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Murder of pregnant women is a type of homicide often resulting from domestic violence. Domestic violence, or intimate partner violence (IPV), is a threat and fear for women all across the United States (as well as the world). For many of these women the fear of harm includes not just themselves but their unborn child as well. Pregnancy-associated death has become more commonly termed as pregnancy-associated homicide. Currently, more focus has been placed on pregnancy-associated deaths due to violence. IPV may begin when the victim becomes pregnant. Research has shown that abuse while pregnant is a red flag for pregnancy-associated homicide.

Laws and policies
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act, passed in 2004, "defines a fetus as a 'child in uterus' and a legal crime victim if a fetal injury or death occurs during the commission of a federal violent crime." In the U.S., 36 states have laws with more harsh penalties if the victim is murdered while pregnant "with some of these laws defining the fetus as a person for the purpose of criminal prosecution of the offender" (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2008). Laci Peterson, murdered in 2002, is one of the more high profile homicides.

Currently in the North Carolina Senate a bill (SB 353 Unborn Victims of Violence Act) is being considered for legislation that would create a separate criminal offense for the death of a fetus when the mother is murdered. The North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence does not support this law for numerous reasons including failure to see violence against the mother as the cause of the fetal death. The Coalition does however support the position of the National Network to End Domestic Violence regarding the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.

Intervention
While it is almost impossible to determine an exact intervention point to prevent pregnancy-associated homicides some possible opportunities can be pinpointed. The medical community is one of those points. Women may feel safe speaking to their health care providers about the abuse especially after discovering they are pregnant. Thanks to some medical office and hospital policies doctors will exam the patient privately without allowing the partner access. In a 2001 editorial, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Victoria Frye writes, "Homicide by intimate partners may offer a focal point for effective pregnancy-associated mortality prevention efforts because many of these women come into contact with the health care system before their deaths." System wide training in health care on signs of domestic violence is needed. System wide screening for domestic violence by health care providers is needed along with the knowledge of where to refer women to that need services when abuse is disclosed.