What crime is killing a foetus without the mother&#39;s consent?
<p>According to US law, when a person approaches a woman who is pregnant in the third trimester, usee a knife and "takes the life of the unborn child" while the woman survives, is this crime a murder or a personal injury to the pregnant woman, or both?</p>

<p>Does anything change depending on the month that the pregnancy had reached?</p>

<p>Murder is most often prosecuted by the states, not the US government, and each state greatly varies on the subject. Some states consider a fetus to be a person at any stage in its development; some require harsher punishments if the defendant knew the victim was pregnant; and some have no specific mentions of whether a fetus makes any difference in the law. You can see a great breakdown of the various laws and how they are applied to fetuses in <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/fetal-homicide-state-laws.aspx" rel="noreferrer">this per-state table</a>.</p>

<p>Any federal crimes that are prosecuted by the US federal government are also subject to the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unborn_Victims_of_Violence_Act" rel="noreferrer">Unborn Victims of Violence Act</a> which recognizes a fetus as a victim if it is injured or killed while committing a list of federal crimes.</p>

united-states criminal-law