7 thoughts regarding the 13-week fetus found in the sewer in South Carolina
Several points:
1. Women miscarry into toilets all the time. In many cases they don’t know in advance this will happen and have no resources or preparation for how to handle it. This is a huge societal gap in caring for people who go through pregnancy loss, one that we’ve been working to remedy (see below for related resources).
2. Miscarrying into toilets is very common, and by itself is not a sign of foul play, or that anyone did anything illegal. Heartbreaking? Yes. Illegal or sinister? No.
3. Even if finding fetal remains in the sewer system were good evidence of foul play (it’s not), South Carolina abortion laws state “Nothing in the article may be construed to subject a pregnant woman to a criminal penalty or civil liability for any violation of this article.” (Section 44-41-900)
4. Given the above, it’s not clear why the state performed an autopsy or, when the autopsy concluded this was not a live birth, why the state moved on to additional testing. What could additional testing show that would be legally relevant or actionable?
5. It’d be so helpful if society in general (and specifically law enforcement) better understood how common miscarriage is, and the common ways people experience it. Politicians and organizations opposed to abortion reassure the public that our opposition has nothing to do with miscarriage, but given widespread ignorance about miscarriage, the lines blur.
6. All that said, the tweet we screencapped (which as of this writing has 17,000 likes on X) is also filled with misinformation about fetal development. 13 week fetuses have functioning circulatory systems, viability can be as early as 21 weeks, and the embryonic phase goes to 8 or 9 weeks, not 12.
7. The screencap minimizes (often incorrectly) fetal development and dehumanizes (literally – “It isn’t human”) fetuses. Presumably the motivation is to defend and protect women by trying to convince society that embryos and fetuses are not important enough to be concerned about.
But the people making these comments are displaying another aspect of societal ignorance about miscarriage. They rarely seem to consider the millions of people who grieve their miscarried embryos and fetuses as their lost children, reading you going out of your way to diminish those lives.
Statements like these are why parents who mourn their children lost through miscarriage get the added bonus of wondering if their grief is stupid.
Related Resources:
- SPL’s suggested hospital protocol: Fetal Remains Disposition & Patient Support Policy
- Livestream Recap: Personal Stories and Policy Gaps Around Miscarriage
- Why pregnancy centers should offer miscarriage kits: an interview with Chaney Gooley and Rachel Owen
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