GA Woman Who Dumped Fetus After Miscarriage Arrested: Police

TIFTON, GA — A Georgia woman is facing charges after authorities said she suffered a miscarriage and placed the dead fetus in a bag before putting it in the dumpster.

Tifton Police responded to a Tifton Eldorado Road apartment complex around 6 a.m. Thursday after receiving a call about an unconscious female who was bleeding.

Police said the woman had earlier suffered a miscarriage and was immediately taken to Tift Regional Medical Center. It is unknown if she had the miscarriage at home.

A witness told officers the woman put the fetus in a bag, and then, placed that bag in an outside dumpster, police said. Officers were able to recover the fetus, they said.

On Friday, police identified the woman as Selena Maria Chandler-Scott, 24. She was charged with one count of concealing the death of another person and one count of throwing away or abandonment of a dead body prohibited, police said.

Chandler-Scott is being held at the Tift County Jail, police said.

The case against Chandler-Scott comes amid renewed attention to women's rights regarding abortions in Georgia, and a push to ban all abortions in the state.

Many miscarriages take place at home, but some cases can be treated with the same medicines or surgical techniques used for abortions, CNN reported.

Current Georgia law considers miscarriages and stillbirths "spontaneous abortions." This language is reflected in the 2019 Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, also known as the "heartbeat law." Presently, a woman can be prosecuted if she seeks an abortion because "she reasonably believed that an abortion was the only way to prevent a medical emergency."

The LIFE Act restricts abortions at six-week gestation. After being overturned in 2022, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the law in October while its constitutionality was being evaluated.

Georgia lawmakers are currently weighing a bill that could potentially ban abortions in all instances and would prohibit in-vitro fertilizations, 11Alive reported Wednesday.

House Bill 441 (2025-26 legislation) would charge a mother with the "murder … of unborn children." The bill would additionally "remove exceptions that allow for assault and battery on an unborn child" and would benefit a child's rights from fertilization, it stated.

The bill's sponsors are Republicans Emory Dunahoo, Mike Cameron, Charlice Byrd, Danny Mathis, Trey Kelley and Martin Momtahan.

“Tens of thousands of babies made in the image of God continue to be murdered in our state every year,” Dunahoo said in a WSB-TV report. “This bill simply ensures that the same laws that protect the lives of people after birth equally protects the lives of people before birth.”