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A young woman in Georgia was found in her apartment, unconscious and bleeding to death from a miscarriage. Neighbors reported her after seeing her disposing of the tissue she had passed. Selena Marie Chandler-Scott, 24, has been criminally charged with concealing the death of a person and with throwing away a dead body.

Arresting and charging women for natural miscarriage or stillborn births is a travesty of human rights abuse. This is already an emotionally charged subject for many women who have lost pregnancies. You shouldn’t criminally charge a woman because a pregnancy naturally terminated. You also shouldn’t criminally charge medical providers for lifesaving, medically necessary care.

Miscarriage is the sudden loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week of gestation. Close to 20% (about 1 in 5) of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. In the United States, approximately 1 in 160 pregnancies ends in stillbirth, with around 21,000 babies born still each year. Miscarriages and stillbirths can be caused by various factors, including chromosomal abnormalities, maternal health conditions, infections and problems with the placenta or umbilical cord.

After a miscarriage or stillbirth, medical treatment focuses on ensuring the complete removal of dead fetal tissue to prevent complications like a fatal infection or uncontrollable bleeding. This typically includes dilation and curettage (D&C), medical management with medication, or, in some cases, induction of labor to expel the deceased fetal tissue. Many states are threatening doctors with prison if they perform this life-saving procedure by calling it an abortion, even if the fetus is already dead or dying. Most doctors now refuse to perform a D&C unless the woman is already dying, in which case it is often performed too late to help her and she dies anyway.

Putting women and doctors in prison will not fix any of those problems. Do you know what will help decrease infant and maternal mortality rates? Successful interventions focus on improving access to quality health care, proper nutrition, less stress, adequate housing and implementing evidence-based practices throughout pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum periods, and a support system after the baby arrives. Even with these supports, there will always be natural miscarriages and stillbirths that break a mother’s heart but not the law.

Our current political climate is removing access to most of our social networks and security programs that help mothers and babies survive and thrive. I foresee that many more women will get sick, die or face imprisonment when they don’t have access to care, can’t afford care or are refused care by physicians who are afraid to provide it.

Reproductive care is health care. If you want lots of babies to be born, as our current administration claims to want, mothers need access to affordable and proper health care without fear of legal repercussions.

Bethany Greiner
Albert Lea