I don’t even know what to say about this sickening story: Idaho Woman Charged For Unlawful Abortion, Turned In By Anti-Choice Advocate.

Unable to afford the doctors visits and medical bills associated with an actual medical abortion, Jennie L. McCormack of Idaho instead had her sister purchase drugs online to ingest in order to cause a miscarriage.  McCormack, who is the mother of three, is now being charged with “unlawful abortion” according to the Associated Press.

If McCormack is found guilty, she could be subject to a $5000 penalty as well as up to five years in prison.

McCormack’s case is a sign of the true desperation of women in this country.  She said she believed she was only 14 weeks along, although the examination of the remains concluded it was more likely 20-25.  She is already a mother of more than one child, one still a toddler.  But financially she was cut off from any choice she wanted to make about how many people she wanted in her family, unable to procure an abortion she couldn’t afford, and now facing criminal penalties for taking the only option left to her.

According to the report, McCormack was turned into the police by the sister of on of her friends, a woman who stated “There’s other things she could have done. She could have asked for some type of help.”

But it’s obvious that the only “help” that was acceptable in this situation, according to the tipster, was to have the baby, and that the woman who contacted the police did it solely to punish McCormack.  “I’m a grandmother myself. And the love and the compassion I have for my grandkids? They’re my life. And I felt that if somebody didn’t speak up for this baby, who would? It doesn’t have a voice anymore,” Carnahan said.

The women’s movement needs to wake up and start fighting like it really matters. The hour is getting late.