The state that just implemented the most restrictive abortion law in the nation – Alabama – has a woman sitting in a jail who has been there for more than a year who is eight months pregnant and doesn’t know how.
—UNDER ATTACK: Alabama governor signs near-total abortion ban into law—
Latoni Daniel’s family and attorney believes the 26-year-old was drugged and raped while incarcerated because she doesn’t recall how she got pregnant while serving time in jail for the last for 17 months.
Daniel is just days away from giving birth to a baby boy and her family is outraged and wants to get to the bottom of what happened, Al.com reports.
Daniel is housed at the Coosa County jail in Rockford, Alabama and her attorney Mickey McDermott suspects that Daniel was sedated with drugs she was prescribed for seizures and was raped when she was under sedation.
But Daniel’s family said she didn’t suffer from seizures before she was arrested.
“She wasn’t pregnant when she went to jail,” Daniel’s brother Terrell Ransaw told AL.com.
Daniel, a veteran of the Army National Guard is charged with capital murder for her role as the getaway driver in a murder. Her boyfriend allegedly shot and killed 87-year-old Thomas Virgil Chandler.
After authorities discovered that she was pregnant, Daniels was transferred to another facility.
—Missouri Senate joins GOP anti-abortion wave with 8-week ban—
Ransaw told Al.com the family has already planned for the baby to live with its grandmother and he has vowed to take care of the baby financially.
Daniel’s pregnancy is still under investigation, said County District Attorney Jeff Willis.
In Alabama, it’s illegal for jail employees to have sexual contact with an inmate, and consent isn’t a defense. McDermott said Daniel hasn’t been allowed to have visitors.
According to AL.com, medical staff from a private company are monitoring Daniel’s care at the Talladega County jail and she will be taken to a hospital to give birth.
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