A Nevada mother who served two years in prison after her miscarriage was blamed on drug use has received a $1.6 million settlement from the state.
Patience Rousseau, 34, was the only person ever convicted under an obscure 1911 Nevada law that bars women from ending a pregnancy after the 24th week through drug use, a statute her lawyer noted had been on the books since before women gained the right to vote in the state.
The former Winnemucca resident, then living under the name Patience Frazier, was 26 and homeless with her two young sons when she discovered her pregnancy in 2018. Unable to make the 165-mile trip to Reno for an abortion, she researched home remedies and began lifting heavy objects and consuming large amounts of cinnamon, believing it would terminate the pregnancy.
Two months later, she delivered a stillborn baby boy she named Able, burying his remains in her yard. She later posted on Facebook beside a photo of the makeshift grave: “I’m so sorry Abel. I’m sorry I’m a horrible person I don’t deserve to continue after what I did.”
Investigators initially attempted to link the death to her cinnamon consumption, a theory lacking scientific support, but ultimately built their case around her use of methamphetamine, cannabis and tobacco. Prosecutors charged her under the 1911 law, which had never been used in 115 years, and secured a manslaughter conviction that sent her to prison starting in 2019.
Her conviction was vacated in 2021 after her lawyers successfully argued that Rousseau, a longtime drug user, could not have known precisely when she became pregnant and therefore when she crossed the 24-week threshold. They also contended it was impossible to determine whether the miscarriage resulted from her drug use or whether she had used drugs specifically intending to end the pregnancy.
Rousseau received $1.2 million last week, with the remainder allocated to legal fees. She told the Nevada Independent she plans to pay off her new house in South Dakota, buy her mother a car, and open a store selling rare aquatic plants and animals.
“They fought so much to avoid paying me,” she complained. “I went through so much and so did my children, who are still facing these issues. It’s not fair.”
The state had initially offered just $100,000 before her attorneys secured the larger amount.
Rousseau says she is now sober and living in South Dakota with her three sons, ages 4, 7 and 9, while another child resides with an estranged relative. She has no intention of returning to the state where she was prosecuted.
“I don’t ever want to come back to Nevada again, or honestly ever see any of the people in Winnemucca again,” she said. “They ruined it for me.”
She also offered broader reflection on how people struggling with addiction should be treated. “Instead of looking at everybody like they are a criminal, look at them like they have a chance in life with the right direction,” Rousseau said.
The case unfolded against a shifting national landscape on reproductive rights, with about half of US states enacting total abortion bans or severe gestational limits following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Rousseau’s settlement comes as Nevada lawmakers have faced renewed scrutiny over archaic statutes still on the books.