Georgia Woman Who Allegedly Took Abortion Pills Faces Charges Despite Pro-Life Laws
Alexia Moore, a 31-year-old woman from Savannah, Georgia, faces charges after allegedly taking abortion pills to murder her preborn baby, resulting in the live birth and subsequent death of the baby girl.
While reports about the murder allegedly committed by Moore are deeply harrowing, Pro-Life organizations and leaders in Georgia displayed their inconsistency with respect to the case, especially given their insistence that women who willfully murder their preborn babies are second victims of abortion.
The Facts
Moore reportedly arrived at the Southeast Georgia Health System hospital on December 30 having taken 200 milligrams of misoprostol, one of the two drugs commonly used in abortion pill regimens, as well as the opioid painkiller oxycodone. Moore gave birth to a premature baby girl, who struggled to breathe and passed away in the hospital after approximately one hour.
The police investigator said that Moore reportedly told the nurses at the hospital, “I know my infant is suffering, because I am the one who did the abortion. I want her to die.”
The warrant said that the baby girl had passed away at between twenty-two and twenty-four weeks gestation, adding that “under Georgia law, the victim became a person at the moment of live birth.” Moore has been jailed as of March 4 for murder and illegal drug possession charges, and she is expected to receive a hearing on March 22.
The Response
Georgia Life Alliance, one of the leading Pro-Life establishment groups in Georgia, immediately responded to the breaking story by saying that Pro-Life regulations in the state do not allow the charging of mothers who willfully murder their preborn babies.
Elizabeth Edmonds, the executive director of Georgia Life Alliance, insisted that Moore is “not being charged with crimes under Georgia’s LIFE Act,” noting that since the “innocent baby girl was born alive and under Georgia law, her death is being investigated and prosecuted like any other.”
Georgia Right to Life rushed to insist that “Georgia law does not criminalize miscarriage or pregnancy outcomes, and this case should not be mischaracterized as such.”
Despite the comments from Moore indicating that she intentionally self-induced the abortion of her baby daughter, Edmonds claimed in the statement that “what this case highlights is the danger posed by illegal online abortion pill distributors operating outside the medical system.”
Edmonds also said in a media interview that she supports the prosecution of Moore, but added that anyone claiming Moore received charges under Pro-Life regulations is “misrepresenting the facts and trying to again make it a fear-mongering thing that Georgia is prosecuting women on pregnancy outcomes.”
The Takeaways
Moore appears to have been charged with murder merely because her baby happened to have been born alive. Georgia Life Alliance is correct that under current laws against feticide and battery, the conduct of “any woman with respect to her unborn child” in Georgia cannot be prosecuted.
In other words, a mother who willfully assaults or murders her preborn baby is granted complete legal immunity, enabling self-induced abortions to continue in states like Georgia. This policy is actively supported by Georgia Life Alliance and similar organizations.
While the proceedings against Moore are still developing, in other states where women have been charged for taking abortion pills after their infants were born alive, defense attorneys have invoked Pro-Life regulations that bar prosecution of women who willfully obtain abortions.
There has also been at least one instance in recent months of prosecutors dropping charges against a mother who had an abortion because of Pro-Life regulations granting complete immunity to women.
Georgia Life Alliance rejects the notion of prosecuting mothers who murder their preborn babies. They made such opposition clear by opposing House Bill 441, which would have established equal protection of the laws for preborn babies in Georgia and criminalized abortion as murder for everyone willfully involved. They have sent lawmakers letters urging them to oppose the legislation and publicly denounced the effort last year.
Despite opposing penalties for women who murder their preborn babies, Georgia Life Alliance supports penalties for women whose babies perish shortly after birth, as indicated by the comments from Edmonds.
In other words, while they profess to believe in the humanity of preborn babies, Pro-Life organizations functionally hold the exact same position as abortion activists with respect to women who have abortions. They believe that protections for preborn babies intentionally murdered by their own mothers should only start once the baby exits the birth canal.
Christians in the state of Georgia cannot and should not tolerate this degree of moral incoherence among Pro-Life establishment groups. They must rally behind organizations and leaders that support legislation like House Bill 441, and reject Pro-Life establishment voices that oppose abolishing abortion once and for all.