A University of Kentucky student was indicted this week for a pregnancy loss that created a media frenzy last year.
The 22-year-old woman, who HuffPost is not naming for privacy reasons, was indicted Tuesday on charges including first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant. She was not initially arrested on the first-degree manslaughter charge; it was added by the grand jury. All of the charges cited in the young woman’s case are routinely used against women who have experienced miscarriage and stillbirth.
The woman was arrested in August after police were dispatched to her home following a report of a “deceased infant,” according to arrest records. The newborn was found wrapped in a towel and placed in a trash bag in her closet in Lexington.
She later told police “she believed the baby to be dead and wrapped the baby up like a burrito and laid next to it [on] the floor because it gave her a little comfort in the moment,” according to the affidavit.
It’s impossible to know what happened when the woman gave birth in August, but so often these stories and the choices people make during pregnancy and after a pregnancy loss are recast as villainous. Police, prosecutors and coroners are often quick to see a stillborn and believe that a crime was committed, instead of an obstetric emergency that became a tragedy. The Kentucky student is one of several women to recently be prosecuted on charges of concealing a birth and abuse of a corpse.
