The Alabama Supreme Court ruled recently that a Birmingham-area woman can sue over the death of her unborn baby in a car wreck in 2007 even though the fetus couldn’t have lived outside the womb, a decision that expands the rights of people to sue over the death of the unborn.
Twelve weeks pregnant at the time, April Mack of Bessemer was badly injured in a two-vehicle wreck and suffered a miscarriage later at a hospital. She filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the drivers of the two vehicles, identified in court files as Thomas Carmack and Matthew Taul.
The suit was partially settled but a Jefferson County judge dismissed Mack’s suit against Carmack last year, ruling she could not sue because her unborn child was not far enough along to live outside the womb.
The Supreme Court justices unanimously overturned that decision, writing that since Alabama’s criminal laws allow authorities to prosecute offenders for harming fetuses before they are viable, the state’s wrongful death law governing civil lawsuits should use the same standard.
“It’s a victory for the right-to-life movement,” said John Stamps, a lawyer for Mack.
Two previous court rulings that said parents couldn’t collect for injuries to unborn children who could not live outside the womb were rendered before the Legislature made it possible to file criminal cases for injuries to nonviable fetuses. The justices established a new precedent.
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