Why Are Pregnant Women Targeted?
I once read that the number one cause of death of pregnant women is murder. I am not sure if that is 100% true but with high profile cases like Laci Peterson, Lori Hacking and now Jessie Davis, it is not hard to believe.
How is it that these women are murdered not only by crazy women that want to steal their babies but by their partners, husbands and fathers of their unborn babies. At one of the happiest times of their lives, they are killed in very horrific ways. I know for me the Laci Peterson case was very emotional and heart wrenching because she went missing when I was pregnant with our twins and she was due just a couple weeks after I was.
Murder of anyone is horrific but to think of a woman who was just starting our her career as a mother and the innocent baby who never had a chance to take one breath, well, it is unimaginable.
Getting pregnant when there is already problems or tension in the relationship intensifies it, and it could send an already not-completely-sane person over the edge. The financial responsibility could be too much for the husband or partner. It can also mean, if the person’s having an affair with the woman, that this could actually come to light and cause problems for the man who is having the affair.
The woman has control over having the baby or not to, but the man has no control, and sometimes the man is almost psychologically backed into the corner and as a result, sometimes leads to murder.
It seems that there is no warning signs besides if the relationship was abusive even before pregnancy occurs. In some cases it seems like things just came to a head, and homicide was the only answer for these men.
This trend that is on the rise is just so very sad.
Jessie Davis, pregnant women murdered, pregnancy, pregnant women
June 25th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Unfortunately, you are pretty much correct - pregnant women are more likely to die at the hands of someone else, than from actual childbirth. Here’s a good article about it:
http://www.now.org/issues/violence/043003pregnant.html
Abusive men often want their target at the total exclusion of everyone else - even children. When a women hunkers down and focuses on her child, this can create even more rage on the part of the abuser.
I have a close family member who was in an abusive marriage for 6 months before she hightailed it out of there. Her husband did everything possible to isolate her from EVERYONE, even her adult-aged children of whom he was very jealous. He was even jealous of her CAT and poisoned it.
I am more than a little haunted by the Jesse Davis case - my due date is just a few days after hers AND I have a 20 month old son. I can’t help but dwell on her. Her son wandering around the house is what really, really gets me and made my eyes bleed with anger. What sort of monster not only kills someone, but then leaves a toddler to fend for himself?????