Charges against a Georgia woman, 24-year-old Selena Maria Chandler-Scott, were dropped on Friday after she was found bleeding and unconscious following a miscarriage. The incident took place in late March at the Brookfield Mews Apartment Complex in Tifton, Georgia. After receiving a call for emergency assistance, local police discovered Chandler-Scott unconscious and suffering from a miscarriage.
According to reports, a witness informed police that Chandler-Scott had disposed of the fetus by placing it in a bag and later throwing it into a dumpster. As a result, she was arrested and initially charged with one count of concealing the death of another person and one count of throwing away or abandoning a dead body.
The case garnered national attention and provoked outrage from abortion rights supporters who expressed concern regarding the treatment of pregnancies and miscarriages in the legal system. On Friday, District Attorney Patrick Warren announced the dismissal of the charges, stating, “After thorough examination of the facts and the law, my office has determined that continuing prosecution is not legally sustainable and not in the interest of justice," as reported by The Guardian. He highlighted that the decision was based on legal grounds rather than emotional factors, describing the situation as "heartbreaking and emotionally difficult for everyone involved."
Warren noted that a medical examination revealed that the fetus was approximately 19 weeks old and had been deemed "non-viable at the time it was naturally miscarried", showing no signs of having lived independently. He clarified that under Georgia law, the fetus did not qualify as having been born alive, which played a crucial role in his decision to drop the charges. Furthermore, Warren commented on the need for careful and thoughtful considerations in sensitive situations like pregnancy loss.
The dismissal of the charges is significant as it is believed to be the first case of its kind in Georgia, according to Dana Sussman, senior vice-president of Pregnancy Justice, an organisation tracking the criminalisation of pregnancy. This incident has arisen against the backdrop of heightened scrutiny over pregnancy-related laws following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, leading Georgia to enact stricter abortion regulations that could imply personhood rights for fetuses.
In recent years, the legal ramifications for women experiencing miscarriages have become increasingly complex. Research conducted by Pregnancy Justice indicates that between 1973 and 2022, more than 1,800 individuals faced criminal consequences in connection to pregnancy, with 2% of those cases involving charges akin to tampering with a corpse. Similar incidents have occurred in other states; for example, in 2023, Brittany Watts, an Ohio woman, was charged with felony abuse of a corpse following a miscarriage. However, those charges were ultimately dismissed by a grand jury.
The Independence has reported on this case, noting the implications of the current legal framework surrounding pregnancy and the potential for criminalisation in circumstances previously seen as personal and medical matters. Chandler-Scott has not publicly commented on the situation since the charges were dropped.
Source: Noah Wire Services