A teen couple in North Carolina is facing multiple charges after the girlfriend allegedly took abortion drugs at 31 weeks gestation and gave birth to a live baby on the toilet.

Key Takeaways:

• Syeisha Johnson allegedly took abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol at 31 weeks.

• She gave birth to a baby on a toilet. After 911 was called, first responders found the baby, still in the toilet, with a pulse.

• Johnson is facing charges of assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury, and the baby's father Elijah Speight is facing a charge of negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury.

• The couple appeared in court on Wednesday and they have both been released on bond.

• Babies born at 31 weeks have a 90% to 95% chance of survival, with a 99% chance in more advanced NICUs.

The Details:

According to local reports, Syeisha Johnson, 18, and Elijah Speight, 19, were arrested on Tuesday nearly one week after first responders were called to a home at which a newborn baby was found with a pulse in a toilet.

Johnson is charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child, and negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury. Speight is charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child.

Police believe that Johnson took the two drugs of the abortion pill regimen —mifepristone and misoprostol — on July 26 "in an attempt to terminate her pregnancy early." She allegedly didn't learn she was pregnant until she was 20 weeks along in June.

She is believed to have ordered the abortion drugs online from Virginia and began taking them a few days before the baby was born at 31 weeks — well into the third trimester.

Legal battle over abortion pills in Durham after baby found in toilet

According to a report from a detective, “On July 29, 2026, Ms. Johnson began having abdominal pain and sat down during the day to help with the pain. She sat on the toilet and gave birth to a child.”

According to Assistant Public Defender Barbara Lagemann, Johnson called 911, which is "exactly what we would expect her to do, which is getting care for her child."

Police arrived to find the baby in the toilet with a pulse. The baby weighed 5.5 pounds and first responders performed CPR. The baby was taken to Duke Medical Center and the abortion drugs were located in Johnson's purse.

What To Know:

The abortion pill regimen is approved by the FDA for use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, but online, telehealth, and in-person abortion pill distributors, including Planned Parenthood, have been flouting this rule without repercussions.

1st Trimester Abortion | The Abortion Pill | What Is Abortion?

In addition, the abortion industry's "no-test" protocol for the abortion pill regimen, long planned by the industry and put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, doesn't require women to receive so much as a positive pregnancy test to obtain the drugs.

One Planned Parenthood affiliate has even begun giving out the pills "just in case" a woman becomes pregnant, which is a clear violation of the FDA's REMS safety rules on the drug mifepristone, which has a black box warning for sepsis risk.

Yet, neither the abortion pill's manufacturers nor the FDA appear to be taking any action against those who violate the rules.

Situations like this one in North Carolina have happened before (not just in the U.S.) and are likely to become even more common because of the abortion industry's continued disregard for the safety of women or preborn children.

Zoom Out:

North Carolina's pro-life law, S.B. 20, protects preborn children from abortion beginning at 12 weeks and six days; however, women who are pregnant as the result of rape can have an abortion through 20 weeks (five months) and a woman whose baby has received a "life-threatening" health diagnosis can have an abortion through 24 weeks (six months).

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According to the law group Shipman & Goodwin LLP, "It is not clear, but appears likely from the statutory text, that a woman undergoing an abortion in addition to any providers involved, are violating these criminal laws. Further, the ... bill creates a new statute, G.S. § 14-44.1, which provides for a $5,000 fine for the provision of abortion-inducing drugs (including their purchase, procurement, mailing, and shipment) to pregnant women in North Carolina."

Separately, North Carolina Article 6A — "Unborn Victims" — lists the penalties for violations against preborn children, including "Assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child." This is one of the charges against both Johnson and Speight. It states (emphases added):

§ 14-23.5.  Assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child; penalty.

(a) A person is guilty of the separate offense of assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child if the person commits a battery on the mother of the unborn child and the child is subsequently born alive and suffered serious bodily harm as a result of the battery.

(b) For purposes of this section, "serious bodily harm" is defined as bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death, or that causes serious permanent disfigurement, coma, a permanent or protracted condition that causes extreme pain, or permanent or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ, or that results in prolonged hospitalization, or causes the birth of the unborn child prior to 37-weeks gestation, if the child weighs 2,500 grams or less at the time of birth.

(c) Penalty. - Any person who commits an offense under this section shall be guilty of a Class F felony. (2011-60, s. 2.)

The baby in this case was born at 31 weeks and weighed about 2,495 grams.

Under the charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, anything can be considered a deadly weapon (according to the Law Office of Dewey Brinkley), as long as prosecutors can prove that there was intent to kill.

The negligent child abuse charges are likely due to the child being left in the toilet since the law states that such charges can be filed when a caregiver or parent fails to provide proper protection or medical safety for a child.

What's Happening Now:

Johnson and Speight appeared in court on Wednesday and their defense team argued that North Carolina protects pregnant women from prosecution concerning the assault of their own preborn child.

“Statute does require that the alleged ‘victim’ be living at the time of the assault,” Assistant Public Defender Lagemann said. “In order to be living, one must be born.”

According to biology, preborn humans are alive in the womb as they have heartbeats and are growing.

Fox News 8 reported that the couple posted bail after the judge gave them each a $1,000 secured bond.

“These two young people are not a danger to our community,” Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry said. “They are very young and … it’s important that they be with their families and be able to defend themselves appropriately. My goal always is to get to the truth and to justice and once we review the evidence, we’ll know where we’re going to go from here.”

The Bottom Line:

The further along in pregnancy the abortion pill is taken, the less likely it is to work properly and the greater the risk of complications.

In addition, babies born as young as 21 weeks are capable of surviving with medical care; babies born at 31 weeks have a 90% to 95% chance of survival. At more advanced neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), babies have a 99% chance of survival when born at 31 weeks.