After a Year in Jail, Tennessee Woman Pleads Guilty to Felony for Trying to Abort at Home
Anna Yocca, the Tennessee woman initially charged with attempted murder for trying to induce an abortion at home in her bathtub, has pleaded guilty to one felony count. Yocca pleaded to “attempted procurement of a miscarriage” and was immediately freed from county jail, where she has spent more than a year.
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Yocca was 24 weeks pregnant when she tried to induce an abortion with a coat hanger at home in her bathtub; the infant was born prematurely, weighing 1.5 pounds and with permanent damage to his eyes, lungs and heart, according to prosecutors. She took the plea deal Tuesday in exchange for her release; she’s been in the Rutherford County Jail since December 2015, unable to pay a $200,000 bond.
Yocca’s case went through a dizzying number of dropped charges and re-indictments: the attempted murder charges were dropped to “aggravated fetal assault” in February 2016, but in November she was charged with three new felonies: aggravated assault with a weapon, attempted procurement of a miscarriage and attempted criminal abortion.
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