Two weeks ago at the University of Kentucky, a cheerleader was accused of secretly giving birth, stuffing her deceased infant into a garbage bag, and hiding the remains in her bedroom closet. The story took the internet by storm after 21-year-old Laken Snelling was booked into custody on August 31, then subsequently released on probation. First, the ever-insidious “true-crime TikTokers” started posting about the case, their videos flooding with hundreds of comments that insisted there was “no excuse” for Snelling’s actions. Some outright called her a murderer. Then, national media outlets latched onto the story, perhaps sniffing out a possible SEO boost. Many used the term “baby” in their headlines, while the New York Post called Snelling a “heartless mother.” 

But here’s what’s missing: Snelling hasn’t been charged with murder at all. She hasn’t even been charged with manslaughter. Her charges are tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, and concealing the birth of an infant. For all we know, based on the evidence, Snelling could have suffered a horrific miscarriage and been painted as a monster for it. It’s certainly happened before. 

The media coverage of this case is setting an extremely dangerous precedent. When journalists refuse to think critically about police reports—or can’t be bothered to examine the broader context of criminal charges—they allow an authoritarian punishment system to control the narrative. How many times do we have to learn this lesson? It’s common knowledge that cops have very little understanding of the female body; they haveeven less empathy for it. We know our legal systemis actively hostile to women. So why are national publications blindly regurgitating the language of police? And in the case of Laken Snelling, and god knows how many other women, why is “concealing the birth of an infant” even a crime?

A preliminary autopsy on the “infant” in question was released by Fayette County on Sep. 4, stating that the cause of death is unknown and further “extensive microscopic analyses” are needed. Dozens of publications released these non-results under click-baity headlines, but it seems that only one source actually bothered to contact the coroner. Jezebel staff writer Kylie Cheung, posting on her feminist news Substack “Abortion, Every Day,”writes:

On Thursday, AED spoke to the Fayette County coroner and asked whether the coroner’s office and police department know whether the case involved a full-term live birth, stillbirth, whether the pregnancy had been viable, and the gestation of Snelling’s pregnancy. County coroner Gary Ginn told us, “We've determined all of that,” but that they won’t be sharing the information. 

What’s more, according to Ginn, Fayette County’s Child Fatality Review Committee uses the term ‘infant’ broadly—including for fetuses:

“When we're talking about ‘infants,’ [that could be] from zero to one years old, or one year old to a small child. A lot of times we'll use the broad term of infant, we could be referring to a fetus, or we could be referring to a full-term, or we could be referring to a child that's not walking, or a child that might even be walking, because all of them are considered infants.”

So there you have it. The “baby” referenced by dozens of outlets could be a 10-week old fetus; we have no idea. But in order to learn that crucial piece of information, you’d need to be following one specific journalist on Substack.

Maybe the outrage isn’t all that surprising. Cases like this seem to strike a nerve: the image of a beautiful, Southern, all-American cheerleader paired with the brutal visual of a discarded newborn. And sure, Snelling isn’t even technically a school cheerleader—she’s part of the STUNT team, a separate sport that competes in cheer-like gymnastic tournaments—but the term “student athlete” doesn’t pack the same misogynistic punch in headlines like this: “Kentucky cheerleader, 21, shows up to court in glam Barbie-pink outfit to plead not guilty to 'hiding dead newborn in closet.’” 

Other outlets have straight-up spread lies. Complex ran an article which inexplicably embeds a tweet from some random account called “SANTINO,” which declares that Snelling is “in some serious trouble over allegations that she may have caused the death of an infant.” That’s simply false—she hasn’t been charged with causing a death at all.

In the absence of facts, the ghoulish rag-mag Daily Mail took it a step further, hunting down former classmates of Snelling’s in order to bolster their thinly-veiled portrait of a baby-killer. “She was obsessed with her appearance, very obsessed with being popular and fitting in,” reads a quote from someone who apparently knew Snelling as a teenager. The source goes on to accuse her of once attempting to mow someone down in her Jeep in their high school parking lot. Of course, this shocking allegation (which has zero relevance to the case) goes entirely uncorroborated.

The New York Post recycled the same interview under the headline “Mystery still surrounds death of Laken Snelling’s baby — as cheerleader accused of being a ‘serial bully,’”right before detailing the “glamorous red dress and makeup” she apparently wore to court. Are we serious? What’s next? “Police fail to charge cheerleader with baby murder—but we charge her with being a mega-bitch! We can’t prove she killed her baby—but bitter classmate says she sure loved wearing lipstick.” 

Meanwhile, despite the fact that a conclusive autopsy has not yet been performed, a painstaking dissection of Snelling’s social media is well underway. The great investigative minds at Fox Newsreport that in Snelling’s latest TikTok post, “she indicated a desire to raise a child as a life goal. She included an emoji of a mother holding her baby under a list of ‘goals,’ which included a family, money, house and cash.” It’s not entirely clear what the implication is here—because Snelling actually wanted to be a mother, she may be innocent after all? Or, more likely: this bully cheerleader is a liar who carefully crafted a social media facade to mask her dark, murderous side? 

The most infuriating part is this: Even people who aren’t accusing Snelling of murder can’t seem to fathom why a woman wouldn’t call the police after having a miscarriage. The fact that she didn’t call anyone, they imply, is an indication of guilt in and of itself. Police are there to help, after all! Surely no one would accuse you of a crime after undergoing something so awful and traumatic.

Except that’s exactly what happened to Brittany Watts in Ohio in 2023. The 34-year-old medical receptionist was told by doctors that her fetus was unviable at 22 weeks, and several days later, she returned to the hospital bleeding and in pain. But before she could be treated, an “ethics group” at the hospital intervened, citing concerns about Ohio’s restrictive abortion laws. Watts spent a total of 19 hours in the hospital over a span of two days, begging for help, before eventually going home alone and passing the fetus in the toilet. When she went back to the hospital for medical care, a nurse called the police—and as she lay in bed recovering, officers searched her home and unearthed fetal remains from her toilet pipes. She was charged with abuse of a corpse, just like Snelling. While the charges were later dropped, the message to American women remained clear: your body is a crime scene.

Brittany Watts is escorted from a rally in her support on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, in Warren, Ohio.  Three months after Watts' arrest, a grand jury declined to indict her. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Earlier this year, a 24-year old woman in Georgia faced similar charges of “concealing the death of another person” and “abandoning a dead body.” Authorities had responded to a 911 call of a woman unconscious and bleeding in her apartment; when she was transported to a hospital, staff determined she’d suffered a miscarriage. But the next day a witness reported that they’d seen the woman placing fetal remains in a dumpster. She was arrested, and the charges were only dropped after a coroner later determined the miscarriage was “natural.” 

Just a few months earlier in South Carolina, a college student named Amari Marsh went through almost the same ordeal. She told police she didn’t realize she was pregnant until she went to an ER with severe abdominal pain. Marsh left the hospital and miscarried later in a toilet at home, at which point her boyfriend called police. Records show that police became suspicious that she didn’t call 911 fast enough, meaning she may have tried to end the pregnancy. She was jailed and accused of “homicide by child abuse”—before the fetus was autopsied, revealing her “innocence.” 

These situations aren’t even particularly rare. In Alabama alone, a 2022 joint investigation by AL.com and the Marshall Project found that more than 20 women had been prosecuted after a miscarriage or stillbirth. They note that some of the most severe sentences resulted from cases where a fetus was stillborn and the woman was forced to stand trial. According to the Marshall Project:

“These are cases based on feelings, not facts,” said Dara Gell, senior staff attorney for Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for the civil rights of pregnant people. “Dobbs has given the green light to investigate every fetal demise.”

Often, experts say, the investigation hinges on suspicion that the woman didn’t want her baby or tried to end her pregnancy — legally or illegally, depending on the state.

Many of these cases are propped up by 17th century laws invented purely to punish unwed pregnant women. “Concealing the birth of an infant” is a criminal charge in more than a dozen states, and it dates back to England’s 1623 Concealment of Birth of Bastards Act: a law which made it a capital offense for an unmarried mother to conceal her newborn’s birth. 

Under the act, the burden of proof shifted: unless a woman could prove a witness was present for the entire birth, it was presumed the infant was killed. (Sound familiar?) While infanticide is difficult to prove by a jury, "concealment of birth” is nearly impossible to refute.

And yet, our legal system claims to care about keeping babies alive. So, in an attempt to discourage women from hiding a birth—or from having an abortion—all 50 states have enacted Safe Haven laws. The details vary by location,  but these laws allow parents to anonymously surrender their newborn at fire stations, police stations, or hospitals, supposedly without fear of prosecution. 

You might recognize the concept from feel-good local news stories about “baby boxes.” These climate-controlled, incubator-like containers are placed on the side of buildings, and allow someone to anonymously place a newborn inside. When the latch is opened, an alarm alerts authorities to come rescue the baby, no questions asked. Anti-abortion advocates often point to these laws as proof that no one “needs” an abortion.

But anonymity is not guaranteed. In Idaho last year, teen-aged Emma Newberry wrapped her deceased newborn in a blanket and placed it in a Safe Haven “baby box.” She’d given birth alone in her bathroom, just days after her 18th birthday. Detectives agreed there was evidence that she tried to care for the baby, but it died anyway, the placenta still attached. Prosecutors charged her with failing to alert authorities to the death of an infant, despite the fact that placing the baby in the box was, by design, the notification. The entire purpose of Safe Haven laws is supposed to be reducing shame and preventing exactly this kind of criminalization.

In response to the Idaho infant’s death, Baby Box founder Monica Kelsey shared her disgust: “Let me clear: this is an illegal, deadly abandonment,” said the pro-life advocate. “We are heartbroken.” I’m heartbroken too. It is heartbreaking to imagine a high-school girl giving birth scared and alone on a bathroom floor, trying to help her baby breathe, and when that failed, swaddling the infant in a blanket and doing what she thought was right—only to receive a knock on the door from police several days later.

Monica Kelsey, a former firefighter and medic who is president of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc., poses with a prototype of a baby box outside her fire station in Woodburn, Ind. in 2015. Since inventing the box, Kelsey has become a regular speaker on the pro-life circuit. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

This legal sleight of hand happens by design. These laws, many of which predate modern medicine, were crafted under the assumption that a woman who lost a pregnancy in private must have done something wrong. There’s no burden on the state to prove intent or cause of death; the mere fact that a woman didn’t report her pregnancy or involve authorities becomes grounds for prosecution. In that context, the system doesn’t care whether she had a miscarriage, a stillbirth, or even knew she was pregnant at all.

And all of this ignores the fact that pregnancy loss is far more common than we admit: about ten to 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, according to the Mayo Clinic. When the data includes pregnancies where the person may not know that they’re pregnant, an estimated 30 to 50 percent end in miscarriage.

The Trump Administration, and the right wing in general, have made it very clear that their goal is for every woman in America to have a child. Preferably multiple. Under their logic, if you become pregnant but don’t “achieve” motherhood, you will be punished in some way. It doesn’t matter if you’re a teenager, a mother of three, a college student, or a cheerleader. It doesn’t even matter if you wanted the baby. The moment a pregnancy ends, you become a suspect. The fact that grief, shock, or confusion might affect someone’s response doesn’t matter. 

What’s happening to Laken Snelling in Kentucky isn’t just about one woman. The question isn’t even whether she’s guilty of the crimes she’s actually been charged with. Later investigation may, in fact, reveal that her infant was full-term and killed intentionally. But we don’t know that yet; and for the media’s framing to presume guilt with no evidence is completely unacceptable. The larger question is why, in America, women might actually be safer giving birth in a bedroom, or on a toilet—and hiding the remains in a plastic bag—than going to the hospital. There is no safe way to be pregnant in this country. When something goes wrong, even if the police don’t put you on trial, the public will.