Earlier today, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that “a sexual assault that leaves a victim pregnant may be punished more severely than one that did not result in pregnancy.”

The court ruled in the case of Gary W. Cross, who repeatedly had sexual intercourse with his 13-year-old stepdaughter while her mother worked. The teenager became pregnant, and Cross arranged for her to have an abortion. Because she was 22 weeks pregnant, she had to have a surgical abortion.
The court upheld a jury’s finding that the pregnancy amounted to “great bodily injury,” subjecting Cross to a tougher sentence. But the court said the abortion did not satisfy the legal test for such an injury because Cross did not personally perform it.

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