Woman charged with burying 'developed male infant' after taking abortion pill, police say

A Kentucky woman has been charged with using abortion drugs to cause “the death of a developed male infant” and burying the child in a shallow grave, where the police reportedly found the remains wrapped in a white rag.

The Kentucky State Police announced the arrest of Melinda Spencer, 35, on Dec. 31, who now faces first-degree fetal homicide, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence charges. 

Detectives and state troopers arrived at the United Clinic in Campton after the facility contacted the police around 2:30 p.m. to report that a woman had informed the staff that she had aborted her unborn child at her residence on Flat Mary Road. 

When the authorities arrived at the clinic, Spencer reportedly admitted during an interview with detectives that she ordered abortion drugs online to end her child’s life before burying the remains on the backside of her property. 

Authorities later discovered the remains near the 3700 block of Flat Mary Road, just as Spencer had described.

Spencer allegedly buried the remains on Dec. 28. According to court documents cited by Fox 56, authorities obtained a search warrant before uncovering a white grocery sack in the grave that Spencer described. 

The child’s remains were contained within a white rag inside a light bulb box covered in Christmas wrapping paper, according to an arrest citation cited by Fox 56. During an interview with investigators, Spencer reportedly said that she had an abortion because she didn’t want her significant other to know that he was not the father of her child.

The case has drawn the attention of national pro-life leaders, who continue to speak out against the federal government's loosening of abortion pill distribution regulations under the Biden administration. In recent months, lawmakers and activists have pressured the Food and Drug Administration under the Trump administration to end the Biden-era policy of allowing abortion pills to be obtained through the mail.

“The Biden administration’s COVID-era rule allowing mail-order abortion drugs undermines protective laws in even the most pro-life states,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement to The Christian Post about the case.

“Years later, it is killing even more Americans than cocaine, heroin, or fentanyl and it needs to end promptly,” the pro-life leader added. “While the details of this developing story are not all clear, it’s clear that what the abortion industry doesn’t tell women about these dangerous drugs is harming them and their babies.”

“A cursory web form is totally inadequate for confirming gestational age, the potential for serious health complications, or even the true identity of who’s behind the order screen,” she continued. “The result: yet another tragic death of a little boy, in a state with laws specifically designed to protect babies in the womb. Unborn children and their mothers deserve better.”

Kentucky has a near-total ban on abortion, which went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade. The law does not apply in the case of a miscarriage, nor does it prohibit physicians from providing medical care to a woman in this case. 

Earlier this year, another woman in Kentucky was charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant. 

Laken Snelling, a University of Kentucky athlete, was arrested after authorities found her dead child hidden in a closet, wrapped in a towel, and concealed inside a black trash bag, according to the Lexington Police Department. 

On Wednesday, Aug. 27, around 10:30 a.m., officers were dispatched for an unresponsive infant at a residence in the 400 block of Park Avenue. When officers arrived, they located an infant who was pronounced deceased at the scene. 

Snelling reportedly admitted she had given birth and attempted to clean up the evidence, according to an arrest citation cited by WLEX.