18-year-old Syeisha Johnson was charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, and negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury after allegedly taking the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol to end a pregnancy at 31 weeks in July. Her boyfriend was also arrested and charged with negligent child abuse.

Johnson found out she was pregnant at 20 weeks in June, and then ordered the abortion pills online to be shipped from Virginia. According to the police report: “On July 29, 2026 Ms. Johnson began having abdominal pain and sat down during the day to help with the pain. She sat on the toilet and gave birth to a child.”

Johnson turned 18 in June, meaning she was past the North Carolina requirement for minors to get parental permission for an abortion, however the state bans most abortions after 12 weeks.

Her story comes the same week a recording was released of a call between acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and faith leaders, where Blanche promised that the Trump administration would work to ban mail-order abortion pills nationwide.

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  • [–] [S] 50 points 2 months ago* (59 children)

    She was 17 years old, found out she was pregnant at 20 weeks, and had to wait until she was legally an adult to do anything. Add in a lack of sex education and what the pills do specifically and you have a tragic case like this.

    If abortion had been a legally viable option for her, this wouldn't have happened.

    It's disgusting to post photos like this by the way. It's not her fault she didn't have options - it's the government's overreach into women's healthcare that is at fault here.

    Pregnancy and birth are threats to a woman's life as a reminder.

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  • [–] [S] 18 points 2 months ago (47 children)

    Her life was in danger carrying the pregnancy to term as well.

    This is entirely due to access to abortion being cut off by the state.

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  • [–] [S] 16 points 2 months ago* (32 children)

    And the method she opted to fix it was outside the scope for the situation as it was more than twice as long in the pregnancy as the method is safe to use.

    Without robust sex education, it's very likely that this girl didn't know how mifepristone works, only that it is an abortion pill. Teenagers don't tend to make great decisions under pressure. She couldn't legally get the pills at all until she turned 18 years old.

    She would have been able to have a safe abortion if it had been legally available.

    This is entirely on the state in my opinion. Completely and entirely the government's fault here.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago (19 children)

    What would a correct solution have looked like, in your opinion?

    My opinion is: this should have been a decision involving a doctor, but the state made that impossible. Whether she made a bad decision or not, the state failed first, and I, personally, hold the failure of the state to a higher level of scrutiny than the failure of a pregnant teenager.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    We all agree what got here there. No need to repeat that.

    I disagree. I think it's worth repeating that the STATE failed. I think it's worth repeating that I hold the STATE to a higher degree of scrutiny than I hold a desperate teenager. The reason I think this should be repeated is that some people only understand policy in terms of rational people making rational decisions, when that describes absolutely no one who has ever lived.

    The policy is bad, in part, because it will cause people to make mistakes.

    The correct solution would have been pretty much anything that...

    I don't need every solution to be listed. I just want one specific solution that you think is the/a correct solution.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    It’s okay to say you don’t know the answer but one is obviously not the right one. Not everything can be known.

    To be clear, I'm not asking you to provide a "correct" solution because I don't know. YOU said someone was "intentionally failing to acknowledge [your] point about her “solution” being wrong."

    You don't actually have a solution, and for you to pile blame onto someone who is already subjugated by a cruel government is just doubling the cruelty.

    But if I were that involved...

    That's easy to say when we're talking about one specific person in one specific high profile case. How many times do you think this kind of thing has happened since 2022?

    How about this... instead of patting yourself on the back for "would've done the right thing," when you already did nothing... you just... keep doing and saying nothing? Because you want these restrictive laws to be changed, right? You want this problem to have never been an option because she was able to just go to a doctor first, right?

    Saying and doing nothing is more helpful for making that change, than you entering this conversation by blaming the victim of bad policy.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 2 months ago (12 children)

    So the correct solution was putting her own life in danger to save the fetus?

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 2 months ago* (10 children)

    The correct solution would have been pretty much anything that didn’t involve taking a drug that wasn’t unsafe for how far along she was.

    What is that solution then?

    We both know what it is you're implying.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    Say it with your chest instead of trying to dodge it.

    You would have preferred she give birth, right?

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    You keep blaming the child for the decision making here though.

    She had very limited options. She chose the best she could with the options she had. It's not her fault.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    At 20 weeks you’re outside the range of an abortion pill. At 31 weeks you are way beyond that. She put her own life in danger doing this. I understand there are complications due to stupid state laws and age requirements and all the rest but this was a bad decision. A criminally bad decision.

    No, you blamed the teenager from your very first comment.

    She couldn't access an abortion. What other choice did she have?

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)
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  • [–] [S] 7 points 2 months ago

    She didn't know she was pregnant until she was 20 weeks.

    There were no other options besides giving birth.

    It took you this long to admit you don't know after repeatedly telling others they were misunderstanding you?

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (10 children)

    Yes, teenagers have poor decision making skills. I am not intentionally failing to acknowledge your point. I think your point doesn't matter in this case and I've spoken on that point a few times now.

    She would have been able to have an abortion at a much safer time for both her and the fetus if it was accessible.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    It used to be legally possible until Roe v Wade was overturned.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    You still want to blame this teenager who had no other options.

    You can't handle being in the wrong in this comment section and are handling it poorly.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Giving birth would have also been a great risk to her life.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Abortion was never on the table for her. She couldn't access an abortion.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago*

    You have a very fundamental misunderstanding of how pregnancy works.

    Instead of listening to others here that are more knowledgeable, you doubled down and starting accusing others of not reading your comments.

    She discovered she was pregnant at 20 weeks. There were no other options besides giving birth and she is a child. The state backed her into a corner.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago* (12 children)

    When the stupid was inflicted on purpose by the people doing the wrong to back the wrong, it pretty thoroughly absolves the victim. Unless you just like punishing girls.

    Because I need to remind you, this was not a woman. This was a girl. She was a fucking child. Not that it really makes a difference to anyone not looking for a victim to string up.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    What part of giving birth could have killed the teen that you aren't getting?

    She had no better options because the government refuses to allow women to access appropriate healthcare.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    So you're saying the people who deliberately kept her uneducated attempted murder?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Kids do shit that can kill them all the time (love how you compromised on 'teen' after I pointed out she wasn't an adult) its not their job to just know, its our job to teach them and give them better options.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago

    At 20 weeks you’re outside the range of an abortion pill. At 31 weeks you are way beyond that. She put her own life in danger doing this. I understand there are complications due to stupid state laws and age requirements and all the rest but this was a bad decision. A criminally bad decision.

    You are blaming the pregnant teenager. You have been this entire time.

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

    Going through with birth is more risky to the mother’s life than you want to acknowledge here.

    She was a teenager.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 2 months ago*

    It has been shown that mothers between ages 18 and 44 who did not complete high school had a 5% increase in maternal mortality versus women who completed high school.[32] By completing primary school, 10% of girls younger than 17 years old would not get pregnant and 2/3 of maternal deaths could be prevented.[33] Secondary education, university schooling, would only further decrease rates of pregnancy and maternal death.

    Of note, higher education still does not improve the racial differences in maternal mortality and is not protective for Black mothers in the way they are for White mothers. It has been found that Black mothers with a college education have greater maternal mortality than White mothers with less than a high school education.[34]

    Young adolescents are at the highest risk of fatal complications of any age group.[35] This high risk can be accounted for by various causes such as the likelihood of adolescents giving birth for the first time compared to women in older age groups.[36] Other factors that also may lead to higher risk among this age group includes lower economic status and education.[37] While adolescents face a higher risk of maternal mortality, a study conducted between 2005 and 2014 found that the rate of maternal mortality was higher among older women.[38] Additionally, another study found that the rate is higher specifically among women aged 30 years or older.[36]

    There are significant racial disparities in maternal deaths within the United States.[42][43][5][4][44]

    In 2023, Asian women had the lowest maternal death rate in the United States, with a death rate of 11 per 100,000. Hispanic women had the second lowest maternal death rate, at 12 per 100,000. White women had a death rate of 14.5 per 100,000. Black women's maternal death rate was slightly greater than 50 per 100,000.[5]

    From the same link you pulled that chart.

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  • [–] [S] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Women shouldn't be forced to put their own lives at risk to carry a fetus to term.

    The criminal actions here are the government's refusal to allow appropriate healthcare access to women.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 2 months ago*

    It wasn’t this teenager’s first option to abort at 31 weeks either.

    Edit: You’re talking past a really big point here. If abortion had been accessible, this teenager wouldn’t have made the choice to abort at 31 weeks. She would have done so right when she found out she was pregnant at 20 weeks. Hell, maybe with better sex education, she would have better prevented this unwanted pregnancy to begin with and no one would have been in this position.

    But that didn’t happen. And the choice was try to abort or face death and an unwanted child with birth.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

    So, I've never been pregnant, but you obviously haven't either. You do not understand or care about the risks and costs associated. You're just here to punish AFAB people for being too old for you to fuck.

    If you actually cared about the lives of children, you'd be on /fuckcars. You'd be fighting against environmental contaminants that disproportionally kill children. You'd be punishing paid trained equipped cops for not stopping school shooters, you would've fucking suicide bombed the fucking uvalde police department for not letting concerned parents try to eave their kids.

    You don't give a shit about the lives of children. That's the common thread between all of those things, you see; children die in preventable ways, people nobody can argue are children, because they're running around putting crap in their mouths and asking stupid questions and learning to read. No you hate women (and nb's and trans people when you think of then) and want them to suffer for committing a sin.

    I have kind of a headache and I woke up really early, but just for you I'm going to have sex with at least three people tonight. I know at least one of them has a dick and at least one of them has a pussy and its going to be all your fault. The two I know are kind of annoying so I'm going to need to keep them from talking one way or another.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    I just don't like Nazi pedophiles who think I'm an object. They kind of get on my nerves, you know? I guess I'm just the kind of shit head who wants the world to be better instead of worse.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (19 children)

    Nah. Nah its her body. You can mandate that it be done in a hospital or whatever, but if you really care that much, build an artificial womb. If half the effort spent on punishing people with uteruses were put towards that, it would be old tech.

    Weird how you think AFAB people in this position should be compelled to risk their lives their health etc over harrowing months, and locked in caves forever if they don't, but paid cops with specialist armor shouldn't be punished for standing outside and not taking five minutes to stop an activeschool shooter, often killing multiple actual confirmed children. There's not even a guarantee they'll tear their dicks in the process!

    Almost like you're a disingenuous misogynist racist piece of shit, or something.

    Or maybe we should to things that save the lives of children without endangering anyone's body (in fact making adult bodies statistically safer) by banning large/lifted trucks without a work license, modal shifts away from car use, banning advertising to children, going after social media companies that target them with "ai", etc? No, you've literally never given a single shit about any of that, because it didn't let you punish women for being sluts? Damn. Crazy.

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  • [–] [S] 12 points 2 months ago (10 children)

    Abortion should be accessible. Healthcare should not be limited. Women should have autonomy over their bodies.

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    Most women would not choose to abort at 31 weeks if healthcare was accessible.

    You’re asking the wrong question.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    This teenager would have chosen to abort earlier if she could.

    Yes. There’s very, very few abortions that happen in the third trimester and those are heartbreaking situations usually involving a very much wanted baby. Laws shouldn’t tie doctors hands in those situations either.

    You can’t separate out the inability to access appropriate healthcare from this case. They are entwined.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    Let us assume the fetus is a person. It's not, but let's do so.

    Does a person have a right to live inside of you and rip their way out of your body? Do they have a right to put you in the hospital and risk your life and cause terrible pain? Do they have a right to disfigure your body? And to do all of this without having permission?

    If the fetus is a person, then abortion becomes self defense.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, she should, and it’s wrong that she wasn’t. So you are saying that, because the system didn’t allow her any other path to abortion, you feel such a late abortion was the right call?

    I would rather kill myself than be forced to give birth again.

    I know I'm not alone in that feeling.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago

    It makes your stance understanable and very human to me.

    This is exactly why I speak out about these issues, that's why I post news articles about these issues, this is why I'm very vocal about women's rights.

    I wish you had felt that level of empathy for this child earlier as well, but thank you for recognizing the point of view of women on this issue.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

    If a human being grafted themselves to me without informed consent, needing my body to continue living, yeah its fine for me to kill them. I think they even made a pretty good movie about that. It's actually a pretty common horror premise!

    Not surprising you think a literal child can consent.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Why do you even pretend to be pro-choice?

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