The charges against a woman from Georgia who found himself bloody and unconscious after an involuntary abortion dropped on Friday.
The woman, Selena Maria Chandler-Scott, 24, was arrested at the end of last month after those who responded to the emergency were called to treat her, according to a police press statement.
A witness reported that Chandler-Scott had “placed the fetus in a bag and placed this bag on an outside tank,” said police. Police arrested Chandler-Scott and accused him with a count of hiding the death of another person and with a count of throwing or abandoning a dead body.
The case led to national outrage, as supporters of abortion rights were concerned with the consequences of treating pregnancies such as criminality scenes. But on Friday Patrick Warren, the Tift district district prosecutor, announced that he had abandoned his charges against Chandler-Scott.
“After a complete examination of the facts and the law, my office has determined that continuous persecution is not legally sustainable and not in the interest of justice,” Warren said in a statement provided to the Guardian. “This case is to be disgusting and emotionally difficult for all involved, but our decision must be based on the law, not emotion or speculation.
A medical examiner determined that the fetus was about 19 weeks, according to Warren’s statement. It was found to be “not viable at the time it was naturally treated”, the fetus did not show signs of breathing alone or dirty.
The case against Chandler-SCOTT is believed to be the first of its kind in Georgia, according to Dana Susman, a senior vice president of pregnancy justice, a reproductive justice group that traces the criminalization of pregnancy. After the Supreme Court of the United States annulled Roe V Wade in 2022, Georgia promulgated a prohibition of abortion that includes a language that suggests that the fetuses are people. The anti-flood movement has long been to implement the doctrine of “fetal personality”, which states that embryos and fetuses should be treated as people, completed with complete rights and legal protections.
Warren concluded, however, that the fetus “was not legally classified as being born alive and lived independently according to Georgia’s law,” according to his statement.
“While the application of the law acted in good faith and responded to a very difficult and emotional situation,” he said, “it is clear that no criminal law was violated.”
Sussman called the charges against Chandler-Scott “the only logical decision here”.
“This does not undo the trauma that he faced from being arrested after a tragic medical emergency,” Sussman said in a statement. “There is no unique way that adapts to fetal remains in these situations; in fact, doctors often tell women to simply occur at home. No one is taught to manage fetal remains, and police and prosecutors should not weigh on how women respond in this situation.”
These types of charges are relatively unusual, but they are not unheard of. Between 1973, when the United States Supreme Court decided ROE, and by 2022, there were more than 1,800 cases where people faced criminal pregnancy, according to pregnancy justice investigation. In cases where researchers could see the charges, 2% involved positions of manipulating a corpse or something similar.
In 2023, Brittany Watts, a woman from Ohio who experienced an involuntary abortion, was accused of abuse of a corpse. A Grand Jury finally refused to advance with the case against Watts.
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