Manslaughter conviction of 21-year-old Oklahoma woman who suffered miscarriage sparks outcry

[progressoid]

Pregnancy advocates and others on social media are expressing outrage after a 21-year-old Oklahoma woman was convicted of first-degree manslaughter earlier this month for having a miscarriage, which the prosecutor blamed on her alleged use of methamphetamine.

Brittney Poolaw, who is a member of the Comanche Nation, according to the Comanche County Detention Center, was sentenced on October 6 by a jury to four years in state prison. Poolaw's attorney filed a notice of intent to appeal on October 15.

Prosecutors argued that the miscarriage Poolaw suffered was from her use of methamphetamine. An autopsy of the fetus showed it had tested positive for methamphetamine, the Associated Press reported, but there was no evidence her use of the substance is what caused the miscarriage. The autopsy showed the miscarriage could have been caused by a congenital abnormality and placental abruption, when the placenta detaches from the womb, the AP said.

...https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-convicted-manslaughter-miscarriage-outrage/...

And while Poolaw's case has garnered national attention, NAPW says that her case is not unusual. The organization says it has documented over 1,600 cases involving the criminalization of pregnancy. More than 1,200 of those cases occurred in the past 15 years.

"These cases include pregnant women who have been arrested for falling down stairs, drinking alchol, giving birth at home, being in a 'dangerous' location, having HIV, experiencing a drug dependency problem, or attempting suicide," the organization tweeted. "The majority of women subjected to pregnancy-based prosecutions are low-income women, drug-using women, and women of color."

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I add my voice to the outcry of anger to this unjust verdict.

White privilege is real and this Native American's plight is a result of that privilege.

And it is wrong.

I am sickened and angered that these women are enduring such wrong-headed persecution.

[pazzyanne]

6. + 1 nt

[Demovictory9]

18. plus 2.

[wnylib]

28. Was it a white jury?

There are many Native American people in Oklahoma.

[SunSeeker]

37. Highly likely a white jury. Oklahoma's population is only 7.75% Native American.

And Oklahoma excludes people with any prior felony from serving on juries, which disproportionately excludes people of color from juries.

They had no evidence of causation, yet the jury convicted. I'm guessing there were no Native Americans on that jury.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. Is this in Eastern Oklahoma?

If it is, the state has no jurisdiction there.

[yellerpup]

5. Ms. Poolaw is Comanche.

I don't think the Comanche were any party to the McGirt decision, but I can see it cited in her appeal. Outrageous politics here.

[Celerity]

3. Oh, those fuckers are just getting warmed up.

[progressoid]

10. Yep.

And we have a backwards looking supreme court.

Fuck.

[Percy]

45. So very true.

[ancianita]

4. Christian taliban-white supremacist-nazi coalition,

criminalizing, threatening the lives of the majority gender for centuries.

[Biophilic]

7. Every day in every way the repugs get more disgusting. I want to scream

at their inhumanity and just plain evilness.

[NotHardly]

8. Now if we had an A.G. in charge of the Dept of Justice, maybe they could look into this/these things

[wnylib]

29. Sure, since Garland has nothing else on his plate.

[Pepsidog]

9. I'm speechless

[NightWatcher]

11. Blessed be the Fruit.

Under his eye.

[demigoddess]

12. I know for a fact that most men and even doctors do not understand miscarriages.

They seem to think that they all have to be 'caused' by something. Miscarriages are usually nature's method for taking care of mistakes. There is also a thing called tipped uterus that causes miscarriages, did they even try to look for that?

[soldierant]

49. + 1000

[Crunchy Frog]

13. So they're not charging anti-vaxxers/maskers

who get covid and then have a miscarriage or stillbirth, even though there's a clear and well known link. Wouldn't want to punish any white RW women.

[70sEraVet]

14. If her miscarriage had been caused by a drug that she had been prescribed

and she was suing the drug company, how far do you think her lawsuit would have gone?

[TeamProg]

15. Ain't Amurika great?!!!

[AZLD4Candidate]

16. The War on Women and the deification of the fetus continues by men who have no say

in it, especially miscarriages.

But when prosecutors get a cause in their sights, they will empty the budget to get their version of "justice."

I wonder if this native woman is also poor. Poor, female, native. . .there are your three strikes!

[Hav]

17. I have to say

just generally without knowing the specifics of the case or the law, if you know you are pregnant and you cause significant damage due to smoking, alcohol or in this case meth, should there be consequences?
I know the article states that it couldn't be proved that meth caused the miscarriage but when shit happens and the fetus tests positive for meth, we'd normally recognize that this wasn't an ideal situation.

[USALiberal]

21. I agree with you! Nt

[niyad]

22. So you are okay with this back door, slippery slope destruction of Roe? The assault

on women's bodily integrity? Where do you stand on miscarriages caused by the male partner beating the pregnant woman? Or a vehicle crash? Should they be punished? If not, please do not ever tell yourself that you give a damn about women. If so, recognize that you have stated that this biological parasite (because that is precisely what it is intil viability) is far more important than the woman.

[Hav]

27. Wtf?

If the male partner beats a pregnant woman and kills the fetus, of course he'd be held liable and should go to jail for it.
This also isn't about bodily autonomy and the right to get an abortion. The consequence of what many here are suggesting is that one should just smoke and take drugs as you wish when you are pregnant. I wonder how many would have that opinion if would affect yourself or your own family.

[wnylib]

31. What would you recommend for

women who give birth to babies with fetal alcohol syndrome due to the mother's alcoholism, keeping in mind that alcoholism is a disease.

[niyad]

32. You are deliberately ignoring the reality of those laws, their intent and purpose.

And you are clearly stating that the biological parasite is far more important than the woman. Got it.

[Hav]

36. No, I'm clearly not stating that but keep strawmanning

There's no point arguing with you.

[niyad]

39. Nor with you. Perhaps reading the whole thread might provide new insight.

[wnylib]

34. It is very much about the right to abortion.

The state is now scrutinizing every miscarriage for a "cause" that they can prosecute a woman for if she miscarries. In medical terminology, a miscarriage is called a spontaneous abortion, meaning that it was not caused by a deliberate termination of a pregnancy. So prosecuting women for miscarriages is accusing women who miscarry of doing it intentionally, as if the intentional termination (abortion) of a pregnancy were illegal.

Also, Imagine having to regulate all of a woman's behavior and movements for the entire pregnancy in order to avoid the risk of criminal charges if she miscarries.

As someone who had several miscarriages in my 20s, I find this very disturbing. In nearly all of them I did not know I was pregnant until I miscarried. To avoid that, women would need to restrict all of ther activities all of the time, just in case they were pregnant.

[Hav]

42. I think intent and knowledge matters

That's why I limited my initial question to knowing that you are pregnant and engaging in behavior that is known to cause harm.
You raised a good question earlier in regards to alcoholism. Being addicted is definitely a factor one should recognize in judging a person's responsibility.
The reason why I even asked is that no one recognized that meth was a part of the equation and I wondered whether we agree or not on any kind of responsibility at all. For instance, everyone knows about the advice to not drink alcohol or smoke when you are pregnant.

I don't pretend that there are perfect answers for these issues and I get the danger of the slippery slope. But I appreciate the civil exchange for such a hot topic.

[marie999]

23. If we allow a women to be put in prison for having a miscarriage for any reason

we are making that much easier for the Republicans to ban all abortions. A miscarriage is not the death of a baby.

[treestar]

25. No.

What a slippery slope that would set up. Part of being her body, her choice, is some bad choices, like drug use.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

30. There is a lot of room between "not an ideal situation" and "prison."

[soldierant]

50. At least - there should be.

[NutmegYankee]

41. Sounds like a great way to make women incubation slaves

You either have control of your life and actions, or you don't. Do we really want a society that questions whether a woman drinking is pregnant and feels entitled to challenge her? And if the "special police" aren't satisfied with her answers they can arrest her? This isn't a slippery slope - it's a shear fucking cliff!

Make no mistake, the right wing will happily shove women back into the kitchen with these laws.

[Pacifist Patriot]

48. There already are consequences. Legal consequences should not be added to them.

[LeftInTX]

51. That's a different situation

In Texas, they generally put the kid in foster care and try to work with the mother.
Foster care is usually a relative.

If things keep escalating, parental rights can be terminated. There are a few moms out there who are looney. We had one that kept coming into the unit and crying, and she kept testing positive. She also was trying to manipulative staff and stuff like that. I think there may have even been a drug bust at her residence during this time.

Maternal drug addiction is rarely fatal. It can cause learning disabilities, but these are something that does not show up until later. Neonatal drug withdrawal is an acute condition, with straight forward treatment and generally positive outcome. Sure, it costs $$$ to keep an infant in the hospital, but the treatment is old school and is mostly TLC based.

[niyad]

19. and the WAR ON WOMEN continues apace. Would you consider cross-posting this in

Women's Rights And Issues? Thanks in advance.

[USALiberal]

20. How is this any different than if her newborn starved because of her drug addiction?

[niyad]

24. Well, for one thing, the coroner could not say positively that her meth use

caused the miscarriage.

[SunSeeker]

40. THIS

They had no evidence of causation, yet the jury convicted!

[treestar]

26. A newborn is born

No longer a fetus.

[Hekate]

38. First and foremost you assume she was at fault when the coroner could determine no cause...

Second, it was not “a newborn” because it had not yet been born. Please keep that straight.

Third, if we knew why every miscarriage took place, we probably still couldn’t prevent them. The best my mother could come up with was, “Sometimes Mother Nature makes a mistake.”

Speaking of my late mother, she was raised as a chaste Roman Catholic girl and the only drugs she took were cigarettes, coffee, and the occasional glass of wine, all of which were legal and normal in the 1940s-1950s. She gave birth to 4 living children and one full-term still-birth, as well as having two dangerous miscarriages. I’m the oldest — I remember.

Was she at fault? Should she have been prosecuted? Or were her main risk factors poverty, exhaustion, lack of sufficient medical care, and lack of reliable contraception?

[Hekate]

33. This is exactly where they've been going with their "personhood" laws which charge assaulters...

Last edited Thu Oct 21, 2021, 07:38 PM - Edit history (1)

… with murder of a child if they injure or kill a pregnant woman and thereby kill her fetus. It (prosecution) was already happening in South America, and they’ve been moving step by step to make it happen here.

It’s easy to work up people’s emotions when an innocent pregnant woman is injured or killed — the malefactor must be punished! Twice!

We tried to tell you.

[Scrivener7]

35. It's time to move out of red states. Especially if you are a woman.

[tulipsandroses]

43. This is so outrageous

Addiction should be treated as a health problem, not a crime. If we haven’t figured it out yet, the war on drugs has been a losing battle. This woman should have received services to help her recover. Never mind that it was not proven that Meth played a factor.

[Gore1FL]

44. I once called this a possibility on DU circa 2001-2.

While I meant it as a logical conclusion to the right's obsessions, I honestly never thought we would get here in reality.

Neither did the people who thought the whole comment was ridiculous....

[pansypoo53219]

46. this is where this BS goes. forget birth control too. child support? hahahaha, tee hee, no.

[Solly Mack]

47. I've read various articles on this story over the last few days

and each time I've reached the same conclusion.

I better not type what I'm thinking.

I said it aloud yesterday and startled my husband - who froze in his tracks. So I explained.

He then agreed with me.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

52. After miscarriage, woman is convicted of manslaughter. The 'fetus was not viable,' advocates say

A woman convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison after suffering a miscarriage has received public outcry for what some say is an injustice.

Brittney Poolaw, 20, was found guilty by a jury earlier this month after the Comanche County District Attorney's Office in Oklahoma said her methamphetamine use was the cause of the loss of her fetus.

However, the cause of death from the DA differed from the medical examiner.

Poolaw was between 15 and 17 weeks pregnant when she suffered a miscarriage on January 4, 2020, according to the medical examiners report viewed by USA TODAY.

The report said the miscarriage could have happened due to genetic anomaly or placenta abruption.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/after-miscarriage-woman-is-convicted-of-manslaughter-the-fetus-was-not-viable-advocates-say/ar-AAPNfzr