Miscarriage is called manslaughter

A 21-year-old Oklahoma woman was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in October for having a miscarriage, something that happens in one of every four pregnancies.

Brittney Poolaw, who is a member of the Comanche Nation, according to the Comanche County Detention Center, was sentenced on October 6 by a jury to four years in state prison. Poolaw’s attorney filed a notice of intent to appeal on October 15.

Poolaw was just about four months pregnant when she lost her baby in the hospital in January 2020. Prosecutors argued that her miscarriage was a result of her use of methamphetamine.

An autopsy of the fetus showed it tested positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine and another drug in the liver and brain, but there was no evidence that the drugs caused the miscarriage, which may have resulted from a congenital abnormality or placental abruption, which is when the placenta detaches from the womb.

The U.S. Supreme Court determined in 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision that legal viability is after the 28th gestational week, when fetal survival is generally above 90 percent.

According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, medical viability is pegged at 25-26 weeks, when the fetus has more than a 50 percent chance of surviving outside the womb.

According to the medical examiner’s report, Poolaw’s fetus was between 15 and 17 weeks old, which means it wouldn’t have been able to survive outside the womb yet and suggests that Poolaw had an absolute constitutional right to end her pregnancy but the woman was still prosecuted and convicted.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only defines a fetus as “stillborn” if it is delivered after 20 weeks gestational age; before that, it’s medically considered a miscarriage.

In 50 percent of cases, early pregnancy loss is believed to be due to fetal chromosomal abnormalities. 

The incidence of early pregnancy loss, or spontaneous abortion, ranges from 17 percent in women 20-30 years of age is only, to 80 percent at 45 years of maternal age, although other risk factors include alcohol consumption, smoking, and cocaine use.

Several chronic diseases can precipitate spontaneous abortion, including diabetes, celiac disease, and autoimmune conditions, particularly anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome. Rapid conception after delivery and infections, such as cervicitis, vaginitis, HIV infection, syphilis, and malaria, are also common risk factors.

Another important factor is exposure to environmental contaminants, including arsenic, lead, and organic solvents. Finally, structural uterine abnormalities, such as congenital anomalies, leiomyoma, and intrauterine adhesions, have been shown to increase the risk.

Poolaw was arrested on a charge of manslaughter in the first degree, and because she couldn’t afford a $20,000 bond, jailed for a year and a half awaiting trial.

During the trial, an expert witness for the prosecution testified that methamphetamine use may not have been directly responsible for the death of Poolaw’s fetus.

This October, she was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for the first-degree manslaughter of her unborn son.

After deliberating for less than three hours, a jury found her guilty, and she was sentenced to four years in prison.

How she went from suffering a miscarriage to being jailed for killing her fetus has become the subject of much discussion online and in the press.

Some on social media noted that she was convicted during pregnancy loss awareness month in the US.

Others compared the case to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale.

The nonprofit Guttmacher Institute notes that 53 percent of women in Oklahoma live in the 96 percent of counties with no facilities that offer abortion services — Comanche County among them.

Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, said: “This prosecution went forward against somebody who had a pregnancy loss before the fetus was considered viable. In this case, you not only have a miscarriage rather than a stillbirth early in pregnancy, but the medical examiner’s report doesn’t even claim that methamphetamine was the cause.”

The state requires a woman to go to a provider twice, 72 hours apart, in order to obtain an abortion, which is not covered by most private insurance plans in the state without an extra rider, and it isn’t covered by Medicaid except in extremely limited circumstances.

In September 2020, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a viable unborn fetus whose mother used drugs, constitutes a “child under 18 years of age” within the protection of the child neglect statute and the state’s homicide laws, despite the lack of any reference to a fetus in those laws.

 willfully or maliciously neglected her unborn child through her own failure or omission to protect the fetus