Latice Fisher is in jail because she lost her baby. No woman should be criminalized for a pregnancy outcome.
DA Scott Colom must drop the charges now.
01/03/2018
Dear friend,
Latice Fisher is a young Black mother sitting in jail alone and scared--and we need to show up for her. In January, Latice was indicted on second-degree murder charges in Mississippi after she experienced a pregnancy loss in the privacy of her own home in April of last year.1 Not only is she locked up behind bars away from her loved ones, but there is also an unnecessary bail amount set at a staggering amount of $100,000.
Mississippi’s 16th District Attorney Scott Colom filed the charges against Latice Fisher -- completely abandoning the "criminal justice reform" platform he campaigned on. Colom’s office is crossing a huge line in joining the ranks of politicians criminalizing pregnancy and a woman’s right to make her own choices for her body. We don’t know a lot about Latice’s story, but according to court documents, Scott Colom’s office requested a toxicologist after finding out that Latice researched on her phone the drug Misoprostol -- an abortion drug, which is a woman’s complete legal right to use.2 Latice has already endured the physical and emotional trauma of pregnancy loss--she doesn't deserve to be locked up for her reproductive choices.
Latice should be home with her family, healing from her experience--not sitting in jail on a high bail. This is what state violence looks like. In the same state of Mississippi, another Black woman was thrown in jail due to a stillbirth--but people like us stood up and fought for her, and now she’s free. Colom ran on being a change from the racist “tough on crime” prosecutors of the past -- yet he's continuing their same harmful behavior. And now, he’s starting to feel the pressure from people on the ground who are calling out the wide gap between his rhetoric and his actions. If we join them, we can push him to do the right thing and dismiss these wrongful charges against Latice. Will you sign the petition and help us get Latice free ?
Scott Colom made history by unseating a 25 year “tough on crime” incumbent Forrest Allgood in November 2015.3 Colom’s Deep South win was historic because it was the power of people organizing to demand a different kind of prosecutor for their communities. Colom proclaimed himself as someone who will change the system by finding other solutions than incarceration, and jail less people. Now, his office is using its power in the wrong way and committing further harm against Latice. With this push to keep Latice locked away, Scott Colom has failed voters on all accounts.
Latice Fisher’s story is tragically not an isolated story, nor is it by coincidence. In the state of Mississippi, poor and Black women are constantly being jailed and punished for their pregnancy outcomes. In 2007, Rennie Gibbs, a Black woman from Mississippi was hit with a second-degree murder charge for having a stillbirth delivery-- but rightfully the charges against her were dismissed in 2014.4 Unfortunately, the list goes on. From 1973 to 2005 there were 413 documented cases. Since 2005, the number exploded to an additional 200 cases of women being targeted and criminalized by the state for their pregnancies.5 Poor, Black women bear the brunt of this type of state-sanctioned violence. Latice Fisher is now among the many women who are forced to live through the dual traumas of loss of a pregnancy and the loss of freedom and choice. Mississippi is a state where women’s access to affordable, safe, adequate health care and maternal care continues to be under threat.
This dangerous culture of prosecuting Black women’s reproductive choices and criminalizing motherhood is painfully embedded in this country. For decades women and activists have courageously fought for the right to choose motherhood, the right to choose to have an abortion and the right to have access to contraceptives and birth control. But sadly, the issues Black women face that rest at the intersection of being both a woman and Black have been ignored and pushed out of that fight. Between Black women being used as experimental subjects for gynecological procedures during slavery, government-funded forced sterilization programs in the 1970’s, and the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations exploitation and shaming of Black women with the mythical trope of “welfare queen,” and even the loss of a child due to police violence -- Black women have never had full access to reproductive justice.
For years, Black people have been working hard in their communities to build political power to demand prosecutorial accountability. The fight means holding elected prosecutors accountable and demanding they resist jailing and criminalizing our communities at every turn. This fight includes reproductive justice. A woman's body is not a means for punishment. Every woman should have a right to make decisions about her reproductive health. And it is also imperative to know that a woman cannot predict or fully determine the exact outcome of their pregnancy. DA Scott Colom must stay true to the people who elected him and drop the charges now against Latice Fisher.
Until justice is real,
Clarise, Rashad, Arisha, Scott, Anay, Kristen, Marena, and the rest of the Color Of Change team
P.S. Please help bail Latice Fisher out by donating now to the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund.
References :
1. "Mississippi Woman Criminally Charged for Pregnancy Outcome After Home Birth," Rewire, 02-06-2018https://act.colorofchange.org/go/22291?t=10&akid=9508%2E1942551%2EU2ZqPy
2. "Prosecution in Search of a Theory’: Court Documents Raise Questions About Case Against Latice Fisher," Rewire, 02-21-2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/22292?t=12&akid=9508%2E1942551%2EU2ZqPy
3. "How to Run Against a Tough-on-Crime DA—and Win," Slate, 11-12-2015 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/22293?t=14&akid=9508%2E1942551%2EU2ZqPy
4. "Murder Charges Dismissed in Mississippi Stillbirth Case," Rewire, 04-04-2014 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/22294?t=16&akid=9508%2E1942551%2EU2ZqPy
5. "Murder Charges Dismissed in Mississippi Stillbirth Case," Rewire, 04-04-2014 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/22294?t=18&akid=9508%2E1942551%2EU2ZqPy
Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Help keep our movement strong.
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