What to Know
In 2018, Patience Frazier, now Rousseau, was a 26-year-old expectant mother living in rural Nevada. She’d recently experienced homelessness with her two older sons and was trying her best to get by. Rousseau wanted to terminate her pregnancy, but the closest abortion clinic to her home in Winnemucca was more than a two-hour drive to Reno. She reportedly attempted to induce a miscarriage naturally, and she gave birth to a stillborn son. Rosseau named the baby boy Abel and buried him in the backyard.
She was ultimately arrested and convicted of manslaughter and spent two years in prison. Nearly a decade later, a court overturned her conviction, and Humboldt County, Nevada, paid her $1.6 million in damages.
Rousseau reportedly lived a very difficult life.
According to a report in the Nevada Independent, Rousseau lived in Winnemucca with her two sons when she discovered she was pregnant with her third baby. She had a history of depression and abuse and did not feel equipped to raise a third child.
Rousseau had very irregular periods and had no idea how far along she was in her pregnancy. She researched natural ways to induce a miscarriage because her car could not get her to Reno, and she had no other ride.
Rousseau reportedly ate large amounts of cinnamon and lifted heavy objects, hoping to miscarry. No one can say with certainty whether that is what caused her to lose her baby on April 21, 2018, but Rousseau put her stillborn son’s remains in the arms of a stuffed animal and buried Abel in the backyard. She placed a cross above the makeshift grave, which apparently caught the attention of her neighbors.
Police showed up at Rousseau’s door.
More than a month after her miscarriage, investigators showed up at the home where Rousseau lived, known for drug activity, and asked her about the cross. Police dug up the remains and took them to a Washoe County Crime Laboratory. Experts determined the fetus was between 28 and 32 weeks’ gestation and had trace amounts of methamphetamine and marijuana in his system.
Police arrested Rousseau, and prosecutors charged her with concealing a birth, a gross misdemeanor, and manslaughter, a felony, under a strange Nevada abortion law from 1911. The law states that a woman cannot terminate a pregnancy using “any drug, medicine or substance, or any instrument or other means” after 24 weeks’ gestation. Rousseau pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2019, and a judge sentenced her to 30 months to 96 months.
A court overturned her conviction.
Rousseau spent a little more than two years in prison before a judge vacated her conviction in 2021 for ineffective assistance of counsel. Humboldt County officials wanted to charge Rousseau again, but a judge dismissed the case with prejudice in 2025. That means Rousseau will never have to fight the charges again.
Laura FitzSimmons, a Carson City-based attorney, took over Rousseau’s case, pro bono, not just to help her, but to help all women in Nevada. Fitzsimmons told the Nevada Independent Rousseaus is the only woman ever convicted for violating the 1911 law.
Nearly a decade later, Rousseau saw a small bit of justice.
Winning a $1.6 million judgment pales in comparison to two years in prison, losing that time with her children, and being labeled a “baby killer” by strangers who knew nothing about her story. Attorneys who represent Rousseau claim the law is unconstitutional and Nevada, a pro-choice state, is the only state in the country that penalizes women in such a cruel way. She told the Nevada Independent she has a message for those who wanted so badly to convict her. She wants them to “step off their little pedestal. … 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 plans to use the settlement money to rebuild her life in South Dakota, where she now lives with three children. She said she will never go back to Nevada again.
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