El Cajon

The district attorney’s office does not plan to appeal a decision dismissing misdemeanor charges against an El Cajon woman accused of harming her unborn child.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Harry Elias, who is attached to the district attorney’s child abuse unit, said Thursday that Judge E. Mac Amos’ ruling that the penal code section cited in the charge did not apply to the situation indicated that further state legislation is needed to cover the case--believed to be one of the first legal tests in the nation of a pregnant woman’s obligations to her fetus.

The district attorney argued that Pamala Rae Stewart contributed to her infant son’s death by taking illegal drugs during her pregnancy. The baby was born with severe disabilities Nov. 23 and died Jan. 1.

Stewart was charged under a law generally applied to cases of spouses refusing to pay child support. Amos, in his dismissal ruling, said criminal sanctions may be appropriate but that the statute governing the situation “must be more carefully and specifically drawn in order to support a prosecution,” Elias said.

“If the type of conduct as was alleged in this case--the abandoning of all duty to an unborn child--is to be the subject of criminal prosecution, it must rest upon a statute enacted after full hearings and debate, a statute which sets clear standards to which persons will be held accountable,” Elias said.

He said that no state legislator has indicated plans to revise present statutes.