NBC News
On March 20, in a rural area of Georgia, an ambulance responded early in the morning to a 911 call about an unconscious woman and hemorrhage in an apartment. Upon arriving the paramedics determined that he had suffered a spontaneous abortion. That was just the beginning of his terrible experience.
Selena Maria Chandler-Scott was transferred to a hospital, but a witness reported that she had deposited the fetal remains in a garbage container. When the police investigated, he recovered the remains and Chandler-Scott was arrested and accused of hiding the death of another person and leaving a corpse.
The charges were then removed; An autopsy determined that Chandler-Scott had suffered a natural spontaneous abortion around 19 weeks and that the fetus was not viable.
Even so, Chandler-Scott’s arrest occurs at a time when a growing number of women face pregnancy-related judgments, in which the fetus is treated as a person with legal rights. His experience raises disturbing questions about spontaneous abortions that occur in states with strict abortion laws, according to defenders of female health.
How should the remains be discarded? And who decides this?
The prohibition of abortion at six weeks of pregnancy in Georgia, the Law of Equity and Equality for living babies (Life), gives legal recognition to any fetus with heartbeat.
Although the pressure to establish provisions on the “fetal personality” as this is prior to the 2022 Dobbs failure that annulled the Roe vs. case. Wade, experts claim that it has been intensified since then.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that defends reproductive rights, approximately two dozen bills have been submitted in the first three months of this year that consider that the fetus is a person.
Jill Wieber Lens, professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Iowa and an expert in intrauterine fetal death and spontaneous abortion, is broader implications in the arrest of Chandler-Scott. Research shows that between 10 and 20 percent of known pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion, most often in the first quarter.
“If what comes out of you in a spontaneous abortion is a dead human body, and you cannot abandon it, you cannot throw it to the garbage or the toilet,” said Lens, “most people who suffer from spontaneous abortion are also apparently committing crimes in Georgia.”
Legal experts have compared the arrest of Chandler-Scott with that of Brittany Watts, a 34-year-old woman from Warren, Ohio, who was accused of body abuse after suffering a spontaneous abortion In 2023, although the charges were subsequently removed.
In January, Watts filed a lawsuit against the city and the hospital where he received medical attention. Neither the hospital nor the police responded to the requests for comments, but the hospital presented an answer to the court, denying any irregularity. The case is still pending.
In an interview last year, Watts expressed his fear that a similar arrest was repeated. “As the saying goes, ‘History is repeated,” said Watts. “I don’t want it to happen again in this case.”
The defenders affirm that the number of pregnant women face criminal charges through pregnancy -related behaviors increased after the Dobbs case. At least 210 women were accused the following year, according to a 2024 report by Pregnancy Justice, a reproductive rights defender.
Non -white, low -income women and those who fight against substance consumption are particularly vulnerable to interacting with the authorities, according to defenders.
Dana Sussman, Senior Vice President of Pregnancy Justice, a defense organization, was pleased to know that the charges against Chandler-Scott had retired. “On the one hand, it is excellent news,” he said. But “it does not repair the damage and devastation that these charges cause in the first place.”
The arrest of Chandler-Scott is just an example of how Georgia is harming the health and life of women, said Monica Simpson, executive director of Sistersong, a reproductive justice organization based in Atlanta that has challenged the state prohibition of abortion in court. Last year, as reported, Amber Thurman died after waiting for almost a day to A surgery that, according to experts, could have saved his life.
“The panorama that is being painted in Georgia is very discouraging,” Simpson said. “Georgians are not asking for more restrictions or more surveillance. Actually, we are asking for more medical attention, more access.”
Georgia recently celebrated an audience on a bill that would have allowed people to interrupt their pregnancies to murder. “We have reversed the ROE case against Wade. Let’s go ahead and return the life to the unborn,” said Republican representative Emory Dunahoo to an Affiliate from the NBC. The bill failed this week without vote.
Sally Harrelll, a democratic senator of Atlanta, speaking at the state capitol this week, said the Chandler-Scott case “demonstrates the idiocy of fetal personality.”
“This is terrifying for women of reproductive age in Georgia,” he said.
The Tift County Prosecutor’s Office, which led the case of Chandler-Scott, did not answer a detailed list of NBC News questions and, instead, referred to a press release on the dismissal of the charges.
In this statement, prosecutor Patrick Warren declared that his prosecution had determined that the fetus was not born alive and that continue with the case against Chandler-Scott “was not in the interest of justice.”
The Prosecutor’s Office sent the additional questions about the case to the Police Department, which did not answer.
A person who responded to a Chandler-Scott contact indicated that it was not his number. A woman’s relative did not immediately respond to comments requests.
“In these delicate moments of his life, this has caused emotional, financial and mental stress not only to her, but also her family,” says a campaign to collection online funds for Chandler-Scott.
Prosecutor Patrick Warren recognized in his press release that some community members could be unhappy with his decision to withdraw the positions.
“This case is heartbreaking and emotionally difficult for all involved,” he said, “but our decision must be based on the law, not on emotions or speculation.”
