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ALBANY, Georgia (AP) — A prosecutor dropped a murder charge Wednesday but is pursuing a drug possession count against a 23-year-old woman accused of ending her pregnancy without a prescription, using pills she bought online.
District Attorney Greg Edwards dismissed a malice murder charge against 23-year-old Kenlissia Jones, who spent about three days in jail after seeking help at a hospital.
But he said Jones still faces a charge of possessing a dangerous drug, which Georgia state law defines as any drug requiring a prescription.
The dismissal of the murder charge police had used to arrest Jones was praised by Lynn Paltrow, an attorney and executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women in New York.
But she said the case still illustrates a creeping trend of prosecuting women who exercise their right to abortions.
Abortion-rights advocates and opponents of abortion alike were stunned by the proposed murder charge.
Georgia has prohibited the prosecution of women for feticide or for performing illegal abortions in cases involving their own pregnancies. Edwards said the arresting officers acted within their authority and used "their best understanding of the law," but that their understanding was incorrect.
"Georgia law presently does not permit prosecution of Ms. Jones for any alleged acts related to the end of her pregnancy," the prosecutor said.
Edwards noted that police had charged Jones without consulting with his prosecuting attorneys.
Jones was arrested after seeking help at a hospital Saturday. A social worker told police that Jones had taken four Cytotec pills she ordered online after breaking up with her boyfriend. The pills induced labor and she delivered the fetus, which did not survive, in a car on the way to the hospital, according to an Albany police report.
While the Supreme Court has declared American women have legal rights to abortion, states have laws that place limits on where abortions can be performed, who can perform them and at what stages of pregnancy abortions are allowed. Traditionally, those laws have targeted doctors and other abortion providers, but not women seeking to end their pregnancies.
Abortion rights advocates worry that this could be changing.
In March, 33-year-old Purvi Patel of Indiana, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for feticide and neglect of a baby. Prosecutors said Patel ended her 7-month pregnancy using drugs from China rather seek a doctor's help. Paltrow's group called it the first time an American woman was convicted and sentenced for trying to end her pregnancy.
Cytotec is a brand name for misoprostol, a prescription drug used in combination with mifepristone to induce non-surgical abortions. Used as recommended, mifepristone kills the fetus, and then misoprostol induces the labor that expels it. The pills are sold with prescriptions in the U.S., but available over the counter and online in many countries.
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Russ Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
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