Georgia Woman Won't Go To Prison For Having A Miscarriage After All

The Tift County District Attorney has dropped all charges against Selena Chandler-Scott.

Apr 05, 2025

Here’s some actual good news — although, like most “good news” stories lately it only exists as good news because we live in a goddamned dystopia.

The criminal charges against Selena Chandler-Scott, the 24-year-old Georgia woman who faced possible prison time after having had a miscarriage, have been dropped. After she was found bleeding and unconscious by first responders, Chandler-Scott was charged with one count of concealing the death of another person and with one count of throwing away or abandonment of a dead body.

Some person who really should have been minding their own damn business told police that she had “placed the fetus in a bag and placed that bag in a dumpster outside.”

It remains entirely unclear what police thought she should have done with it instead, though perhaps if it didn’t cost a million dollars to get an ambulance to the hospital, she might have chosen to do that. It also costs a lot, it turns out, to have fetal remains cremated — $570 at one funeral parlor I found online.

The coroner determined that there were no signs of life, the fetus had not drawn a breath, and that there was no foul play … because of how it was a miscarriage.

“After thorough examination of the facts and the law, my office has determined that continuing prosecution is not legally sustainable and not in the interest of justice,” Tift County District Attorney Patrick Warren said in a statement. “This case is heartbreaking and emotionally difficult for everyone involved, but our decision must be grounded in law, not emotion or speculation.”

“While law enforcement acted in good faith and responded to a very difficult and emotional situation, it’s now clear that no criminal law was violated,” Warren said. Is that true though? Because there was always the option to just not arrest a woman who just had a miscarriage.

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Chandler-Scott said she didn’t know what to do with the remains and so just threw them out. Though in retrospect, it probably would have been a better idea altogether to put them in the bag before getting to the dumpster instead of carrying the fetus and the bag separately. In case of nosy neighbors.

There is, of course, no actual law in Georgia about what one should do with fetal remains after a miscarriage, which is probably a good thing, as that really shouldn’t be anyone’s business but the person who just had a miscarriage.

None of this should have ever happened.

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