How Many Unborne Babies Does Planned Parenthood Murder Each Year?

Pictured above: Handcuffs. From
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=4536

Imagine losing your babe but to be arrested for it.

That's exactly what happened to Marshae Jones.

Last June, 27-twelvemonth-old African-American adult female Marshae Jones was indicted by an Alabama grand jury on manslaughter charges when she lost her 5-month-old fetus after being shot. The person who shot Jones, whom the police claimed was interim in self-defense, was not charged in the shooting. Jones, however, was held responsible for being in a fight while meaning, and faced up to xx years in prison house. Due to a dedicated grouping of activists and lawyers — and public backlash — charges were dropped and Jones was prepare free. Unfortunately, Jones' case is not that unique. SinceRoe v. Wade, at that place have been several cases in which women were arrested for miscarriage or stillbirth.

Criminalizing pregnancy loss casts pregnant people every bit vessels rather than people. A fetus is a person by constabulary in Alabama, and therefore tin authorize as a victim of homicide. Someone like Jones could exist held responsible for the death of a person if her actions are judged to be negligent. And in states like Arkansas, the language that defines "fetal personhood" is extremely vague, so a person could potentially exist arrested for waiting fifty-fifty one minute to telephone call the regime after a pregnancy loss, or for engaging in behaviors that could put a pregnancy at hazard. In Arkansas, v women accept been arrested for stillbirth or miscarriage: three between 1884 and 1994, one in 2015, and another in 2016.

Many of the laws that take been used to prosecute people for miscarriage and stillbirth are loophole laws, meaning that since the courts cannot technically abort someone for losing their baby, other laws must be written that can punish the significant person in dissimilar terms but still have the desired issue. "Concealing a birth" and "concealing a death" are felonies or misdemeanors in several states, and many people arrested afterwards miscarriage or stillbirth are often charged under these laws. Also, many of the laws that have bedevilled these women are those that requite fetuses, and sometimes fertilized eggs, "personhood." When a fetus is considered a person in the eyes of the police, the rights of the pregnant person are often swept away.

Blaming Women

A stillbirth is divers as the loss of a pregnancy afterwards twenty weeks — a non-too-uncommon event that happens roughly 24,000 times per year in the United states of america, affecting approximately i% of pregnancies. Stillbirth near commonly affects Black people; lower income folks; and people who are 35 or older, smoke while pregnant, have a history of pregnancy loss, have certain medical weather such as diabetes or high blood pressure level, or give birth to multiples.

In 2016, Katherine Dellis gave nativity to a stillborn baby in her home. She went to the doctor to receive necessary medical intendance afterward, but to be arrested. An autopsy showed the babe had died about xxx to 32 weeks into the pregnancy. She was sentenced to five months in prison for concealing a dead trunk, despite the fact that the fetus had already died in the womb. Although Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam pardoned her, an appellate court had already upheld her confidence.

Meaning people are ofttimes blamed for miscarriage and stillbirth despite the fact that almost of the fourth dimension, the fetuses dice of natural causes. Among people who know they are pregnant, 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage before 20 weeks. Many people miscarry before they even know they are pregnant. The almost mutual causes of miscarriage are immune system issues, hormonal abnormalities, clotting problems, medical atmospheric condition (polycystic ovarian syndrome, diabetes, thyroid issues, etc.), womb or cervix issues, chromosomal abnormalities, and astringent infections that atomic number 82 to high fever. In most cases, the significant person did absolutely nada to crusade the miscarriage.

Targeting People of Colour

Black, Latinx, and Native American women have college rates of miscarriage and stillbirth than non-Hispanic white women, with Blackness people having the highest rates of stillbirth. This disparity tin can be due to a number of reasons, mostly that people of colour tend to have lower rates of admission to necessary prenatal care.

In 2016, Arkansas adult female Keysheonna Reed miscarried twins at 24 weeks. Panicked, traumatized, and heartbroken, she buried them. When their bodies were plant, she turned herself in, and an autopsy confirmed they had died in the womb and no illegal substances were found. She was charged with "corruption of a corpse," which could sentence her up to x years in prison. She is nevertheless awaiting trial. Other women have been arrested for burying fetal remains, about of the time simply to mourn for them, fifty-fifty though some states, such as Indiana, are trying to mandate burying of fetal remains for anyone who has had an ballgame — a requirement that would simply add to the already high out-of-pocket expenses associated with ballgame.

Let's render to the example of Marshae Jones, who was indicted on manslaughter after being shot in a fight she was said to have instigated. The case in general lacked particular, so it is unclear as to whether Jones actually started the fight. Nevertheless, she was indicted for "'intentionally' caus[ing] the death of her fetus past 'initiating a fight knowing she was 5 months pregnant.'" Jones was charged with the death of her fetus, not with endangering the life of the other woman.

In most states, when someone has a felony conviction, they lose the privilege of voting. Abortion bans disproportionately affect people of colour, who are likewise more than likely to lose their pregnancies. If these ballgame bans are enforced and pregnancy loss is criminalized, it could atomic number 82 to the loss of voting rights for many people who can go pregnant. The states with the strictest abortion bans have higher populations of color, whom these bans unduly affect. This has already happened with drug laws. Lxxx percentage of those in federal prison for drug offenses are Black or Latinx, despite the fact that white people sell and use drugs at very similar rates. It has resulted in widespread disenfranchisement of African-American and Latinx people.

Putting Maternal Health in Jeopardy

Fetuses often have more human rights than the humans who house them. That is, until they are born. The United States has one of the highest babe mortality rates in the adult world, with an boilerplate of 5.8 babies dying per every 1,000 live births in 2017. The Black infant bloodshed rate is two times the mortality rate for babies born to white mothers. States that are passing or attempting to pass the most restrictive abortion bans happen to have the highest babe bloodshed rates in the country, with an average of 7.three infant deaths per 1,000 alive births. The U.S. also has the highest maternal bloodshed rate in the developed world. The Black maternal mortality rate in the U.South. is three to 4 times the charge per unit of white folks.

When people miscarry, it is important for them to get medical attention, equally miscarriages tin result in astringent complications and sometimes fifty-fifty death. If the criminalization of pregnancy loss becomes more widespread, how many people will still exist willing to take that gamble? How many volition dice or face lifelong complications every bit a effect of avoiding medical intendance? How many doctors will be forcibly put in the position of unethically calling the police on their own patients? If there is such a fear of being arrested for something happening to your pregnancy, people could be less likely to seek necessary prenatal care.

Framing Pregnancy Loss every bit Feticide

In 2013, Indiana woman Purvi Patel went to the emergency department for bleeding. She was likely 23 to 24 weeks meaning, and the child was stillborn. The police were called, Patel was arrested, and she was charged with feticide and neglect of a dependent. Despite a lack of evidence, prosecutors argued that the kid was alive when information technology was born and she neglected it, leading to its expiry. They besides claimed she bought abortion drugs online to terminate her pregnancy, despite toxicology reports showing nothing of the sort in her organisation. In 2015, Patel became the first American woman to be sentenced on a feticide charge, and was given 20 years in prison house. In 2016, her conviction was overturned afterward she appealed to the courtroom, and she was released, merely not before beingness traumatized by the unethical way the justice system treated her.

Feticide is defined every bit "an human activity that causes the death of a fetus" — a definition that is very vague and nonspecific on purpose. It has been used to pile charges onto women who have been arrested for other offenses or criminalize pregnancy loss and other medical weather condition.

In 2008, a New York woman was not wearing a seat belt while driving under the influence. She was also in the tertiary trimester of her pregnancy. The car crashed, killing two people in a head-on collision, and her baby was delivered by emergency cesarean section, but did not survive. She was charged with manslaughter in the two deaths, and with driving under the influence — but those charges were dropped. A jury did, notwithstanding, concur her responsible for failing to wear a seat belt and convicted her of manslaughter for losing her baby. She faced upwards to nine years in prison house, but her conviction was overturned years later because New York'due south loftier court believed "that it could be applied to a meaning adult female doing anything that could potentially endanger a fetus, from having a glass of vino to shoveling snow."

In 2011, Bei Bei Shuai spent a twelvemonth in an Indiana jail before her feticide charges were dropped. She was suffering from severe depression (an affliction but like any other) and attempted suicide while significant. She survived the attempt, merely the baby did not.

What is the standard of proof in instances of suspected feticide? Equally seen here, that has non been very clear, and that vagueness gives the judicial system more than power and a wider range of women to punish. Let'south say information technology was determined a person fell downwards the stairs. How do you know they weren't pushed by an abusive partner? How do you know the fall wasn't an accident? This scenario actually happened after a woman barbarous downwards the stairs, went to a doctor because she was concerned near her baby, and the doctor interpreted her business concern as intent to harm her unborn child. The law were chosen and she had to spend ii nights in jail. Fortunately, charges were dropped.

Or how most a young person suffers a miscarriage the night after drinking? How do you know they were aware of their pregnancy (most people don't know they're pregnant until six weeks or later)? What if someone with anorexia loses their baby? Anorexia is an illness like any other, and ane that is very hard to care for. Holding an anorexic responsible for pregnancy loss criminalizes her eating disorder. Or what if someone who has cancer was punished for losing their kid despite the fact that … they have cancer? Cases such equally these are rare, but in that location have been several hundred sinceRoe five. Wade was decided in 1973, and that have worked their means into federal and state laws.

At that place are documented arrests for suspected abortion or pregnancy loss prior toRoe five. Wade. Just since Roe, there accept been several hundred documented arrests subsequently pregnancy loss. Now that abortion is technically legal, opponents seek ways to chip away at a person'south correct to their own body. Nether this view, people who tin can go significant are vessels for gestation and non really people. So what practice nosotros do when that vessel fails, intentionally or unintentionally? We punish information technology.

Dr. Jessica Zucker, a psychologist specializing in reproductive and maternal mental health, wrote:

On the precipice of potentially criminalizing miscarriage, I can't help only wonder whose stories volition get tucked away for fright of being questioned, accused, jailed even?! And and so it goes that our reproductive outcomes are being examined under microscopes to determine if we somehow forced demise. And what if some of us did? What if the politicization of our bodies quiets the very chorus we've worked and so hard to encourage?! I hope you'll join me in standing to speak your truth and, in and then doing, widen our circle to include reproductive situations that may not apply to yous directly. Because they do. Because you lot could be her. And she could exist you.

Tags: Alabama, pregnancy, miscarriage, prenatal care, parenthood, feticide, manslaughter

 Ava B. is a political communications major and a nonprofit communications minor who is entering her sophomore year at Emerson College. She is a writer whose work focuses mainly on advocacy, and a community organizer who has worked for nonprofit organizations and political campaigns. She is a media and communications intern at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona.

shecklerhavess.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/planned-parenthood-advocates-arizona/blog/when-miscarriage-is-a-crime

Share this post