In Mississippi, Georgia and other southern states women who have suffered miscarriages and stillbirths are being charged for murdering their unborn children.
"The significance of these outrageous criminal charges against women who lost their babies is not only a new front in the extremist anti-abortion war, but a war on women as a whole," Dr. Carole Lieberman told the Latin Times.
The most recent case is that of Nina Buckhalter, a woman from Mississippi who gave birth to a stillborn daughter 32 weeks into her pregnancy. Mother Jones reports that in 2009 Buckhalter was indicted for manslaughter by the Lamar County grand jury.
The charges against Buckhalter claim that the woman, who named her stillborn daughter Hayley Jade Buckhalter, killed her child.
"Did willfully, unlawfully, feloniously kill Hayley Jade Buckhalter, a human being, by culpable negligence," stated the charges.
The prosecutors argued that drugs found in the mother's system resulted in the stillbirth. According to Mother Jones, the Supreme Court heard arguments in favor of moving forward with the case in April of this year. They are expected to make a decision on whether or not the case should go to trial soon.
According to thinkprogress.org, at least 40 women have been brought up on charges in Alabama under the state's "chemical endangerment" law. The original purpose of the law was to protect children that have been exposed to toxic fumes by their parents when cooking methamphetamine.
Now prosecutors are twisting the law to be able to prosecute mothers after a miscarriage or stillbirth if it comes to light the mother took drugs. Many people believe that there is a direct connection between taking drugs and the death of a fetus. However, Dr. Lieberman told the Latin Times that there are many other factors that can cause a miscarriage or still birth.
"Prosecutors may be able to prove that drug use contributed to a still birth or miscarriage but it would be difficult for them to prove that it was the only cause because many other factors come into play," Dr Lieberman told the Latin Times.
Stress, infection, a weakened cervix, exposure to smoke and abnormalities in the fetus are just some of the factors, Dr. Lieberman said, that can contribute to a miscarriage or stillbirth.
Alabama woman Amanda Kimbrough had to undergo a C-section in April 2008. Her baby was born premature and died minutes after birth, says Think Progress. Six months after the death of her child, Kimbrough was arrested on charges of chemically endangering her baby as a result of drug use. Kimbrough swears she has never taken drugs.
Thinkprogress.org reported a "common tactic by prosecutors is singling out a group of women who are unlikely to draw public sympathy, women who have used drugs while pregnant to blur the line between abortion and homicide."
A Georgia a state representative by the name of Bobby Franklin (R) introduced a bill in 2011 that would require mothers to prove their miscarriage or stillbirth was natural and not a secret abortion. The HB 1 says that if proof of a natural stillbirth or miscarriage could not be found, the mother can be brought up on felony charges.
Dr. Lieberman told the Latin Times that the "definitions of miscarriages, stillbirth and abortion [spontaneous or voluntary induced] are complicated socially and biologically. It is very difficult, if not impossible to prove that the death of a fetus was due to miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion-unless it was a voluntary induced abortion, in which case there would be records."
It is not illegal for a woman to have an abortion in the U.S. as long as it is preformed within the first six weeks of pregnancy. The Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade determined that an abortion is a private decision and that the courts could not control a woman's reproductive rights.
According to guardian.co.uk 38 out of 50 states introduced fetal homicide laws as a way of protecting a pregnant woman and her unborn child from attacks by a third party. These laws are now being twisted by overzealous prosecutors in an attempt to punish women for something they did while pregnant.
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