A South Carolina woman has been arrested and charged with homicide after giving birth in a toilet, then leaving her newborn daughter there to die, buried under toilet paper.
Amari Chanel Marsh, 22, gave birth in March, and left her baby in the bathroom. He tried to justify his actions by saying he panicked and didn’t know what to do, but an investigation by the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office suggested otherwise.
Police said Marsh knew she was pregnant in November, and initially, went to a Planned Parenthood facility with the intention of undergoing an abortion. She was given abortion pills, but the chemical abortion failed, or she didn’t take the pills.
On February 28, she was experiencing abdominal pain, so she went to the Regional Medical Center, where medical staff confirmed that she was still pregnant, and that her baby had a heartbeat. But he chose to leave the hospital.
“Marsh advised the power was off in the room and he was uncomfortable so he left to respond to his residence,” a deputy wrote in the incident report, according to the Times and Democrat.
At 3:00 a.m. after being released from the hospital, Marsh gave birth to a baby girl in the bathroom at her home. After about 15 minutes, she called 911… but ignored their instructions to get her son out of the bathroom, despite being told to do so multiple times. When EMS arrived, her daughter was still alive inside the bathroom, but covered in used and dirty toilet paper. Despite their best efforts, they could not save his life, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Marsh said she killed her son because she panicked after giving birth and didn’t know what to do.
Every state in the country has a safe haven law which allows babies to be given up anonymously without facing any abandonment or neglect charges. There is also Safe Haven Baby Box found in several states, although not in South Carolina. Marsh’s baby would have been safely delivered; instead, she let her baby die in a toilet, and she faces life in prison instead.
