Woman charged with attempted murder of viable baby in self-abortion pleads not guilty

As Live Action News previously reported, 31-year-old Anna Yocca of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is being tried on attempted first-degree murder charges after she tried to self-abort her 24-week-old baby boy in her bathtub at home, seeking care at a hospital only after she felt her own health might be in danger. Today, USA Today reports that Yocca has pleaded not guilty.

Protesters from other states filled the courtroom with their chanting about what they believe to be Yocca’s unfounded arrest, based on the belief that “abortion is not murder.”

Yocca’s baby, who is now in the care of child protective services, suffered permanent injuries to his eyes, lungs, and heart.

USA Today’s article demonstrates the protesters’  complete disregard for the state of the permanently wounded baby boy, born alive weighing 1.5 pounds at 24 weeks (eight weeks after the state of Tennessee’s abortion limit and just four weeks shy of the third trimester):

Anna Yocca, 31, has been held since her Dec. 9 arrest in Rutherford County Adult Detention Center on $200,000 bond and appeared in court Tuesday via remote video. Judge Royce Taylor of Tennessee’s 16th Circuit Court appointed public defender Gerald Melton to her case but did not set the next court date.

“This is not just about Tennessee,” Joan Hirsch of New York said Tuesday after deputies asked the activists to go outside. “It’s egregious and hideous. She didn’t commit a crime.”

The protesters from Georgia, New York, Tennessee and Vermont chanted, “Free Anna Yocca! Abortion is not murder!” as they marched out of the courtroom….

“When a woman attempts a coat hanger abortion, it’s the system that’s guilty of murder, not her,” said Adrienne Luendo of New York. “This is a deep assault, an escalation in the war on women.”

The article notes that “Tennessee has seven abortion providers, none that will do abortions after 16 weeks” and says that “[t]he state is among several that have tightened abortion laws this year.”

Most of TN’s neighboring states have 20-week abortion bans in place, which is still four weeks sooner than Ms. Yocca’s failed attempt to abort her son, now named Leo Kluge.