Driver Charged with Aggravated Vehicular Homicide for Death of Unborn Baby
Last Saturday, a tragic story came across central Ohio news outlets: Unborn baby killed in east Columbus hit-skip crash.
In a release on Tuesday, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien announced that the intoxicated driver was indicted on ten counts, including Aggravated Vehicular Homicide for the death of the unborn baby.
O’Brien said, “The tragic death of an unborn baby and injury of two women was the result of this man’s decision to drive while intoxicated.”
To the rational conscience, this would seem the logical, compassionate, and judicious response to such a heartbreaking story as this. Indeed, in our everyday lives, we celebrate the announcement of a pregnancy and mourn the loss of an unborn baby. We appropriately respond to the presence and loss of unborn human life.
Yet sometimes, in the political realm, we disregard this intuitive compassion that we have for the unborn. The law discriminates against over a million lives each year, twisting their brutal deaths into a “woman’s right to choose.” Abortion is legal, but a person who kills an unborn baby in a car accident is charged with Aggravated Vehicular Homicide. We must ask, where is the continuity in these two conflicting paradigms?
This is why Ohio Right to Life exists, if only to speak truth into the political realm, to infuse it with reason and objectivity, and to advocate for the rights of the unborn no matter how those lives are extinguished.
We commend Ron O’Brien for being a voice for the voiceless. This week, his example of compassion for the unborn should stand as a guidepost for how our government responds to the loss of innocent human life, born and unborn.
The question is: Who will be the voice for the unborn babies legally killed across this state and nation? Who will hold Planned Parenthood accountable for the part they’ve played in silencing so many? Tragically, our government has gone so far as to facilitate Planned Parenthood’s existence through taxpayer funding. Where will it stop?
We can unwind these contradictions within our legal system—but only if we are first willing to acknowledge them.