What: A college junior in South Carolina spent 22 days in jail and faced 20 years to life in prison for a second trimester miscarriage that landed her in the hospital. Amari Marsh was charged with murder and homicide by child abuse for having a miscarriage in her apartment’s bathroom. In August, after 13 months under house arrest, a grand jury chose not to bring her case to trial. She was free.
Why it matters: “Marsh’s case is a ‘prime example of how pregnancy loss can become a criminal investigation very quickly,’ said Dana Sussman, senior vice president of Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit that tracks such cases. While similar cases predate the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, she said, they seem to be increasing. ‘The Dobbs decision unleashed and empowered prosecutors to look at pregnant people as a suspect class and at pregnancy loss as a suspicious event,’ she said.”
Source: CNN