Murder charge dropped against woman who ended pregnancy with abortion pills

Kenlissia Jones (Dougherty County Jail)

Credit: George Mathis

Credit: George Mathis

Kenlissia Jones (Dougherty County Jail)

UPDATE: Prosecutors said today they have dropped the murder charge against Kenlissia Jones.

In Albany, a 23-year-old woman is charged with malice murder and possession of a dangerous drug after a social worker said she took multiple pills to terminate her pregnancy.

Kenlissia Jones told a hospital social worker she took four pills she purchased on the internet after her boyfriend broke up with her. She had the baby in the car as she was driving to the hospital. The baby did not survive.

Kenlissia Jones (Dougherty County Jail)

Credit: George Mathis

icon to expand image

Credit: George Mathis

Jones is thought to have been more than 5 months into her pregnancy .

The social worker called police.

As wrong as this behavior sounds, prosecutors will have a difficult time convicting Jones of murder. Experts say Georgia law explicitly prohibits prosecuting women for feticide involving their own pregnancies.

"I'm thinking that perhaps whoever made the arrest may not have known what the laws really are," said Genevieve Wilson, a director of the anti-abortion group Georgia Right to Life.

A Georgia appeals court ruled in 1998 that a teenager whose fetus was stillborn after she shot herself in the abdomen could not be prosecuted for performing an illegal abortion.

Jones' grandmother says counseling is needed, not prison -- but it's possible to get both.

What do you think?

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