A South Carolina 20-Year-Old Has Been Charged With Attempted Murder
Police say she took medication to end her pregnancy
A South Carolina woman who police say tried to end her pregnancy with medication has been arrested and charged with attempted murder and child neglect. This news comes just days after a shooting at a South Carolina Planned Parenthood clinic, and as state lawmakers debate whether abortion patients should face the death penalty.
Before reading on, a crucial disclaimer: the only public details about this case come from South Carolina police. And you should never take a law enforcement narrative at face value—especially in cases tied to pregnancy. (If you’re a regular reader, you know why.)
Here’s what’s been reported so far: Rock Hill police arrived at J’s house on November 12th after receiving a 911 call about a miscarriage. They claim the young woman was 27 weeks pregnant, that she admitted taking some form of medication to end her pregnancy, and that she didn’t immediately render aid or call EMS for the newborn—who is in critical condition.
Again, we don’t know if any of that is true. What we do know is that just days after a massive medical trauma, a 20-year-old’s mugshot has been plastered across the internet as she’s smeared as an attempted murderer.
Karen Thompson, legal director of Pregnancy Justice, tells Abortion, Every Day, “We’re not taking the headlines, or any statements by police and prosecutors, at face value here.”
“As we know time and time again, they tread on stigma and misinformation…The only reason police should be involved in a pregnancy loss is to help clear traffic to get someone to a hospital.”
This is the second known case of a South Carolina woman criminalized for her pregnancy outcome in just three months—and one of a growing number of pregnancy-related arrests across the country. A report from Pregnancy Justice found that in the first year after Dobbs alone, more than 250 people were arrested over their pregnancy outcomes. In the first two years, the group found over 400 cases.
In July, for example, another woman of color in South Carolina was arrested for “desecration of human remains” after police claimed she dumped her “stillborn baby” in the trash. Like J, her name and image were dragged across local media as some kind of monster. Abortion, Every Day later uncovered that the woman had actually suffered a miscarriage at 18 weeks.
We’ve covered similar cases across the country: like the young woman in Georgia charged with ‘concealing a death’ after placing miscarriage remains in the trash, and a woman who spent five months in a Texas jail for how she disposed of her miscarriage.
The case that may be most similar to J’s, however, is yet another South Carolina woman’s story: In 2023, police arrested college student Amari Marsh after she lost her pregnancy in the second trimester. They charged Marsh with murder by child abuse, claiming that she didn’t render aid to the fetus. Police records also said she made an appointment at Planned Parenthood to “take the Plan-C pill which would possibly cause an abortion to occur.” Marsh said that never happened.
That’s not the only time a woman has been charged over what she did in the moments after a traumatic pregnancy loss or delivery: A Georgia woman named Kelsey Carpenter faced homicide and felony child abuse charges in 2023 when her newborn died after a home birth. Police blamed Carpenter for not calling for help quickly enough—even though she, herself, had passed out from extreme blood loss.
You’ll notice a very specific pattern emerges in nearly all of these cases. Those targeted are often from a marginalized community. They’re turned in by a health care provider or someone they know. They’re charged not with abortion, but seemingly unrelated charges like ‘abuse of a corpse’ or ‘child neglect.’ And in each case, local media almost always uncritically accept cops’ or prosecutors’ accounts of the ‘crime’.
And while these arrests happened long before Dobbs, abortion bans have created an even greater risk—automatically shrouding all pregnancies in criminal suspicion.
In fact, at the same time that J was taken into custody on Monday, police in Jackson, Mississippi are investigating fetal remains found buried in a backyard. The county coroner says it’s from premature childbirth: “There’s so many things that could have contributed to the baby’s passing.”
We don’t know the details in that case yet, but the coroner’s comments remind us of Laken Snelling in Kentucky—a college student who became the subject of tabloid fodder and online smear campaigns when police said they found a dead “infant” in her closet. When questioned by AED, the county coroner declined to answer whether the young woman’s pregnancy was, in fact, full-term—and even said that when their office refers to an “infant,” they might actually be talking about a fetus.
We can’t repeat this enough: Police have no business criminalizing the outcomes of people’s pregnancies, or surveilling and punishing people for how they dispose of fetal remains. It’s also telling that South Carolina cops are more interested in arresting a 20-year-old over her pregnancy outcome than the anti-abortion activist who was caught on video shooting someone outside a clinic last week.
None of this is accidental: as we report this, South Carolina Republicans are literally holding a hearing on SB 323—a monster bill that would charge abortion patients with homicide, putting them at risk of the death penalty. That’s what Republicans want: to police and punish pregnant people.
“We are disheartened to learn of the charges brought against a young woman experiencing a health crisis,” Palmetto State Abortion Fund’s Ashlyn Preaux told Abortion, Every Day. She continued:
“Individuals in such circumstances require support and resources, not criminalization; yet this is the unfortunate reality in states with abortion bans such as the one currently in place in South Carolina. What she likely most needed was care and compassion, but instead she is facing criminalization.”
Thankfully, Preaux says the group has secured J legal representation. She has a bond hearing today.
We’ll update you as we continue to learn more. To read more about pregnancy criminalization, look to our past coverage below and Pregnancy Justice’s vital work. For free legal help as a patient or health practitioner, call If/When/How’s free Repro Helpline: 844-868-2812.
What does "render aid to a fetus" mean? Probably not CPR?
Ugh this is awful, I feel for these young women who should never be put into these situations.