In Alabama, a black woman faces criminal charges after being shot in the belly and having a miscarriage. The story has drawn national interest and outrage from reproductive rights businesses, who argue that the incident is a disturbing example of the mistreatment and criminalization of low-income pregnant women of color.
On Wednesday, Marshae Jones, a 27-year-old woman from Birmingham, was taken into police custody after being indicted in Jefferson County on a manslaughter charge. She is presently being held on a $50,000 bond.
In December, Jones, then 5 months pregnant, was involved in an altercation with a 23-year-old woman outside of a shop. The lady, Ebony Jemison, pulled out a gun and shot Jones in the belly. Jones miscarried shortly after.
According to a document from Al.com, police, to begin with, charged Jemison with manslaughter over the capture. But a jury declined to indict her, saying that Jones initiated the altercation and that Jemison become performing in self-defense while she shot at Jones.
Local police argued that Jones deserved the blame no longer best for taking pictures but additionally for not removing herself from the scenario earlier. Pleasant Grove Police Lt. Danny Reid said Jones allegedly “initiated and pressed the fight,” consistent with Al.com.
“Let’s now not lose sight that the unborn child is the victim right here,’’ Reid stated. “She had no preference in being delivered unnecessarily into combat, in which she was counting on her mother for protection.” Alabama is certainly one of 38 states with a fetal murder regulation that acknowledges a fetus as a potential victim of a crime in opposition to a pregnant female.
When the indictment was mentioned on Wednesday, it straight away raised questions about why the female who changed into a shot became the one charged. It’s no longer the first time that Alabama has been in the news for pursuing arguable criminal charges against a woman of color: In 2018, Jacqueline Dixon, a black lady from Selma, was charged with homicide after capturing her abusive husband in self-defense. Media coverage of Dixon’s case noted that she had not been protected using Alabama’s “Stand Your Ground” self-protection law, and local police stated that Dixon did not seek regular enforcement of a safety order against her estranged husband. A jury declined to indict Dixon later that year.
Based on the records that have been launched thus far, advocates argue that Jones’s ordeal, in a few methods, highlights any other trouble: the methods that moms and expecting ladies — specifically black girls — address what a 2012 New York Times Magazine article referred to as the “criminalization of ‘terrible moms,’” the usage of the justice system to prosecute ladies for such things as miscarriages as a result of drug misuse. In different cases, girls have been confronted with criminal charges after the demise of their children in accidents or for inducing their abortions. In Alabama, advocates word that those types of prosecutions are mainly frequent. They fear that they might boom in addition due to a brand new (however not yet implemented) regulation banning most abortions inside the state.