A mother spared from prison finds her purpose

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Brandy Moore of Sebastopol, Mississippi, admits she’s ashamed of the choice to use crystal meth early in her pregnancy with her now 5-year-old daughter, Remy.

She debated talking about her experience but ultimately decided it’s worth it, whatever backlash might come, if it helps other women.

“I talked to myself and I said, ‘Look, you were spared from prison. So, this is what your purpose is – to help other women, help other families, get them the resources that they need, to the people that they can talk to,’” she says, “because it could have turned out totally different for me.”

Moore says when she first found out she was pregnant, she was in love with a man who she thought was in love with her. But when she told him the news, he didn’t want anything to do with her or the baby.

“And I was jobless at the time. My local church that I was a member of had kicked me out because I was a fornicator,” she says. “So I had my back up against the wall, and that ultimately led to a spiral in my mental health.”

Moore says she used crystal meth to cope. She was adamant about getting an abortion – which was legal at the time but isn’t anymore in Mississippi.

At about four months pregnant, Moore says she had a spiritual awakening at a local church that changed her path.

“I got in there, and the preacher didn't touch me, but he prayed over me, and it just reaffirmed that I wanted that connection with God that I had had all my life,” she says. “So that's when I decided I was going to quit crystal meth.”

Moore says she decided she did not want an abortion and went on to give birth to a healthy baby girl named Remy in 2019.

This outcome is not always the case for babies born to mothers who have used drugs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that using drugs during pregnancy is linked to serious negative health outcomes for babies and pregnant people, such as preterm birth, stillbirth and other complications.

It wasn’t until May of 2024 that Moore was arrested on charges connected to her pregnancy: aggravated assault to an unborn child and domestic violence to an unborn child. Facing decades in prison, she reached out to Mississippi Today, which has been reporting on cases like hers for years.

“I suffered my consequences with the shame and the guilt that I felt,” Moore says. “I knew that I didn't deserve to spend 20 years in prison.”

Investigative reporter Anna Wolfe says her and her team’s reporting ramped up in 2023 as a result of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court and abortion becoming illegal in Mississippi.

“We wanted to see how local law enforcement and prosecutors were punishing women for their pregnancy outcomes already, and then certainly to see if those efforts had increased as a result of this new landscape,” Wolfe says.

That reporting not only led to Moore's charges being dropped but ultimately helped four other women in a similar situation get released from prison.

“I think the conversation really is about: this thing has taken place and what's the proper way to address it now? And is sending a woman to prison going to result in a decrease in harm?” Wolfe says. “I think that most people, including now we've seen some prosecutors who have actually brought these charges, that they would agree that that's not the proper recourse.”

Wolfe says she talked to the prosecutor about Moore’s case, and he essentially changed his mind. He agreed that putting Moore in the legal system wasn’t the appropriate response, then dropped the charges against her.

“He also shared with us 10 other cases of women that he had prosecuted for the same scenario,” Wolfe says. “And it wasn't until I drove around to three different courthouses in this central Mississippi district that I was able to reveal that there were women actually in prison.”

Wolfe says the four incarcerated women were released after her story about Moore was published.

Looking back at her pregnancy, Moore says she wishes she had more resources. She lives in a rural town about an hour away from a hospital.

But what would have helped the most, she says, is an empathetic doctor with whom she could be honest about her struggles.

“I felt like I was being judged because I was on Medicaid and I was a single mother,” she says. “And if I would have had a doctor that [I] would have been able to talk to and express my feelings to, that would have made a lot of a difference.”

Today, Moore says her daughter, Remy, the alleged victim in all of this, is far from a victim.

“She is a T-ball player, she bats left and right-handed. Very outspoken. Her teacher said she's very confident,” Moore says. “Just a blonde, blue-eyed little angel.”

Ashley Locke produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Locke also adapted it for the web.