When Our Bodies Become Crime Scenes

1.6.26

Click to skip ahead:

- Kentucky Woman Indicted Over Abortion

- South Carolina Moves to Make Abortion Pills a Controlled Substance

- Wyoming Republicans React to Abortion Ruling

- In the States: Utah, Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, and more

- Abortion on the Rise in Pro-Choice States—Mostly

- Trump Throws Anti-Abortion Activists Under the Bus (Again)

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Kentucky Woman Indicted Over Abortion

Last week, we told you about a woman in Kentucky arrested for fetal homicide over an alleged abortion. This afternoon, we discovered that Melinda Spencer¹ has now been formally indicted on first-degree fetal homicide, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the death of an infant.

All of this despite serious legal conflicts that should bar charges altogether.

Before we go any further, please remember that all the public information about this case comes from law enforcement—which means it should be treated with deep skepticism. Still, this case follows a clear and unmistakable pattern: a vulnerable woman is turned in by those she should be able to trust, is targeted by law enforcement that doesn’t understand the first thing about pregnancy, and has her name and mugshot splashed across local crime pages.

In Spencer’s case, healthcare workers contacted police after she reportedly disclosed ending her pregnancy. As groups like If/When/How have long reported, this kind of betrayal by medical providers is distressingly common.

Police also claim Spencer buried a “developed” fetus in her backyard—though they refuse to say how far along the pregnancy was. This, too, is common: police and local media will claim a woman callously discarded her “infant” or “stillborn,” only for us to later find out she simply disposed of miscarriage remains.

Just last year, a Kentucky college student was arrested for abuse of a corpse after police said they found an “infant.” But when Abortion, Every Day spoke to the county coroner, he admitted the term infant “could be referring to a fetus.”

In Spencer’s arrest records, it says her fetal remains were found wrapped inside of a lightbulb box. Does that sound like an “infant” to you?

There are glaring red flags all over this case: First-degree fetal homicide is a capital offense in Kentucky—punishable by life in prison. Yet the statute specifically prohibits the prosecution of women for “caus[ing] the death of her unborn child.” Kentucky’s ban also makes clear women can’t be criminalized for having abortions.

In other words, Spencer shouldn’t be charged at all.

As Angela Cooper from the ACLU of Kentucky put it, “No individual officer can be expected to know all of the ins and outs of the law, and just because a charge is written in a report does not necessarily mean that that’s what the court’s going to do.”

But most local coverage isn’t making that legal conflict clear. Instead, Spencer’s arrest is being treated as if it’s the logical conclusion of the state’s abortion ban—even when it appears flatly unlawful. The result is yet another pregnancy-related arrest riddled with bias, ignorance, and anti-abortion zeal.

Karen Thompson, legal director of Pregnancy Justice, notes that even if law enforcement’s account of what happened is factual, what happened to Spencer is still “a travesty.”

“We have a woman arrested and thrown in jail for doing what is perfectly legal for her to do in Kentucky, which is to self-manage her own abortion. …The idea that she has ‘desecrated’ a corpse is a slippery slope towards criminalizing any woman who loses a pregnancy—the mere fact of a loss is now enough to make a woman’s body a crime scene. This is not normal.”

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more, and will pass along GoFundMe or fundraising info for her legal defense when we have it.

South Carolina Moves to Make Abortion Pills a Controlled Substance

South Carolina Republicans plan to introduce a slate of anti-abortion bills when the legislative session starts next week—from mandates to test the state’s water supply for abortion pills and hormonal birth control, to yet another attempt to punish abortion patients as murderers.

But the bill South Carolina advocates are most worried about is H. 4760, which would classify abortion medication as a controlled substance. What’s raising red flags among AED’s sources is that the legislation is sponsored by all the state GOP leaders.

Let’s be clear: H. 4760 goes far beyond restricting abortion. The goal here is to turn anyone who helps women get abortion pills into drug traffickers—criminalizing entire support networks and using the threat of major lawsuits to scare people out of being there for each other.

H. 4760 would create new felony crimes for anyone who “provides” the pills, and unleash a Texas-style bounty system that allows family members to sue whoever “aids and abets” the abortion. That could include anyone from providers and abortion funds to a friend who picked up the pills at a local PO Box.

The bill is written in such a way that it could even impact out-of-state doctors and those offering “remote services”—like telehealth providers and online resources sharing information about abortion medication. From the bill (emphasis ours):

This comes at a moment when Republicans are desperate to stop the mailing of abortion pills into anti-abortion states, knowing that telehealth accounts for nearly 30% of U.S. abortions.

The bill wouldn’t just punish abortion ‘helpers’—it would endanger women’s health and lives. When Louisiana made abortion medication a controlled substance in 2024, it sowed chaos in maternity wards—where the medication is used to stop women’s hemorrhaging. (The New Orleans Health Department has already compiled a long list of complaints from patients and providers who’ve been harmed by the law.)

We’ll have more for you as the bill moves forward, but it’s clear that South Carolina Republicans are coming into the legislative session with anti-abortion guns blazing. That means that all the folks who showed up to demonstrate and testify last time the GOP pulled this shit need to ready their protest signs once more. If you’re in SC, there’s a hearing next week: 12pm, Wednesday, January 14, Blatt Building Room 110

Wyoming Republicans React to Abortion Ruling

Earlier today, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled to protect abortion rights—striking down two state bans as unconstitutional. What made the decision especially important is that the justices made clear that abortion is healthcare. Read our full breakdown below:

Breaking: Wyoming Supreme Court Rules Abortion is Healthcare

As you can imagine, Republicans are not happy about the decision: Gov. Mark Gordon expressed his disappointment over the ruling, and urged the legislature to propose a ballot measure that would undo the ruling.

“It is time for this issue to go before the people for a vote, and I believe it should go before them this fall. A constitutional amendment taken to the people of Wyoming would trump any and all judicial decisions.”

Gordon doesn’t say what kind of ballot measure amendment he has in mind, but presumably it would be something that says the state constitution doesn’t protect abortion rights—or that abortion isn’t healthcare.

We’ve seen similar amendments fail in states like Kentucky and Kansas.

In the States: Utah, Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, and more

It’s a new year, but the same anti-abortion extremists are at the helm in Utah—begging a judge to reinstate the state’s sweeping abortion ban.

Right now, abortion is legal until 18 weeks, thanks to a 2024 injunction blocking the state’s trigger law from taking effect. And while Planned Parenthood is working to make the injunction permanent, the Utah Attorney General’s office has filed a motion to throw out the challenge altogether.

In his motion, assistant Attorney General Lance Sorensen acknowledged the “persuasive policy arguments” for abortion rights—but claimed these arguments alone don’t establish a right. Disagree!

Meanwhile, Texas’ sweeping, criminal abortion ban alone was never enough. Conservatives across the state have long been throwing spaghetti at the wall, trying everything they can to fully entrap pregnant people under their violent laws—and trap people within the state. The Texan has a roundup of nearly 100 counties and municipalities that have passed ‘sanctuary city’ ordinances that ban people from using local roads and highways if their destination is an abortion clinic. Some counties are along or en route to the New Mexico border, a popular destination for Texans seeking abortion care.

As of this month, 91 political subdivisions have established anti-abortion ordinances, with 29 passed in 2025 alone. In the last five years, 74 Texas cities and 14 counties have adopted the ordinances. Anti-abortion activists call the local laws ‘anti-trafficking’ efforts, even though they’re directed at women of all ages—not just minors. (Their claim is that the fetus is being trafficked.)

Some key caveats: Legal experts have stressed that these ordinances are incredibly difficult to enforce, although Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) mean the risk does exist—and have, in fact, led to at least one arrest. That said, these ordinances are largely about creating a chilling effect and terrifying people out of helping each other.

Here’s what will never case to amaze: that cities across the nation are effectively passing local travel bans, and we barely hear about them in the media. Read what AED wrote about the ordinances in 2023:

Breaking the Overton Window 

Iowa, which already has the lowest number of OBGYNs per capita, is bleeding health care workers. We can guess why: the state’s six-week abortion ban puts providers in danger of losing their medical license or risking prison time just for doing their jobs.

The OBGYN exodus out of anti-abortion states is worsening the maternal health care crisis across the country: labor and delivery wards are shuttering, maternal health deserts are widening, and maternal and infant mortality is on the rise.

One OBGYN who decided to accept a job in pro-choice Minnesota told KFF Health News that because of Iowa’s severe shortage of maternity care, she was seeing 50 patients per day at one point:

“I could either stay and ruin myself and my career and my mental health and my relationship with my children, or I could go and continue to practice OB, which had always been my dream.”

Again, this isn’t just happening in one state. Idaho, for example, lost more than a third of its OBGYNs after the end of Roe. And residency applications in anti-abortion states—across specialties, but especially in reproductive health care—are on the decline. Who can blame them?

Finally, some good news and a reminder about the importance of elections—certainly in a big election year like this: Virginia’s Democratic-controlled legislature will vote on abortion rights the first day back.

After four years of anti-abortion extremist now-former Gov. Glenn Youngkin—who twice vetoed legislation to establish a right to birth control—Democrats are eager to get the ball rolling under pro-choice Gov. Abigail Spanberger. Virginia lawmakers are set to weigh in on four different constitutional amendments, including one to codify abortion rights.

State Sen. Creigh Deeds said that while Virginia already protects abortion, “by embedding it in the Constitution, we establish a constitutional right” which “harder to change” and would “give people another measure of protection.”

Unfortunately, like so many other pro-choice ballot measures, Virginia’s proposed amendment has limiting language around ‘viability’—an arbitrary, non-medical standard. (For more on the danger of ‘viability’ language, read Pregnancy Justice’s report, “The Viability Line.”)

Quick Hits:

• Democracy Docket on Ohio Republicans’ insidious attacks on telemedicine abortion access and Medicaid funding for abortion clinics—moves made in direct defiance of their own voters;

• North Dakota Monitor breaks down the legal whiplash over abortion in the last year;

• And CNN digs into the ongoing challenges and nonstop legal wars surrounding abortion rights ballot measures, particularly in states like Missouri.

Abortion on the Rise in Pro-Choice States—Mostly

New 2025 data shows abortions are rising again in Kansas and New Jersey—with out-of-state patients now making up a whopping three-quarters of abortion care in Kansas. It’s an important reminder that Dobbs was never going to ‘end’ abortion, just create new and dehumanizing barriers to care.

Arizona’s new abortion data tells a different part of the story. Fewer than 12,000 abortions were reported in 2024, continuing slight decline from the pre-Dobbs norm of roughly 12,000–13,000 annually. But that snapshot comes just before voters enshrined abortion rights in November 2024—repealing the state’s 15-week ban and making care more accessible in 2025. In other words, we can probably expect those numbers to change.

Minnesota, meanwhile, tracked a 6% dip in abortions—surprising, given that bans in neighboring states like Iowa have driven more patients to Minnesota than in past years. Planned Parenthood North Central States has suggested this could be a “blip.” What isn’t a blip is the rise in medication abortions in the state, which aligns with a national trend of more abortion-seekers ending their pregnancies with pills.

Trump Throws Anti-Abortion Activists Under the Bus (Again)

If anti-abortion activists were pissed off at the Trump administration before, they’re going to be furious now. POLITICO reports that Donald Trump advised House Republicans today to be “flexible” on abortion in the ongoing ACA fight:

“You have to be a little flexible on Hyde, you know that. You gotta be a little flexible. You gotta work something…we’re all big fans of everything. But you have to have flexibility.”

A reminder: this has nothing to do with the Hyde amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortion care.

As we’ve reported previously, the GOP wants to prohibit any ACA plan from covering abortion—even those funded by pro-choice states. They’re just trying to characterize that demand as adherence to Hyde, rather than admit they’re using abortion as an excuse to stall negotiations and fuck over Americans. (Which is why I wish POLITICO and other outlets would stop reporting that Hyde is a “sticking point” in negotiations—it’s not!)

We’ll be interested to see how anti-abortion organizations react to Trump’s comments. Leaders have already been disappointed in the administration’s relative lack of action on abortion—abortion pills, especially. So his latest remarks will definitely be salt in the wound.

1. Abortion, Every Day only names those arrested on pregnancy-related charges if they come forward themselves, or if the media coverage is so widespread that withholding their name would do more harm than good. In this case, it’s the latter.