Nevada Mom Awarded $1.6 Million Settlement After Prison Sentence for Miscarriage
Patience Rousseau, who served two years under an obscure 1911 law, received a substantial payout after her conviction was overturned.
A Nevada woman has received a $1.6 million settlement after spending two years in prison, convicted under a state law from 1911 that criminalized ending a pregnancy after the 24th week. Patience Rousseau, 34, admitted to attempting unproven home remedies to end her pregnancy.
Rousseau was convicted of manslaughter in 2019 and began her prison sentence. The conviction was vacated in 2021. The law under which she was convicted had not been used in 115 years and was enacted before women had the right to vote in Nevada. Initially, Nevada agreed to pay Rousseau $100,000, but her legal team ultimately secured a $1.6 million settlement.
Rousseau plans to use the majority of the settlement to pay off her home in South Dakota, purchase a car for her mother, and open a store specializing in rare aquatic plants and animals. She expressed frustration with the legal process, stating, “They fought so much to avoid paying me. I went through so much and so did my children, who are still facing these issues. It’s not fair.”
According to reports, Rousseau was 26 and struggling with homelessness and drug use when she discovered she was pregnant in 2018. Unable to travel for an abortion, she sought ways to terminate the pregnancy. She later delivered a stillborn baby boy, Abel, and buried his remains in her yard.
Investigators initially explored a link between her cinnamon consumption and the stillbirth, but ultimately used her methamphetamine, cannabis, and tobacco use to convict her under the archaic law. Her lawyers successfully argued that she did not know the exact stage of her pregnancy when she used drugs, nor could it be definitively proven that her drug use caused the miscarriage or that she intended to end the pregnancy.
Rousseau is now sober and living in South Dakota with her three sons. She voiced a desire for greater support for women facing similar challenges, stating, “Instead of looking at everybody like they are a criminal, look at them like they have a chance in life with the right direction.” She also expressed a desire not to return to Nevada, stating that the state "ruined it for me."
This case occurred in the context of increased legal restrictions on abortion nationwide, with about half of U.S. states enacting bans or severe gestational limits following the Supreme Court's 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade.