A 24-year-old Tifton woman faces criminal charges after experiencing a miscarriage, raising concerns about the application of Georgia’s strict abortion legislation.
What We Know: Selena Maria Chandler-Scott was arrested and charged with concealing the death of another person and abandonment of a dead body following a medical emergency on March 20. According to police reports, emergency services responded to Brookfield Mews Apartments around 6 a.m. Thursday after receiving a call about an unconscious woman who was bleeding. Medical personnel determined she had suffered a miscarriage and transported her to Tift Regional Medical Center for treatment.
Police claim a witness reported that Chandler-Scott had placed the fetal remains in a bag and disposed of it in a dumpster outside the apartment complex. Officers later recovered these remains, which were sent for autopsy.
The Autopsy: According to the autopsy, the fetus was 19 weeks old at the time of the miscarriage. There were no signs of trauma and the fetus did not take a breath. The coroner’s office ruled it to be a occurring miscarriage. At 19 weeks, a fetus is about the size of a mango and lungs are just beginning to develop but are not fully developed yet.
In Context: Georgia’s “heartbeat law,” officially the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The law also grants personhood status to embryos and fetuses, potentially exposing women who miscarry to criminal charges if authorities believe they contributed to the pregnancy loss or improperly handled fetal remains.
Reproductive rights advocates have warned that such laws could criminalize women experiencing pregnancy complications or miscarriages. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, miscarriages occur in about 10-20% of known pregnancies, with most happening in the first trimester.
What Should Women Who Miscarry Do?: We asked several Tifton Police Department and Tift County officials what women who miscarry should do with the remains of the fetus. So far, only Tift District Attorney Patrick Warren has answered and said typically miscarriages are not handled in this manner.
“There is no applicable case law on this issue as it is generally deemed a medical condition and prosecution is not warranted. Georgia courts have held that once a baby is ‘born alive and has had an independent and separate existence from its mother’ then what happens to the child (injury or death) will be subject to criminal prosecution,” Warren said.
Georgia courts have held that once a baby is ‘born alive and has had an independent and separate existence from its mother’ then what happens to the child (injury or death) will be subject to criminal prosecution,” Warren said.
…then why isn’t that what the law says? Basically admits completely by accident that a fetus isn’t a person. But you don’t get to control people that way.
So how long until the first underground railroads for young women are set up?
I mean, I am already talking with American LGBQT about being on the Canadian side to receive them. But it looks like we’ll need to set one up for women, as well.
I’ve honestly been thinking of buying a cheap house for this purpose.
not too big, in a quiet area where there’s not many neighbors, let the neighbors know it’s for an “airbnb app” or something so as not to arouse suspicion when many people come and go.
I’ve also been thinking of how one could write an app that could share where these safehouses are without actually endangering anyone.
I’m sure they already do. The very nature of them dictates you will almost never hear about them. Asking where the abortion underground railroad is would be akin to asking for directions to the local black market.
It’s already happening but not everyone realizes the danger yet.
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Anyone else remember the unhinged right saying normal Americans were being hysterical when talking about Gilead states after the corrupted donvict court struck down 50 years of law?
r/Sentencemurder
This isn’t Reddit.
Prolly not a real sub either
?
Nobody wants this but it might be time for women to collectively put their vaginas on strike. Shit would change in a week.
I don’t trust the Magaturds to not force themselves on women anyways.
More likely legal rape first
As written in 411 BCE by Aristophanes as Lysistrata
It also worked for Þjódhild Jorundsdottir when she refused to sleep with Erik the Red until he converted to Christianity.
That’s hilarious
It was supposed to be a comedy, not reality
I recommend this movie version: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisístrata
We can’t have children, the way we do it.
In Context: Georgia’s “heartbeat law,” officially the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act
Wait. Are we doing DEI again?
Yep, select groups only.
And if you have to ask, no you’re too poor.
Police and attornies could be solving actual crimes instead they’re spending millions of dollars suspecting women of having broken the breeding laws.
So we arrest rich white women too?
She didn’t procure so she’s useless to the current regime.
Nazis or whatever you call the fascists in America (They won’t call a trans person whet they want to be called, they don’t pick what I call them. They’re Nazis.) Have a plan to murder every man they don’t like. And rape their women. And force them to have their children.
This is their plan. Make no mistake. Some twisted day of the rope prima noctum incrl fantasy.
Never go walking without your hatpin.
They want you dead.
guns
firearms, even
but guns bigger, mortar strong
So did she actually get arrested? Article never says she was arrested just that this backasswards law exists.
First sentence of the second paragraph literally says “What We Know: [woman’s name] was arrested and charged …”
Wow… I read the article twice. Idk how I missed that. Excuse my overworked brain.
Yeah, sure. We were assured Roe wouldn’t get overturned. But let’s just say it magically did, we were told women who had miscarriages wouldn’t have to worry. The Republicans. Told. Us. So this is just a big fat lie. La la la la la, I can’t hear you …
Gilead here we come
I get to be one of the bodies left to rot after a public hanging!
Women with miscarriages won’t have to worry, just like immigrants who are in the country legally won’t have to worry
Before someone misreads my comment, my point is both groups DO have to worry
Can you imagine suffering a miscarriage, which must be traumatic, and then having to hide the fetus in case you get arrested for murder.
This poor woman was in a lose / lose situation.
Truly, even the article set her up to lose. Talking about her throwing the remains in the dumpster to make us think about parents who have done that with living babies.
When I took a second to think further, I was questioning why the hell she even had the remains in the first place! She was taken to a hospital, presumably to have them removed, did the doctors just give them back and expect her to take it to the nearest biohazard dump? Ridiculous.
My interpretation of her having to hide the remains is that she couldn’t afford to go to a hospital and have things dealt with properly.
This woman is a victim of the shameful state of US healthcare and repressive law.
Didn’t consider that she gave it to herself and the transportation to the medical centre was for post-care. Absolutely horrible for her, and exactly what you said, shameful of the US system.
“The purpose of a system is what it does” comes to mind. The laws are intended to make life worse for women.
“At 19 weeks, a fetus is about the size of a mango…”. Anything but the metric system!
Corrected for metric system:
At 19 weeks, a fetus is about the size of a mango, innit
Good grief, why compare it to a mango of all things that would be around that size?! Just say x in. (y cm.) Besides, their size isn’t exactly uniform. Per Wikipedia:
The fruits may be somewhat round, oval, or kidney-shaped, ranging from 5–25 centimetres (2–10 in) in length and from 140 grams (5 oz) to 2 kilograms (5 lb) in weight per individual fruit.
That’s quite a range. And BTW is coming up with objects to compare things to a job position that exists? I want to apply for that. You’d spend the day browsing databases of things by size and picking out the weirdest ones.
is coming up with objects to compare things to a job position that exists? I want to apply for that. You’d spend the day browsing databases of things by size and picking out the weirdest ones.
Yes, this was your job interview and you failed. You neglected to compare the number of rows in the databases to number of pages in, say, the entire Harry Potter series.
If you keep your license to practice up to date, you can reapply in two years.
Two years, or as we like to call it here: An associates degree worth of time.
“innit” isn’t a unit of measurement, but if it were, a 19-week old fetus would probably be a few centinnits long
almost a microbruv
WHY THE FUCK WOULD ANY WOMAN AGREE TO LIVE IN A CONFEDERATE STATE
Leave asap.
Or the USA in general (if they have the means to escape)
Moving is expensive.
Is that how you think this works? Nobody gets to choose where they’re born, and people tend to stay close to their families or other support systems, and their jobs. They might have partners or kids who are similarly invested in the area. Not so easy.
We really need to organize and remove the conservatives from power. Peacefully is ideal, but I won’t be upset if all the republicans are hanged.
Every state is at risk of having this happen with the federal government the way it is, and it’s not so easy to emigrate to some other country.
