‘A real woman would had buried her child’: Social Media Discussion of the Disposal of Fetal Remains

This essay is the second of a two-part series on fetal remains and cultural politics. Find the first part here.

In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and triggering abortion bans in a large swath of conservative states, national and local media have increasingly offered sensationalist coverage of women arrested for miscarrying at home and disposing of fetal remains in dumpsters. The implicit assumption behind these arrests, and the media attention to them, is that women are self-aborting in states where abortion provision is now illegal, and then trying to hide the evidence, or that they are carrying unwanted pregnancies and then committing infanticide. But the actual charges focus on the disposal of fetal remains: women are arrested on charges such as “abuse of a corpse,” “abandonment of a dead body,” or “concealment of the death of another.”

In a Facebook discussion of Georgia resident Selena Chandler Scott’s miscarriage in March of 2025 and her arrest for “abandonment of a dead body” and “concealment of the death of another,” commenters warred over Chandler Scott’s fate....

Read the rest at Nursing Clio