Last Updated June 23, 2004

The United States Supreme Court in late 2003 declined to hear the appeal of Regina McKnight, who is the first person to serve a prison sentence for murder based on South Carolina's "viable fetus" statute.

Ms. McKnight, a young woman in South Carolina who suffered a stillbirth in 1999, was charged with homicide by child abuse after an autopsy revealed evidence of cocaine  in the stillborn child’s system.  She was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in state prison and subsequently appealed her conviction to the South Carolina Supreme Court.  The Alliance submitted an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief to that Court in support of Ms. McKnight on behalf of the South Carolina Medical Association and other public health organizations.  These groups provided the court with extensive medical and scientific evidence that Ms. McKnight’s cocaine use did not cause her stillbirth and that the prosecution of such cases jeopardizes maternal and fetal health by deterring women from seeking prenatal care. Nevertheless, in a decision filed in January 2003, the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision to make Ms. McKnight the first woman ever convicted of homicide as a result of activities undertaken while pregnant.

Ms. McKnight petitioned the United States Supreme Court to consider her case and overturn her conviction.  In July 2003, the Alliance filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the American Public Health Association, the National Stillbirth Society, the American Psychiatric Association and 24 other organizations that urges the U.S.  Supreme Court to review the case.  This brief argues that the prosecution of Ms. McKnight will make thousands of South Carolinian women suffering from a stillbirth vulnerable to homicide charges if they engage in any conduct during their pregnancy believed to be harmful to the fetus – whether or not that conduct is illegal. 

The brief explains that this kind of prosecution flies in the face of recognized protocols for treating  mothers who suffer stillbirths – to provide physical and psychosocial support for dealing with the resulting grief and feelings of self-blame – by subjecting them to criminal investigation.  The brief also argues that Ms. McKnight’s conviction will deter women from accessing necessary healthcare services, thereby threatening the health of women and children in South Carolina.  Amici further argue that in the case of Ms. McKnight, there was no causal link between her cocaine use and the stillbirth, but that instead, this was an irrational prosecution based largely on the drug hysteria that has historically driven South Carolina’s policies towards pregnant women who use drugs.