Police: Woman shot self to induce an abortion

SUFFOLK -- A Suffolk woman who lost her unborn baby after suffering a bullet wound to the abdomen was arrested yesterday and charged with shooting herself to "illegally induce an abortion."

Tammy W. Skinner, 22, originally called police Thursday at 4:11 a.m. on her cell phone from the parking lot of an auto dealership on North Main Street. She reported someone had shot her, said Lt. Debbie George, a Suffolk police spokeswoman.

Skinner was rushed by ambulance to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where doctors listed her in good condition but her fetus was pronounced dead. Doctors had planned to induce labor for Skinner, who police said was seven to nine month's pregnant, that day.

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Skinner turned herself in to police yesterday afternoon. She is charged with illegally inducing an abortion, a Class 4 felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Authorities studied several possible charges against Skinner but decided not to charge her with murder because the fetus had not been born, George said.

Skinner also is charged with using a firearm in commission of a felony, along with a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report.

21st century anti-choice Americans overlook the fact that Roe vs. Wade was a Supreme court ruling that found a woman has the right to a safe abortion. The Supreme court found that, in its wisdom, because of a predominance of unsafe and often deadly abortions occuring at the time.

It's been over 30 years and many Americans don't know what it was like before Roe, while others have forgotten.

Get ready to remember.