With the overturn of Roe v. Wade and President Donald Trump’s administration doing everything in their power to control women’s bodies, restrictions on abortion have worsened. Many women have suffered because of the laws the government has imposed. Women have been denied care for pregnancy complications, had to travel to a different state to obtain medical care and on top of that criminalization for miscarriages.
Trump, along with other far-right conservatives, have preached the pro-life movement for years, but their pro-life movement seems like a ploy to control women’s bodily autonomy.
On March 20, Selena Maria Chandler-Scott, a 24-year-old Georgia resident, had a miscarriage in her home. She called emergency medical services, leading to her admission into the Tift Regional Medical Center for treatment. After the police received a tip from a witness who saw Chandler-Scott dispose of the non-viable fetus in a dumpster, a case opened, and an autopsy on the fetus was conducted.
Chandler-Scott had suffered a natural miscarriage. After the autopsy of the fetus showed it was 19 weeks old, the local law enforcement became involved and took over the situation.
Georgia has enacted the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. With this law comes criminal charges for women who experience pregnancy complications and miscarriages because in the LIFE Act, a fetus or embryo gets personhood status. This act is one of many trying to restrict and control a woman’s freedoms in a medical emergency.
Notably, Georgia does not have a specific law or set of rules deciding how an individual who had a miscarriage should dispose of the non-viable fetus. That raises more questions than answers about the case and shows how women are punished when the law provides no guidance for these situations.
Although no information outlines what Chandler-Scott should have done in her unfortunate situation, the police department charged her for one count of concealing the death of another person and one count of throwing away or abandonment of a dead body.
The situation of Chandler-Scott is, without a doubt, unfortunate, and the actions from the police department and district attorney are nothing short of apprehensible.
No woman in America should have to deal with the loss of her pregnancy and suffer criminal charges for something she cannot control. The laws of this country that decide women’s rights are getting out of hand, and their safety is at stake.
Without clarification in laws that determine what a woman should do in cases like Chandler-Scott’s, the government shows how uninformed and irresponsible they are, as they continue treating women as if they are just baby breeders.
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