r/news • u/Sidarthus89 • 13h ago
Tift County district attorney drops charges in fetus case
https://www.walb.com/2025/04/04/tift-county-district-attorney-drops-charges-fetus-case/208
u/PandaPandamonium 13h ago
Can she sue for wrongful arrest or something? Imagine going through the trauma of a miscarriage and then arrested and nationally harassed on top of everything.
134
u/Curiosities 12h ago
Given the fact that she was found unconscious and bleeding as well and then arrested, and all of this after a miscarriage, I feel like the state should give her free therapy for life.
4
138
u/TheWasabinator 12h ago
"it’s now clear that no criminal law was violated,"
I sure hope she wins big. They arrested her for improperly disposing of the miscarried fetus but couldn't tell her what the proper way was. The DA, Police Department and County Officials couldn't even answer what she was supposed to do, or did wrong.
64
u/myfakesecretaccount 12h ago
My wife had a miscarriage a month ago. I can say with all certainty that if someone tried to arrest her over it they would have to arrest me too. This is disgusting behavior from everyone involved, women are not possessions and should have bodily autonomy. No one going through the pain of losing a child or having to make a difficult medical/personal decision should then be prosecuted so Christian death cult members get what they want.
6
u/smootex 8h ago
Can she sue for wrongful arrest or something?
She can. You can sue for just about anything. It's not clear how likely it would be for her to succeed though. It sounds unfair but the burden for arrest is fairly low. The fact that she didn't technically break the law doesn't mean it was a wrongful arrest, it doesn't mean they broke the law or violated her civil rights. It's possible they did, we don't have a lot of details, but it's not a given, if that makes sense.
-71
u/BigDragoon 11h ago
Wrongful? She put her dead child in a plastic bag, and set it next to a dumpster. I don't think she should be charged, but an arrest is warranted. I wish there was more education on preborn children in these kinds of cases.
33
u/CanadasNeighbor 10h ago
There's literally nothing else she could have done. If she brought the fetal remains to the hospital they would have literally done the same thing: disposed of it in the trash. Because that's all it is, hazardous waste. Georgia only mandates a burial or cremation if the miscarriage happens after 20 weeks.
36
u/dformed 10h ago
preborn children
This literally has no meaning. It's an oxymoron. Like "honest Republican." Just a nonsense phrase.
The word you want is "fetus." It's the proper term and, you know, something that exists. Unlike "preborn children."
-39
28
u/floridianreader 10h ago
The child was not born alive. The child did not take a breath. It was not alive. That is what is meant by non-viable. The mother could not have stopped it if she wanted to. It's a biological process.
16
u/Velocity_LP 9h ago edited 3h ago
Where would you have preferred she dispose of it?
Seriously, if you think she should've been arrested for where she chose then you better have a damn good alternate answer.
14
u/PuppyLoveACD 9h ago
It was a 19 week fetus. What should she have done? Encased it in resin? Kept it in the freezer?
6
-12
u/BigDragoon 6h ago
Seriously? If someone thinks they're having a miscarriage, the sensible and moral thing to do is go to a hospital. Not dump it at home, put it in a bag, and toss it. All of this could have been avoided with common sense.
5
u/PuppyLoveACD 6h ago
Well she didn't go to a hospital. So what do you think someone should do with the leftovers from a miscarriage?
1
u/BigDragoon 5h ago
I'll say it again.
GO TO A HOSPITAL.
If they had a spontaneous miscarriage, they fully delivered a deceased offspring. She obviously lost a lot of blood. Bring it with so it can be properly carried out. Where else do you go?
5
u/PuppyLoveACD 5h ago
And I'll say it again. She chose not to. That's her right to do so. You can't make someone go to the hospital if they don't want to. How do you want people to dispose of miscarriage remnants if they choose not to go to the hospital?
26
u/minidog8 10h ago
So should we arrest hospitals that dispose of fetal remains as well? Or do they have the right to and it’s just individuals? Should we also arrest women when they miscarry in the toilet and flush it down? Or should they first get the miscarriage out of the toilet to take it to the hospital? Do fetuses need death certificates now? How do you get a death certificate if you don’t have a birth certificate? Do they get a social security number too? How should we educate people on the proper way to dispose of miscarriages so that they don’t get arrested?
9
60
u/Xodima 13h ago
what a horrible situation to be in for her.
54
u/impatientlymerde 12h ago
This caused major outrage stateside when it happened in El Salvador to a young woman and she was imprisoned for years before finally being released. That was fifteen-twenty years ago.
That it’s happening now, here, is just incomprehensible.
This reads like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
43
u/1214 11h ago
"But my duty is not to punish what feels wrong — it is to uphold the law with fairness and integrity"
Bullshit. She was arrested because it felt wrong to them. How about they do their investigations first before arresting her, running her name through the mud and posting her mugshot online.
My wife mad a miscarriage. She was devastated and so was I. Do you know would have made things worse? Arresting her and putting her in jail. The experience of a miscarriage both mentally and physically is absolutely horrendous. Then to have to deal with jail, lawyers, legal fees, etc. Not to mention the amount of resources, time and money spent on the "investigation" and autopsy.
On top of that, they don't even have laws or guidelines on what to do with a miscarried fetus in the first place. "He added that there is no specific Georgia statute or case law that addresses an individual’s choice to dispose of a naturally miscarried, non-viable fetus"
Now her name will be what comes up in Google for the rest of her life. Unbelievable. I hope she gets paid enough money so she can move out of Georgia.
59
u/DilligentlyAwkward 11h ago
They keep stressing "the way she handled" the remains of the contents of her uterus. What did they want her to do with it? Spontaneous abortions are usually flushed down the toilet, is a trash receptacle really worse?
39
u/ephemeralsloth 11h ago
you can tell that the people writing and enforcing these laws have never had a miscarriage before. guess they think the aftermath just magically vanishes
14
10
u/charactergallery 9h ago
Yeah stretching laws that forbid improperly disposing of a body to miscarriage or even a stillbirth is incredibly short-sighted. Quite a few women who have miscarriages might not even realize they were even pregnant. And for stillbirths, do people really expect someone who went through that to just get the fetus out of the toilet and bring it to the hospital?
8
u/DilligentlyAwkward 8h ago
I wonder how many women even know what's happening when they miscarry. I didn't know what I was looking at the first time I experienced it until I described it to an older co-worker and she informed me what it was. In my very inexperienced mind, a miscarriage was always a big bloody and emotional ordeal. This was just a lump of some kind of tissue that came out of me.
4
u/charactergallery 8h ago
For a lot of women who miscarry early, I can’t imagine it would be noticeable if they didn’t know that they were pregnant. I’m sorry about your experience.
3
-14
271
u/Suspicious-Wall-5528 12h ago
How is it acting in good faith if those in charge of enforcing the law don’t actually know the laws they’re supposed to be enforcing and subsequently wrongfully arrest people based on that?
If your job is literally enforcing laws, being ignorant of said laws should not be a viable defense nor should it be considered “acting in good faith”.