Texas man indicted for preborn baby's death by slipping woman an abortion drug

A grand jury in Montgomery County, Texas, has formally indicted a man accused of secretly ordering an abortion drug and then slipping it to the mother of his preborn child without her knowledge, causing the baby's death.

Key Takeaways:

• Jon Rueben Gabriel Demeter has been charged with illegal abortion and injury to a child after authorities say he tricked a woman into consuming an unspecified abortion drug.

• Demeter allegedly ordered the pill online and crushed it into an electrolyte drink, encouraging the woman to consume it. She later miscarried.

• He had previously pressured the woman and offered her money to abort her preborn child, but she refused.

The Backstory:

As Live Action News previously reported, Jon Rueben Gabriel Demeter, 25, of Spring, Texas was arrested in February after police were called to a hospital for a report of a woman experiencing a "suspicious" miscarriage.

The woman told police that she believed Demeter had slipped her an abortion drug without her knowledge or consent.

He was arrested and charged with with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury-family violence; at the time, authorities said those charges could be upgraded.

The Details:

This week, Demeter was indicted by a grand jury on charges of performing an abortion and injury to a child, both first-degree felonies carrying a sentence of five years to life in prison.

A search warrant obtained by KPRC 2 News reporter Corley Peel offers more details about Demeter's alleged crime.

As Peel reports, the search warrant indicates that Demeter obtained an abortion drug and then crushed it up inside an electrolyte drink. He gave the drink to the woman and encouraged her to drink it, telling her it helped the mother of his other children during her pregnancy.

Shortly after, the woman started feeling unwell and went to the hospital, where she miscarried her child, whom she named Presley Mae. She was 14 weeks pregnant at the time.

The warrant also details that prior to giving the woman the drink, Demeter had offered to pay the woman $1,000 to abort their child, telling her he could obtain abortion drugs online. She refused.

Zoom Out:

A number of decisions by the FDA under the Obama and Biden administrations loosened safety regulations on the abortion pill mifepristone, which allowed the drug to become available online and without a doctor’s appointment. That easy access has had devastating consequences.

Over the past few years, there has been a substantial increase in instances in which predatory men have ordered the abortion drugs online and then coerced, forced, or tricked pregnant women into aborting their preborn children.

Demeter is hardly the first; he joins a growing list of such predators.

The Bottom Line:

As long as there are so few regulations on abortion pill distribution, women will continue to be injured and their preborn children killed.