On March 20 in rural Georgia, an ambulance responded to an early morning 911 call about an unconscious, bleeding woman at an apartment. When first responders arrived, they determined that she\u2019d had a miscarriage. That was only the start of her ordeal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Selena Maria Chandler-Scott was transported to a local hospital, but a witness reported that Scott had placed the fetal remains in a dumpster. When police investigated, they recovered the remains, and Scott was charged with concealing the death of another person and abandoning a dead body. The charges were ultimately dropped; an autopsy determined<\/a> she\u2018d had a \u201cnatural miscarriage\u201c at around 19 weeks and the fetus was non-viable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, Scott\u2019s arrest comes at a time when a growing number of women are facing pregnancy-related prosecutions in which the <\/strong>fetus is treated as a person with legal rights. And her experience raises troubling questions about miscarriages that happen in states with strict abortion laws, women\u2019s health advocates say. How should remains be disposed of? And who gets to decide? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgia\u2019s six-week abortion ban, the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, provides any fetus with a heartbeat legal recognition under the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though the push for \u201cfetal personhood\u201d provisions like this one predates the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, experts say it has intensified since.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Roughly two dozen <\/strong>personhood bills have been introduced in the first three months<\/a> of this year, according to the Guttmacher Insitute, a research organization that supports reproductive rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jill Wieber Lens, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and expert on stillbirth and pregnancy loss, sees wider implications in Chandler-Scott’s arrest. Research shows<\/a> that 10-20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, most often in the first trimester. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf what comes out of you in a miscarriage is a dead human body, and you can\u2019t abandon that, you can\u2019t put that in the trash, you can\u2019t flush it down the toilet,\u201d Lens said, \u201cmost people experiencing miscarriage are also apparently committing crimes in Georgia.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Legal experts have <\/strong>drawn comparisons between Chandler-Scott\u2019s arrest and that of Brittany Watts, a then 34-year-old woman in Warren, Ohio, who was charged with abuse of a corpse after her miscarriage in 2023, though the charges were later dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In January, she filed a lawsuit <\/a>against the city and hospital where she sought care. Neither the hospital nor the police responded to requests for comment, but the hospital filed a response<\/a> in court, denying wrongdoing. The case is still pending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview<\/a> last year, Watts said she feared a similar arrest could happen again. \u201cAs the old saying goes, \u2018History repeats itself,\u2019\u201d Watts said. \u201cI don\u2019t want it to happen in this case.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Advocates say the number of pregnant people facing criminal charges for conduct linked to pregnancy rose after Dobbs. At least 210 women were charged in the year that followed, according to a 2024 report<\/a> from Pregnancy Justice, a reproductive rights group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Women of color, lower-income women and women struggling with substance use are particularly vulnerable in interactions with authorities, advocates say.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dana Sussman, senior vice president of Pregnancy Justice, said she was glad to hear the charges against Chandler-Scott were dropped. \u201cOn the one hand, this is terrific news,\u201d she said. But \u201cit doesn\u2019t undo the very real harm and devastation charges like these bring in the first place.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Chandler-Scott\u2019s arrest<\/strong> is just one example of how Georgia is harming women’s health and lives, said Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, an Atlanta-based reproductive justice organization that has challenged the state’s abortion ban in court. Last year, Amber Thurman died after she reportedly had to wait<\/a> nearly a day for surgery that experts said could have saved her life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe picture that\u2019s being painted in Georgia is a very grim one,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cGeorgians are not asking for more restrictions, or more surveillance. We\u2019re actually asking to have more health care, to have more access.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgia recently held a hearing on a personhood bill that would have allowed people who end their pregnancies to be charged with murder. \u201cWe have turned Roe vs. Wade around. Let\u2019s go ahead and just bring back life to the unborn,\u201d Rep. Emory Dunahoo, a Republican, told an NBC affiliate<\/a>. The bill died this week without a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n