SAN ANTONIO, TX —Perhaps you heard about this story. It was presented to us as an act by an uncaring woman said to ‘flush her baby down the toilet’ while in a San Antonio, Texas Whataburger restroom! I read several articles trying to figure out exactly what happened. Most were written in a way to make this woman sound like a beast, unworthy of our sympathy. Some of the headlines read:
‘Baby Found Dead In a Whataburger Toilet’
‘San Antonio Woman Flushes Baby Down Whataburger Toilet, say Bexar Sheriff Deputies
‘Funeral Set for Baby Flushed Down Whataburger Toilet’
‘A woman was arrested at a Converse Whataburger last week after she gave birth to a baby in the bathroom and it died, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.’
The truth is a far different story. The woman, Mallori Patrice Strait, age 33, is a homeless woman who had not had prenatal care. (Can you imagine spending your pregnancy living on the street?) She was said to have spent hours in the restaurant restroom stall and was ‘making noise’ inside the stall. Sheriff’s deputies were called and she was arrested, charged with abuse of a corpse and forced to spend almost 5 months in jail while her case was investigated. Women have been outraged.
Here are some of the remarks on social media:
‘Guilty until proven innocent. 5 months in jail it took them to prove she had a spontaneous abortion? Is the State of Texas being sued on this young woman’s behalf? So wrong!
‘Pregnancy shouldn’t ever be regulated by the government…..
‘If you’re a woman of child bearing age and live in Texas, you better figure a way out quickly because chances are you will either die early or be imprisoned if you experience a failed pregnancy in Texas.
‘This act highlights how Texas law and anti-abortion groups have created a climate where women’s personal tragedies are politicized and used to push an agenda that criminalizes reproductive health outcomes.’
“The medical examiner’s office determined that Strait experienced a miscarriage, and the fetus was “non-viable.”
After the investigation, “According to the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office, the fetus died in “utero by intrauterine fetal demise.” The medical examiner’s office was unable to link the cause of death to any particular cause, but their forensic anthropological report estimated the fetus’ gestational period as five to six months, which opposes the expected gestational period of 28 weeks, records show. Through further examination, the medical examiner’s office determined that Strait experienced a miscarriage, and the fetus was “non-viable.” The District Attorney’s office stated that the fetus suffered skull injuries, but they can commonly happen during miscarriage or birth. Both the medical examiner’s office and the District Attorney’s office believe the damage to the fetus’s skull could not have been caused by suction from a toilet.
Although Strait was accused of being in the restroom for hours, the District Attorney’s office said there’s no evidence that there was ever an attempt to flush the fetus down the toilet after the miscarriage happened.
Furthermore, the District Attorney’s office said the presence and condition of pregnancy-related elements that were transported with the fetus to the hospital dispute that it was ever flushed after the miscarriage, according to court documents.
The District Attorney’s office believes that there’s insufficient evidence that Strait’s “voluntary and knowing conduct damaged the fetus.” —ksat.com
In other words, Mallori experienced a typical miscarriage which happens in up to 1 in 5 pregnancies. But because it happened in a public place, she was very vulnerable. Texas has a strict anti-abortion law. Texas law also has embraced the concept of ‘fetal personhood’ which treats all embryos and fetuses as having the full rights of a person. These policies are straight out of the Project 2025 playbook, a conservative blueprint for restructuring government and American life. Therefore women who lose their pregnancies can be charged with a crime.
The irony is that the Trump administration says it wants more babies to be born. However, Ob/Gyn doctors are leaving anti-abortion states because they are not able to practice medicine how they were taught. When women hear about these things, they become fearful of getting pregnant. But the same forces that are behind anti-abortion laws are also preparing to ban contraception. It is a very scary time to be a woman of reproductive age.
Keep the outrage coming! And organize against all manifestations of Project 2025.
Karel Riley works with the People’s Tribune, and its bilingual sister publication, Tribuno del Pueblo, as a writer and contributor on human rights and women’s issues. “I’ve been a feminist since early adulthood. As a clerical worker, I joined a union drive with AFSCME seeking comparable wages to men for female-dominated jobs, and we were partially successful. In the mid-80’s our union participated in the historic Hormel strike in Minnesota. Later, I joined others in support of a local welfare rights organization,” she says.
