Mississippi Could Soon Jail Women for Stillbirths, Miscarriages

[Triana]

On March 14, 2009, 31 weeks into her pregnancy, Nina Buckhalter gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. She named the child Hayley Jade. Two months later, a grand jury in Lamar County, Mississippi, indicted Buckhalter for manslaughter, claiming that the then-29-year-old woman "did willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, kill Hayley Jade Buckhalter, a human being, by culpable negligence."

The district attorney argued that methamphetamine detected in Buckhalter's system caused Hayley Jade's death. The state Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on the case on April 2, is expected to rule soon on whether the prosecution can move forward.

If prosecutors prevail in this case, the state would be setting a "dangerous precedent" that "unintentional pregnancy loss can be treated as a form of homicide," says Farah Diaz-Tello, a staff attorney with National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a nonprofit legal organization that has joined with Robert McDuff, a Mississippi civil rights lawyer, to defend Buckhalter. If Buckhalter's case goes forward, NAPW fears it could spur a wave of similar prosecutions in Mississippi and other states.

Mississippi's manslaughter laws were not intended to apply in cases of stillbirths and miscarriages. Four times between 1998 through 2002, Mississippi lawmakers rejected proposals that would have set specific penalties for damaging a fetus by using illegal drugs during pregnancy. But Mississippi prosecutors say that two other state laws allow them to charge Buckhalter. One defines of manslaughter as the "killing of a human being, by the act, procurement, or culpable negligence of another"; another includes "an unborn child at every stage of gestation from conception until live birth" in the state's definition of human beings.

The rest of this sordid tale of reproductive slavery....

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/buckhalter-mississippi-stillbirth-manslaughter

[gollygee]

1. This is scary

Women who miscarry shouldn't have to prove they were doing everything right. Smoke a cigarette, eat some sushi, or even lunchmeat, and you could get in trouble. (All of those are things you're told not to do if you're pregnant.)

[Brigid]

2. Women should start leaving MS in droves.

Last edited Thu May 23, 2013, 10:01 AM - Edit history (1)

African-Americans did after WWII for the same reason: Nothing there for them but hostility.

[Ednahilda]

4. Oops.

Don't want to be a pain, but MI is Michigan, MS is Mississippi, although what I've read about Michigan lately might make women want to leave there, too.

[Brigid]

8. Yes, oops.

Editing.

[cali]

6. but it's hardly just Misssisssippi

from the article:

In January, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld convictions against two women—Amanda Kimbrough and Hope Ankrom—for "chemical endangerment" of a child, under a 2006 law that was written to punish people who expose children—not fetuses—to illegal drugs. Kimbrough gave birth prematurely to a baby boy who died shortly thereafter; she was charged after testing positive for meth. Ankrom gave birth to a healthy baby boy, but she was charged after he was found to have marijuana and cocaine in his system.

In Mississippi, Diaz-Tello says, "we're trying to avoid another ruling like Alabama." The decision in Buckhalter's case is expected to influence a second pending case in the state against Rennie Gibbs, a young woman charged with "depraved heart murder" after a experiencing a stillbirth in 2006, at age 16. A medical examiner claimed a small amount of cocaine, found during the autopsy, caused the death. Gibbs' case is supposed to go before a trial court later this year.

This is happening in states across the country.

[AndyA]

33. If I were a woman, I'd want to get the heck out of there.

It's like we're watching an episode of The Twilight Zone.

[davidpdx]

3. What would happen if a pregnant woman was in a car accident and the unborn child died?

Would they prosecute her too?

[Mariana]

7. Could be.

Everyone knows driving is risky, and that lots of people get hurt and killed in car accidents. I imagine some prosecutor could argue that a pregnant woman who goes out driving (or even riding in a car) and gets into an accident, "did willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, kill a human being, by culpable negligence."

[gollygee]

9. It opens the door for that

if the accident were her fault, I guess?

What if a woman was exercising and wasn't aware the level of exercise was too much for where she was at? Or what if she miscarried and it wasn't due to exercise but someone somewhere blamed that and she got in trouble anyway.

[davidpdx]

13. There are many possible scenarios

It would be sick to have to have these women go through that.

[gollygee]

14. Right when they're grieving too

Miscarrying is hard enough without having to take on all that guilt and blame and worry about going to prison for it!

[nolabear]

31. Speeding? Not wearing a seat belt? That's the nightmare scenario for sure.

[Ednahilda]

5. I am so, so glad that I'm done having kids.

Really. I would never want to be pregnant now.

[Brigid]

11. I was never able to have kids.

I used to be sad about that. Not anymore.

[sigmasix]

10. what about pregnancies terminated by unsafe work conditions?

Will these scum be passing any workplace laws that force the employer to provide a safe environment for the unborn child? does anyone really think that these same assholes would force one of thier donors to take responsibility for the inhuman working conditions that some poor, pregnant women are forced into? I doubt that teabaggers will ever force the "job creators" to take responsibility for the miscarriages they cause every year due to stressful work conditions and the presence of harmful chemicals and synthetics that have been de-regulated by right wing legislation.
This right wing love affair with fetuses is the hights of hypocrisy; teabaggers can't wait to get thier hands on your kids after they turn 18- they use them for one of two things; prison for profit inmates and cannon fodder for the 1% wars of dominion. Right wing extremism applaudes every attempt to abort those babies after they leave the womb, but as long as they can use it as an excuse to legislate women's bodies and thier choices, the fetus will be thier rallying call. They obviously dont believe it is murder; they would behave very differently if they honestly believed a two week fetus has the same moral realism as a living, breathing humanbeing. The abortion clinic terrorists that shoot abortion-providing doctors are the only ones that believe abortion is the moral equivalent to murder and back-up thier claims. I hate these terrorists and hope they all suffer imaginative punishments- so I'm not suggesting these nuts are good in any way, just that they remain morally commited to thier belief, no matter how wrong it is.

[Ednahilda]

19. How silly of you

to think of injecting some common sense into their defense of fetuses.

It's not a War on Toxic Employers, it's a War on Women.

[LiberalLoner]

27. +1

[Ilsa]

23. This will be the excuse for employers to deny

employment to ALL women of childbearing age.

[Solly Mack]

12. K&R

[cap]

15. class based prosecutions and probably race based as well

I doubt that some nice well to do white lady with a problem using a little too much alcohol or cocaine will ever be prosecuted.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. Why stop there? Let's get some laws on the books that would charge men

with manslaughter for 'j.....ing off'!

[gopiscrap]

17. that's so fucked up

ever since fucking god damn Ronald Reagan we have been going backwards!!

[marions ghost]

18. ..."a dangerous precedent"

[AnnaLee]

20. I guess incarceration worked so well to reduce the black vote

that they decided to try it with the women vote.

[LuvNewcastle]

21. Now they're bringing the War on Drugs and

the War on Women together. Doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

[felix_numinous]

22. These laws are human rights violations.

At what point in time will people refuse to obey these corrupt, unethical and abusive laws? At some point we have to say NO.

[Ilsa]

24. I would be worried about the lab results.

What if they are wrong? Tough luck and off she goes into the corporate prison system?

[Zoeisright]

25. That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard of.

Those fucking MEN should be shot for this torture. They are torturing women with this backward, evil crap.

I almost - ALMOST - changed my conservative niece's mind on the abortion issue when I brought up this case. Her disgusting father said he had to do some "fancy talking" to get her back on the anti-choice side.

[historylovr]

26. K & R. This is horrifying. nt

[arely staircase]

28. so does voting to cut wic and other prenatal government care count?

for some reason I doubt it.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

29. It's time the women of this nation wake up. I'd like to see one of those pro-life females

caught in this trap...we might begin to see some female unity on this issue.

[Richardo]

30. "...until live birth."

That says it all about where 'pro-life' ends, doesn't it?

[nolabear]

32. *sigh* C'mon Mississippi. Quit endangering your people.

I could scream sometimes.

[surrealAmerican]

34. If they care about fetal health, Mississippi lawmakers better hope their case fails in court.

Drug users who are pregnant will be encouraged to hide their pregnancies by not getting any prenatal care, which will lead to more miscarriages, as well as endanger the health and lives of the women.

[MadrasT]

35. This is terrifying.

I don't know what else to say.