What is the test for "great bodily injury" in a sexual assault case?

Great bodily injury is defined as "a significant or substantial physical injury." ( 12022.7, subd. (f).) Its occurrence is a fact question for the jury. (People v. Cross (2008) 45 Cal.4th 58, 64.) Defendant contends the prosecution did not prove great bodily injury because, other than the pregnancy, there was no evidence the victim suffered any physical harm other than the lewd act itself and the pregnancy was not burdensome.

People v. Cross, supra, 45 Cal.4th 58 is instructive. There the defendant was convicted, among other things, of committing a lewd act on a child under 14 when he had intercourse with his 13-year-old stepdaughter, who became pregnant. The jury found true the great bodily injury allegation and for that crime the defendant was sentenced to 15 years to life. He made a similar argument to the one defendant makes here, i.e., that a victim who is impregnated by unlawful, but not forcible, intercourse never suffers great bodily injury. (Id. at p. 63.) The court rejected this claim but also declined to hold the opposite. It did not decide whether a victim always suffers great bodily injury when impregnated by nonconsensual intercourse. (Id. at p. 66.) But it did uphold the finding the 13-year-old victim had suffered great bodily injury "based solely on the evidence of the pregnancy." (Id. at p. 66.)