A 25-year-old man in Texas faces charges after allegedly giving his pregnant partner an abortion medication without her consent, leading to the stillbirth of their child. The woman had expressed her desire to continue the pregnancy despite his repeated attempts to persuade her otherwise. Authorities in Montgomery County are investigating the incident as a case of family violence.
Jon Rueben Gabriel Demeter, 25, has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. The charge is classified as family violence, with officials noting that additional or enhanced charges may follow.
On Saturday, deputies responded to a hospital in The Woodlands, a community north of Houston, after a woman reported a miscarriage under suspicious circumstances. She told investigators that she believed the father of her baby, Demeter, had secretly given her a drug to end the pregnancy without her knowledge or consent. The child, whom the mother named Presley Mae, was stillborn at the hospital.
The sheriff's office investigation revealed that Demeter had previously tried multiple times to convince the woman to undergo an abortion, even offering to pay for her to travel out of state. She repeatedly refused, stating her intent to carry the pregnancy to term. Authorities learned that Demeter obtained abortion medication and administered it covertly with the intent to cause the death of the unborn child.
The drug was identified by local ABC affiliate KTRK as Mifepristone, which blocks the hormone progesterone necessary for pregnancy to continue, per the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In Texas, abortion is illegal except in limited exceptions.
Demeter turned himself in to authorities on Monday, his mother told KTRK. She mentioned there is another side to the story but declined to provide details. Demeter has two other children, aged 3 and 15 months; it is unclear if they share the same mother as the reporting woman. He was booked into the Montgomery County Jail and scheduled for a bail hearing on Wednesday.