Georgia woman who took abortion pills charged with murder

· UPI

March 21 (UPI) -- A woman in Georgia was charged with murder after she took abortion pills she ordered online and then went to the hospital because she was in pain.

The woman, 31-year-old Alexia Moore, was arrested and jailed for violating Georgia's "heartbeat law," which makes it illegal to have an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, when a heartbeat can be detected.

Moore arrived at the hospital in December complaining about abdominal pain and later delivered a 22- to 24-week-old fetus that had "cardiac activity," but died within about an hour The Washington Post reported.

A security guard at the hospital reported her pregnancy and abortion to police, who questioned her in the hospital but did not arrest her until this week, USA Today reported.

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The arrest warrant notes that Moore did not know how many weeks pregnant she was, but alleges that she was responsible for the death "of a human being who was born alive and survived for one hour."

"Under Georgia law, the victim became a person at the moment of live birth," the warrant said.

Moore arrived at the hospital on Dec. 30 after taking misoprostol pills, also known as Cytotec, to end her pregnancy, she also told doctors she had taken the painkiller oxycodone.

Georgia in 2019 enacted its heartbeat law criminalizing abortion after six weeks of life and started to enforce it in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court declared Roe vs. Wade unconstitutional, effectively eliminating women's right to abortion and related health care.

The law, which includes exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies, has been used once to force a woman who was declared brain dead and on life support to be kept alive so that the fetus could grow enough to be viable.

Moore would be the first person prosecuted under the law.

Elizabeth Edmonds, executive director of the anti-abortion nonprofit Georgia Life Alliance, said in a statement that "this innocent baby girl was born alive and under Georgia law, her death is being investigated and prosecuted like any other.

"Abortion bans don't stop people from seeking abortions, they only force them to do so outside the formal medical system," Rachana Desai Martin, chief U.S. program officer for the nonprofit Center for Reproductive Rights," said in a statement.

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