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Homicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women.

In some cases, the man is less interested in killing the woman than in erasing the child.

The danger often peaks once she makes clear the decision is hers, closing off his alternatives.

The night she was poisoned, Jade Benning dialed her oldest friend. Nijaiha Jackson had known her since they were 6. On the phone, Jackson heard Jade ask the man in the room with her what he had put in her drink. She heard Jade say, “Blaise, you’re scaring me.” He didn't answer her question.

Benning was five months pregnant. Paramedics found her face down without a pulse. She died nine days later, on her twenty-fifth birthday, the daughter she planned to name Ivy already gone. The father-to-be was Blaise Taylor, a former NFL scout who had told several people he did not want the child. On July 1, 2026, after about two hours of deliberation, a Nashville jury convicted him of two counts of murder.

Killing a pregnant woman is not a rare event. Homicide is one of the leading causes of death in pregnancy in the United States. During pregnancy and the weeks just after birth, a woman is more than twice as likely to be murdered as she is to die from any medical reason, including hemorrhage and hypertension. The person most........

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