Fact Check: Georgia Woman Arrested For Disposal of Fetal Remains After Miscarriage

A 24-year-old woman in Georgia faced criminal charges for placing fetal remains in a dumpster after experiencing a miscarriage.

The Details: Selena Maria Chandler-Scott was arrested and charged with concealing the death of another and abandonment of a dead body. The charges come after a witness reported that Chandler-Scott had disposed of the fetal remains in a dumpster. The fetus was 19 weeks old at the time of the miscarriage, and the coroner ruled it a naturally occurring miscarriage. 

For Context: Georgia's Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and grants personhood status to embryos and fetuses. The law may expose women who miscarry to criminal charges if authorities have reason to believe they intentionally caused the pregnancy loss or improperly handled the remains, since a fetus is considered a person under the law. 

Misleading Headlines: Live Action News (Lean Right) said, “Although media outlets are blaming the state’s pro-life law, that law was not the reason the woman was arrested,” adding that concealing the death of a person is a felony. The Georgia Sun (Center) reported, “Reproductive rights advocates have warned that such laws could criminalize women experiencing pregnancy complications or miscarriages.” The Georgia Sun and Snopes (Lean Left) both noted that her arrest was due to her handling of remains rather than the miscarriage itself in the article, but the headlines did not reflect that. Both also mentioned that while Georgia has laws on the disposal of aborted remains, it does not have a law specifying the proper disposal of miscarried fetal remains. 

Revised by the AllSides staff (of humans) after a first draft from our custom AI. Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary.