Court Splits Over Fetal-Alcohol Case

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court split over whether women can be charged with criminal offenses for alcohol abuse that harms an unborn child. The tie sends the case back to the state court of appeals, which had passed it along to the high court without ruling. Deborah Zimmerman was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless injury after her daughter was born with a 0.199% blood-alcohol level. She challenged a judge’s refusal to drop the charges. Zimmerman’s lawyer told the court that if it allowed her client to be prosecuted, the ruling could toughen abortion laws. The daughter had a low birth weight and mild physical abnormalities that doctors attributed to her mother’s drinking, prosecutors said.