Court Opinion

ID: 9860148
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:12:19.963114+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:18:26.799348
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. While defendant is unquestionably guilty of one count of attempted *187feticide under the second paragraph of Iowa Code section 707.7 and perhaps two counts of that offense, I cannot agree that the fourth paragraph of that section creates yet an additional criminal offense for an attempted third trimester abortion where the pregnancy terminates with a live birth. In support of this conclusion, I would urge that under the definition of “termination of a human pregnancy” which the majority has fashioned, it is a practical impossibility to commit that act without simultaneously attempting to terminate the human pregnancy. As a result, I believe that with respect to third trimester pregnancies, where the pregnancy is in fact terminated by such an attempt, the perpetrator, depending on whether the fetus survives, is guilty of violating either paragraph one of the statute (feticide) or paragraph two (attempted feticide) but not paragraph four.
This interpretation of the statute appears to me to be consistent with its basic aims and, in addition, has the salutary result of avoiding the application of the fourth paragraph to volunteer midwives such as well-intentioned policemen or taxicab drivers who would be made criminals under the majority’s interpretation of the statute.
WOLLE, J., joins this dissent.