by WorldTribune Staff, February 10, 2019

The alleged murderer of a pregnant New York City woman is facing lesser charges due to the state’s newly-signed abortion law.

Anthony Hobson was charged on Feb. 8 with the murder of his girlfriend, Jennifer Irigoyen, 35, who was five-months pregnant. He was not charged for killing her unborn baby, the district attorney’s office said, because abortion was removed from the state’s criminal code under the new Reproductive Health Act.

Hobson allegedly pulled Irigoyen from her Queens apartment and into the building’s vestibule, where she was stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen, torso and neck, according to a New York Post report.

Doctors were unable to save Irigoyen or her unborn child.

During the attack, Irigoyen had shouted “He’s got a knife! He’s going to kill the baby!,” a witness told the New York Post.

Hobson, 48, initially faced a second-degree murder charge in Irigoyen’s death and a charge of second-degree abortion for terminating the life of her baby as well.

According to a district attorney’s office spokesperson, the abortion charge was no longer applicable because of the Reproductive Health Act.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the legislation on Jan. 22. The new law allows abortion up until the baby’s due date.

Cuomo, who says he is Catholic, called the new law “a historic victory for New Yorkers and for our progressive values.” He has not commented on the law’s potential impact on cases like the murder of Irigoyen and her unborn child.

Prior to the Reproductive Health Act, abortion in the second degree was a Class E felony and would have carried a possible sentence of up to four years in prison, according to New York Penal Law § 125.40.

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