Feticide

The unlawful killing of an unborn child at any stage of gestation, generally applied to a person other than the pregnant woman who causes the death, distinguishing it from a lawful abortion carried out within a state's own legal framework for terminating a pregnancy. Many jurisdictions, including a majority of United States states, have enacted fetal homicide statutes recognizing the killing of a fetus as a distinct offense, most often prosecuted where a third party's violent act against a pregnant woman causes the pregnancy to end, though the gestational stage at which the offense applies and its relationship to abortion law varies considerably between jurisdictions.