26 weeks pregnant, woman and baby are “both fine”
By Dave Andrusko
Photo: Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office
On Sunday police in Northumberland, New York, arrested 39- year-old Stephen J. Miller, charging the man “with second-degree abortion, a felony, and misdemeanor reckless endangerment after he ‘repeatedly’ punched the abdomen of a woman he knows who is 26 weeks pregnant, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.”
Fortunately, according to Don Lehman of The Post-Star, neither the woman nor her baby were believed to be injured. “The mother and baby were both fine,” said Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo.
Zurlo told Lehman that Miller was trying to cause a miscarriage. “His intentions were to harm the baby,” Zurlo said.
Police told the newspaper that Miller fled the house but was later located in a nearby town and arraigned in Northumberland Town Court. Miller was released on his own recognizance.
Lehman explained how and why Miller was charged:
An abortion charge can be filed when a person commits an “abortional act” upon another person that is not justifiable, according to state Penal Law. It is punishable by up to 4 years in state prison.
Zurlo told Lehman
he had not seen a case where that charge was filed in Saratoga County before, but he said it seems applicable under the circumstances.
Police did not say whether Miller was the father of the unnamed woman’s baby.