Beyond Trayvon: How ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws Spread from Florida to Half the U.S.

By Sandra G. Boodman

Through the haze of exhaustion and elation that often characterizes the first disorienting weeks of motherhood, Karen Good felt something else: a gnawing fear for her own health.

Good, then 41, had given birth to a healthy baby boy shortly after Christmas 2007. Her son was delivered four weeks early because she had developed preeclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition characterized by high blood pressure and protein in the urine. In most cases the remedy is delivery; once the baby is born the mother’s blood pressure usually returns to normal.  More Read