Pregnant Georgian took an abortion drug. Now she’s in jail on murder charge.

Georgia’s abortion law has been tested in civil courts often since its 2019 passage. The Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act could soon see its first day in criminal court.

A Kingsland woman, Alexia Moore, was arrested March 4 in connection to the Dec. 30 death of her prematurely born baby girl. Moore allegedly told hospital nurses she’d taken the opioid oxycodone and the abortion pill misoprostol because she wanted her baby, a girl, to die.

Local police have charged Moore with murder in the death of the newborn and possession of a controlled substance (the oxycodone) and a dangerous drug (the misoprostol). Moore gave birth at the hospital, where the baby lived for more than an hour.

Moore, 31, has yet to be indicted on those charges and it is unclear whether District Attorney Keith Higgins of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit would cite the Georgia LIFE Act in his prosecution or base the state’s case on the role the illegally obtained oxycodone played in the death of the baby.

Possessing oxycodone without a medical prescription is a felony, and under Georgia law the baby’s death can be charged as murder since it happened while Moore was committing that felony.

Higgins did not respond Friday to requests for information about the case or if and when he plans to present it for indictment. The date for the next meeting of the Camden Superior Court grand jury has not been publicly posted.

If indicted under the LIFE Act, Moore could become the first Georgian to stand trial for terminating a pregnancy under the law, which banned abortions performed once doctors can detect fetal cardiac activity. A fetus’ heartbeat can typically be detected about six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

The 2019 state law, following legal challenges, was upheld after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had guaranteed the right nationwide to an abortion until a fetus was viable outside the mother’s body.

Kingsland is off I-95 in coastal Georgia’s Camden County, which borders the Florida state line.

Moore is a U.S. Army veteran and mother of two children under the age of 10. She has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to her military service and receives 100% disability benefits, her mother, Edith Moore, told The Current, an online news organization that covers the Georgia coast. Edith Moore did not respond to interview requests Friday.

Alexia Moore is being held at the Camden County jail and could not be reached for comment. Her attorney, Public Defender Tobe Karrh, did not immediately respond to an interview request.

What happened on Dec. 30?

A case report and arrest warrant detail Moore’s Dec. 30 visit to the Southeast Georgia Health System hospital in St. Marys. She was transported by ambulance to the emergency room that morning after a friend had found her suffering from extreme abdominal pain at her home.

Hospital doctors delivered the baby, who lived for more than an hour.

Kingsland police responded to a phone call from a security guard regarding Moore’s hospitalization. The security guard, a retired sheriff’s deputy, reported suspicions by the ER staff that Moore’s condition was because of an abortion attempt. According to the warrant, Moore told the nursing staff she’d taken the drugs and she wanted the baby to die.

Those reports support information from the friend who’d called 911 on Moore’s behalf. The friend said Moore had told her the previous day that she didn’t want another baby and that she planned to take the oxycodone and the misoprostol that night, according to the case report.

The friend brought a pill bottle labeled with the name of the abortion drug with her to the hospital. A police investigator later determined the misoprostol had been purchased online.

Misoprostol is a medical abortion drug usually taken along with mifepristone as part of a two-pill regimen. Mifepristone induces the abortion while misoprostol causes the uterus to empty.

The police questioned Moore before she was discharged from the hospital, according to the arrest report.

How abortion activists have reacted

News of Moore’s arrest and the charges against her have caused confusion among activists on both sides of the abortion debate.

The executive director of the Georgia Life Alliance, the group that championed the abortion law’s 2019 passage, challenged the notion that Moore is facing criminal charges under the Georgia LIFE Act. In a press release, Elizabeth Edmonds asserted the baby’s death was caused by oxycodone. Since the baby died while Moore was in illegal possession of the opioid, Moore can be charged with murder.

“Ms. Moore is not being charged with crimes under Georgia’s LIFE Act. This innocent baby girl was born alive and under Georgia law, her death is being investigated and prosecuted like any other,” Edmonds said.

She said efforts by abortion-rights activists and news media to characterize Moore’s arrest as a consequence of the LIFE Act are “intentionally misleading and purposefully serve to create further fear and confusion.”