It ’s been a excruciating year for woman ’s wellness in parts of America . Themisleading “ Heartbeat Act”introduced many miscarriage restrictions in Texas by making it illegal for physicians to execute or bring on an abortion after six weeks . The reality of detecting maternity make the window of time in which a person can legally have an abortionfar slimmer than that , withsome physiciansclaiming this is essentially outlawing abortion entirely .
Now , news of convictions has brought wise outrage as people are being jailed after live miscarriages . In October , Brittney Poolaw , a 21 - year - old from Oklahoma , was convicted of first - point manslaughter by a jury after go wrong at four months fraught in January 2020 . She has been sentenced to four years in prison . With one in four maternity forecast to end in miscarriage , the brutal punishment has been fill with fierce opposite .
While no cause of the miscarriage was determine , a report from theBBCstates that " genetic anomaly , placenta abruption or enate methamphetamine " were all noted as potential chip in constituent in Poolaw ’s case . Now , pro - prize advocacy group are corroborate Poolaw ’s prayer and more cases like hers have been found .
According to theNational proponent of Pregnant Women(NAPW ) , 1,200 cases like to Poolaw ’s have occurred in the last 15 years . Details given for their arrests included homebirths , fall over , and drug enjoyment .
The tragic irony that Poolaw ’s conviction film topographic point during National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month was n’t missed by those follow the character online , and many have spoken out about the seemingly dystopian measures being commit in certain parts of the US .
“ October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month , and Brittney Poolaw is face 4 eld in prison house for something that hap in 1 in 4 pregnancies,”wrotea Twitter exploiter .
OBGYN and associate professor at the University of California San Francisco , Dr Jennifer Kerns , spoke out about theHeartbeat Act , stating : “ It ’s clearly trying to move the needle back to almost the point of detection of gestation with the finish of outlawing nearly all abortion . "
Considering the new Texas jurisprudence does n’t conceive rape an exemption for adult female seeking an miscarriage after this narrow window , and other country are pursue standardised legislation , that such rough penalization are being take perhaps should n’t be so surprising as it is contentious .
