A 24-year-old woman from Tifton, Georgia is facing criminal charges after experiencing a miscarriage, raising concern among reproductive rights advocates and legal experts.
Local police were called to the woman’s apartment complex last week, where she was found unconscious and bleeding. She was taken to a hospital for emergency care. Shortly after, police received a tip from a witness who claimed the woman had disposed of fetal remains in a nearby dumpster. Authorities later recovered the remains and sent them for autopsy.
According to WALB, the autopsy report, released Tuesday, revealed that the fetus showed no signs of injury or trauma and had never taken a breath outside the womb. The findings confirmed that the woman experienced a natural miscarriage at approximately 19 weeks of pregnancy.
Despite this, the woman has been charged with “concealing the death of another person” and “abandonment of a dead body.” Under Georgia law, those charges carry potential prison sentences of up to 10 years and 3 years, respectively.
As of now, the woman’s name has not been released publicly, and she remains in custody while the legal process plays out. Officials have not commented on whether the charges will be reviewed in light of the autopsy results.
