With how traumatic a miscarriage can be, it’s hard to imagine any woman getting criminally charged for one, even under strict abortion laws. However, such an egregious thought wasn’t too hard for the Georgia court to imagine, as it had a young woman arrested for disposing of the body of her own miscarried baby. 24-year-old Selena Maria Chandler-Scott was charged with “concealing the death of another person and abandonment of a dead body” after discarding the fetal remains into a dumpster.
Chandler-Scott was reportedly found unconscious and bleeding in the Brookfield Mews Apartments in Tifton, Georgia. It was clear her blood loss was due to her recent miscarriage, after which she disposed of the fetus. Officers later found the body and had it sent in for an autopsy, during which it was confirmed that the baby tragically never took its first breath.
That said, the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act in Georgia categorizes embryos and fetuses as people, meaning that women who improperly dispose of fetal remains, like Chandler-Scott, can be liable to criminal charges. The Georgia Sun asked the Tifton Police Department and other officials about the situation, and they stated that “prosecution is not warranted” since “there is no applicable case law on this issue” regarding Chandler-Scott’s miscarriage and fetus disposal.
Needless to say, thousands of Reddit users reacting to this news story believe that arresting or charging the Georgia woman is definitely anything but the right thing to do. “You know what will help that person deal with the trauma of a miscarriage? The trauma of an arrest. That will surely improve her life,” sarcastically remarks the top commenter. “That’ll teach her and make her think twice before she has another miscarriage!” jokes another. Other female users who also experienced miscarriages were infuriated at the court’s decision to charge Chandler-Scott. “It’s such a difficult thing for women to endure and now we’re criminals for it?!“
“So they [Georgia Sun] asked what she was supposed to do with the fetus, and nobody had an answer. If you can’t tell her what she did wrong, why was she arrested? Just because she probably didn’t have a healthcare plan that would pay for it?” a Redditor questions.
Another echoes their sentiment: “If the DA is stating prosecution is not warranted, who is bringing these charges?!” While some could see the way the Georgia woman threw away the fetus wasn’t a standard practice, it still doesn’t mean she should be arrested for it. After all, “miscarriages are traumatic asf and there’s no guideline for exactly how you ‘handle’ one,” remarks a user.
