I joined BBC 5 Live on Thursday to explain a precedent-setting case in Alabama, where a 27-year-old woman is being prosecuted for manslaughter after she was shot in the stomach.

Listen from 2:21.13

Marshae Jones, five months pregnant, was arrested after the gunshot killed the fetus. She was blamed for starting the altercation with the shooter, Ebony Johnson, who is not facing any charges.

How did this happen? I explain to Emma Barnett how the case is influenced by Alabama’s ban on abortions — under the fetal homicide law, doctors and nurses can face up to 99 years in prison for carrying out the procedure.

As the abortion issue crosses over into other matters, there is an attempt to rule — if a fetus is terminated or killed — that in some way the mother is culpable.