this doesn't seem quite right

A 19-year old guy gets his 17-year old girlfriend pregnant, then helps her to perform an abortion by stepping on her stomach (with her consent). He gets life in prison for murder, she's protected by her right to get an abortion...article here.

Retardness, barbarism, and heinousness of the situation aside, I just don't understand how people (i.e. juries) can think this way -- to punish the guy for life for helping his girlfriend do something that she is legally allowed to do (again, questions of why the abortion clinic wasn't visited aside). Yeah, he should probably be punished, but life? While she gets off completely (I'd have to say she is just as bad as her boyfriend)? I don't know.