Patience Rousseau was 26 years old and living in Winnemucca when she miscarried in 2018. She was convicted under a Nevada law, put on the books in 1911, that makes it illegal to take drugs to end a pregnancy after the 24th week. Civil rights lawyers and abortion rights advocates say the statute is the only law like it nationwide and unfairly targets women who want to end a pregnancy.
Rousseau says the money from Humboldt County is welcome but not enough to make up for years of trauma. She wishes the county had been forced to pay more.
“They fought so much to avoid paying me,” said Rousseau. “I went through so much and so did my children, who are still facing these issues. It’s not fair.”
Rousseau told The Nevada Independent her life was turned upside down by the nearly decade-long ordeal. Already suffering from depression and substance abuse before her miscarriage, in its aftermath she was labeled a “baby killer,” sent to prison and separated from her young children for more than two years before her conviction was tossed out for ineffective assistance of counsel.
“The trauma of all of it was pretty horrendous,” said Paola Armeni, the Las Vegas-based civil rights attorney representing Rousseau. Armeni likened Rousseau’s treatment after her miscarriage to being attacked by a lynch mob, “all the while under a statute that was on the books before women were even allowed to vote in Nevada.”
Her lawyers say the money is a final act of justice in a case that should have never existed. They submitted a demand letter to Humboldt County in March, outlining their view that the county had broken state law, violated Rousseau’s state and federal constitutional rights and intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon her. The settlement was finalized in early August and the money was received last week.
Roughly $1.2 million of the settlement is reserved for Rousseau, who now lives in South Dakota with three sons, aged 4, 7 and 9. She said she will use the money to finance her house, buy her mom a car and open a store selling rare aquatic plants and animals — she’s an animal lover who owns five dogs and three cats.
The rest of the money will go to pay lawyers and to repay the state of Nevada for a $100,000 settlement it awarded Rousseau in February.
After that ordeal she moved to a redder state??? Honey. Sweetie. Get yourself to an Illinois-level state or better.
You don’t know if she’s staying close to family or something.
So move them to a blue state too? Like damn, it’s pretty clear by now no one is actually safe living there.
I can’t muster the energy to tell this woman what she should or should not do after the government stole 2 years of her life for a miscarriage.
Not to mention that there were people in this story that stole the remains and kept them for themselves.
It’s a wild story and I can’t believe the only thing any of you can focus on is advising this woman what she should do with her life now.
It’s the leopards eating faces problem. We tell people that the leopards are going to eat their face and they don’t listen. Then when the leopard eats their face they realize the leopards are bad after all and cry about how horrible having their face eaten was, but then keep voting for (or in this case, living with) the leopards anyway.
If red states saw the type of brain drain and corporate disinvestment that their harmful policies would normally realize in a sane society, we wouldn’t be in this fucking mess. But instead we have normalized living in, working in, and paying taxes to states with ineffective and cruel government policies. Let’s also remember that thanks to the electoral college, every person who lives in a solid red state contributes to the Republican party vote, regardless of what they actually put on their ballot.
It’s hard enough living in a world full of people who have to learn things the hard way, but it’s even worse when they don’t even learn things the hard way.
Did she vote for any of this or is she automatically guilty for living in a red state? Go touch grass
You have no idea how this woman voted.
She didn’t deserve this in any way regardless.