Washington

An American woman from Greenville, South Carolina, was arrested on the suspicion of taking abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy.

Advertisment

The incident was first reported in October 2021—before the Joe v. Wade judgement was overturned in June 2022. At the time, the then-33-year-old woman was admitted to a hospital after experiencing labour pains.

She had delivered a stillborn foetus at about 25 weeks and four days of pregnancy. The staff claimed in an incident report that the woman self-administered abortion pills in an attempt to end her pregnancy.

Following this, an arrest warrant was issued in September 2022 against the woman, and then subsequently, she was arrested in February 2023, according to the Greenville police department. It’s not clear why authorities charged the woman now.

Advertisment

South Carolina is among the three states where self-managed abortion is a punishable offence even though terminating pregnancy is legal until 20 weeks gestation period. The other two states are Nevada and Oklahoma.

Incidentally, South Carolina was also the first to bring charges on behalf of a foetus successfully against a pregnant person.

Local abortion agencies have raised concerns over the incident.

Advertisment

“We support and endorse folks accessing [safe] abortion care if that feels right for them. The salient point for us for this case is: was this person choosing to allegedly self-manage because they didn’t feel like they had access to different kinds of abortion care?” a spokesperson for the Carolina Abortion fund told Guardian.

 “Criminalising pregnancy outcomes generally is very, very dangerous for everyone,” it added.

The Greenville police department said that the woman after being arrested was subsequently released the next day after making $2,500 bail. She awaits trial.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE