Update: All charges have been dropped. Read all about it here.
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 naturally 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.
Warren also clarified that his office did not participate in the warrant process in this case.
Change Log: Updated March 28 at 12:53 p.m. to add information from the District Attorney’s office.
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Apparently, Georgia has no real crime? To add to this woman's pain is unconscionable.
The majority of Georgians elect monsters to office so no surprise when monsters act like monsters. Maybe this happens because they are monsters, too, because they certainly are not Christians.
right wing ideology is a mental illness for societies worst demons
A GOP law that punishes women for no reason? Sounds like it's working as intended.
Should I report my period every month as loss of potential life? A corpse has more body autonomy than a woman in the USA. Please give me back the right to choose for my own self, my own body. Please take a developmental biology course so you men understand.
I won't have kids then, i won't just get pregnant and risk going to jail if i happen to have a miscarriage
Congratulations, you played yourself
The forced birth crowd wants to force all women to be brood mares and domestic slaves.
Also, if she reported it and they sent it to the coroner they would have sent her a bill for a couple thousand dollars she probably could ill afford. Still I would recommend it be disposed in a more respectful manner. Buried in a special place. That would be a very small mango. Ideally it would be donated to medical science which has to be done officially (I think) but costs nothing. She was probably very distraught and suffering wild hormonal flipflops.
She was arrested for taking the dead babies body and throwing it in the dumpster, not for the miscarriage.