A 51-year-old Cincinnati woman is facing two assault charges after court documents allege she kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach last Friday, causing spotting. Phyllis Blackmon was identified in court records as the suspect in the attack, which occurred while the victim was four months pregnant.
According to WKRC, court documents allege Blackmon kicked the victim in the stomach on Friday, and that the incident caused the woman to experience spotting. The victim was four months pregnant at the time, per the same court filings cited by the station. Blackmon now faces two assault charges stemming from the incident, the outlet reports.
Ohio law treats assault against a pregnant victim with particular weight. Under Ohio Revised Code § 2903.13, the state's assault statute covers knowingly causing or attempting to cause physical harm to another person or another's unborn child, and recklessly causing serious physical harm to another person or another's unborn child. That means prosecutors can build a case around harm to the fetus itself, not just the pregnant victim.
Pregnancy Specification Could Trigger Mandatory Jail Time
Simple assault in Ohio is typically charged as a first-degree misdemeanor carrying up to 180 days in jail, but that calculus changes when the victim is known to be pregnant. Under Ohio Revised Code §§ 2941.1423 and 2929.24(F), a conviction on simple misdemeanor assault paired with a specification that the victim was known to be pregnant requires the court to impose a mandatory jail term, according to the same statutory language codified by American Legal Publishing.
Whether Blackmon and the victim had a domestic or cohabitating relationship could also shape how the case proceeds. If the two were family or household members, Ohio Revised Code § 2919.25(A) or (B) makes a pregnancy-based enhancement a fifth-degree felony if the offender knew the victim was pregnant, unless prior convictions place the charge in a higher felony category. Relevant fourth- or fifth-degree felony cases carry a six-month mandatory minimum. It remains unclear from available court documents whether that provision applies in this case.
Misdemeanor charges filed in Cincinnati are arraigned in Hamilton County Municipal Court, while any felony-level charges would need to be bound over or indicted through the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, according to the Law Offices of Steven R. Adams. That distinction matters here because the medical outcome of the pregnancy could determine whether the case stays at the misdemeanor level or escalates.
Fetal Injury Could Prompt Felony Upgrade
If physical trauma to a pregnant victim causes serious physical harm to the unborn child or leads to pregnancy termination, Ohio prosecutors have the ability to escalate charges to second-degree felonious assault or pursue unlawful termination of pregnancy charges, according to Patituce & Associates. That potential exposure underscores why the medical evaluation of the victim's four-month pregnancy following the reported spotting could be pivotal to how the case moves through the courts.
Physical violence during pregnancy carries documented medical risks beyond the immediate injury. A December 2024 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 5.4 percent of surveyed women across nine U.S. jurisdictions reported experiencing intimate partner violence during pregnancy between 2016 and 2022, with 1.5 percent reporting physical violence specifically, per the CDC. The same CDC research found physical violence during pregnancy is significantly associated with severe obstetric complications, including pregnancy-related hypertension, low birth weight, and preterm birth.
Researchers from Columbia University presented findings at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in January 2025 showing that homicide and violent assault accounted for 11 percent of maternal deaths in the United States between 2005 and 2022, according to Physicians Weekly. That data illustrates why physical attacks on pregnant women draw heightened legal scrutiny from prosecutors across the region.
This isn't the first case in the Cincinnati area this year involving a pregnant victim and heightened assault charges. In Hamilton Teen Indicted After Shooting, a grand jury in nearby Butler County indicted a 19-year-old Hamilton resident on felonious assault charges in September after he allegedly shot at a vehicle carrying a pregnant woman, showing area prosecutors have shown a willingness to pursue heightened charges when pregnant victims are endangered.
Blackmon's case has not yet resulted in a bond hearing or arraignment update beyond the two assault charges reported by WKRC. The outcome of the victim's pregnancy and any further medical findings could determine whether Hamilton County prosecutors pursue additional or elevated charges as the case proceeds.
