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A pregnant woman was shot in the stomach. She was charged in her baby’s death.
A 27-year-old Alabama woman was indicted on manslaughter charges Wednesday for the shooting death of her own unborn child, even though, police say, another woman pulled the trigger.
The moment quickly became a flash point for abortion rights advocates as an example of restrictive abortion laws in Alabama criminalizing actions that may endanger a fetus.
Marshae Jones of Birmingham was five months pregnant on Dec. 4 when an argument broke out between her and another woman outside a Dollar General, AL.com reported. The fight, which police said was over the fetus’s father, led 23-year-old Ebony Jemison to shoot Jones in the stomach. The mother survived the shooting, but it resulted in a miscarriage.
Jemison was charged with manslaughter, but a grand jury failed to indict her, and the charge was dismissed, according to AL.com. At the time, police alleged that Jones started the argument and that Jemison shot Jones in self-defense. Pleasant Grove police Lt. Danny Reid told the outlet a grand jury would consider charges for the mother as well.
“The investigation showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby,” Reid said in December, in the days following the shooting. “It was the mother of the child who initiated and continued the fight which resulted in the death of her own unborn baby.”
On Wednesday, a grand jury indicted Jones on a manslaughter charge, AL.com reported. She was being held Thursday on a $50,000 at the Jefferson County Jail, records show. It is not clear whether Jones has an attorney.
“Let’s not lose sight that the unborn baby is the victim here,” Reid said. “She had no choice in being brought unnecessarily into a fight where she was relying on her mother for protection.”
Pleasant Grove police and the Bessemer Cutoff district attorney did not return a request for comment on the case and charges.
Abortion rights groups quickly seized on the incident as a harbinger of how laws applied in Alabama restricting abortions may open the door to charges in non-abortion cases, though it was unclear Thursday if the new policies signed into law last month were relevant to Jones’s charges.
“The state of Alabama has proven yet again that the moment a person becomes pregnant their sole responsibility is to produce a live, healthy baby and that it considers any action a pregnant person takes that might impede in that live birth to be a criminal act,’’ said Amanda Reyes, the executive director of the Yellowhammer Fund, part of a nationwide umbrella advocacy group.
“Tomorrow, it will be another black woman, maybe for having a drink while pregnant. And after that, another, for not obtaining adequate prenatal care,” Reyes said in a statement, AL.com reported.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said on Twitter: “This what 2019 looks like for a pregnant woman of color without means in a red state. This is now.”
A 27-year-old Alabama woman was indicted on manslaughter charges Wednesday for the shooting death of her own unborn child, even though, police say, another woman pulled the trigger.
The moment quickly became a flash point for abortion rights advocates as an example of restrictive abortion laws in Alabama criminalizing actions that may endanger a fetus.
Marshae Jones of Birmingham was five months pregnant on Dec. 4 when an argument broke out between her and another woman outside a Dollar General, AL.com reported. The fight, which police said was over the fetus’s father, led 23-year-old Ebony Jemison to shoot Jones in the stomach. The mother survived the shooting, but it resulted in a miscarriage.
Jemison was charged with manslaughter, but a grand jury failed to indict her, and the charge was dismissed, according to AL.com. At the time, police alleged that Jones started the argument and that Jemison shot Jones in self-defense. Pleasant Grove police Lt. Danny Reid told the outlet a grand jury would consider charges for the mother as well.
“The investigation showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby,” Reid said in December, in the days following the shooting. “It was the mother of the child who initiated and continued the fight which resulted in the death of her own unborn baby.”
On Wednesday, a grand jury indicted Jones on a manslaughter charge, AL.com reported. She was being held Thursday on a $50,000 at the Jefferson County Jail, records show. It is not clear whether Jones has an attorney.
“Let’s not lose sight that the unborn baby is the victim here,” Reid said. “She had no choice in being brought unnecessarily into a fight where she was relying on her mother for protection.”
Pleasant Grove police and the Bessemer Cutoff district attorney did not return a request for comment on the case and charges.
Abortion rights groups quickly seized on the incident as a harbinger of how laws applied in Alabama restricting abortions may open the door to charges in non-abortion cases, though it was unclear Thursday if the new policies signed into law last month were relevant to Jones’s charges.
“The state of Alabama has proven yet again that the moment a person becomes pregnant their sole responsibility is to produce a live, healthy baby and that it considers any action a pregnant person takes that might impede in that live birth to be a criminal act,’’ said Amanda Reyes, the executive director of the Yellowhammer Fund, part of a nationwide umbrella advocacy group.
“Tomorrow, it will be another black woman, maybe for having a drink while pregnant. And after that, another, for not obtaining adequate prenatal care,” Reyes said in a statement, AL.com reported.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said on Twitter: “This what 2019 looks like for a pregnant woman of color without means in a red state. This is now.”
