Selena Maria Chandler-Scott

Post-“Roe,” pregnancy outcomes — and even actions taken to help pregnant people — face escalating criminalization.

By Lauren Rankin , Truthout
April 18, 2025

On March 20, 2025, emergency responders found Selena Maria Chandler-Scott bleeding uncontrollably after miscarrying at 19 weeks in her Tifton, Georgia, home. Chandler-Scott was immediately taken to the hospital for further treatment. The next day, while still recovering in the hospital, she was charged for her own miscarriage under the state’s 2019 “fetal personhood” law. She faced up to 13 years in prison.

The charges drew widespread condemnation, enough that they were eventually dropped. But Chandler-Scott’s traumatic ordeal reveals the ultimate endpoint of abortion bans — criminalizing pregnant people, whether they have an abortion or not.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/abortion-bans-criminalize-people-and-not-just-those-who-are-pregnant/

Experts say the arrest is part of a pattern of criminalizing pregnancy that has accelerated since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

April 5, 2025
By Bracey Harris

On March 20 in rural Georgia, an ambulance responded to an early morning 911 call about an unconscious, bleeding woman at an apartment. When first responders arrived, they determined that she’d had a miscarriage. That was only the start of her ordeal.

Selena Maria Chandler-Scott was transported to a hospital, but a witness reported that she had placed the fetal remains in a dumpster. When police investigated, they recovered the remains and Chandler-Scott was charged with concealing the death of another person and abandoning a dead body. The charges were ultimately dropped; an autopsy determined Chandler-Scott had had a “natural miscarriage“ at around 19 weeks and the fetus was nonviable.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/georgia-arrest-miscarriage-fetal-personhood-rcna199400

Abortion Bans Criminalize People — and Not Just Those Who Are Pregnant

Woman’s arrest after miscarriage in Georgia draws fear and anger