A 31-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Georgia has been charged with murder after allegedly taking pills to induce an abortion before delivering a premature baby girl who later died.
Details on the charges against Alexia Moore and how she allegedly violated Georgia law
Alexia Moore, of Kingsland, has been held at the Camden County Jail since March 4. She is charged with murder and illegal drug possession after terminating her second-trimester pregnancy in late December. Georgia police said Moore violated the state’s strict abortion law that bans the procedure after six weeks, according to USA Today and CBS News.
Prosecutors have yet to indict Moore on those charges. However, if they decide to move forward, she would be the first woman charged with terminating a pregnancy under state law, which was enacted in 2019. Georgia was among several conservative states to launch strict abortion bans before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Police used portions of the state’s abortion law, stating that Moore was “well beyond six weeks of conception based on the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe,” per USA Today.
Moore is scheduled to appear in court on March 23.
What happened before and after Moore’s hospital visit?
Moore was rushed to Southeast Georgia Health System hospital on Dec. 30 after complaining of abdominal pain. Police said she told medical workers that she had taken the abortion medication misoprostol and the opioid oxycodone for pain relief.
Moore said she didn’t know how many weeks pregnant she was, but medical records show she was between 22 and 24 weeks, an arrest warrant obtained by USA Today and CBS News stated.
She delivered a severely premature baby girl, “who was born alive and survived for one hour. Under Georgia law, the victim became a person at the moment of live birth,” the arrest warrant mentioned, per USA Today.
An investigator working the case wrote that Moore told the nursing staff, “I know my infant is suffering, because I am the one who did the abortion. I want her to die,” CBS News reported.
Moore has 6-year-old and 9-year-old children. Her mother, Edith Moore, a pastor, spoke highly of her daughter despite how the situation had caused a strain within their family.
“As a mother, and me talking as a grandma, she’s an excellent mother. I believe her children are her life. She has been a good provider for her children,” Edith told the Georgia Recorder.
Several of Moore’s friends have shared information with police about her actions leading up to the hospital visit. One friend stated that Moore had taken the abortion medication at home and brought the bottle to the ER, per the Georgia Recorder.
Another said Moore struggled with the idea of becoming a mother again. That friend also stated that she didn’t take any abortion pills, but instead took a pill for pain relief. The person said Moore didn’t deserve to be in jail, and described her as a good person who loves and takes care of her children.
“She is a great person. She is super bright. She has two amazing little boys that she’s raising to be young men. It’s just, it’s mind-blowing that she got charged with that over something like this. This is just crazy,” the friend said.
Pro and anti-abortion organizations speak out regarding Moore’s situation
Both pro- and anti-abortion organizations have spoken out following the charges against Moore. Elizabeth Edmonds, executive director for the anti-abortion nonprofit Georgia Life Alliance, shared her thoughts on the incident.
“This innocent baby girl was born alive and under Georgia law, her death is being investigated and prosecuted like any other,” Edmonds said in a statement on Friday, per USA Today.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit Center for Reproductive Rights argued that women should not be jailed for how they choose to handle their pregnancies.
“Abortion bans don’t stop people from seeking abortions, they only force them to do so outside the formal medical system,” Rachana Desai Martin, the center’s chief U.S. program officer, said in a statement.
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