A Howard County woman sentenced to 30 years in prison for killing her newborn baby will get a new trial, the Supreme Court of Maryland ruled last week.

Moira Akers, 43, of Columbia, was convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in 2022 in the death of her newborn baby. When police investigators found the newborn inside of a zipped plastic bag hidden in Akers’ home, an autopsy ruled the boy was born alive and healthy, and died of asphyxiation and exposure. Akers, a married mother of two, maintains the baby was stillborn.

Evidence admitted during Akers’ trial showed she searched for the following terms in the months before she gave birth on Nov. 1, 2018:

“rue tea for abortion”

“over the counter pills that cause miscarriage”

“planned parenthood”

“miscarriage at 7 weeks”

Prosecutors argued the searches spoke to Akers’ intent and credibility. The Supreme Court of Maryland ruled Wednesday those searches should have been inadmissible.

“Ms. Akers had a constitutionally and statutorily protected right to search for information on how to terminate her pregnancy, including searching for options on how to terminate the pregnancy through self-managed care,” Justice Brynja M. Booth wrote in the majority opinion. “She told the detective and social workers at the hospital that she intended to give the baby to a safe haven. That Ms. Akers conducted termination searches months before delivery did not make her safe haven plan less probable.”

The court also considered whether Akers not receiving prenatal care was relevant evidence. The prosecution argued during the appellate process that while Akers received prenatal care for her other pregnancies, the disparate treatment between pregnancies could be used to show Akers didn’t want the child to be born.

Women are not obligated to seek out such care, the ruling said. And it’s not uncommon for women to forgo prenatal care.

“We hold that evidence that a woman has forgone prenatal care, by itself, is ordinarily irrelevant to an intent to kill or harm a live baby at birth,” the ruling said. “It is too ambiguous, speculative, and equivocal to infer that a woman who forgoes prenatal care while pregnant is more likely to kill or harm a live human being.”

Justice Shirley M. Watts concurred, with Justices Jonathan Biran and Steven B. Gould dissenting.

“Motive is a relevant issue in a murder case, and no less so when the victim is a newborn baby,” Gould wrote in his dissent. “To find that the abortion evidence was relevant to Ms. Akers’ state of mind, one need not equate abortion to murder, put it on the same moral plane as murder, or find that considering an abortion indicates a proclivity to commit murder. Nor does a finding that such evidence was relevant undermine, in any way, the protected status in Maryland of a woman’s right to choose.”

The Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the Supreme Court of Maryland ruling.

“This is an important decision, not just for Ms. Akers, but for all women in Maryland,” said retired Judge Gary E. Bair, who argued the case before the Maryland Supreme Court. “We appreciate the Court’s thoughtful assessment of a woman’s right in Maryland to consider terminating a pregnancy and the Court’s recognition that such a decision does not show an intent to kill a child.”

The ACLU, which filed an amicus brief in the case, said the court made the right decision, but that its fight for reproductive justice continues.

“This ruling should serve as a reminder that even states that have safeguarded abortion are not immune to unjust prosecutorial threats,” said Lauren Johnson, director of the ACLU’s Abortion Criminal Defense Initiative. “It’s crucial that we stay vigilant. We must continue to fight back against the harm that the state inflicts against pregnant people. The ACLU remains committed to fighting for reproductive freedom across our country.”

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