17
votes
Nebraska woman gets two years in prison for helping teen daughter have an abortion
Link information
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- Authors
- Jessica Corbett, Zane McNeill, Sharon Zhang, Emily Janakiram, Lizzie Chadbourne, Sandra Henriquez, Chris Walker, Kristen Schorsch, Shefali Luthra
- Published
- Sep 23 2023
- Word count
- 925 words
The U.S. records 21,000 annual stillbirths (delivery of a dead fetus between 20 weeks gestation, up to and past normal delivery date), a rate of approx. 1 in 175 pregnancies. Miscarriage is much more common, medically defined as fetal loss up to 20 weeks gestation, and occurs in up to a quarter of detected pregnancies.
Imagine the magnitude of injustice if each and every one of these events turned into a criminal investigation. The U.S. has already criminalized "chemical endangerment" in over half of its states, regulating pregnant people's bodies to the extent of putting them in jail if suspected of using drugs while pregnant, and murder prosecutions for miscarriages/stillbirths while using illegal substances.
The Handmaid's Tale dystopia we've been dreading is already here, it's just not evenly distributed yet.
I've seen estimates that the spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) rate may be as high as 50% taking un-detected pregnancies into consideration. Every menstrual cycle becomes a potential crime
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