COURT SPLITS OVER FETAL-ALCOHOL CASE

Wisconsin's Supreme Court split over whether women can be charged with
criminal offenses for alcohol abuse that harms an unborn child.

The tie sends the case back to the state court of appeals, which had
passed it along to the high court without ruling. Deborah Zimmerman
was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and
first-degree reckless injury after her daughter was born with a 0.199%
blood-alcohol level.

She challenged a judge's refusal to drop the charges.

Zimmerman's lawyer told the court that if it allowed her client to be
prosecuted, the ruling could toughen abortion laws. The daughter had a
low birth weight and mild physical abnormalities that doctors
attributed to her mother's drinking, prosecutors said.