Fury as woman, 21, jailed for manslaughter after suffering miscarriage while 17 weeks pregnant

HUMAN rights groups have spoken of their outrage after a woman who had a miscarriage was convicted of manslaughter.

Brittney Poolaw, 21, was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this month for suffering a miscarriage while using methamphetamine.

A jury at Comanche County Courthouse found Poolaw guilty of third-degree manslaughter for a miscarriage she suffered last year.

Poolaw, who is a member of the Comanche Nation, was sentenced on October 6 after which her attorney filed a notice of intent to appeal.

The prosecution found that Poolaw was using meth and that it was one of multiple "conditions contributing" to the miscarriage.

An autopsy of the woman's foetus showed that it tested positive for the recreational drug.

However, there was no evidence that Poolaw's meth use caused the miscarriage, the executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), Lynn Paltrow, said.

Other factors including congenital abnormality and placental abruption, a complication where the placenta detaches from the womb, could have been the cause of the miscarriage, Ms Paltrow added.

The advocacy group went on to say that the state's murder and manslaughter laws do not apply to those who suffer miscarriages before 20 weeks.

“And, even when applied to later losses, Oklahoma law prohibits prosecution of the mother of the unborn child unless she committed a crime that caused the death of the unborn child,” the statement said.

“Ms Poolaw’s case is a tragedy. She has suffered the trauma of pregnancy loss, has been jailed for a year and a half during a pandemic, and was charged and convicted of a crime without basis in law or science.”

Typically fetuses do not have a chance of surviving outside of the womb until at least 24 weeks of gestation, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states.

Women under the age of 35 have a 15% chance of suffering a miscarriage.

Such prosecutions of women who lose their pregnancies have become more common in recent years.

According to a study by NAPW, between 1973 and 2005 there have been 413 such criminal prosecutions.

Data from 2006 to 2020 shows there has been `1,250 similar cases.

“So we’re looking at three times as many cases in less than half the period of time as this first study,” said Dana Sussman, NAPW’s deputy executive director.

“This is far more common than I think most people would ever believe or understand.”