Currently, at least 37 states have fetal homicide laws. The states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. At least 15 states have fetal homicide laws that apply to the earliest stages of pregnancy ("any state of gestation," "conception," "fertilization" or post-fertilization).
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Legal challenges to these laws, arguing that they violate Roe v. Wade or other U.S. Supreme Court precedents, have been uniformly rejected by both the federal and the state courts, including the supreme courts of California, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota.
Maryland, Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina and South Carolina have chosen to prosecute ONLY women for fetal homicide (with the exception of this Patel character). There have been 5 prosecutions in Canada, too.
Furthermore, in 2004 , the Unborn Victims of Violence Act was passed.
The law is codified in two sections of the United States Code: Title 18, Chapter 1 (Crimes), 1841 (18 USC 1841) and Title 10, Chapter 22 (Uniform Code of Military Justice) 919a (Article 119a).