Jail for miscarriage: Oklahoma woman jailed for losing her baby

In Oklahoma, 21-year-old local resident Brittney Pulo was sentenced to four years in prison for the manslaughter of her unborn child - she suffered a miscarriage. Writes about this with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

Brittney was about four months pregnant when she lost her baby in January 2020.

In October of this year, she was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison for the unintentional murder of her unborn son.

The incident caused a wide response.

Some noted that the woman was convicted during the so-called Pregnancy and Baby Loss Awareness Month. Others have compared the incident to Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale.

The miscarriage was classified as manslaughter after Pulo admitted to the hospital that she used hard drugs during her pregnancy. A forensic examination found traces of methamphetamine in the liver and brain of her unborn child.

The experts did not determine the cause of fetal death, but noted that the factors contributing to the premature death could be a genetic abnormality, placental abruption or the mother's use of methamphetamine.

Pulo's lawyers will challenge her sentence. The prosecutor who referred the case to the court declined to comment as the trial is ongoing.

On the subject: Texas introduced the toughest abortion law in the United States: reward for denouncing violators

At the same time, Dana Sussman, deputy executive director of the National Association of Pregnant Women in the United States, said that the case of Brittney Pulo is not unique - from 1973 to 2020, 1600 such court decisions were registered in the United States, 1200 of which were recorded in the last 15 years alone.

“Brittney’s case really struck a nerve,” Sussman said. “But stories like this don’t happen as rarely as they seem.”

The vast majority of miscarriages were drug-related. But some convicted women lost their babies through a fall or during a home birth.

The largest percentage of convicts are women of non-white races.

What is man

The question of the effect of drugs on the fetus was actively discussed back in the 1980s, when the term "baby crack" was used to describe children born to mothers with addiction.

Drug use during pregnancy is associated with many negative consequences, including an increased risk of miscarriage and stillbirth, but the actual effect of drugs on the fetus is significantly different.

Studies from the 1980s that claimed that children of mothers with cocaine addiction had serious developmental defects were later refuted.

Since then, the topic of drugs and pregnancy has been in the spotlight.

Several US states have passed laws restricting induced abortion.

People do not support abortion for various reasons, often moral or religious, one part of the argument is related to the concept of personality.

“The concept of personhood is really quite simple,” says Sarah Kuehl, president of the right-to-life organization Personhood Alliance Education. “People are people, and our equality is based on our humanity.” Biologically, we are human from beginning to end. This is a scientific fact. Therefore, as human beings, we deserve equal protection under the law.”

Personhood Alliance Education also opposes euthanasia, embryo-killing research and human trafficking.

The organization does not have a clear position on the criminalization of mothers who use drugs, but Kuell says he personally supports measures "to protect unborn children from the harm that comes when a mother uses drugs during pregnancy."

“At the same time, our legal system should not be limited to the issue of liability, it should focus on the treatment of drug addicts,” she emphasized.

Protection or harm

According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 23 states of the United States, substance use during pregnancy is considered child abuse.

In half of all states in the United States, healthcare workers are required to report pregnant drug users.

In California, two women whose children died in childbirth ended up behind bars for killing their children after testing positive for drugs.

Both women were prosecuted under "fetal assault laws" in at least 38 states.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York

These laws are designed to punish rapists who harm pregnant women.

But many are ambiguous and allow prosecutors to charge women whose behavior may have contributed to a miscarriage or stillbirth.

Some states have clear norms for how many weeks a fetus must be in order for it to be considered viable, while others do not. Most doctors consider a fetus to be viable when it reaches 20-24 weeks of gestation.

Brittney Pulo was 16-17 weeks pregnant when she lost her baby, Sussman said. At this time, about 10-15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage.

Further worse

If Pulo had an abortion, she would not have ended up behind bars, since abortion in Oklahoma is legal.

But with the issue of a near-total abortion ban being addressed in Texas, reproductive justice advocates fear it will only get worse.

In countries where abortion is prohibited, women are arrested and charged with murder by miscarriage. Local authorities may accuse them of deliberately terminating the pregnancy.

One such case in El Salvador, which has one of the strictest abortion bans in the world, has reached the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which is expected to be adjudicated by the end of this year.

Manuela, 33, sought medical attention at the hospital after a miscarriage and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder. She died in prison in 2010.

Her lawyers say El Salvador's laws requiring doctors to report women suspected of having abortion are a violation of human rights.

“At the heart of these cases is the idea that women should put their fetus before themselves when they become mothers,” says Emma Milne, a gender and crime lawyer at Durham University in the UK.

But the reality is much more complex, she says. Often women are vulnerable, they need help and support.

On the subject: In Utah, they came up with an original way to fight abortion: it will hit the pockets of fathers

“The fact that the state did not support them during and before pregnancy is the state’s fault,” the lawyer believes.

According to a 2012 survey, about 6% of pregnant women in the United States admitted to using illegal drugs, 8,5% use alcohol and 16% smoke cigarettes.

US medical associations oppose drug use during pregnancy to be considered child abuse. They argue that women with addiction problems should receive treatment, not imprisonment.

“Drug addiction is not a crime, but a disease that needs to be treated,” says the American Medical Association, which represents US doctors.

Women's rights advocates fear this is a slippery slope that could strip pregnant women of their autonomy.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Trump and aliens: how a traveler from Russia struck Texas

Punishment cannot be pardoned: the strangest laws in every US state

Texas introduced the toughest abortion law in the United States: reward for denouncing violators

The best in the USSR: five major myths about the Union

What you absolutely shouldn't say and do in the USA in order not to get into trouble

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.