Woman's arrest after miscarriage in Georgia draws fear and anger

The arrest of Selena Maria Chandler-Scott, who miscarried in Tifton, Georgia, reflects the growing criminalization of pregnancy, experts say.

On March 20 in rural Georgia, an ambulance responded to an early morning 911 call about an unconscious, bleeding woman at an apartment. When first responders arrived, they determined that she’d had a miscarriage. That was only the start of her ordeal. 

Selena Maria Chandler-Scott was transported to a hospital, but a witness reported that she had placed the fetal remains in a dumpster. When police investigated, they recovered the remains and Chandler-Scott was charged with concealing the death of another person and abandoning a dead body. The charges were ultimately dropped; an autopsy determined Chandler-Scott had had a “natural miscarriage“ at around 19 weeks and the fetus was nonviable. 

Still, Chandler-Scott’s arrest comes at a time when a growing number of women are facing pregnancy-related prosecutions in which the fetus is treated as a person with legal rights. And her experience raises troubling questions about miscarriages that happen in states with strict abortion laws, women’s health advocates say. How should remains be disposed of? And who gets to decide? 

Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, provides any fetus with a heartbeat legal recognition under the law. 

Though the push for “fetal personhood” provisions like this one predates the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, experts say it has intensified since. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/georgia-arrest-miscarriage-fetal-personhood-rcna199400

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