BREAKING: Georgia Drops Miscarriage Charges
Selena Chandler-Scott goes free after national backlash
I am so relieved to be able to tell you that Georgia prosecutors have dropped all charges against Selena Chandler-Scott, the young woman arrested for how she disposed of her miscarriage.
The 24-year-old, who was found unconscious and bleeding outside of her apartment complex, was charged with ‘concealing a death’ and ‘abandoning a dead body’ after placing her fetal remains in the trash.
Today, Tift County District Attorney Patrick Warren announced: “After thorough examination of the facts and the law, my office has determined that continuing prosecution is not legally sustainable and not in the interest of justice.”
Let’s be clear: These charges were dropped because Warren and his office were under intense public pressure and a growing national spotlight. Indeed, he seemed almost disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to punish the young woman, saying, “I do not condone the way the remains were handled, and I understand that her actions were distressing to many.”
Her actions were distressing? He doesn’t “condone” how she handled her pregnancy loss? Come the fuck on.
What’s worse, Warren left the door open to prosecuting Chandler-Scott again in the future. “If additional information or incriminating evidence becomes available,” he said, “my office may review this case again for prosecution.”
Incriminating evidence of what, exactly? Warren’s office already cruelly sent out Chandler-Scott’s fetal remains for an ‘autopsy’, which confirmed her miscarriage happened naturally. And even if it hadn’t, Georgia law doesn’t allow for the prosecution of people who have abortions.
There’s also no law in Georgia—or anywhere else—that dictates how someone is supposed to dispose of a miscarriage. Nor should there be! But that hasn’t stopped zealous prosecutors like Warren from targeting women anyway.
Just a few weeks ago, we found out that a teenager was being investigated in Pennsylvania for ‘abuse of a corpse’ after self-managing an abortion and burying the fetus in her backyard. Brittany Watts in Ohio was charged with ‘abuse of a corpse’ last year after she miscarried at home in the toilet. And not long ago, another Georgia woman was under investigation for how she handled her miscarriage.
And while this kind of criminalization isn’t new, a 2024 report from Pregnancy Justice found that there’s been a marked increase in pregnancy-related criminal charges since the end of Roe.
In part, it’s that Dobbs emboldened anti-abortion police and prosecutors. But the root cause—and a growing issue—is fetal personhood laws. After all, if an embryo or a fetus is a person, then law enforcement can argue that a woman who flushes or throws away her miscarriage is ‘concealing a death’ or ‘abusing a corpse.’ (Georgia’s 2019 abortion law grants personhood to fetuses once there’s cardiac activity.)
Under these laws, it doesn’t matter if someone is 9 weeks or 19 weeks into pregnancy. That’s why so-called ‘viability’ laws and language are so dangerous—even in pro-choice states, they allow police to investigate women for pregnancy loss if they believe they were past ‘viability.’
It’s important we don’t mistake these charges being dropped as a major win. Because so long as fetal personhood laws remain, these arrests can happen and again and again. Especially now, as Republicans push legislation to make pregnancy-related prosecutions more common: The same week Chandler-Scott was arrested, Georgia lawmakers were considering a bill that would allow abortion patients to be charged with murder. The goal of that legislation—and other ‘equal protection’ bills like it—is to give police the power to investigate any pregnancy outcome they deem suspect.
And while I’m glad Chandler-Scott is free, it doesn’t mean she can return to her normal life. This young woman had her name and mugshot splashed across local crime pages. As Dana Sussman, senior vice president at Pregnancy Justice, tells me, “This doesn't undo the trauma she faced of being arrested after a tragic medical emergency.”
“No one is served by these types of charges,” she says.
Except, of course, the men who are desperate to punish women.
Donate to Selena Chandler-Scott here.
If Jessica had not brought this to public attention, would the charges have been dropped? I haven’t seen this case covered in any “mainstream” media. In fact, attacks on women’s healthcare and rights seem to have fallen completely off the radar in the chaos of covering g this administration.
I'm so glad! I guess it pays to talk about it on social media and everywhere else. But still, the amount of people who think the charges were justified is SUPER scary.