Judge grants $1 murder bond for Georgia woman accused of using pills to induce second-trimester abortion
A Georgia judge granted a bond of only $1 to a woman charged with murder after she allegedly took pills to induce an abortion at approximately five months pregnant, which is illegal under the state's abortion restrictions.
Alexia Moore, 31, has spent nearly three weeks behind bars in coastal Camden County after her arrest on March 4, when police used an arrest warrant with language that mirrors the state's abortion ban after six weeks gestation.
"I think that charge is extremely problematic," Superior Court Judge Steven Blackerby said of the murder charge during a bond hearing on Monday, according to The New York Times.
"That is going to be a hard charge to convict upon," the judge continued.
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Blackerby set Moore's total bond at $2,001, ordering $1,000 bond amounts for each of her two drug charges on top of the murder charge.
Moore's case is among the first in Georgia of a woman facing charges for terminating a pregnancy since the Peach State's abortion ban was adopted in 2019, banning abortions after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected, which is typically at about six weeks gestation.
District Attorney Keith Higgins of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit did not challenge the $1 bond in court on Monday and told the judge that police did not contact his office before charging Moore, according to reports.
Higgins' office would need to obtain a grand jury indictment before it could take Moore to trial.
Moore posted bond and was released on Monday, jail records show.
"Today’s decision is a reminder that justice is not served by accusation alone," attorneys from the Georgia Public Defender Council, who are representing Moore, said in a statement.
"Our system works best when courts carefully weigh the facts, uphold constitutional protections, and safeguard the rights of every person who comes before them," the statement added.
Moore arrived at a hospital on Dec. 30 and said she was suffering from abdominal pain, according to court records. She told hospital staff that she took misoprostol, a drug used to cause abortions, and the opioid painkiller oxycodone, according to an arrest warrant obtained by police in Kingsland, Georgia.
The baby survived for about an hour after being delivered at the hospital, according to the warrant.
The warrant states that police obtained medical records estimating that Moore had been pregnant for 22 to 24 weeks. The document also cited "the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.