Legally, the state of Colorado may have no choice. Morally, this is simply horrid:

A Colorado woman accused of cutting the unborn baby from an expectant mother’s belly will not face murder charges in the gruesome attack that revived the highly charged debate over when a fetus can legally be considered a human being.

Prosecutors did not explain the decision Thursday or reveal what charges will be filed in the attack that killed the unborn baby girl. The mother, who was about eight months pregnant, survived and left the hospital Wednesday.

Why can’t prosecutors charge Lane with murder? Colorado is one of only 12 states that do not protect unborn children from murder. For that gap, Coloradans can thank Democrats who controlled the state legislature, and the abortion industry that controls Democrats … and themselves for buying their arguments when they had a chance to prevent this injustice:

Even though the baby girl died, legal experts say the case is complicated by the fact that Colorado is one of 12 states that do not have a fetal homicide law. State lawmakers in 2013 voted down such a measure over fears it would interfere with abortion rights, and voters overwhelmingly agreed when they rejected a similar ballot measure in 2014.

Colorado legislators did pass a measure that makes it a felony to violently cause the death of a mother’s fetus. The maximum punishment under that provision is 32 years in prison, whereas a person convicted of homicide in Colorado could face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The most jaw-dropping aspect of this case is that Lane certainly considered the “fetus” a human life. In fact, Lane was willing to kill the mother in order to steal the child, just to support her lies about being pregnant herself. She ended up using the dead child to claim victimhood for herself, saying she had miscarried. All along, Lane understood that she was attacking one human being to claim another, even if she had no compunction about either.

Colorado put the needs of abortionists above that of the unborn, and as a result the law treats one of the two victims in this case as a product rather than a human being. Now a family has to mourn the loss of their child while the legal system pretends the child had no claim on humanity. That’s hardly justice. Perhaps Coloradans should revisit this issue in the near future, and decide whether they’re on the side of abortionists and their apologists to such an extent that they can’t even recognize the humanity in a child in the eighth month of its gestational existence.