Judge grants $1 murder bond for woman accused of using pills to induce abortion

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KINGSLAND, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge granted a bond of just $1 for a murder charge faced by a woman accused by police of taking pills to induce an illegal abortion.

“I think that charge is extremely problematic,” Superior Court Judge Steven Blackerby said Monday during a bond hearing for Alexia Moore, according to The New York Times. “That is going to be a hard charge to convict upon.”

Blackerby set a total $2,001 bond for Moore, who spent nearly three weeks jailed in coastal Camden County. In addition to $1 for the murder charge, the judge ordered $1,000 bond amounts for each of two drug charges Moore faces.

Local police took the 31-year-old Moore into custody March 4 using an arrest warrant with language that echoes a Georgia law banning abortions after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected. That’s generally at about six weeks’ gestation – before many women know they’re pregnant.

Moore's case is one of the first in Georgia of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy since the law was adopted in 2019.

The judge's $1 bond raises questions about how a murder case against Moore might proceed.

District Attorney Keith Higgins of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit didn't oppose the bond amount in court Monday and told the judge that police didn't consult his office before they charged Moore, according to reports by The New York Times and the Georgia news website The Current.

In order to send Moore to trial for murder, Higgins' office would first need to obtain an indictment from a grand jury. A person who answered the phone at Higgins' office Tuesday said he does not comment on pending cases.

Online jail records show that Moore posted bond and was released Monday. She is being represented by attorneys from the Georgia Public Defender Council, which applauded the judge’s decision.

“Today’s decision is a reminder that justice is not served by accusation alone,” the council 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.”

Court records say Moore arrived at a hospital Dec. 30 complaining of abdominal pain. She told medical workers that she had taken misoprostol, a drug used in medication abortions, and the opioid painkiller oxycodone, according to an arrest warrant obtained by police in Kingsland, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Savannah.

The fetus survived for about an hour after being delivered at the hospital, the warrant says.

The arrest warrant charging Moore says police obtained medical records estimating that Moore had been pregnant for 22 to 24 weeks. The warrant also cited "the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe.”