A post by a New York Times columnist was thoroughly debunked by the Community Notes feature on X after he left out crucial details of a tragic Nevada miscarriage story seemingly to encourage people to vote for pro-abortion Vice President Kamala Harris.
Columnist Nicholas Kristof, who has 1.9 million followers on the platform, referred to recent reporting by The Washington Post and wrote on Oct. 29:
A struggling Nevada mom suffers a miscarriage. Then the police show up and arrest her for manslaughter, and she’s sentenced to 2.5-8 years in prison. Only when a pro bono lawyer steps up and appeals does a judge reverse the conviction and set her free to return to her children. This is family values? Think about that as you vote.
However, Community Notes was quick to fill in the gaps in Kristof’s post. The Community Note pointed out that the woman in the story, Patience Frazier, did drugs while pregnant, admitted to trying to cause her own miscarriage, and that her baby was well past viability. The note also points out that the miscarriage occurred in 2018, well before the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and returned to issue of abortion to individual states.
“She didn’t miscarry. She took drugs to try to have a home abortion and kill her baby. Her baby was around 30 weeks old when she delivered him,” Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose responded. “It’s unclear if the baby was born dead or alive. She hid the baby in a bag and buried her in the backyard. The baby deserves justice.”
“Possibly the most thoroughly devastating community note ever issued on this site,” Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter Chuck Ross commented.
“Writers like this fit in perfectly at the NYT,” the American Life League posted.
“You’re lying. She didn’t miscarry. She did an at home abortion on a 30-week baby and hid the baby’s body in a bag. Abortion intentionally kills a baby which is why it’s immoral and should be illegal,” CEO and President of 40 Days for Life Shawn Carney wrote.
The Washington Post article — which does not hide its bias or pro-abortion position — rehashes Frazier’s case, along with interviews, photos, and records to fill out the story. The Nevada Independent also reported on the case while it was ongoing, providing a more concise account.
According to the report, Frazier was 26 when she took a positive pregnancy test in February of 2018. She did not have regular periods and did not know how far along she was. Frazier had been abused by various people in her life since she was a child, had struggled with homelessness and drug use, and already had two children.
It should be noted that Nevada is a pro-abortion state. A state statute upheld through a referendum vote in 1990 allows abortion through 24 weeks of pregnancy. The law allows abortions throughout pregnancy when the life of the mother is in danger or for health reasons.
She decided she wanted to abort the baby, but the closest abortion clinic to Winnemucca, where she lived, was two hours away, according to the report. Her car was broken, and she could not find a ride.
So instead, “she looked to the internet for home remedies for an abortion,” the report states.
“She ate large amounts of cinnamon every day for the next month. She smoked marijuana daily. She lifted heavy objects,” the report continues.
Frazier allegedly had a stillbirth at her house on April 21 — officials were unable to prove whether the baby boy, named Abel, was born alive.
“She wrapped the remains in a black bandana and placed them in the arms of a monkey stuffed animal. She added a few more layers in a mesh bag before burying the bundle in the backyard,” according to the report.
A later autopsy revealed Abel was between 28 and 32 weeks. The medical examiner also found traces of marijuana and methamphetamine in his body, the report states.
After the birth, Frazier posted a photo of a wooden cross sticking out of the ground and wrote:
[On] April 21st at 2 am my life stopped. I was so scared and afraid. I didn’t know who to talk to. I didn’t know what to do I was so scared. I’m so sorry Abel. I’m sorry I’m a horrible person I don’t deserve to continue after what I did.
Forty days after the birth, Frazier was arrested. Frazier’s babysitter reported the cross on the property to authorities, along with the grieving Facebook post.
After the babysitter reported Frazier, detectives arrived at the house she was staying at with a search warrant. Narcotics investigators came too “because the house was known for drugs and as a stomping ground for felons,” the report states, citing court records.
Frazier was “afraid and confused” about why law enforcement was at her door, according to the report.
“Why is having a miscarriage a problem?” she asked, according to a court transcript of the conversation. “Why is this illegal apparently?”
Detectives told her at the time that they did not know how far along she was and that there are reporting requirements for late-term miscarriage. Then, they dug up Abel’s remains underneath the cross in the backyard and sent it to the Washoe County Crime Laboratory.
On May 30, Frazier told detectives while catching a ride with them to the sheriff’s office that she had tried to miscarry, according to the report. She also told them about how she had researched online how to self-manage an abortion and how she could not travel to an abortion clinic because her car was broken. She also told detectives she did not want to “bring another kid into this world,” according to the report.
After questioning, detectives arrested her for concealing a birth, a gross misdemeanor, and manslaughter, a felony.
The manslaughter charge was brought through a 1911 Nevada law which makes it a felony for a woman to terminate her pregnancy with “any drug, medicine or substance, or any instrument or other means,” after the 24th week of pregnancy.
Frazier ended up pleading guilty to manslaughter in May of 2019, per her counsel’s advice, so that the misdemeanor charge would be dropped, potentially lessening her sentence.
The judge instead sentenced her to between 30 and 96 months in prison, according to the report.
Frazier was released after two years in prison when Laura FitzSimmons, a Carson City-based lawyer, took up her case pro-bono. FitzSimmons took up the case after a Planned Parenthood employee told her about it, according to the report.
Ultimately, FitzSimmons argued in May of 2021 that Frazier’s public defender did not argue that Frazier would have had to know that Abel was past 24 weeks for her to violate the statute. FitzSimmons also argued that the state was never able to prove that Frazier’s actions explicitly caused the baby’s death, which the state did not dispute.
The judge ended up ruling in Frazier’s favor and called the case a “total miscarriage of justice.” Frazier was released in July of 2021 from a Las Vegas prison. FitzSimmons later asked the Nevada Supreme Court to declare the 1911 law unconstitutional, but the court declined to rule on the statute, the Post reported.
The case is not closed, meaning Frazier could be sent back to prison if a prosecutor decides to retry her, according to the report.
Frazier ended up moving with her children to a trailer home in South Dakota and had another baby a year after her release. When she found out she was pregnant again, “she’d wrestled for weeks with whether to have an abortion,” but ultimately decided not to go through with it, according to the report.
“Abel’s face just kept flashing through her mind,” the report reads.
