DEADBEAT: Mom who left baby to die in dumpster sentenced to 20 years.

Patel never went to a doctor about a pregnancy she tried to keep to herself, and tried to end by herself with prescription abortion drugs she purchased off the internet.

When that attempted abortion instead resulted in a live birth, Patel “treated the child, literally, as a piece of trash,” said St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Hurley, who said Patel had “abused her position of trust.” . . .

Judge Hurley actually sentenced Patel to 30 years on the child neglect charge and six years on the Feticide count. Both sentences will run concurrently. 10 years of the child neglect sentence was suspended, and five years of probation added to the mix. Patel’s effective sentence of 20 years will be served under a set of old guidelines that allow for one day’s worth of good time credit for each day served. That means Patel’s time behind bars could be trimmed to as little as 10 years.

Expect people to make hay of the (attempted?) feticide charge, even though it adds nothing to the sentence for child neglect, and would never have been pursued in the first place had it not been for the live birth. Expect fundraising and lobbying for “the right to choose” to come out of this, a case of a mother leaving her child to die in the trash. “Choice” isn’t about bodily autonomy; it’s about the right to a dead baby.