Michigan Teen Charged in Slaying of Preborn Child

A 16-year-old Michigan boy has been charged in the death of his 6-month old preborn child -- but under state law, the mother, who allegedly played an active role in the slaying, cannot be charged, The Detroit News reported.

Authorities said that at the request of his pregnant girlfriend, the boy repeatedly hit her in the abdomen with a baseball bat over a two-week period, resulting in a stillbirth. The teens then buried the child in the backyard of the boy's family.

The state's Prenatal Protection Act says that any person who intentionally harms a pregnant women resulting in the death of a preborn child is criminally liable, but such an act committed by the pregnant woman herself cannot be prosecuted.

Eric Smith, the county prosecutor for the case, called the case "shocking and reprehensible" but said, because he is bound by the law, he cannot charge the girl with a crime.

Had the child been old enough to survive on its own outside the womb at the time of the murder, the boy could have been charged with manslaughter and the girl with aiding and abetting manslaughter.

U.N. Passes Pro-Family Resolution

by Terry Phillips, Citizenlink correspondent

SUMMARY: Affirmation of traditional marriage a change in the direction of the international organization.

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution supporting traditional marriage to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family.

The resolution recognizes the importance of a mother and a father in the life of a child and affirms the value of more than a hundred pro-family conferences held this year. And although it has no force of law and governments can disregard the details as well as the spirit of the measure, family advocated hailed its passage.

"It calls for support of the nuclear family as the fundamental and natural group unit of society and the importance of trying to preserve and reclaim the family as much as we can," said Dr. David Popenoe of the Marriage Project.

Thomas Jacobson, Focus on the Family's representative to the United Nations, said the resolution "marks a change in the direction of policy at the United Nations re-embracing the family as the fundamental unit of society."

"It contained the words 'husband and wife,' " he noted, "and did not contain phrases which are code words at the U.N. to try to incorporate the same-sex unions into the term family."

Not everyone was a fan of the pro-family language, though. Canada, New Zealand, Australia and European Union nations disassociated themselves from the decision.