A recent case has been sweeping Arizona news feeds for a while now. A mother who left her children in the car while doing a job interview is facing felony child abuse charges.

While anyone in Arizona could tell you the very real dangers of leaving young children or pets in a hot car, the circumstances of this case are slightly different from the norm.

This woman, who was at the time unemployed, was unable to find child care among her family or friends, and being unemployed, was unable to afford to hire anyone. The attorney in the case against her, however, states that those factors are not important, and that felony charges are still applicable as she placed her children at risk.

Both of the children that were left in the car were taken to the hospital that day, and neither were injured in any fashion, but the dangers of leaving children alone for any period of time in a parked car are very real. Every year, children are injured and sometimes killed by the summer heat in vehicles.

Supporters of the woman state that while the dangers are real, the circumstances that drove this woman to leave her children unattended are more complicated than they might seem, and the real issue is a lack of cheap childcare for lower income families.

It will be interesting to see where this case leads, but for now, it seems as if this battle is trending towards a fight over state-funded child care.