Georgia woman charged with murder after police say she took pills to induce abortion | Georgia
A 31-year-old Georgia woman has been charged with murder by police who say she took pills to get an illegal abortion.
If state prosecutors decide to pursue the murder charge local police filed against Alexia Moore, her case would be one of the first in Georgia where a woman has been charged with terminating a pregnancy since legislation banning most abortions was passed in 2019.
The arrest warrant charging Moore with murder uses language echoing the law and says police determined Moore was more than six weeks pregnant “based on information from medical personnel that the baby’s heart was beating and she was having difficulty breathing.”
“No one should be blamed for having an abortion,” Dana Sussman, senior vice president of the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice, said in a statement, calling Moore’s case “an unprecedented murder charge alleging abortion.”
Court records say Moore arrived at the hospital on Dec. 30 complaining of abdominal pain. He told healthcare workers he had taken misoprostol, a drug used in medication abortions, and the opioid painkiller oxycodone, according to an arrest warrant obtained by police in Kingsland, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Savannah.
The warrant says the fetus survived for about an hour after being brought to the hospital. The police investigator who obtained the warrant wrote that Moore told the nurses: “I know my baby is suffering because I’m the one performing the abortion. I want him to die.”
Georgia prohibits abortion if embryonic heart activity is detected. This is usually around six weeks of pregnancy; before many women find out they are pregnant.
Moore has been incarcerated in coastal Camden County since March 4 on murder and illegal drug possession charges, according to online jail records.
Moore’s mother said she had no comment when reached by phone Thursday. A spokesperson for the Georgia Council of Public Defenders confirmed that one of its attorneys was representing Moore but had no further comment.
Court records show Moore’s attorney filed legal motions seeking bail and a speedy trial. A court hearing was scheduled for Monday.
Ultimately, the decision on whether to indict Moore for murder will be left to Keith Higgins, the district attorney for the Brunswick judicial district, who will first have to receive the indictment from the grand jury. Higgins did not immediately respond to phone and email messages.
The medications misoprostol and mifepristone are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for terminating pregnancies during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. In cases where mifepristone is not available, misoprostol can be used alone. It is also used off-label for abortion in the second trimester.
