I share Josh Marshall's views on the soundness of dropping the charges given the prosecutorial misconduct in the Stevens case. Some will spin that to suggest he is innocent, which is simply not how these things work. But, given his age, clear dishonor and loss (quite possibly the deciding factor in a very close election), costs of litigating the case again and so forth, the choice makes sense. Hopefully, similar prosecutorial discretion will be used for more worthy defendants.
Ella was pro-choice and remained so throughout her wrenching ordeal, but she did not want an abortion.
Her obstetrician did not approve of Ella's decision, and he told her that he could not understand why she would want to go through the excruciating pain and risks of labor and delivery for nothing. She replied that it was not for nothing, that she wanted to hold her baby and kiss her goodbye. And that is exactly what Ella and her husband went on to do, against medical advice. Ella told me later that her daughter looked very much like her. She died in her mother's and father's embrace, and Ella mourned her loss.
Professor Colb discusses a horrible if thankfully very rare case involving abortion, where a mix-up involving a possibly viable child that allegedly killed after a botched abortion procedure around the twenty-second week. As she notes, some will equate this to even use of the morning after pill, an absurdity that is quite different than the under one percent of abortions that would even raise the possibility of the events in this case.
Citing the wrong of killing a baby already born (not even "partially born"), one at the edge of viability, should not be deemed verboten. There are lines here, particularly the fact that abortion rights are tied to bodily integrity. The woman here no longer was pregnant. Likewise, the choice issue, suggested by the excerpt, can go in various directions. The case at hand appears overall to be one where the woman was harmed in multiple respects, which is not somehow uniquely tied to abortion providers. A woman giving birth might similarly be mistreated in some fashion as well, the needs of the provider put above that of the patient.
Some "gotcha" move is particularly dubious in that it very well might ironically come from supporters of dubious regulations that if anything increases the risks of later term complications for which this is an extreme.