A South Carolina woman has been arrested and charged with homicide after giving birth in a toilet, and 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 toilet. She tried to justify her actions by saying she panicked and didn’t know what to do, but an investigation by the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office indicated otherwise.
Police said Marsh knew she was pregnant as far back as November, and initially, went to a Planned Parenthood facility with the intent of undergoing an abortion. She was given the abortion pills, but the chemical abortion either failed, or she did not take the pills.
On February 28, she was experiencing abdominal pain, so she went to the Regional Medical Center, where medical staff confirmed she was still pregnant, and that her baby had a heartbeat. Yet she chose to leave the hospital.
“Marsh advised the energy in the room was off and she felt uncomfortable so she left to respond to her residence,” a deputy wrote in the incident report, according to the Times and Democrat.
At 3:00 am after leaving the hospital, Marsh gave birth to a baby girl in the toilet at her home. After approximately 15 minutes, she called 911… but ignored their instructions to take her daughter out of the toilet, despite being instructed to do so multiple times. When EMS arrived, her daughter was still alive inside the toilet, but was covered in used, dirty toilet paper. Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t keep her alive, and she was declared dead at the hospital.
Marsh claimed that she killed her daughter because she panicked after giving birth and didn’t know what to do.
Every single state in the country has a safe haven law allowing infants to be anonymously surrendered without facing any abandonment or neglect charges. There are also Safe Haven Baby Boxes located in several states, though not in South Carolina. Marsh’s baby could have been safely surrendered; instead, she let her baby die in a toilet, and is facing a lifetime in prison instead.
