{"id":24845,"date":"2019-06-28T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T14:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=24845"},"modified":"2019-06-27T20:43:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T01:43:00","slug":"alabama-woman-charged-in-unborn-childs-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2019\/06\/28\/alabama-woman-charged-in-unborn-childs-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Woman Charged in Unborn Child’s Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\t27-year old Marshae Jones, a Birmingham, Ala. woman, was charged with manslaughter after she was shot in an altercation that led to the death of her five months old unborn child. However, the shooter, 23-year old Ebony Jemison, was not charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only true victim in this was the unborn baby,\u201d said Lt. Danny Reid of the Pleasant Grove Police Department, according to a report on AL.com. \u201cIt was the mother of the child who initiated and continued the fight which resulted in the death of her own unborn baby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reid went on to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen a five-month pregnant woman initiates a fight and attacks another person, I believe some responsibility lies with her as to any injury to her unborn child. That child is dependent on its mother to try to keep it from harm, and she shouldn\u2019t seek out unnecessary physical altercations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Jefferson County Jail)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The incident took place outside of a Dollar General in Pleasant Grove, Ala., a suburb of Birmingham, on Dec. 4. The event was spurred, according to Reid, by the defendant and was over a disagreement between the two women regarding the child\u2019s father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 26, a grand jury indicted Jones on a $50,000 bail on manslaughter. Jones is being held in the Jefferson County jail. Jemison was originally charged with manslaughter, but a grand jury failed to indict her and the charges were dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to the indictment of Jones, women\u2019s advocacy groups spoke up in her defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLosing a pregnancy is not a crime,\u201d said The Yellowhammer Fund<\/a>, an organization that provides funding for abortion access in Alabama. The group also said that they were working to get Jones out of jail and provide her with a lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe state of Alabama has proven yet again that the moment a person becomes pregnant their sole responsibility is to produce a live, healthy baby and that it considers any action a pregnant person takes that might impede in that live birth to be a criminal act,\u2019\u2019 Executive Director Amanda Reyes said in the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From left to right: Marshae Jones and Ebony Jemison. (Pleasant Grove PD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lynn Paltrow<\/a>, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women<\/a> expressed her disdain for the case in a tweet, saying: \u201cAlabama claims its anti-abortion & rights for fertilized eggs laws protect the \u2018humanity of the unborn child.\u2019 The Jones case makes clear that anti-abortion laws are the source of inhumanity to pregnant women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis takes us to a new level of inhumanity and illegality towards pregnant women,\u201d Paltrow said. \u201cI can\u2019t think of any other circumstance where a person who themselves is a victim of a crime is treated as the criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Abortion Federation<\/a>, an association of abortion providers said in a statement: \u201cThis is how people \u2014 especially women of color \u2014 are already being punished & having their pregnancies criminalized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This didn’t happen in a bubble and it isn’t just happening in Alabama,” the National Abortion Fund said in a tweet. “This is what happens when anti-abortion politicians & groups successfully pass ‘personhood’ laws or exploit incidents of extraordinary violence to give fetuses & embryos special protection.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alabama recently signed a bill one month prior<\/a>, one of the strictest regarding abortions, as a Republican-controlled Legislature sought to prohibit abortions at every level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cHuman Life Protection Act\u201d bans all abortions in the state except when \u201cabortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk\u201d according to the bill\u2019s text. The bill also categorizes abortion as a Class A felony and carries with it a punishment of up to 99 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill also carries no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act,” Governor Kay Ivey wrote in a statement about the bill. “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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