history of sexual abuse and violence is a risk factor for abortion and subsequent mental health problems.
- There is a significant correlation between the increase in the number of abortions and an increase in the rate of homicides against women versus those against men.
- There is an important correlation between the increase of abortions and the suicide rate of women of childbearing age.
- Countries with abortion laws that are less permissive, such as Ireland and Chile, display lower abortion rates than countries with more permissive abortion laws.
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/abortion_violence_against_women-105905
Despite “pro-choice” predictions to the contrary, the illegitimacy rate has increased significantly since Roe v. Wade. The percent of children born out of wedlock at the time of Roe was 15.5 percent, but by 2000 that number had increased to 33.2 percent, and by 2004, it increased to 36 percent. There is a high correlation between out-of-wedlock childbearing and a host of negative social indicators such as pervasive child poverty. Abortion hits minority communities hardest. The Guttmacher Institute reports that the abortion rate among black women remains more than twice the national average, and three times that of white women. The organization Blacks for Life calls abortion “cooperative genocide”
“As a woman who has been through the abortion experience and who knows others who have been through it repeatedly, I am particularly aware and grateful. It is not something I would wish on anyone. Its repercussions are widespread, packed with emotion, and sometimes despair. This may be true to a greater or lesser degree according to the woman, her history and/or her personality type. But the abortion experience is just one more hardening of the heart. Hardening my heart to my own flesh conditions me to do it to others and even justifies it in my mind. This is the kind of subconscious thinking, and feeling, and rationale that the abortion experience has the capability of fostering. Also, the woman may become almost hopelessly self-destructive through alcoholism, drug addiction or bulimia, to name a few. In addition, I wonder is it just a coincidence that aborted women I know have gone through tumultuous relationship after relationship and have had trouble initiating, developing, and sustaining happy, healthy, workable ones?”
Dr. Philip G. Ney, head of the Department of Psychiatry at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Canada, has outlined some psychological mechanisms showing how abortion leads directly to child abuse.
- Abortion decreases an individual’s instinctual restraint against the occasional rage felt toward those dependent on his or her care.
- Permissive abortion diminishes the taboo against aggressing [against] the defenseless.
- Abortion increases the hostility between the generations.
- Abortion has devalued children, thus diminishing the value of caring for children.
- Abortion increases guilt and self-hatred, which the parent takes out on the child.
- Abortion increases hostile frustration, intensifying the battle of the sexes, for which children are scapegoated.
- Abortion cuts the developing mother-infant bond, thereby diminishing her future mothering capability.
The US National Center of Child Abuse and Neglect, has reported that child abuse increased more than 1,000 percent since the legalisation of abortion in 1973.
The literature now echoes the voices of millions of women for whom abortion was not a liberating, health promoting “choice.” A conservative estimate from the best available data is 20 to 30 percent of women who undergo an abortion will experience serious and/or prolonged negative consequences.
Any interpretation of the available research that does not acknowledge the strong evidence now available in the professional literature represents a conscious choice to ignore basic principles of scientific integrity.
The human fallout to such a choice by the APA and like-minded colleagues is misinformed professionals, millions of women struggling in isolation to make sense of a past abortion, thousands who will undergo an abortion today without the benefit of known risks, and millions who will make this often life-altering decision tomorrow without the basic right of informed consent, which is routinely extended for all other elective surgeries in the U.S.
http://www.theunchoice.com/News/colemanresearcharticle.htm
See Also:
http://qixass.com/afterabortion.org/PAR/V4/n23/DOM_VIOL.htm
For more information on this issue, including documentation on cases of violence against women who refused to abort, see “Forced Abortion in America,” http://www.afterabortion.info/news/vaultlist.htm
http://www.unfairchoice.info/pdf/FactSheets/ForcedAbortions.pdf
“Reversing the Gender Gap: Touch the Hearts, Earn the Trust, Win the Votes of 30 Million Post-Abortive Women,” www.afterabortion.info/news/gap.htm
