meidasnews.com
meidasnews.com

18-year-old Syeisha Johnson was charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, and negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury after allegedly taking the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol to end a pregnancy at 31 weeks in July. Her boyfriend was also arrested and charged with negligent child abuse.

Johnson found out she was pregnant at 20 weeks in June, and then ordered the abortion pills online to be shipped from Virginia. According to the police report: “On July 29, 2026 Ms. Johnson began having abdominal pain and sat down during the day to help with the pain. She sat on the toilet and gave birth to a child.”

Johnson turned 18 in June, meaning she was past the North Carolina requirement for minors to get parental permission for an abortion, however the state bans most abortions after 12 weeks.

Her story comes the same week a recording was released of a call between acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and faith leaders, where Blanche promised that the Trump administration would work to ban mail-order abortion pills nationwide.

  • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
    0·
    14 hours ago

    Going through with birth is more risky to the mother’s life than you want to acknowledge here.

    She was a teenager.

    • Gloomy@mander.xyz
      0·
      13 hours ago

      That is a good point. I am looking at this from a european perspective and had means no costs and much lower maternal mortality rates. I aknowledge that the situation is complicated by this. It’s just a fucked up situation either way.

      Not as a “got ya” but just fyi, being a teenager of her age is not a risk factor in this case, but lessens the risk.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternal_mortality_in_the_United_States

      Edit: It still is risking a live vs. taking a live tough.

      • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
        0·
        13 hours ago

        It has been shown that mothers between ages 18 and 44 who did not complete high school had a 5% increase in maternal mortality versus women who completed high school.[32] By completing primary school, 10% of girls younger than 17 years old would not get pregnant and 2/3 of maternal deaths could be prevented.[33] Secondary education, university schooling, would only further decrease rates of pregnancy and maternal death.

        Of note, higher education still does not improve the racial differences in maternal mortality and is not protective for Black mothers in the way they are for White mothers. It has been found that Black mothers with a college education have greater maternal mortality than White mothers with less than a high school education.[34]

        Young adolescents are at the highest risk of fatal complications of any age group.[35] This high risk can be accounted for by various causes such as the likelihood of adolescents giving birth for the first time compared to women in older age groups.[36] Other factors that also may lead to higher risk among this age group includes lower economic status and education.[37] While adolescents face a higher risk of maternal mortality, a study conducted between 2005 and 2014 found that the rate of maternal mortality was higher among older women.[38] Additionally, another study found that the rate is higher specifically among women aged 30 years or older.[36]

        There are significant racial disparities in maternal deaths within the United States.[42][43][5][4][44]

        In 2023, Asian women had the lowest maternal death rate in the United States, with a death rate of 11 per 100,000. Hispanic women had the second lowest maternal death rate, at 12 per 100,000. White women had a death rate of 14.5 per 100,000. Black women’s maternal death rate was slightly greater than 50 per 100,000.[5]

        From the same link you pulled that chart.

      • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
        0·
        13 hours ago

        Women shouldn’t be forced to put their own lives at risk to carry a fetus to term.

        The criminal actions here are the government’s refusal to allow appropriate healthcare access to women.

        • Gloomy@mander.xyz
          0·
          8 hours ago

          I agree. They realy shoudn’t.

          But we are talking about a fetus that is 6 weeks from being born here. By my account, that is a living being.

          Even in most liberal countries you can’t abort past 21 weeks without a medical reason to do so.

          I won’t and wouldn’t force anybody to put their own live at risk. But considering that ending another live is the alternative here, i think it would be the best choice do make in a case like this, in my opinion.

          • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
            0·
            8 hours ago

            It wasn’t this teenager’s first option to abort at 31 weeks either.

            Edit: You’re talking past a really big point here. If abortion had been accessible, this teenager wouldn’t have made the choice to abort at 31 weeks. She would have done so right when she found out she was pregnant at 20 weeks. Hell, maybe with better sex education, she would have better prevented this unwanted pregnancy to begin with and no one would have been in this position.

            But that didn’t happen. And the choice was try to abort or face death and an unwanted child with birth.