On September 10, 2019, Chelsea Cheyenne Becker gave birth to a stillborn baby. It's a situation that every pregnant woman dreads. However, there was another part to the story. When the baby was drug-tested, there were toxic levels of methamphetamine in the baby's system. So it was apparent that Chelsea had severe issues with drug use.
Pregnant women are advised not to partake in drugs or alcohol while pregnant. Since that wasn't the case, the death of the baby was then ruled to be a homicide after the autopsy was performed. In November of 2019, Chelsea went to jail. And she's still there, awaiting her sentence. Her bail is extremely high at $5 million.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is trying to change things around. "Our laws in California do not convict women who suffer the loss of their pregnancy, and in our filing today we are making clear that this law has been misused to the detriment of women, children, and families," he said in a statement. He believes that Chelsea is wrongfully being painted as a murderer.
Chelsea suffers from addiction, which is a legitimate health concern. In the attorney general's statements, he referenced penal code section 187. It reads that women shouldn't be punished for not practicing prenatal health due to addiction or a lack of resources. There are plenty of women out there who can't get the help they need. It's not that they don't want to, but they might not have insurance, money, or reliable and safe transportation.
Kings County District Attorney Keith L. Fagundes had no idea that this would happen. In his eyes, Chelsea's actions were truly criminal. "This case is not about a stillbirth, it is a case about a mother's overdose of a late-term viable fetus," he said.
Not only that, but he insinuated that the attorney general was uneducated about what happened. "I appreciate the Attorney General's opinion, and can only conclude that he has not been properly briefed on the facts of this case, has not read any police report nor has he reviewed the medical information involved in this particular case," he continued.
This wasn't Chelsea's first baby. In fact, the New York Post writes that she has three other children who were also born with drugs in their systems. So this has been an ongoing addiction. She also lost custody of those children, according to sources.
Her aunt has admitted to taking custody of Chelsea's 3-year-old son days after he was born with methamphetamine in his system. Chelsea admitted that she did use drugs just days before delivering her stillborn. She's pleaded not guilty to the murder.
It's possible she knew the drugs were bad, but having delivered other babies who didn't die due to the exposure, she likely had no clue how badly drugs could affect a child in utero. In her mind, she's not guilty of purposely killing her child. But she's also not denying that drugs were consumed.
Partnership To End Addiction defines addiction as a "complex disease of the brain and body that involves compulsive use of one or more substances despite serious health and social consequences. Addiction disrupts regions of the brain that are responsible for reward, motivation, learning, judgment and memory." It's also more common than you may think. American Addiction Centers states that in 2017, 13.6 million adults age 26 or older had a substance abuse problem.
Sometimes, addiction takes place due to genetics. Other times, it's due to personal issues. "Genetic risk factors account for about half of the likelihood that an individual will develop addiction," the organization writes. It's easy to view Chelsea poorly if you assume she did drugs just because she wanted to.
However, when people are deep into addiction, sometimes they use drugs because they have to. With continued use, drugs change your brain. "These changes in the brain can remain for a long time, even after the person stops using substances," Partnership To End Addiction states. "It is believed that these changes may leave those with addiction vulnerable to physical and environmental cues that they associate with substance use, also known as triggers, which can increase their risk of relapse."
While her addiction will lead her to make questionable choices, it might not make her a murderer. As a defined word, murdering someone means "unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought." But instead, it seems as if a disastrous result happened because her body was programmed to need drugs. By labeling her situation as murder, it also means that every stillborn and miscarriage women suffer through may be even more heavily examined, when most of the time, they happened naturally.
Regardless, the situation is a terrible one. Giving birth to a stillborn is a traumatic experience. For many women who suffer from a stillbirth, they often don't know the exact reason. Sometimes, it could be a birth defect that hasn't been identified. Other times, a woman's body may start rejecting the pregnancy.
According to March of Dimes, there are also plenty of complications that may end in having a stillborn. That's one of the reasons why pregnant women get their blood pressure checked during standard appointments. High blood pressure is an indicator that something may be wrong in the pregnancy.
Obesity and diabetes are also risky during pregnancy. Health issues can also arise at the last minute. Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, often called ICP, is a threatening liver condition that can cause the healthiest mom-to-be to have a stillbirth. Pregnancy can be terrifying, since a lot can go wrong.
In a complicated situation like this, there is a lot to think about. But one thing is universal — this is a sad situation, and many are likely mourning the loss of Chelsea's last child. While it makes sense to be angry at Chelsea, it's also a time to put the spotlight on how an individual's addiction has an impact on everyone.
Hopefully, Chelsea will be able to gain access to a rehabilitation center. Regardless of whether or not she deserves to be in jail over what happened, it's fair to state that she definitely needs a lot of help. Many addicts lack the resources to make a lifelong change. If it were easily accessible, stories like this wouldn't exist.
