A 31-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Kingsland, Georgia, has been charged with attempted murder, the first time that a mother has been charged under Georgia’s restrictive abortion law.

The arrest comes two months after Alexia Moore was rushed to the emergency room in Camden County, pregnant and in extreme pain. Doctors at the Southeast Georgia Health System hospital delivered a severely premature baby girl who lived for approximately two hours, according to police.  

On March 4, Kingsland Police charged Moore with attempted murder and possession of a controlled substance and dangerous drug for what they allege was an attempted illegal abortion.

Moore, who is in Camden County jail awaiting arraignment, could not be reached for comment. Her mother, Edith Moore, who is a local pastor, described her daughter as a patriot and excellent mother, adding that the situation has created fear and anxiety for Moore’s 6-year-old and 9-year-old children, who don’t understand why their mother is in jail.

“As a mother, and me talking as a grandma, she’s an excellent mother. I believe her children are her life. She has been a good provider for her children,” Edith Moore said.

The arrest illustrates the complex and fraught nature of Georgia’s controversial law, known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, which makes abortion illegal after cardiac activity is detected in a fetus, normally at about six weeks.  

A security guard at Southeast Georgia Health System’s St. Marys hospital called local law enforcement to investigate Moore “after ER staff discovered that Moore had attempted to abort the child,” according to the arrest report. Moore’s friend, who came to the hospital on December 30, told a responding police officer that Moore had used the abortion medication misoprostol and had taken pain medication, according to the report.

Kingsland Police cited Moore’s health records and blood work, as well as the deceased infant’s blood work, as among the evidence used to charge her. The report also cited information obtained from Moore while she was recovering in the ER and from Moore’s friend, who was in the hospital waiting room. 

The arrest report does not cite a search warrant, nor does it say how many weeks pregnant Moore was when she was admitted to the hospital emergency room. 

Southeast Georgia Health System declined to answer questions about whether the security guard followed hospital policy. The hospital also declined to answer questions about the circumstances under which it would share patient information with law enforcement or whether it has provided training to staff on the Georgia LIFE Act. 

The hospital “places the highest priority on the care of its patients and is unable to comment on matters that might relate to patient care,” Marketing Director Jenni Morris said in a statement.

Before the arrest

Moore grew up in Kingsland and, after graduating from Camden County High School, joined the U.S. Army. She was later discharged with 100 percent disability benefits after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to her mother. 

Edith Moore said that Alexia, who was adopted, experienced a lot of hardship throughout her life, which she said has led to her making some mistakes.  

“She never could understand being adopted. I believe that was traumatic. I believe going into the military, and winding up with PTSD… It was trauma after trauma, it was situation after situation,” Edith Moore said of her daughter. 

The circumstances leading to Moore losing her pregnancy at the end of December are unclear, with some of her friends contradicting the police narrative.

According to the Kingsland arrest report, police recovered a blue medicine bottle labeled with Alexia Moore’s name and “misoprostol,” with a fill date of November 20, 2025. The bottle lacked a physician’s name, a pharmacy’s name or any warning labels. The police investigator concluded that the pills were purchased online. 

Misoprostol is a commonly prescribed medication that can induce a medical abortion. 

A friend who helped get Moore to the emergency room told the police officer that Moore had consumed the medication at her home. The friend said Moore was in so much pain on the morning of December 30 that the friend called 911. 

The friend brought the medication bottle to the ER, according to the arrest report.

A police investigator also spoke to Moore while she was still at the hospital, according to the arrest report.

The police report does not cite any conversations with medical staff, only the security guard, who is a retired Camden County sheriff’s deputy.

Friend describes challenge

Another friend of Moore who spoke to The Current after her arrest said that Moore was struggling with the idea of becoming a mother again. 

This friend, who did not want to speak on the record because of the ongoing criminal investigation, said Moore had not taken any abortion pills. Instead, she said, Moore had taken a prescription pain pill before being admitted to the ER. 

“I remember her calling me, freaking out. She was bawling her eyes out. She said she didn’t know what to do,” the woman said. “‘If worse comes to worst,’ I said, ‘If you 100 percent go through with having the baby, and if you don’t want it, you can always give it to me, and you know, it’ll be taken care of.’” 

This friend added that Moore does not deserve to be in jail, that she is a loving mother who takes care of her children.

“She is a great person. She is super bright. She has two amazing little boys that she’s raising to be young men. It’s just, it’s mind-blowing that she got charged with that over something like this. This is just crazy,” the friend said. 

Edith Moore said the first time she heard that her daughter had been pregnant was New Year’s Day, after Moore’s visit to the emergency room. 

Law enforcement involvement

Camden County Sheriff Kevin Chaney said that the hospital’s disclosure about Moore’s alleged abortion attempt is part of a cooperative relationship with Camden County law enforcement agencies.

The security guard who called the police had previously worked at the St. Marys Police Department as well as the Camden County Sheriff’s Office. She officially left her position at the sheriff’s department on July 7, 2025, but began working security at the hospital on February 24, 2025. 

Security guards, Chaney said, have a duty to report suspicious behavior.

“They’re law enforcement at the hospital, so they’re not just security officers. They’re actually sworn peace officers in the state of Georgia. And plus your mandated reports and stuff like that. Along those lines, we share information constantly,” Chaney said. 

Edith Moore says she worries about her daughter’s mental state while in jail and believes she is suffering postpartum depression. 

Chaney said that he has housed Moore in a cell by herself, and they are monitoring her health. 

“There are things that we watch, we look for as far as any medical situation, and if something comes up, we’ll make sure we contact the nurse and the doctors as well, and then if we need to take them to the hospital. But anytime somebody comes in, and we know that they had something done coming from a hospital, then we take extra special attention to them,” he said. 

Her mother said Moore is scheduled for a hearing on Monday, and the family is awaiting the district attorney’s decision about whether there is sufficient evidence to bring an indictment on attempted murder charges. 

Edith Moore hopes that prosecutors will treat her daughter sympathetically. “As a mother, I could say that she’s been a good daughter number one, a good person when it comes to her siblings. She’s a decent person who is caught up in her circumstances,” she said.

This article first appeared on The Current and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.