An Indiana woman who threw her newborn baby in the trash after giving birth will be spending 20 years in prison.

Purvi Patel, 33, was arrested in 2013 after she arrived at an Indiana hospital following the birth of her child.  She denied being pregnant but her injuries made it obvious to hospital personnel that she had just given birth.  Patel then admitted she had been pregnant after an affair with a co-worker.

Patel claims because her Hindu family is against pre-martial sex so she panicked when she gave birth and threw the child into a dumpster behind a shopping center.  She claimed the baby was stillborn, however doctors were able to show the baby had been born alive and could have survived if given medical attention.

The defense claimed she had been trying to induce her own abortion using drugs but that failed.  Under Indiana law, it is feticide to induce premature birth with the intent of causing death except in the case of approved abortions.

“You, Miss Patel, are an educated woman of considerable means. If you wished to terminate your pregnancy safely and legally, you could have done so,” the judge said. “You planned a course of action and took matters into your own hands and chose not to go to a doctor.”

Lila Rose of Live Action said there was a high level of irony in the case.

“If an abortionist had destroyed this defenseless little person at 28 weeks, there would be no controversy,” she said. “But since the baby managed to be born, to breathe, and then to be killed at the exact same age, law enforcement is scrambling to see justice served.”