Police investigate after woman in vegetative state gives birth

Police investigate after woman in vegetative state gives birth
(Image credit: Good Evening Arizona/Screenshot)

Police in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday opened an investigation into the circumstances under which a woman who has been in a vegetative state for a decade recently gave birth.

The woman, who is a patient at a care facility called Hacienda Healthcare, went into labor Dec. 29 and delivered a baby boy. Her caretakers said they did not know she was pregnant until labor began, and she did not receive any prenatal care.

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"In sexual assault cases, it's not uncommon that perpetrators have multiple victims, and so that would be a concern for us," said Tasha Menaker of the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. "Many sexual assault perpetrators are actually looking for situations where people are in isolated or vulnerable positions."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.