Crime & Safety
GA Woman Who Took Abortion Pills Faces Murder Charge, Granted $1 Bond: Reports
A woman accused of taking abortion pills is charged with murder after her daughter died an hour after delivery, media reports say.
KINGSLAND, GA — A Georgia mother arrested on a malice murder charge after being accused of taking abortion pills while being around 6 months pregnant was released this week on $1 bond, media reports say.
Superior Court Judge Stephen Blackerby, of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, on Monday set the bond for Alexia Moore, 31, of Camden County, after deeming the case "extremely problematic" and proclaiming murder "would be 'a hard charge to convict upon,'" First Coast News reported.
“I have concerns that the state would ever be able to secure a conviction of malice murder,” Blackerby said Monday, per The Current, a coastal news outlet.
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In addition to $1 for the murder charge, Moore was granted a $2,000 bond for drug-related charges, reports say.
An assistant law professor told First Coast News it is essential to know that Moore's charges are in relation to Georgia's homicide law and not the "heartbeat law" that bans abortions after six weeks.
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"She is being charged under Georgia's homicide law — not under Georgia's criminal abortion law," Allison Whelan, of Georgia State University College of Law, told First Coast News, "and I think that's an important distinction to make, because a lot of the reporting has been mixing those two issues."
Along coastal Georgia, Kingsland Police on March 4 arrested Moore after accusing her of taking pills to end her pregnancy when she was 22 to 24 weeks gestation in December 2025, according to several media reports.
At that time, she arrived at a hospital after battling stomach pains, First Coast News reported. Moore told medical workers she had consumed misoprostol, oxycodone and an opioid painkiller, the news outlet reported.
Misoprostol has a number of purposes, including medically managing miscarriages and being used in medication abortions, according to the National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine.
Moore gave birth to a newborn girl, who survived an hour before being pronounced dead, First Coast News reported.
The arrest warrant against Moore reportedly stated she told nurses, "I know my infant is suffering, because I am the one who did the abortion. I want her to die."
Local police claimed the statement "shows intent to kill," First Coast News reported.
In the report, Whelan noted the argument for charging Moore with murder rests on if her unborn fetus can be considered a person under Georgia law and if Moore took the pills knowing her pregnancy would be terminated.
Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins alleged police filed the charges against Moore absent support from his office, according to The Current.
Higgins was neither prepared to drop the murder charge or to present it in front of a grand jury, the news outlet reported.
In Georgia, most abortions are now considered illegal due to controversial legislation known as the state's "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," according to the law, officially named the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act.
After the Georgia General Assembly passed the LIFE Act in 2019, Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law, making certain abortions illegal after a fetal heartbeat is detected after six weeks. The law sparked uproar, and a federal district court order that ruled the act unconstitutional was eventually overturned.
A Fulton County trial court temporarily stopped the "heartbeat law," but its decision was reversed in October 2023 by the Georgia Supreme Court.
After Moore was granted bond, the Georgia Public Defender Council gave CBS News the following statement:
"Today's decision is a reminder that justice is not served by accusation alone. Our system works best when courts carefully weigh the facts, uphold constitutional protections and safeguard the rights of every person."
The council is representing Moore, First Coast News reported.
Moore is requesting a speedy trial, CBS News reported.
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