QUEENS, N.Y. - An abortion charge has dropped against a Queens man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend.

Prosecutors say 48-year-old Anthony Hobson stabbed 35-year-old Jennifer Irigoyen in the torso, neck and abdomen in the stairwell of her Ridgewood apartment building earlier this month.

She was 14 weeks pregnant at the time.

Both Irigoyen and her unborn child died. 

Hobson was initially charged with murder and abortion.

But the Queens district attorney decided to drop the abortion charge after the Reproductive Health Act was signed into law, stripping the crime from the state penal code.

In a statement, the DA's office says "When the charges were originally filed, we were unaware that the Reproductive Health law was signed. Once we became aware, we informed the judge not to include the charge of abortion in his bail decision. At Hobson's next court appearance, the Abortion charge will be formally dismissed."