OVO

A man in Utah was charged Friday with attempted homicide in the beating of a pregnant teenager who police say asked for the pummeling in an effort to abort her six-month-old fetus. Deputy Uintah County Attorney Mark Thomas said he filed the felony charge against Arron N. Harrison, 21, who was arrested Thursday and jailed in lieu of $10,000 bail. Prosecutors are still weighing possible charges against the 17-year-old girl, who is also in custody. Authorities haven’t disclosed her name. “I haven’t decided who’s more at fault,” Mark Watkins, police chief of Naples, 130 miles east of Salt Lake City, told The Associated Press. “She was just as cold as the assailant – we’re not going to treat her as a victim.”

[Article continues at link. "93 percent of Utah counties have no abortion provider." "In March 2006, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman signed H.B. 85, which was sponsored by state Rep. Kerry Gibson (R), enacting measures adding a parental consent requirement to the state's existing parental notification laws. The new law requires doctors to obtain a parent's consent 24 hours before a young woman has an abortion." Why did the 17-year-old girl make the terrible choices she did? It's not hard to figure out. - Trevor Blake]