Nevada woman receives $1.6 million settlement after conviction was overturned

Patience Rousseau was homeless and struggling with drug addiction when she learned she was pregnant in Nevada in 2018.

Unable to travel to Reno for an abortion, she tried to end the pregnancy herself, and later gave birth to a stillborn boy.

In 2019, she was convicted of manslaughter under a Nevada law dating to 1911 that made it illegal to intentionally end a pregnancy after 24 weeks using drugs.

Her lawyers challenged the conviction, saying there was no evidence she had used drugs to end the pregnancy and that she did not know how far along she was.

After Rousseau spent two years in prison, her conviction was overturned in 2021.

Nevada officials first offered her $100,000, but a later settlement was worth $1.6 million; she received $1.2 million after legal fees.

She says she plans to pay off her home in South Dakota, buy her mother a car and open a shop selling rare aquatic plants and animals.