[dahfizz]

> Later, the medical examiner's report, obtained by the BBC, found traces of methamphetamine in her unborn son's liver and brain.

Someone killing their baby with their drug habit is a bit different than the El Salvador case where an abortion was needed to save the mothers life.

[Broken_Hippo]

Someone killing their baby with their drug habit is a bit different than the El Salvador case where an abortion was needed to save the mothers life.

I don't know. Birth control fails and not everyone has a regular monthly cycle. Heck, if you are on the right birth control, you won't have one at all.

You could easily be looking at being 2-3 months into the pregnancy without realizing it, depending on the body changes you experience. You might just think you've been sick. If you aren't expecting to get pregnant and don't have the "normal" symptoms, you are likely to continue doing drugs as you would otherwise.

Heck, if you were addicted and tried to get treatment, you might not find anything better than something non-medical (AA and the lot) even if you need it.

In other words, despite your best effort, it might not be avoided. Add to that the fact that a lot of the studies on "crack babies" have been debunked: Not all drugs actually harm the fetus as much as was advertised, and might not have harmed the baby at all. I'm not an expert, but I have corrected that propaganda in my head.

And I*ll mention: Had she gotten an abortion, she wouldn't have charges.

[dahfizz]

> Had she gotten an abortion, she wouldn't have charges.

That, to me, is kind of the whole point.

If you decide your dog is old and sick and you take it to the vet to be put down, you've done the right thing.

If you decide your dog is old sick, so you starve him to death, you deserve to go to jail for animal abuse.

(At least for now) we have a way of dealing with unwanted pregnancy. Abusing / neglecting your fetus because you don't want it, but not getting an abortion, is clearly immoral IMO.

Whether drug use constitutes abuse, and whether she deserve jail time for it, are more complicated and nuanced questions.

[rootusrootus]

It doesn’t sound like the medical examiner was able to determine that the drugs had anything to do with the miscarriage, however.

[astura]

You're wrong - she didn't "[kill her] baby with [her] drug habit"

1) A 17 week old fetus is not a baby nor is it viable outside of the womb.

2) There's no evidence methamphetamine actually caused the miscarriage. Miscarriage is extremely common (25% of known pregnancies) and it's almost impossible to say exactly why any single miscarriage happens. In this case the fetus also had a genetic anomaly and a placenta abruption.

3) Miscarriages are more common among certain people - for example those who have PCOS, are of advanced maternal age, shift workers, and people with diabetes. If a shift worker with diabetes and PCOS has a miscarriage we don't say she "killed her baby" and criminalize it.

4) 50% of pregnancies are unplanned in the US. It's extremely likely if a drug user or regular drinker has an unplanned pregnancy they accidentally expose a fetus to those substances.

5) This whole thing is absurd because in Oklahoma it's perfectly legal to purposefully abort a 17 week old fetus (for now).

Beyond that, there's hundreds of cases, but you only replied to one. If you don't like that one how about:

>27-year-old African-American woman Marshae Jones was indicted by an Alabama grand jury on manslaughter charges when she lost her 5-month-old fetus after being shot. The person who shot Jones, whom the police claimed was acting in self-defense, was not charged in the shooting. Jones, however, was held responsible for being in a fight while pregnant, and faced up to 20 years in prison.

Or

>In 2016, Katherine Dellis gave birth to a stillborn baby in her home. She went to the doctor to receive necessary medical care afterward, only to be arrested. An autopsy showed the baby had died about 30 to 32 weeks into the pregnancy. She was sentenced to five months in prison for concealing a dead body, despite the fact that the fetus had already died in the womb.

Or

>a woman fell down the stairs, went to a doctor because she was concerned about her baby, and the doctor interpreted her concern as intent to harm her unborn child. The police were called and she had to spend two nights in jail. Fortunately, charges were dropped.

[dahfizz]

> This whole thing is absurd because in Oklahoma it's perfectly legal to purposefully abort a 17 week old fetus (for now).

A fetus is not a play thing with zero moral consideration. You can put your dog down at the vet given appropriate circumstances. That doesn't give you the right to abuse, neglect, and kill your dog arbitrarily.

Marshae Jones never went to trial, the prosecutors dropped the case.

Katherine Dellis went to jail because she threw the body of her dead child in the garbage bin. It had nothing to do with how the baby died (miscarriage). You can't just chuck dead family members into a dumpster.