PHILADELPHIA: ANOTHER PREGNANT WOMAN MURDERED FOR REFUSING TO ABORT

A Philadelphia man who has been arrested on charges that he killed his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child did so because she refused to have an abortion, police say.

LaToyia Figueroa, 24, was five months pregnant when she disappeared in July. Police arrested her boyfriend, 27-year-old Stephen Poaches, in August after he was allegedly caught trying to transfer Figueroa's body from one place to the other. Investigators say Poaches admitted to police that he had wanted her to have an abortion and strangled her in a rage when she refused to do so. Research on maternal deaths in two states has found that homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant women, leading to increased calls for laws protecting pregnant women and their children and more assistance for pregnant women who are facing coercion or violence to compel them to abort.
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