Going to Prison for Miscarriage

Content warning: this article discusses abortion, miscarriage, drug use during pregnancy, suicide and stillbirth. If you choose to continue reading, I invite you to breathe through your reactions. If you are a person with a uterus who is capable of being pregnant, you are also a person with a uterus who is capable of miscarriage or stillbirth, and thus, of being prosecuted for miscarriage or stillbirth.

While murder and manslaughter charges in most of these cases were eventually dismissed, several women served time in jail or prison on lesser charges. With the latest political developments around bodily autonomy, the precedents that could have been set by these prosecutions are terrifying, and we grow less safe by the day.

Arrested for Miscarriage or Stillbirth: a Timeline

1987 — Angie Carter

While Angie Carter wasn’t arrested, her case was foundational for this timeline because of the precedent it set.

In 1987, 27-year-old cancer patient Angie Carter was six months pregnant. She was also in and out of consciousness and near death. Doctors wanted to know if Angie wanted them to try and save the baby by Cesarean even though the likelihood of the baby surviving was very small, and the likelihood of Angie dying in surgery was very high. Angie asked them not to interfere. Her mother, a double amputee in a wheelchair, also begged them not to interfere, knowing the family didn’t have the means to support a child that, if it survived, would likely have severe health challenges.

Although Angie and her family had already made their decision, hospital administrators, through their lawyers, called a judge. The judge ordered the Cesarean. Lindsay Marie Carter was 1.6 pounds with completely undeveloped lungs and died two hours after she was born. Angie died the next day.

Angie’s case was one of the first after Roe vs. Wade to deny rights of privacy to pregnant women in the United States.

2004 — Melissa Ann Rowland

In 2004, Melissa Ann Rowland of Salt Lake City, Utah, was charged with murder after refusing a Cesarean section, resulting in, according to doctors, the death of one of her near-term twins. The surviving twin was adopted, purportedly by a family Melissa knew.

Born to an intellectually-disabled mother and adopted at birth, Melissa Rowland was homeless and had a history of mental illness and drug abuse. By age twelve, she had already spent time in a mental hospital. By fourteen, she bore her first set of twins. By the time she birthed this set of twins, she had six other children who were wards of the state or being cared for by family members.

Did her decision to refuse a c-section result in the death of one of her twins? Possibly. But there are bigger concerns.

The United States has some of the highest rates of Cesarean birth in the world. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 31% of all births in the U.S. (1 in 3 births) in 2018 were by Cesarean.

While there are times when a c-section is absolutely necessary, hospitals and doctors themselves are paid more for surgeries. Cesareans also save hospitals time. A scheduled surgery birth alleviates any waiting around for a mother to naturally labor. Thus, many Cesareans performed are unnecessary for the health of the mother or baby. Poor women and Black women are are more likely to be subjected to unnecessary c-sections.

What precedent could have been set by Melissa’s prosecution? The potential that refusal of Cesarean birth could in and of itself be considered a criminal act, despite the rate of unnecessary c-sections that are performed in the United States every day.

2006 — Rennie Gibbs

Mississippi resident Rennie Gibbs was sixteen and 38 weeks pregnant in 2006 when she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. An autopsy turned up minute traces of cocaine byproduct in the baby’s system, leading Mississippi’s medical examiner at the time to immediately declare the baby’s death from “cocaine toxicity,” despite the fact that Gibbs’ baby was born with her umbilical cord around her neck. In 2007, Gibbs was arrested and charged with “depraved heart murder,” for which the maximum sentence is life in prison.

Mississippi has a population that is almost 40% Black, as well as some of the highest rates of school dropouts, teen pregnancy, infant mortality, and sexually transmitted diseases in the United States. The state also has extremely restrictive laws on abortion and little sex education to speak of. Poverty, poor nutrition, and lack of access to healthcare all contribute to dismal rates of maternal and infant health in Mississippi (the worst in the United States). Across America and in Mississippi, African American people suffer twice as many stillbirths as whites.

Potential precedents set by Gibbs’ prosecution: young people whose babies die early and who lack the ability to defend themselves can be accused of murder; additionally, the potential for any act to be defined as “murder” if a woman suffers a miscarriage or stillbirth afterwards, even if it is due to lack of access to health care, could lead to a murder or manslaughter charge.

2010 — Christine Taylor

In 2010, 22-year-old Iowa resident Christine Taylor fell down the stairs, which resulted in a miscarriage. Christine had two children already. When she became pregnant again, her husband left her — via telephone — saying “I just want to be free.” Christine claimed she was despondent and shocked and nearly blacked out, resulting in her fall down the stairs. Asked, in the hospital, whether she had wanted the baby, Christine said she had been considering adoption or abortion but hadn’t made a decision. The hospital reported this to authorities. Because of this, Iowa police jailed her for feticide. Was Christine Taylor telling the truth? We won’t ever know. However…

Medical professionals violated Christine Taylor’s rights to privacy. People have the right to voice misgivings about pregnancy without being punished for it. Christine was not given the privacy or security to be honest with a medical professional.

2011 — Bei Bei Shuai

Bei Bei Shuai, a Chinese immigrant, was 33 weeks pregnant and running a restaurant with her boyfriend when he revealed that he was already married and was returning to his other family. Shuai resorted to begging; he threw money at her and left her sobbing on her knees in a parking lot.

Distraught, she suffered an emotional breakdown and consumed rat poison in an attempt to commit suicide. Bei Bei survived but her baby, Angel, delivered by emergency C-section, died two days later from a massive brain hemorrhage. Shuai, in and out of consciousness, begged doctors to take her life so her baby could live, showing obvious signs of mental illness. The hospital placed her in the mental wing. Authorities charged her with feticide.

The Indiana laws used to charge Bei Bei were originally designed with violent third parties in mind: abusive boyfriends or husbands who attacked pregnant partners, for example. Shuai’s case is believed to be the first time the state charged someone for murder over a suicide attempt while pregnant.

Suicide is currently the leading cause of death during the peri-natal period (pregnancy and one year postpartum).

A person suffering from mental illness who attempts suicide or other act of self-harm while pregnant can be at risk of being charged for murder or manslaughter.

Additionally, many medications used to treat mental illness are not safe to take during pregnancy. A pregnant person using medications to treat mental illness may suffer further challenges to both their mental health and the health of the fetus they carry. Mental illness does not discriminate).

2013 — Purvi Patel

In 2013, Indiana resident Purvi Patel went to the emergency room bleeding and seeking assistance after a miscarriage at home. Doctors estimated that she was 23–24 weeks pregnant at the time. Asked where the remains of the miscarriage were, Patel told them she had disposed of them in a trash bin. The hospital notified the police, who retrieved the remains and arrested Patel on the charge of “neglect of a dependent.”

Alleged to have induced the miscarriage with abortion medications she obtained online, Patel was also prosecuted for feticide. Her charges were contradictory, and doctors found no traces of abortion medications in her system. Regardless…

Many women who experience miscarriage (or have a medication abortion) understand what is happening and seek medical help during the process. Many others move through the process at home, and then go to the hospital to make sure the process has completed itself (during the pandemic, more women have had to miscarry at home). Medical treatment post-miscarriage helps address heavy bleeding concerns and decreases chances of infection.

Medical professionals violated Patel’s rights to medical privacy. Additionally, this set a precedent where women seeking medical treatment after a miscarriage at home can be accused of fetal harm if they don’t preserve or bring the remains of the miscarriage to the hospital with them. Sit with that for a second.

2017 — Adora Perez

In 2017, doctors called the police on 29-year-old Adora Perez. They arrested and jailed her 48 hours after she delivered a stillborn son.

By the time she delivered her son, she had already given birth to nine other children, most of them at the same hospital. The mother of the man who fathered 8 of Adora’s children asked the courts to tie her tubes if it was possible.

Adora, whose parents were drug users, began using at age fourteen after repeated sexual abuse by family members. Doctors were aware that Adora struggled with addiction. Even as Adora held her stillborn son and grieved, hospital staff were contacting CPS and the authorities.

Sentenced to eleven years in prison for manslaughter, Adora Perez spent four years behind bars before her case was dismissed. An coroner's report showed that Perez had suffered a placental abruption.

Again, pregnant people suffering from addiction risk jail if they seek medical help. Cases like this only make people more afraid to seek help.

2019 — Chelsea Becker

In September 2019, Chelsea Becker was eight months pregnant when she went into labor. She struggled with drug addiction and was homeless for much of her pregnancy. She had three other children, two of which were already with other family members.

Bleeding uncontrollably, an ambulance rushed her to the hospital. The baby did not survive the birth, and was later shown to have traces of drugs in his system.

Chelsea woke up in the hospital to find that her dead baby had been left on a table in the room for what had, by then, been hours. The hospital had also notified authorities.

A few weeks later, she woke from a nap to find an officer aiming an assault rifle at her, a K-9 officer at his side. Charged with murder and unable to pay a $2 million bail, she lost custody of her son. A pathologist had never reviewed Chelsea’s medical records; while the baby had traces of methamphetamine in its system, her medical record also showed three infections that could have caused the stillbirth.

As with Adora Perez’s case, Chelsea’s prosecution shows that pregnant people suffering from addiction risk incarceration if they attempt to seek help.

It also shows that a person can be charged with murder for a stillbirth or miscarriage, or for any act seen as harming a fetus: having HIV, falling, not getting to a hospital fast enough, or not receiving adequate prenatal care even if they don’t have access to it.

Chelsea Becker, by the way, finished treatment, enrolled in college and went on to work toward a community health worker certificate and public health degree.

2018 — Marshae Doricia Jones

Marshae Jones was five months pregnant in 2018 when she got into an dispute with another woman over the father of the child. The other woman pulled a gun and shot her in the stomach. The fetus did not survive. Six months later, Jones, who had been unarmed, was charged with manslaughter for instigating the fight and thus, putting her fetus at risk. The grand jury declined to prosecute the shooter, saying she had acted in self defense. While her case was dismissed in 2019, Alabama vs. Jones is yet another example of how the health and safety of pregnant people is often disregarded.

Jones’ prosecution shows that an unarmed pregnant person injured by someone claiming self-defense can be be charged with manslaughter if the injury results in miscarriage or stillbirth.

2020 — Brittney Poolaw

21-year-old Brittney Poolaw, a Comanche woman from Oklahoma, was 15–17 weeks pregnant when she suffered a miscarriage. Prosecutors blamed her miscarriage on methamphetamine abuse, though the autopsy showed congenital abnormality and that Brittney had had a placental abruption. Poolaw was charged with first degree manslaughter. Because she couldn’t afford a $20,000 bond, she spent a year and a half in jail awaiting trial before being sentenced to four years in prison for manslaughter.

Anyone reading through these profiles should be able to see the glaringly obvious: poor people, people of color, immigrants and people suffering from addiction are the ones most likely to be the subjects of pregnancy-based prosecution in the United States.

Adora Perez and Chelsea Becker both came from Hanford, California, a small town outside of Fresno, California, a region known as “meth hell.” Both struggled with methamphetamine addiction. Everyone else on this list lived in a red state with strict abortion laws. At the time of prosecution, almost all had trouble accessing health care. Most of them came from situations of generational trauma, addiction, poverty and abuse. Studies show that a significant number of people arrested for fetal harm or death are also in abusive relationships.

Each year, hundreds of people are prosecuted for fetal harm. In the current political climate, anyone can be risk of prosecution for anything determined to put a fetus at risk, regardless of whether they are at fault, or whether a person has access to health care.

As more and more states ban abortion outright, there will be a resulting increase in people forced to carry pregnancies. Many will be too afraid to seek help for fear of arrest. Punishing people is not the solution.

Adoption is not the answer, either: on any given day, over 400,000 children are in foster care in the United States. Most people advocating for adoption only want (white) babies. Most don’t care to deal with the emotional troubles older children might have (what happens to many of these children is so disturbing it warranted a 60 minutes Australia episode).

Many of these children will never be adopted. 23,000 children age out of the foster system every year, and at least 20% of them become instantly homeless. Studies also show an elevated risk of teen pregnancy in youth involved with CPS, and that the rates are especially high for young women who age out of the foster system. This process is often cyclical.

The keys to alleviating fetal harm lie in taking care of people who carry fetuses, not punishing them. Care, concern , and compassion — providing access to adequate health care services (including abortion), drug treatment programs, mental health services, housing and food security — will go a much longer way than attempting to control what people do with their bodies.

Dori Mondon fixes typos for a living and is an Ada Comstock scholar at Smith College, where she is an American Studies major with a focus on public history and creative writing. She currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with her 11-year-old daughter and a teeny chiweenie with a very big attitude. She’s enraged because she’s been paying attention.