Midday Roundup: Guilty plea for man who killed 6-week-old unborn baby

Pro-life plea. A Florida man pleaded guilty yesterday to tricking his pregnant girlfriend into taking an abortion pill that caused her to miscarry her unborn child. John Andrew Welden, 28, faces up to 13 years in prison for killing the baby. His girlfriend, Remee Lee, said she was thrilled when she learned she was pregnant, and madly in love with the baby’s father. Weldon tricked her into taking the drug by telling her it was an antibiotic she needed to take to clear up an infection. Lee and Weldon had gone to his father’s obstetrics clinic just days before to confirm the pregnancy. Although she was only six weeks pregnant, Lee recognized the magnitude of what she lost: “There’s just no words for the horror I wake up with every day that this is my reality. There’s no escaping it, there’s no turning it off.”

Plan B? Even as President Barack Obama prepares to make his case tonight for military action against Syria, he said in interviews yesterday he would consider a Russian-brokered plan to contain and account for all of the country’s chemical weapon stockpiles. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday containing the weapons offered the only alternative to military action. Seizing an opportunity, Russia’s foreign minister immediately said he would try to talk Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into considering such a surrender. This morning, a Syrian spokesman said his country would agree to the plan. But Obama administration officials remain skeptical—almost as skeptical as the American people are about taking military action. A new poll shows 60 percent of voters oppose a strike, and a majority of lawmakers have either pledged or hinted that they will vote down the president’s proposal. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced today he would vote no. His problem? Too many “unanswered questions.”

Gang-rape verdict. An Indian court earlier today convicted four men charged with brutally gang raping and beating to death a 23-year-old New Delhi student. Protestors outside the courthouse chanted, “Hang them!” as the unprecedented trial came to a close. The sentencing hearing begins tomorrow. The young woman’s violent death sparked outrage in India, where rape commonly goes unpunished, and pushed the government to enact changes to prosecution policies. With stiffer penalties for rape in place, the number of reported cases has skyrocketed. Still, instances of gang rape persist.

Fashion faux-pas. A Muslim teen won her discrimination suit against retailer Abercrombie & Fitch today when a judge ruled the popular clothing retailer unfairly fired her for wearing a headscarf. The company claimed it was just following its “look policy,” part of a marketing campaign that requires employees to maintain a certain appearance. But the judge found no credible evidence the girl’s headscarf harmed sales. This is the second big discrimination suit loss for Abercrombie, which agreed in 2004 to pay $40 million in damages to African-American, Hispanic, and Asian employees.