Lindsay Lowe - woman who killed newborn twins

[Nothing2CHere]

This morning on my Yahoo! page, one of the trending stories was about "newborn twin deaths." I clicked on the link and read this news story: http://www.newschannel5.com/story/21679 ... wborn-twin (link not broken, news website)

The gist is, the woman is in her 20's, no one knew she was pregnant (she was able to hide it well, apparently she's a larger woman whose weight was always fluctuating so no one thought anything of it as she got bigger), she lived with her parents still, gave birth in the bathroom and then smothered the twins to keep them from crying. She's in Tennessee. And as I read the story, all I could think was, "WHY didn't she get an abortion if she didn't want to be a mother? Did she not find out about the pregnancy until it was too late? Are the abortion laws in Tennessee that strict?" Maybe she felt she she couldn't get an abortion for religious reasons, but if that's the case, then surely killing them after they were born isn't any better and only worse, because now she's going to be in jail for the rest of her life.

The link above does have the links to the other articles this news outlet wrote about the case over the past year. This link is a transcript of her confession to police, where it does sound like she knew she was pregnant the entire time: http://www.newschannel5.com/story/21418 ... nts-deaths

This just saddens me on so many levels. Something in her life made her feel that 1) she couldn't terminate the pregnancy when she first found out about it but also 2) she couldn't become a mother, or take other plans of action to see to these babies' well-being once they were born, and there are so many ways this situation could have been prevented or ended differently.

[ILoveJellybeans]

This is awful, and a good reason why abortions should be fairly easy to get.

[greek_chorus]

It sounds like she wasn't aware she was pregnant. The defense psychiatrist said she was delusional. I don't know much about TN but I imagine it's only slightly better than Mississippi (which has one abortion clinic for the entire state). I just don't see TN being a state with an abortion clinic on every street corner. It looks like abortion is also only legal up to 15.2 weeks, which isn't much time, especially if you have a history of irregular periods.

[Nothing2CHere]

Greek Chorus, I'm not from Tennessee, so I have no idea what type of access she may have had (which was one of the reasons I posted this, I figured people from the area may have heard about this case and had some insight to offer). From her confession to the police, she said that she did know about the pregnancy the entire time, but didn't tell anyone, didn't see a doctor, etc. It seems crazy to me that she was able to carry twins and no one suspected anything, and that she felt she couldn't share this with anyone. If she had been able to confide in someone, even a doctor, then maybe she could have made plans and dealt with this situation in a way that wouldn't have involved her going to jail.

Like I Love Jellybeans wrote, though, this is almost the poster case for why abortions should be made more easily accessible, not less. And I will add that society should not shame women who chose to go this route, or shame women who do end up pregnant unexpectedly. I'm guessing from the limited background I was able to read about this story that it was a mixture of she cheated on her fiance/she comes from a religious background which made her feel she had to keep her pregnancy a secret.

[jenny_islander]

I'm guessing that she's from one of those churches that doesn' actually say "fallen woman" anymore, but that's what you become if you have sex outside the parameters and everybody knows about it. You're the town slut for the rest of your life. (Meanwhile of course the man can go off fancy free.)

[LibbyChessler]

She lives in a northern suburb of Nashville - abortions are available. Clinics certainly aren't on every street corner, but if you want one, you're going to be able to accomplish your goal. Hell, I know someone who received one from her GP. Additionally, police/fire stations and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital are "safe drop" spots for unwanted newborns - why she didn't just wrap them up and go that route, who knows. At the time she was initially arrested, the story was that she didn't want to acknowledge the pregnancy due to the fact that her boyfriend wasn't the father of the children. It was once she hired an attorney that the other excuses for her actions started coming out.

It is strange that no one noticed she was pregnant (with twins), especially considering she was a bridesmaid just a few days prior to the birth, but her friends said her weight fluctuated constantly so any weight gains she had didn't register. She's not a stick thin girl, and I guess it's possible a combination of that and possible low birth weight of the babies (due to the lack of prenatal care/mother's nutrition) could have allowed it to go unnoticed?

She appears to just be a stupid, immature woman and while it's trendy to south bash, it's very possible she would have committed the same actions regardless of where she lived.

[PhiMuLady]

They weren't low birth weight - one article states they measured 40 weeks gestational age and weighed approximately 6.5 pounds each.

I believe she knew the entire time, ignored it, and then had an "oh, shit" moment when they were born.

[blisterine]

in tennessee, after 15.5 weeks, you have to go to a special clinic and the closest one is in st. louis. i had a probationer who ended up having her baby and keeping it. she only kept it when she realized she could get a check and food stamps. she used the check to get a big tv at rent-a-center.

true story. the reason she was on probation: she got caught shop-lifting a pregnancy test.

this is one of the reasons i had to stop being a volunteer juvenille probation officer.

[SpicyCat]

This was a local thing. As was said earlier she could have had an abortion, but for whatever reason didn't. The prosecution basically said she hid it and had no intention of letting this "issue" keep her from her life. I don't think she was delusional, she said in her confession that she'd somewhat planned what to do. In short, stupid, sick woman who killed her babies for whatever reason. The right thing happened here.

[ADoyle90815]

She lives in a northern suburb of Nashville - abortions are available. Clinics certainly aren't on every street corner, but if you want one, you're going to be able to accomplish your goal. Hell, I know someone who received one from her GP. Additionally, police/fire stations and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital are "safe drop" spots for unwanted newborns - why she didn't just wrap them up and go that route, who knows. At the time she was initially arrested, the story was that she didn't want to acknowledge the pregnancy due to the fact that her boyfriend wasn't the father of the children. It was once she hired an attorney that the other excuses for her actions started coming out.

It is strange that no one noticed she was pregnant (with twins), especially considering she was a bridesmaid just a few days prior to the birth, but her friends said her weight fluctuated constantly so any weight gains she had didn't register. She's not a stick thin girl, and I guess it's possible a combination of that and possible low birth weight of the babies (due to the lack of prenatal care/mother's nutrition) could have allowed it to go unnoticed?

She appears to just be a stupid, immature woman and while it's trendy to south bash, it's very possible she would have committed the same actions regardless of where she lived.

I also think this could have happened even if she lived in another state, even with those safe drop places where unwanted newborns can be dropped off at police or fire stations, or the mother could just walk out of the hospital and leave the newborn without fear of facing criminal charges. I happen to live in a blue state where that law is also in effect, but unwanted newborns are still killed whether immediately after birth, or through exposure after being thrown out in a dumpster. Abortions are easily obtained here, but there is the occasional case where a newborn is killed instead of dropped off at one of the safe drop places.

[gustava]

This was a local thing. As was said earlier she could have had an abortion, but for whatever reason didn't. The prosecution basically said she hid it and had no intention of letting this "issue" keep her from her life. I don't think she was delusional, she said in her confession that she'd somewhat planned what to do. In short, stupid, sick woman who killed her babies for whatever reason. The right thing happened here.

What is your perspective on the NYC woman who jumped from a window with her baby strapped to her body; she died, while the baby lived. She was trying to kill both of them.

[snackle]

I've read some about these types of situations, and it seems there actually is a real detachment and delusion, well beyond just not wanting an abortion (which can be obtained near where this woman lives) or to be caught. It's actually fascinating in a sort of wow, people are really complex sort of way. They are so detached from the pregnancy that they're not smothering (or dumping) living babies. It's like, idk, a tumor to them. If you've heard the stories about how teens will birth upstairs or in a bathroom stall, and no one suspected anything, the dissociation apparently blocks pain, too.

They won't procure an abortion because they deny the pregnancy's reality. Or at least that they are an active participant. The same would be true of dropping to a safe haven location.

Here's a review of some of the things I've read.

http://aia.berkeley.edu/media/pdf/disca ... review.pdf

[Effie]

What is your perspective on the NYC woman who jumped from a window with her baby strapped to her body; she died, while the baby lived. She was trying to kill both of them.

I think postpartum psychosis in that case. According to friends and relatives of hers, she really cared for that baby. It was a wanted baby.

[Lillybee]

There is a case somewhat like that in my city. A woman who was once a student and then staff at a Christian reform school managed to get pregnant and told no one. She birthed the baby alone and just didn't feed it. The baby died at about 4 days old.

[bettertomarry]

I remember reading an article years back that argued that women have emotional detachment from their newborns, so they can make the judgement as to whether or not they can keep the baby. I'm pretty sure the article was written in response to the number of newborns found in toilets or dumpsters at proms, and if I remember, the author argued that it was a survival instinct and that the teenagers didn't deserve blanket condemnation or prison sentences. I seem to remember that this 'survival instinct' was only for a few hours, and did not apply to people who killed their week-old infants.

Now I have to see if I can find this article.

Edited because I managed to find it. It was an except from Sarah Hrdy's Mother Nature.