Monday, June 6, 2022

Rural California prosecutor brings murder charges against women who experienced stillbirths

The San Francisco Chronicle reports from Hanford, population 35,000, the county seat of Kings County, California.  The headline for Lauren Hepler's story is, "Two women were charged with murder after having stillbirths. The cases are rocking this conservative corner of California."  Here's the lede:  

In early 2018, a 29-year-old Central Valley woman became the first person in decades to be jailed in California for the death of her stillborn infant.

In late 2019, it happened again. Another pregnant woman who struggled with addiction delivered a stillborn baby who tested positive for methamphetamine at Adventist Health hospital in the Kings County seat of Hanford. She was also flagged by doctors, investigated by local law enforcement and charged with murder by District Attorney Keith Fagundes.

The cases sparked national backlash from civil rights groups, which successfully fought to overturn the convictions. But now, as Gov. Gavin Newsom positions California as a reproductive rights sanctuary ahead of the Supreme Court’s anticipated reversal of Roe v. Wade, the cases are once again dividing residents in a bitter district attorney’s race in this corner of California’s heartland.

1 comment:

Riki said...

Wow, this is a crazy thing to read. I know last week in class we discussed how there is a misconception about a lot of rural areas in California, but this is truly something I would never imagine would happen in California.

Prosecutors have such immense power and it's crazy how such different outcomes can result from the same action just based on where the action happened.

Hopefully the women in this article are doing better now!