INDIANAPOLIS — Attorneys for an Indiana woman found guilty of killing the premature infant she delivered after ingesting abortion-inducing drugs asked an appeals court Monday to throw out the convictions that led to her 20-year prison sentence.

At issue is Indiana’s feticide law, which the defense says was ‘‘passed to protect pregnant women from violence’’ that could harm their developing fetus, not to prosecute women for their own abortions.

The state argues that the law ‘‘is not limited to third-party actors’’ and can apply to pregnant women.

Attorneys for 35-year-old Purvi Patel urged the Indiana Court of Appeals to reverse her 2015 convictions on charges of feticide and neglect of a dependent resulting in death.

The Patel case was the first time a state feticide law has been used against a woman specifically because of ‘‘an alleged self-induced abortion,’’ said Jill E. Adams, executive director of the abortion rights advocacy group Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice.

ASSOCIATED PRESS