Oh for fuck sake, Alabama!!

Prosecuting a pregnant woman for starting a fight, then getting shot and losing the baby? What the hell? It's not enough that she got shot? It's not enough that she lost her baby? It's her fault because she shouldn't have been fighting in the first place?

'Jenny Carroll, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law said that the prosecution of Ms. Jones was part of a dangerous trend in Alabama.

“You are opening up a Pandora’s box of whenever a pregnant woman puts her fetus at any risk, they can seek an indictment,” Professor Carroll said. “A jury can ultimately say that the risk wasn’t great enough to convict, but in the meantime, this woman was arrested, she was put in jail.”

The uproar over the indictment of Ms. Jones was not the first time that the application of Alabama’s fetal-rights laws has attracted criticism and concern.

Alabama has prosecuted hundreds of women for using controlled substances while they are pregnant, under a 2006 “chemical endangerment” law, according to an investigation by ProPublica and Al.com. Doctors have argued that such prosecutions discourage pregnant addicts from seeking the treatment that they and their fetuses need.

Although many in Alabama felt Ms. Jones had acted irresponsibly and deserved to be punished for endangering her unborn baby, many in Pleasant Grove also expressed sympathy for her loss and felt she deserved mercy. Kristina Poole, 34, a caregiver for the disabled and elderly, said prison was not an appropriate punishment for Ms. Jones.

“She lost a baby,” she said. “She’s been punished enough.”'