(Newswire.net — February 26, 2014) Tampa, FL — In early 2013, Remee Jo Lee of Florida discovered that she was pregnant. The father of her baby was John Andrew Welden, her boyfriend and a premedical student. While Lee was excited about the prospect of motherhood, Welden did not want to become a father. He hatched a plan to deceive Lee into ingesting pills that would lead to an abortion. For that crime, Welden was sentenced to almost 14 years in prison on federal charges.
According to his own courtroom testimony, Welden convinced the pregnant Lee that she was suffering from a mild infection, and he gave her pills that he claimed were antibiotics. Those capsules in fact contained a prescription medication for stomach ulcers, one that can induce abortions. Welden had been able to forge this prescription by using his obstetrician father’s prescription pad. Shortly thereafter, Welden confessed this crime to Lee over the telephone; police officers were recording that call.
Under a federal law called the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, prosecutors could have sought a life prison sentence for Welden. However, he instead struck a deal with authorities, pleading guilty to such lesser charges as conspiracy to commit mail fraud and product tampering.
Lee is currently campaigning for a state law to criminalize the harming or killing of a fetus at any stage of a pregnancy. As it now stands, Florida law only makes it a crime to terminate a fetus without the mother’s consent if that fetus would be able to survive on its own. By contrast, Lee’s unborn infant was not yet 7 weeks old.
As part of her campaign, Lee shared her recent experiences with Florida’s Senate Judiciary Committee, explaining how every day she must bear the agony of losing her child. Later, a Senate panel decided to advance a new fetal protection bill; that vote was 6-2.
Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, is the sponsor of this bill. Specifically, it makes the intentional injuring or killing of a fetus a separate crime from the injuring or killing of a pregnant woman. Under this proposed law, a person could receive a life sentence for killing an unborn baby and a death sentence for killing the mother.
Florida’s Senate Rules Committee will debate this bill at some point after March 4. Meanwhile, the Florida House of Representatives Judiciary Committee is weighing the merits of a similar bill. Rep. Larry Ahern, R-Seminole, is sponsoring that version of the law.