KINGSLAND, Ga. — After spending almost three weeks behind bars, a 31-year-old Georgia woman was released when a judge set her bond at just one dollar during her court appearance.

Alexia Moore was freed from the Camden County jail on Monday upon paying a total of $2,001 in bond, which included one dollar specifically for the murder charge. The presiding judge, expressing skepticism about the charge, described it as “extremely problematic” and “a hard charge to convict upon.”

The legal proceedings began on December 30, 2025, when Moore visited a hospital in Camden County, Georgia, suffering from stomach pain. Upon arrival, medical personnel discovered she was pregnant.

Moore admitted to taking misoprostol, a medication used for abortions, and oxycodone, a pain reliever. Medical records indicated she was approximately 22 to 24 weeks pregnant at the time.

At the hospital, a baby girl was delivered. As detailed in court documents, the infant lived for about an hour before being pronounced dead.

More than two months later, on March 4, Kingsland police showed up and arrested Moore, charging her with felony murder.

Moore was well beyond six weeks, which is around the deadline for legal abortions under Georgia’s heartbeat law — but it is not the law she was actually charged under.

Moore was charged under Georgia’s homicide law, specifically, murder.

Allison Whelan, an assistant law professor at Georgia State University College of Law, said that distinction is important and has been widely missed.

“She is being charged under Georgia’s homicide law — not under Georgia’s criminal abortion law,” Whelan said. “And I think that’s an important distinction to make, because a lot of the reporting has been mixing those two issues.”

Buried inside Georgia’s heartbeat law, officially called the LIFE Act, is something called a fetal personhood provision. In plain language, it means Georgia law considers an unborn child a legal person from the moment of conception.

That personhood definition is what police appear to be using as the hook for a murder charge. Whelan said the argument is that if the unborn baby is legally a person under Georgia law, and Moore intentionally took pills knowing it would end the pregnancy, then she killed a person.

“They could argue that doing this abortion was a homicide — because the fetus was a person,” Whelan explained.

The arrest warrant backs this up. It states that Moore told nursing staff, “I know my infant is suffering, because I am the one who did the abortion. I want her to die.” Police said that the statement shows intent to kill.

But Whelan points out that even that statement is legally complicated. Moore did not do anything to the baby after it was born. The alleged intent to kill happened while the baby was still inside her body, which means the entire case rests on the idea that the fetus was already a legal person at that point.

Whelan said Georgia’s abortion law is pretty vague about whether a pregnant woman herself can be charged. Georgia’s definition of abortion includes the word “using” — meaning someone who uses a drug to end a pregnancy. Whelan said a prosecutor who wanted to make a point could potentially use that vague language to charge Moore under the abortion law, too, even if the murder charge doesn’t work out.

“A prosecutor who really wants to send a message could try to interpret the open-ended, vague language of the LIFE Act to bring a criminal abortion charge,” Whelan said. “It’s essentially telling people — even if we can’t get you on murder, we’ll at least try to make clear that what you are doing is wrong in the eyes of the law.”

Back in 2015, before Georgia’s heartbeat law even existed, a woman was charged under the same homicide law in a nearly identical situation involving abortion pills. That case was eventually dismissed. Prosecutors said at the time that Georgia’s common law actually provides a kind of legal immunity to pregnant women in situations like this, meaning they cannot be charged with homicide for ending their own pregnancy.

Whelan raises the question of why the same charge is being brought again now, a decade later.

“It’s very interesting to see this very similar case being brought — despite that prior statement by a prosecutor where they explicitly said that Georgia law does not allow a pregnant person to be charged with murder,” Whelan said.

We reached out to Kingsland Police Chief Rick Evans. He declined to release any additional information and directed us to the District Attorney’s office. We reached out to the District Attorney’s office, but did not receive an immediate response.

Moore’s attorney declined an on-camera interview. The Georgia Public Defender Council, which is representing Moore, released a statement saying she is entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence, and that they will not comment on legal strategy while the case is active.

Inside the courtroom on Monday, the District Attorney revealed that police never even consulted his office before charging Moore with murder. He did not oppose the one-dollar bond.

Whelan said for this murder charge to actually go to trial, the District Attorney would need to convince a grand jury to formally indict Moore. That has not happened yet.

She added that if the DA decides the murder charge won’t hold up, he could potentially pursue lesser charges, like possession of a controlled substance for the oxycodone, or possession of a prescription drug without a prescription for the misoprostol. Those would be significantly less serious charges, but Whelan said a prosecutor might see them as a way to still make a legal statement.

Moore’s next court date has not yet been set.