Image Credit: Instagram: @queen_starr410

Miami, February 26 (RHC)-- In the U.S. state of Florida, a petition seeking to release a pregnant woman from jail argues her fetus is being held in “unlawful and illegal detention” and being deprived of its due process rights. 

Natalia Harrell, who’s eight months pregnant and charged with murder, also accuses the jail of endangering the fetus by failing to provide proper prenatal and medical care.  The filing argues that the fetus “is a person under the Florida constitution and the United States constitution.” 

So-called fetal personhood laws have been fundamental in the anti-abortion movement; reproductive rights advocates say recognizing fetal personhood helps strengthen the criminalization of abortion.