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Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Fetal autopsies could help prevent stillbirths, but too often they are used to blame mothers for pregnancy loss
About 60 pregnancies per day in the U.S. end in stillbirth. The best way to find out why a stillbirth occurred is a fetal autopsy – yet these procedures are performed in only 1 in 5 of the over 20,000 stillbirths that occur each year. As I explain in my recent book, 'Stillbirth and the Law,' the fact that so few fetal autopsies are performed after stillbirths is actually a driver of the disproprotionately high number of stillbirths in the U.S. One major exception to the rarity of fetal autopsies is when pregnancy loss ends with criminal arrest. Arrests after pregnancy loss are not new, but according to data compiled by the nonprofit group Pregnancy Justice, they have increased since the Supreme Court overturned the federal constitutional right to abortion in 2022. As a legal scholar who studies pregnancy loss and its potential legal implications, I'm struck by this disparity: Autopsies are rare when the goal is general medical insight about the causes of stillbirth and pregnancy loss more generally, but they are seemingly routine when criminal consequences are possible. Stillbirth and the inevitability myth In the U.S., pregnancy loss before 20 weeks is called miscarriage, and pregnancy loss after 20 weeks is called stillbirth. Miscarriage is much more common, with some studies estimating it occurs in as many as 1 in 4 pregnancies. Stillbirth is rarer, but the incidence is still surprisingly high. Currently, about 1 in 170 births in the U.S. is a stillbirth, a rate higher than in many other high-income countries. Moreover, that number masks a dramatic racial disparity. Black women in the U.S. face double the risk of stillbirth compared with white women. Doctors – and, consequently, their patients – widely assume that pregnancy losses are inevitable. That's relatively accurate for miscarriages, especially those before 12 weeks, which researchers believe are usually caused by chromosomal abnormalities. But it's not accurate for stillbirths: Research shows that abnormalities account for fewer than 8% of stillbirths after 28 weeks. In the U.S., at least 1 in 4 stillbirths are preventable – and that rate is closer to 50% for stillbirths at term, meaning after 37 weeks of pregnancy. Yet there's been little movement toward prevention. According to a 2020 UNICEF report, the U.S. ranks 185th out of 195 countries in reductions to stillbirth rates from 2000-2019. The U.S. outpaces other high-income countries in maternal mortality – rates that continue to rise dramatically – and in infant and child mortality. It's also worth noting that the number of stillborn babies every year in the U.S. consistently exceeds the number of infant deaths from all causes. The rarity of fetal autopsies There is no one solution to reducing the U.S.'s stillbirth rate, but gathering data about its causes is a necessary step. A fetal autopsy is widely considered the gold standard for determining the cause of death after stillbirth. The autopsy procedure is extensive, with X-rays, external evaluations of the baby and examinations of internal organs and tissue sampling. Not only are fetal autopsies extremely rare, but the data from fetal autopsies that do occur is likely not representative. Women with higher levels of education are more likely to get a fetal autopsy after stillbirth. Women with lesser income, however, have double the risk of stillbirth. One barrier is cost. Many hospitals will not cover the costs of a fetal autopsy. Medicaid does not cover the exam either, and neither do many private insurance companies. Out-of-pocket costs range from $1,500 to $5,000. Stillbirth is surprisingly expensive, and many families understandably choose to use their funds to cover other costs. The way that doctors bring up the subject of fetal autopsy can also influence whether parents decide on one. Research suggests that parents often do not receive compassionate counseling on this issue. Some parents reported feeling that providers actively discourage them from having one. Providers often lack knowledge about the benefits of fetal autopsy and of the process itself. Doctors' reactions to stillbirth as a rare, freak event dissuades parents from exploring the cause of their child's stillbirth and conveys that nothing would be gained from a fetal autopsy. Finally, there simply aren't enough qualified pathologists who have expertise in stillbirth evaluation in the U.S. Fetal autopsies are complex. Performing them requires synthesizing knowledge about birth defects, genetic syndromes, maternal effects, fetal development and more. Pathologists must evaluate the placenta and the umbilical cord and factor in maternal health. According to a 2019 report, only 268 out of more than 21,000 pathologists in the U.S. had specialized training in pediatric pathology. And even those pathologists are not guaranteed to have expertise in evaluating fetal or neonatal deaths. Fetal autopsies' misuse as criminal evidence In my view, the rarity of fetal autopsies feeds a sort of vicious cycle. If the cause of a stillbirth is unknown, it opens the doors to suspicion that the pregnant person caused their pregnancy loss. Overwhelmingly, the women who have been arrested after their pregnancy loss have been from marginalized communities, suggesting that bias also plays a strong role in these arrests. And in these cases, fetal autopsies are common. For instance, authorities conducted one on the fetus of Selena Chandler-Scott in April 2025, when she was arrested after having a miscarriage at 19 weeks. A pathologist concluded from the autopsy that Chandler-Scott did not cause the miscarriage. More often though, autopsies in such cases are used to conclude that the pregnant person was at fault. There's every reason, however, to question those conclusions. Fetal autopsies help identify underlying causes of pregnancy loss only when performed by pathologists specifically qualified to perform them. And in many high-profile criminal cases, it's clear that pathologists lacked the required expertise to assess fetal deaths. Consider, for example, Rennie Gibbs, who experienced a stillbirth in Mississippi when she was 16. Her baby girl was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, yet the de facto state medical examiner at the time – who was not a certified pathologist and therefore clearly lacked the needed specialization – concluded she had died due to Gibbs' cocaine use. Chelsea Becker of California had at least three infections that increase the risk of stillbirth, yet the pathologist, who also lacked the needed specialization, concluded the baby died due to Becker's methamphetamine use – and later admitted he had never even looked at her medical history. But it's hard to rebut these conclusions without building a foundation of research on why stillbirths are happening. Fetal autopsies performed by qualified pathologists to systematically assess the causes of death are a key component of that research – which, I believe, will both help prevent stillbirths and decrease the inclination to blame people who experience pregnancy loss. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Jill Lens, University of Iowa Read more: What's the difference between miscarriage and stillbirth? One year after the fall of Roe v. Wade, abortion care has become a patchwork of confusing state laws that deepen existing inequalities Five ways to reduce the risk of stillbirth Jill Lens is on the Board of Directors of PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, a nonprofit group. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
WV Prosecuting Attorneys Association issues statement on potential for prosecution against women who miscarry
CHARLESTON, WV (WVNS) — WV Prosecuting Attorneys Association issues statement on the potential for prosecution against women who miscarry The statement below comes after Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman said that a number of criminal charges under state code, including felonies, could be levied against a woman who flushes fetal remains, buries them, or otherwise disposes of remains following an involuntary abortion, also called a miscarriage. Attorney for pregnancy rights group says West Virginia law protects women who miscarry Truman added that he would be unwilling to prosecute such cases. The WVPAA statement is below was given in an attempt at 'Setting the Record Straight on Miscarriages and Criminal Law': The West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Association (WVPAA) wishes to clarify that recent public statements made regarding this subject do not reflect the consensus, official position, or legal interpretation of the Association, its Officers, Board members, or members of its Legislative Committee. This is not a subject matter that has been widely discussed among West Virginia prosecutors, nor does it need to be, and any comments that are not from the WVPAA were made without coordination or endorsement from the WVPAA. The WVPAA wants to make abundantly clear that any assertion that individuals who experience the unfortunate event of a miscarriage in West Virginia should be notifying law enforcement or face potential criminal prosecution is incorrect and not supported by West Virginia law. The WVPAA does not agree with or support the idea that experiencing a miscarriage could, or should, trigger criminal liability. Such a position is contrary to both the law and the values held by prosecutors across our state, who remain committed to justice, compassion, and the appropriate application of criminal statutes. We urge the public and media to rely on verified, accurate legal information and to contact the WVPAA with any questions about prosecutorial perspectives or the interpretation of West Virginia law. West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Association On Tuesday, June 3, 2025, an attorney for Pregnancy Justice, a New York group which defends women who face criminal charges based on pregnancy, agreed that there is a push among some prosecutors throughout the U.S. to file criminal charges against women for pregnancy loss and behaviors during pregnancy. 'Prosecutors wield a lot of discretion,' said Kulsoom Ijaz, senior policy counsel for Pregnancy Justice. 'There are countless unjust and unfounded prosecutions every day in this country.' Ijaz also said that the legal framework in West Virginia also does not support a prosecutor bringing a charge against a miscarrying woman who flushes or otherwise disposes of fetal remains. 'West Virginia does not have a broad fetal personhood law that grants fetuses Constitutional rights,' said Ijaz. 'Those laws cannot then be taken and extended to fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses in West Virginia.'Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Yahoo
Attorney for pregnancy rights group says West Virginia law protects women who miscarry
BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — West Virginia state code does not specifically bar a prosecutor from charging a woman who miscarries or has an abortion and then disposes of fetal remains from facing criminal charges under state code that governs disposal of human remains, but an attorney for a New York non-profit said that current laws in West Virginia do not support such a charge. Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman told 59News on Friday that he has spoken with prosecutors in West Virginia who say they are willing to file charges against women who dispose of fetal remains, using state code related to the disposal of human bodies. Truman made the statement when responding to a question posed by 59News and prompted by a case involving fetal remains in Mercer County. He emphasized he would not be willing to prosecute a woman for a pregnancy outcome. He said, however, that some prosecutors in the state would be willing to file such charges, particularly if the woman who lost the pregnancy did not seem emotionally distressed. 'I've been to prosecutor meetings where these people were all about prosecuting women for having abortions,' he added, emphasizing the strong beliefs held by some prosecutors. While West Virginia enacted a near-total ban on abortion, state law forbids prosecutors from charging women with crimes related to their own abortion or miscarriage. However, there are no laws explicitly barring a criminal prosecution based on how the woman disposes of fetal remains. Truman said on Friday that women who report the miscarriage to authorities within 48 hours would protect themselves against a potential charge of concealing a dead body. Truman's revelation of prosecutors' intentions prompted widespread focus on state code and how it may be applied in situations involving pregnancy. On Tuesday, June 3, 2025, an attorney for Pregnancy Justice, a New York group which defends women who face criminal charges based on pregnancy, agreed that there is a push among some prosecutors throughout the U.S. to file criminal charges against women for pregnancy loss and behaviors during pregnancy. Core Natural Resources officials warn miners of impending lay-off at Itmann #5 'Prosecutors wield a lot of discretion,' said Kulsoom Ijaz, senior policy counsel for Pregnancy Justice. 'There are countless unjust and unfounded prosecutions every day in this country.' In neighboring Ohio, prosecutors in Trumbull County charged a woman who flushed her toilet after a miscarriage with felony abuse of a corpse. Later, grand jurors refused to indict her on the charge, and Ijaz said Ohio laws did not support the criminal charge. Ijaz said that the legal framework in West Virginia also does not support a prosecutor bringing a charge against a miscarrying woman who flushes or otherwise disposes of fetal remains. 'West Virginia does not have a broad fetal personhood law that grants fetuses Constitutional rights,' said Ijaz. 'Those laws cannot then be taken and extended to fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses in West Virginia.' Once again, people are asking if there are mountain lions in the Mountain State Ijaz said West Virginia pregnancy law, like Ohio, is not built around the concept of 'fetal personhood,' which is the idea that a fertilized egg or a fetus has the same legal rights as a person. Ijaz said that, as a result, West Virginia law bars women from being punished or facing criminal charges related to their own abortion, miscarriage or stillbirth. She said the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has also ruled that a woman may not be charged with child abuse if she uses substances during pregnancy. 'Miscarriage and stillbirths are medical events and tragedies, not crimes, and I think people in West Virginia understand that,' she added. 'There is no basis in the law for punishing that kind of outcome.' Ijaz said that a number of states, including Alabama, have made 'fetal personhood' the law. As a result, she said, prosecutors in those states are given legal leeway to apply existing law to cases involving fertilized eggs, zygotes, embryos and fetuses. Two minors banned after reported incident at a park in Fayette County 'This has also been the basis for taking away the right to IVF care like we saw in Alabama,' Ijaz explained. 'It's also being used to prosecute and punish pregnant people for outcomes of their pregnancy, whether that's a miscarriage or a stillbirth.' She said that a proactive step West Virginia lawmakers could take is to pass laws similar to Colorado's Reproductive Health Equity Act. 'That's what I would encourage folks in West Virginia to focus on,' she said. 'And if you are a pregnant or post-partum woman who is experiencing this kind of punishment, to please reach out to Pregnancy Justice. We may be able to help.' Truman, whose comments went viral on social media, suggested on Tuesday that public discussion regarding West Virginia's reproductive and criminal law was a positive development. Truman pointed out that, unlike neighboring Ohio, West Virginia voters have not been given an opportunity since 2022 to vote on an amendment enshrining reproductive rights in the state. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Ali Velshi: Creatively cruel: GOP's abortion crackdown means losing a pregnancy could land you in jail
This is an adapted excerpt from the May 24 episode of 'Velshi.' As the journalist and author Jessica Valenti recently wrote, 'We don't need to imagine a dystopian future where women are being used as incubators and arrested for miscarriages, because that future is already here.' It's been almost three years since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, ending the constitutional right to an abortion, and post-Roe America is turning out to be much worse than most of us imagined. It's not just the inhumanity of denying women rights over their own bodies and futures, or the deadly danger of forced birth. What we're witnessing is the criminalization of women's bodies. Women aren't just being arrested and jailed for their miscarriages; they are being pursued in creatively cruel ways that are a direct result of the radical anti-abortion ideology of fetal personhood. If a fetus is legally a person, then law enforcement is empowered to criminally investigate pregnancies. Let that sink in for a moment: If a fetus is a person in the eyes of the law, any miscarriage — which, by the way is not uncommon, 10% to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriages — if you live in the wrong state, can be treated as a potential homicide. This isn't theoretical. Consider the case of Mallori Patrice Strait, a Texas woman who was released from jail last week after spending nearly five months in custody for miscarrying in a public bathroom. Strait was arrested for 'corpse abuse' and accused of trying to flush fetal remains down the toilet. Ultimately, the medical examiner found she had, in fact, miscarried — that her fetus died in utero — and prosecutors found 'no direct evidence' that she tried to flush anything. But what she experienced cannot be undone: the compounded trauma of being criminalized after suffering something as emotionally and physically taxing as a miscarriage. Strait was dealt punishment when what she really needed was care. In Ohio, Brittany Watts was also arrested on corpse abuse charges after she had a miscarriage in a toilet; Watts' charges were also dropped. In Georgia, Selena Maria Chandler-Scott had a miscarriage and was arrested for disposing of the fetal tissue. Law enforcement accused her of 'concealing a death' and 'abandoning a dead body.' But just like the other cases, her charges were eventually dropped. According to the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice, there were at least 210 pregnancy-related prosecutions in the year after Roe was overturned, the highest number to ever be documented in a single year. It's important to note that low-income women and women of color have been disproportionately targeted. It's only expected to get worse as more states pass fetal personhood laws, declaring that fertilized eggs have the same legal rights as people, even though they cannot survive outside the womb. According to Pregnancy Justice, at least 24 states now include some form of personhood language in their anti-abortion laws. Seventeen already have laws on the books, and several others are considering extreme expansions, including Florida, where the University of Florida newspaper points out: If state lawmakers have their way, a simple sip of wine or a single cigarette — taken before a woman even knows she is pregnant — could become a criminal offense. Anything a woman does that could potentially injure a fetus, whether that be accidental or intentional, could be deemed as child abuse and neglect according to the proposed fetal personhood bill. Meanwhile, as the push to police and criminalize pregnant women intensifies, the Trump administration has been working to decriminalize activists who target abortion providers and their patients. One of Trump's first presidential actions was to pardon nearly two dozen people who'd been convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (known as FACE), a federal law that protects patients from violence, threats and obstruction when seeking reproductive care. Then, the Justice Department announced that, moving forward, it would limit enforcement of the FACE Act. The FACE Act was passed 30 years ago with bipartisan support amid a wave of extremist violence against abortion providers. According to the National Abortion Federation, the violence has continued in post-Roe America. Over the past two years, there have been more than 700 incidents of obstruction, over 600 trespassing attempts, nearly 300 violent threats and over 128,000 protests aimed at abortion providers across the country. Despite this reality, Republicans in Congress are now pushing legislation to repeal the FACE Act altogether. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
These states have investigated miscarriages and stillbirths as crimes
In late March, police in southern Georgia arrested a 24-year-old woman who had a miscarriage after a witness reported seeing her place the fetal remains in a dumpster. The coroner in Tift County determined it was a 19-week fetus from a naturally occurring miscarriage, but some legal experts consider the arrest a bellwether for the criminal suspicion that surrounds pregnancy loss in many states in post-Roe America. The Marshall Project previously examined how the way a person handles a pregnancy loss—and where it occurs—can mean the difference between a private medical issue and a criminal charge. Nationally, federal data shows that about 20% of pregnancies end in a loss, but only a small number are investigated as crimes. In several states, a positive drug test after a pregnancy loss can result in criminal charges for the mother, and even prison time. Prosecutions related to pregnancy appear to have increased since the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, according to Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for the legal rights of pregnant people. In the first year after the Dobbs decision—from June 2022 to June 2023—there were at least 210 pregnancy-related prosecutions, researchers for the group found. Here are some states where miscarriages and stillbirths have been investigated by the criminal legal system in recent years: Alabama Arkansas California Georgia Ohio Oklahoma South Carolina Alabama has a broad "chemical endangerment of a child" law allowing prosecutors to charge someone for drug use during any part of a pregnancy, whether the mother delivers a stillborn fetus or a healthy newborn. The Marshall Project's 2022 investigation with found that more than 20 women had been prosecuted after a miscarriage or stillbirth in Alabama. Some of the harshest sentences resulted in cases where a fetus was stillborn and the woman went to trial. The Pregnancy Justice report examining nationwide prosecutions related to conduct associated with pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth in the first year after the Dobbs ruling found that nearly half of the cases came from Alabama. Arkansas is among several states that still make it a crime to "conceal" a birth or stillbirth. Such laws date back to the 17th century, and were intended to shame and accuse women of crimes if they were pregnant and unmarried. In 2015, Annie Bynum walked into a hospital with a plastic bag containing the remains of her stillborn fetus and ended up going to jail—and eventually prison. She was accused under the concealment law. A jury originally convicted and sentenced Bynum to six years in prison. Later, an appeals court ruled that the jury shouldn't have been allowed to hear evidence that Bynum ingested medications to induce labor before the stillbirth or had previously had abortions—because the charge was that she had concealed the pregnancy, not tried to end it. While pregnant, Bynum had planned to quietly let a friend adopt the baby, and she eventually pleaded guilty to a legal violation for the attempted adoption. In 2022, the state passed a law banning investigations and prosecutions of pregnancy loss. But prior to that law, at least two California women had already served time in jail and prison for stillbirths that prosecutors had alleged were related to drug use. Adora Perez had served nearly four years of an 11-year sentence before a judge ruled her plea agreement—to a charge of voluntary manslaughter of a fetus—was unlawful, and overturned her conviction in 2022. That only happened after the case of then-26-year-old Chelsea Becker garnered international outrage. Becker was charged with "murder of a human fetus" in 2019, but the case was dismissed in 2021 and led to Perez's case getting a second look. Anger about the prosecutions of both women led to the change in state law, to avoid punishing "people who suffer the loss of their pregnancy." At least one woman who had a miscarriage has been arrested under a state law that makes it a crime to conceal a dead body, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. On March 20, police in Tifton, Georgia, issued a press release announcing that a dead fetus had been found in a dumpster at an apartment complex, after an ambulance was called for a woman who was found bleeding and unconscious. The next day, the Tifton Police Department announced it had arrested the woman who miscarried that fetus, accusing her of one count of concealing the death of another person and one count of abandonment of a dead body. It's unclear whether prosecutors in Tifton will pursue the criminal charges despite the coroner's ruling that the miscarriage was naturally occurring. Ohio's abuse of a corpse law allows a fairly broad interpretation, if applied to fetal remains: "No person, except as authorized by law, shall treat a human corpse in a way that would outrage reasonable community sensibilities." In 2023 in Warren, Ohio, Brittany Watts was arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse after experiencing a miscarriage at home in her toilet. She had been to a hospital prior to her miscarriage but left when she felt she was getting inadequate treatment, according to news reports. When she went back to the hospital after her miscarriage, a nurse called police and reported that Watts had given birth at home and did not want the baby—an assertion Watts' lawyer denied. A grand jury declined to move forward with the criminal case in 2024. Earlier this year, Watts filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging medical professionals conspired with a police officer to fabricate criminal charges against her. Criminal charges related to drug use while pregnant—in cases of pregnancy loss or infants born healthy—have become increasingly common in recent years in Oklahoma. Kathryn Green gave birth to a stillborn baby in Enid, Oklahoma, in 2017. She was struggling with meth addiction at the time and scared. She cleaned her stillborn son's body, wrapped him in a blanket and put him in a box. Police later found the remains in the trash and arrested her. Prosecutors initially charged her with second-degree murder, alleging that the stillbirth happened because of "meth toxicity." But medical tests later showed otherwise: Green's stillborn son had an infection that had caused his death, records show. In 2022, Green decided to enter an Alford plea—a guilty plea in which the defendant maintains innocence. At her sentencing hearing, a judge said he wasn't convinced that prosecutors had proven Green willfully and knowingly harmed her baby by using methamphetamine while pregnant, but he was bothered by her "lack of maternal instinct." South Carolina was the first state to prosecute a woman for a stillbirth allegedly due to drug use. In 2001, Regina McKnight was sentenced to 12 years in prison for giving birth to a stillborn baby who tested positive for cocaine. McKnight served eight years before the state Supreme Court overturned her conviction, in part because her trial lawyer didn't present witnesses to challenge prosecutors' claim that her drug use definitively caused the stillbirth. The state charged at least 200 women between 2006 and 2021 with unlawful neglect of a child or homicide by child abuse for alleged perinatal drug use. In March 2023, a college student in Orangeburg, South Carolina, named Amari Marsh went from miscarrying a fetus in her bathroom to being investigated for a homicide. She told investigators she didn't realize she was pregnant until she went to an ER with severe pain. She left the hospital and miscarried later in a toilet at home (which medical experts say is common). Her boyfriend at the time called 911. Police became suspicious that she may have sought to end the pregnancy or not called 911 fast enough, records show. She was jailed and accused of homicide by child abuse—before the fetus was autopsied. An autopsy showed later that the fetus died of natural causes due to an infection that Marsh was unaware of, her lawyer said. In South Carolina, police can arrest someone on a criminal complaint without approval from local prosecutors (called solicitors). After a grand jury reviewed all of the evidence in the case, the charges against Marsh were dismissed. This story was produced by The Marshall Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
