The Minneapolis Police Department is sending mixed signals on how it categorizes the deaths of unborn children.
In early November, the department announced that 27-year-old Jade Monet Rissell and 42-year-old Shannon Michael Benson were charged with second-degree murder for the burning and beating to death of a woman in an RV near the intersection of 35th Avenue South and Hennepin Avenue.
The woman was later discovered to have been pregnant.
On Nov. 16, the police issued a press release stating that the pair were now facing an “additional” charge for murdering “an unborn child,” thereby bringing the total number of homicides in Minneapolis for the year to 86, which is more than the 2020 total.
The police department issued another press release on Nov. 24 on the shooting of a pregnant woman standing on the corner of the 2300 block of Bryant Avenue North in September.
The woman, who was carrying twins, went to North Memorial Medical Center for medical attention, where she was treated for wounds to her abdomen and survived. Her unborn babies, however, did not. The press release uses the term “unborn fetuses” to refer to the preborn twins.
The Hennepin County medical examiner determined the incident was a double homicide.
The Star Tribune reports that the deaths of these three unborn babies, as well as the death of a two-month-old infant beaten by his mother on Nov. 10, brings the total number of homicides in Minneapolis to 90 for the year.
What is not included in that figure is the number of abortions that take place in Minneapolis.
As previously reported by Alpha News, more than 10,000 abortions were performed in Minnesota in 2020, the highest number since 2012.
Chemical abortions — which occur in the womb thanks to abortion-inducing drugs — reached an all-time high in Minnesota in 2020 at 4,964.
Stephen Kokx
Stephen Kokx, M.A., is a journalist for LifeSiteNews. He previously worked for the Archdiocese of Chicago under the late Francis Cardinal George. A former community college instructor, Stephen has written and spoken extensively about Catholic social teaching and politics. His essays have appeared in such outlets as Catholic Family News and CatholicVote.org.
