She was jailed for losing a pregnancy. Her nightmare could become more common
Source: The Guardian
She was jailed for losing a pregnancy. Her nightmare could become more common
Chelsea Becker, prosecuted for murder after her stillbirth, spent 16 months in jail: Why did the hospital call police?
Sam Levin in Los Angeles
@SamTLevin
Sat 4 Jun 2022 06.00 BST
Last modified on Sat 4 Jun 2022 13.47 BST
On 4 November 2019, TV stations across California blasted Chelsea Beckers photo on their news editions. The search was on for a troubled 25-year-old woman wanted for the murder of her unborn baby, news anchors said, warning viewers not to approach if they spotted her but to call the authorities.
-snip-
Two months before, Becker had had a stillbirth at a California hospital, losing a baby boy at eight months pregnant. The Kings county prosecutor in the central valley charged her with murder of a human fetus, alleging she had acted with malice because she had been struggling with drug addiction and the hospital reported meth in her system.
Beckers attorneys argued there was no evidence that substance use caused the stillbirth and California law did not allow for this type of prosecution in the first place. Still, she spent 16 months in jail awaiting trial before a judge dismissed the charges.
Beckers nightmare offers a preview of the kinds of criminal cases that could become commonplace in the US if the supreme court, as expected after the leak of a draft opinion last month, officially overturns Roe v Wade. In the states that outlaw abortion, advocates warn, pregnancy losses more broadly will be treated as potential crimes, including in cases of wanted pregnancies. Even with Roe in effect, women have repeatedly faced arrest and charges for their pregnancy outcomes.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/03/california-stillborn-prosecution-roe-v-wade
Alternate no-registration link: https://news.yahoo.com/she-jailed-losing-pregnancy-her-050029174.html
Nululu
(831 posts)Last edited Sun Jun 5, 2022, 07:23 PM - Edit history (2)
Outlawing abortion doesn't change the need for abortions. It outlaws safe abortions. Many more women will die, be maimed, and falsely arrested.
https://www.businessinsider.com/reproductive-rights-attorney-expects-prosecution-for-miscarriages-to-get-worse-2022-6
During her 16 months in prison, her other child was placed into foster care and adopted.
This was a case where her drug use did not cause her still birth.