r/Austin • u/whynot26847 • 1d ago
News Non-viable fetus found dead in parking lot at Austin’s Roy G. Guerrero Park
https://www.kxan.com/news/crime/dead-fetus-austin-parking-lot/461
u/Next-Impression-7 1d ago
This could mean someone unfortunately had a miscarriage or still birth of a fetus before viability (usually 24 weeks with intensive neonatal care). There may not even be a crime here but of course the police in the great state of Texas are all over this.
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u/MessiComeLately 20h ago
When you can't get a police response in Austin, keep in mind that APD is "overworked" by the need to roll twenty deep at protests and "crime" scenes like this one.
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u/worldspawn00 18h ago
The whole department needs to be fired, particularly management, and just hire and train a new force. There is no excuse for the last 5+ years of incompetence and refusal to do their job.
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u/SofaKingS2pitt 17h ago
Closer to what “defund the police” actually means, not what certain politicians want us to believe.
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u/MessiComeLately 15h ago
I still maintain that the slogan "defund the police" was a strategic error. It works in an academic or activist setting, where people naturally go through the two steps of, "1. Ha ha, spicy, you got my attention! 2. So what does it actually mean in terms of policy?" In the broader world, approximately zero people get beyond step one. Even worse, it works as its own straw man, so right wingers don't even need to work to attach a misleading label to it. They just call it the same thing we do.
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u/Longjumping3604 1d ago
Are you serioud? Of course the police are investigating. Was the mother murdered?
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u/babycrow 1d ago
womens health is barbarism. The surgeon who saved me, she had a hysterectomy last year and she was treated like shit. Shes board certified in five states and one of the founders of Endo Found. We're all fucked. At least us with the lady parts.
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u/Temporary_Cup4588 21h ago
I had one about a decade ago, and the surgeon was supposed to be the head of the hospital. The surgery was botched and I came down with an insane infection that added months to my recovery time. I wrote to the hospital at the time and complained as hard as I could about him. He was the worst physician I’ve ever had.
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u/lnc_5103 18h ago
I had mine 11 years ago and nearly died due to my surgeon's incompetence. Required a second surgery 10 days post op. She basically told me I had a low pain tolerance and wouldn't even see me. Went to the ER and my intestines were spilling into my vaginal canal because my cervical cuff tore open. They called her over to do the repair and she accused me of having sex with my husband. Girl I can't even sit up unassisted. I refused to let her do the second surgery. Turns out her stitch work was abysmal and even bearing down to urinate or coughing was enough to rip through them.
She was reprimanded but is still practicing. I see people complaining about her on local pages all the time.
I would have a hysterectomy again a hundred times because it greatly improved my quality of life after my long recovery but the way mine happened was traumatic AF.
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u/somethingtothestars 16h ago
Seconding if you could share this surgeon's name!
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u/lnc_5103 16h ago
I actually live in west Texas. Didn't realize I was commenting on an Austin sub!
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u/babycrow 16h ago
Im so sorry you had to go through that. Fuck that doctor.
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u/lnc_5103 16h ago
Thank you. Yes she absolutely sucks. Thankfully once I recovered there was no long term damage.
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u/RandomGirlOnTheWeb 22h ago
That is really sad. I do hope medical training improves. There is no excuse for that.
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u/Uncynical_Diogenes 18h ago
Medical training can’t do shit when constrained by untrained politicians.
This is what “abortion with exceptions” means. It means pregnant people suffer and some die by design, because some fucks won a popularity contest.
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u/RandomGirlOnTheWeb 14h ago
True. Politicians should not be involved in healthcare beyond providing full universal healthcare.
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u/Hippyboots 18h ago
Politicians receive the finest training & education lobbyists can buy 🙁
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u/Uncynical_Diogenes 18h ago edited 11h ago
And if you don’t go to medical school your medical opinion is still worthless. You and I have access to all the same medical information they do, there is no such thing as secret medical studies, and it still doesn’t make us doctors.
It should be between patients and their doctors, period, not in the hands of some poli-sci degree holder.
Even if you do go to medical school, your opinion is worthless for people that are not your patients. If a politician is a medical doctor, they are still not your medical doctor and they shouldn’t be making decisions for you.
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u/DaVoiceOfTreason 1d ago
After repealing Roe v Wade, it was only a matter of time
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u/not-a-dislike-button 16h ago
A matter of time for what? What do you think occured here- some back alley abortion and they just left the dead fetus for folks to find? That doesn't make sense
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u/princesspeeved 15h ago
If it was a miscarriage (most likely since the fetus was non-viable), maybe the mother could’ve had one safely in a hospital so there wouldn’t be a dead fetus in the streets. But due to the fact that women who are miscarrying have to be on death’s door for doctors to want to intervene—and even then some do die, I could understand why this person felt the need to go it alone.
Because medically-assisted miscarriages are classified as abortions, that is why stuff like this is happening. Again, we don’t know if it was a miscarriage or not, but that’s what the commenter above me was getting at.
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u/not-a-dislike-button 11h ago
Miscarriage is not punished by any law though. Thousands of Texas women will have them this year, sadly. No one will be prosecuted for this.
At a deeper level in fact Texas has zero punishment for a woman who gets an abortion. The penalty is levied at the doctor involved.
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u/princesspeeved 11h ago
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u/not-a-dislike-button 9h ago
Those are other states. I'm talking about Texas law.
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u/princesspeeved 6h ago
You’re right. In Texas the women just die before they can get arrested.
https://people.com/texas-teen-suffering-miscarriage-dies-due-to-abortion-ban-8738512
https://abcnews.com/Health/family-texas-pregnant-woman-died-sues-texas-ag/story?id=136489875
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u/Longjumping_Way_1298 1d ago
to the shock of no one at all. this is what you voted for, Texas.
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u/Individual_Land_2200 1d ago
We have a chance to fix this in a few weeks. Please vote, everyone! Take advantage of early voting if it’ll be hard for you to vote on Election Day.
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1d ago
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u/failedaspotcheck 21h ago
Restricting abortion leads to more abortions and higher maternal and infant mortality. Texas is proving it.
Care to dispute any of that, or otherwise clue us in on what's going on in that little mind of yours?
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u/fuzzyblackkitty 18h ago
yes i’m aware. my response was to someone who said “you are clueless”
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u/failedaspotcheck 18h ago
That's also who I was responding to. Their comment is now removed though.
I've noticed reddit's notification ping you when other users comment on the same thread, it confuses me and makes me think people are responding to me when they're not. Not sure if that's what happened to you
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u/Legitimate-Agency282 21h ago
Say something, please, that means anything other than an insult. Clue us in.
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u/AvidAth3ist 20h ago
Removing access to abortion doesn't make abortion go away. It only makes access to safe abortions go away. You'll see more things like this happen soon.
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u/SchwaeJames 1d ago
This is certainly a great outcome for all involved, great job Texas.
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1d ago
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u/Soft-Temporary-7932 22h ago
Are you going to make a point or are you just all over this thread saying random crap to the annoyance of everyone?
Speak your truth.
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u/Billy_Chrystals 19h ago
Ladies and gentlemen, this dead fetus brought to you by the Republican party.
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u/Flat-Arachnid-4362 14h ago
Some poor soul had to suffer a miscarriage on her own because she was either afraid to seek help, or did and got turned away. Absolutely barbaric.
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u/agawl81 18h ago
So someone had a medical emergency in a parking lot? Why is this news? Oh wait. Because any pregnancy loss is now assumed to be a criminal act.
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u/SuzQP 16h ago
I suspect this is news because most pregnancies don't end with a deceased fetus left in a parking lot. This is quite possibly a tragedy associated with the draconian abortion restrictions inflicted on Texas women following the SCOTUS overturning of Roe vs Wade. So, yes, this is relevant and newsworthy.
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u/Nora19 8h ago
As is the data regarding maternal health and and mortality rates that Abbott shitty people are keeping quiet until after elections
That is newsworthy as well as whatever happened to this unfortunate baby RIP to that infant. So sorry for whoever came across this situation… must have been devastating1
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u/Holiday_Exchange_563 13h ago
It’s dead just like people who get abortions want it to be, same result.
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u/BearsBeansBoba 19h ago
Holy shit. This story is heartbreaking. That poor woman. And the poor couple that made the discovery. Wow, just wow. 😞
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u/DirtyMikeOffWmCannon 17h ago
How about “poor baby”?
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u/Annodyne 17h ago
It was a non-viable fetus (a miscarriage). It had no awareness and no chance of surviving.
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u/latigidigital 17h ago edited 16h ago
The legal definition quoted in that article includes anything less than 20 completed weeks gestation (e.g., 21 weeks) as being categorically considered a “non-viable fetus” for reporting purposes.
For context, Nash Keen was born in 2024 at 21 weeks and many other examples exist at that same number of weeks +/- a few days.
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u/Annodyne 16h ago
What is your point here?
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u/latigidigital 7h ago edited 7h ago
“It had no awareness and no chance of surviving” from the above reply is not an accurate description.
According to the legal definition used in this story, neither may be true — especially since they’re guessing at gestational age. Survival at 21 weeks is actually not that rare in 2026; one university hospital system put the figure around 30-40%.
The number of weeks at which a pregnancy is viable will only continue to decrease with current advances in prenatal technology, so denying someone’s personhood and referring to them as “it” is pretty degrading.
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u/Sad_Application_5361 3h ago
Survival is not just a factor of gestation length. If the body decides to miscarry, you can’t do anything about it. The fetus is not viable at that point. With premature births that survive, those are either induced or caused by premature labor. Going into labor and having a miscarriage are two different hormone-regulated processes.
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u/latigidigital 3h ago edited 3h ago
Presumption on my part was that this wasn’t a miscarriage. (I’ve had a miscarriage with my partner.)
More likely scenario would be someone taking mifepristone off-label and not realizing it would happen at the park. It’s still 99.5% effective at terminating pregnancies up to at least 20 weeks.
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u/carneroom 5h ago edited 4h ago
completely fucked that anyone would be looking to press criminal charges against the mother when the achingly obvious crime is a government which has willfully made women’s reproductive health so inaccessible that humans are forced to undergo miscarriages, whether induced or spontaneous, in parking lots.
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u/s0up_1teration 1d ago
Geez I feel bad for whoever found that..
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u/DJbigasstruck 1d ago
I feel bad for whoever had to go thru the still birth or miscarriage
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u/Excellent_Extent7648 1d ago
Thank god I mean, this is what pro-life is. We need more workers to work for rich folk that need someone that doesn’t have a choice but to make these franchise assholes more money thank god
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u/Longjumping3604 1d ago
I think all of you are very confused. No one is saying that a crime happened. A fetus found in the middle of a park needs to be investigated. This happened a few years ago and the mother's body was found a few days later. She had been beaten and killed by her boyfriend.
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u/CupcakesAreMiniCakes 21h ago
You just said a woman was beat to death but that no one is saying a crime happened
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u/Ok_Consideration853 19h ago
Listen maybe she was murdered so it’s all okay guys!
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u/that_awkward_chick 19h ago
I mean if a woman didn’t commit it, is it even really a crime?
[angry sarcasm]
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u/GrandmaSassifrass 1d ago
Hmmm i need to be brush up on my crimes
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u/SofaKingS2pitt 17h ago
I don’t see anything in the article that suggests how the fetus “got there”, so to speak. Not clear whether it was miscarried, ab0rted. There’s no indication that it was expelled from the woman’s body ( don’t come at me, that is a legit term for when fetus leaves the womb, by whatever cause) at the parking lot; the limited information does not refer to blood.
Whatever really led to this is not happy.
I sure hope our “leaders” don’t launch some sort of criminal investigation using dna , making it worse for all involved.
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u/Ok-Tale1339 10h ago
Yes, for the love of god, I hope no “law official” decides it necessary to search 83,000 flock cameras —without a warrant — in an attempt to track her. (Like that Johnson County Sheriff’s deputy took it upon himself to do when he suspected a woman in his county went out of state to get an abortion)
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u/Yarddog1976 7h ago
Baby found dead in parking lot. There. Fixed it for ya
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u/chromaticluxury 7h ago
A fetus book born before 24 weeks can't live and after 24 weeks only with the isolation boxes and they're about the size of a squirrel
This was a 20-week-old fetus.
Naked squirrel. I'm sorry to be that graphic. My child was in NICU
So no this absolutely was not a "baby." I'm not trying to be political I'm telling you this was not an infant
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u/Yarddog1976 6h ago
Disagree. It’s a baby to me. You have your opinion I’ll have mine. Be safe.
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u/chromaticluxury 4h ago
The news article explains there's no death certificate because there's no person:
Legality surrounding a ‘non-viable fetus’: In Texas, a death certificate is not required for a fetus that is under 350 grams (or about 0.77 pounds) or “the period of gestation is less than 20 completed weeks,” according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
You can have an opinion and an opinion can be legally and factually wrong
People were arguing on another thread about whether or not a 15-year-old boy was adoptable when he had a living father.
They had opinions that he should be. No. That's not how that works.
Opinions can be legally and factually wrong.
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u/Yarddog1976 1h ago
My opinion isn’t about legality it’s morality. Life is life. It’s a baby to me. It’s a human that some scumbag threw away. I couldn’t give less care about legality here.
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u/intimate_secretary 1d ago
Non viable fetus is my new band name
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u/Porkyrogue 1d ago
What does that even mean? No useful organs? /s
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u/EdgeOfTheMtn 23h ago
It wouldn't survive out of the womb on it's own.
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u/User7453 20h ago
Oh so a normal fetus???
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u/EdgeOfTheMtn 20h ago
No, too premature to survive even with NICU intervention.
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u/Quiscustodietipsos21 20h ago
So, the words “non-viable” (not able to live), actually mean, not able to be sustained and kept alive by some of the most intensive care units known to mankind?
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u/Ok_Consideration853 19h ago
Non-viable means a human person won’t come of it. We don’t know literally anything else about why they’re using that phrasing.
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21h ago
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u/swimsfree 20h ago
No. Blame the people who made reproductive health and women’s lives into a political football, not the people rightfully pointing out that a bunch of men’s decisions have consequences for the rest of us.
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u/Hey_im_miles 21h ago
To everyone talking about roe v Wade and whatnot... Could this person not have had the baby and explored giving it up for adoption ?
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u/mostadventurous00 21h ago edited 20h ago
It was a nonviable fetus, so probably not. It could have been an illegal abortion, but miscarriages also happen for all kinds of reasons after the ridiculous 6 week abortion limit that we have in TX. All that can be inferred from this is that a pregnant person was unable, or felt unable, to seek safe care while they miscarried. It could have been a person without the financial means to afford care; it also could have been someone afraid to seek care for fear of being criminalized. Either of those options speak to the extremely fucked system of maternal healthcare that we have in this country and state.
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u/SofaKingS2pitt 17h ago
It could have been a spontaneous thing, and our current state of affairs made the person fearful of persecution and prosecution, so opted to take it somewhere else.
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u/HeartShapedNose 21h ago
There's not enough information to determine that. The fetus clearly was not carried to term, and we have no idea at this point whether or not that would have been possible or medically advisable in this case.
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u/Justatapp 20h ago
I mean, I'm not sure who would want to adopt a deceased fetus. But, I guess it's possible. 🤷♀️
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u/heresyforfunnprofit 20h ago
Not even bothering with the dumpster anymore, I see.
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u/Annodyne 17h ago
How do you know the person who expelled the fetus wasn't under duress when it happened? No one knows who or where they are, or if they themselves are even alive right now.
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u/chromaticluxury 7h ago
Another commenter said they found a woman who had been beaten who was then murdered by her boyfriend? IDK I'm trying to track this down
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1d ago edited 1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Wxtchy_kay 1d ago
what do you think "non-viable" means bud?
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u/Smooth-Wave-9699 1d ago
Oh damn, I guess i need to read better.
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u/Rammite 1d ago
I appreciate that you own up to it. Not enough people on the internet can do that.
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u/Smooth-Wave-9699 1d ago
I know reddit is a safe haven for anonymous trolls, but I believe in admitting when I'm wrong
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u/Flimsy_Tale_1831 1d ago
To liberals, 40 weeks is non viable when it serves them.
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u/s0up_1teration 1d ago
right bc someone who leaves a fetus in a parking lot would obviously make a great mom…
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u/Justatapp 20h ago
Week of viability doesn't happen until week 24 of a pregnancy, more than half way through a conventional pregnancy.. and even then the amount of time spent in the NICU will be longer.
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u/envy1890 22h ago
hope they find and arrest whoever did this quickly. why did this not happen in hospital?
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u/SofaKingS2pitt 17h ago
Spontaneous ab0rtion , which can entail expulsion of the fetal material can happen before 22 weeks.
It is not impossible that this happened to a woman who did not even know they were pregnant.Sometimes , if there’s anything remaining in the womb, the woman can become very ill with sepsis. I hope this person will be ok.
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u/lainlow 18h ago
Ignore your first statement and focus on your last question instead.
Why did this not happen in hospital? Was the person who went through this traumatic event detained from reaching medical? Did they not feel safe going to a medical facility? Etc.
Then ask yourself— is arresting this person doing more harm; should we not be focused on why it happened in a park and how we can ensure it never happens in a park for anyone else.
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u/envy1890 17h ago
it is a crime to dispose of a dead fetus and it should be. you should not be allowed to dump dead bodies or fetuses anywhere you like.
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u/swimsfree 17h ago
No one is saying this wasn’t a crime or a tragedy. You’re simply being asked to imagine the various situations someone could find themselves in where such a thing could happen, because pretty much all of them indicate someone in need of help rather than jail.
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u/envy1890 17h ago
people are responsible for their own actions. i am struggling to think of any scenario which this would not be morally reprehinsible
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u/swimsfree 14h ago
Allow me to help you, then.
In Texas, miscarriages after six weeks can be prosecuted as intentional abortions. A miscarriage is a spontaneous abortion. With no proof of whether it was intentional or not, I could see how a scared woman might panic and run.
Or perhaps she was physically assaulted and that induced the miscarriage. Perhaps the baby’s father didn’t want her to be pregnant anymore and beat her until she wasn’t.
Perhaps she is undocumented and feared being taken by ICE if she went to a hospital for her miscarriage. Perhaps she already has children she doesn’t want to be separated from.
Of course none of those things make abandoning an unviable fetus in a park okay. But people in dire circumstances often have to make tough decisions and when we limit their avenues for safely seeking help and care, they’re more likely to do what they think is safest in the moment, even if it’s a poor choice overall. If we had a culture that cared about women’s lives and health, and took allegations of assault seriously, this probably wouldn’t have happened.
It is much more likely that something terrible happened rather than what you’re assuming: that someone callously abandoned a dead fetus in a park because they’re lazy or just plain fucked up or whatever.
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u/envy1890 14h ago
“Allow me to help you then” Do you actually think any of those are more likely? We will see.
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u/Ok-Tale1339 10h ago
Ditto to what swimsfree said. Also, she could have gone to the hospital and was refused care. Which happens all the time. Here are a few examples of women around the area who have gone to the hospital to receive life-saving care and been turned away. (all the women I have named have given multiple interviews. I am in no way “outing them”.)
Lynn Calloway went to BSW and Ascension here in Austin and was refused any help, despite heavy bleeding, infection and severe pain. She was forced to wait days and her health rapidly declined before receiving care.
Or Taylor Edwards, also in Austin, was refused treatment for a fatal fetal diagnosis. She began vomiting and went into early labor before she was forced to flee the state to receive care.
Or Kyleigh Thurman from Round Rock who had an ectopic pregnancy but unable to receive care. She had to wait until her condition became “life threatening enough” to be addressed. She went into toxic shock, went septic and her fallopian tube ruptured. She’ll never be able to have children.
Or Kate Cox in Dallas who sought treatment after her fetus was given a fatal dx. When she was refused care, she sued the state. Ken Paxton himself stepped in to stop her from receiving healthcare. She was also forced to flee the state to receive care.
So then, let’s add in mental illness. Or an unstable living situation. Or an abusive boyfriend/husband. Or they’re a kid. —- So then they’re bleeding, sick, scared and have been refused any help. There are no options, there is no way out. And they’re getting sicker by the hour. This is exactly the zone where tragedy occurs. And it’s awful. And sickening and heartbreaking. And I’m not saying it’s okay that the tragedy occurs - it’s absolutely not. But the blame is on us. We created that situation for her.
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u/lascriptori 16h ago
There’s a lot of misinformation on this thread. It was a fetus that was early in gestation (younger than 20 weeks). It theoretically could have been a self induced abortion but the most likely scenario seems like a homeless woman who had a miscarriage (which is still really sad for a number of reasons).