A pregnant woman was stabbed to death in New York on Feb. 3, but the state's new abortion law means there will be no justice for her unborn baby who was killed in the attack.

"He's got a knife! He's going to kill the baby!" screamed Jennifer Irigoyen as a man pulled her from her third-floor apartment, horrified witness Maurice Roman Zereoue told The New York Post.

Irigoyen was five months pregnant and already the mother of a young child when a man brutally stabbed her and her unborn baby to death.

Another neighbor told The Post she heard the 35-year-old mother arguing with the man before, "yelling … about wanting to protect her baby.''

Irigoyen's boyfriend, 48-year-old Anthony Hobson, turned himself into police and was arrested for murder. Police believe Irigoyen's slaying was an act of domestic violence.

Hobson was initially charged with abortion in the second degree for the death of Irigoyen's unborn child and second-degree murder for her death.

However, the Queen's District Attorney's office dropped the abortion charge against Hobson because New York's new "Reproductive Health Act" (RHA) legalizes abortion until the moment of birth and removes abortion from the state's criminal code.

Until January 23, anyone who murdered a pregnant woman and her unborn child would be charged under the state's murder laws. That changed when the Reproductive Health Act was signed into law, welcomed by the thundering applause of abortion activists and lawmakers.

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Pro-life activists are outraged by the legislation.

"The most shameful part is the legislature and @NYGovCuomo knew exactly what they were doing when they decriminalized forced abortion. This was no unintended consequence. We warned them, and an amendment to fix this was debated and defeated during floor debate. They all knew. #RHA," tweeted New York's Catholic Conference.

"As I said in my floor speech, being assaulted (or in this case murdered) and losing your baby is not 'a woman's choice.' It's been only two weeks and we already see the first victim of a poorly crafted law," said Republican New York Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis.

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RHA advocates have stressed that those who kill unborn babies will still face consequences. However, they will only be charged with injuring or killing the mother, not the child.

Times Union columnist Chris Churchill notes, "A man who attacked a pregnant woman and killed her fetus would likely face a first-degree assault charge. But victims and their relatives often want legal recognition of the baby's life."

More than 30 states have special legal protections so those who attack and kill unborn babies will be liable for that child's death. New York is no longer one of them.

