Occupy Seattle Protester Claims Police Caused Her Miscarriage

A pregnant woman who was pepper sprayed during the Occupy Seattle protests claims she suffered a miscarriage five days later as a result of her injuries.

Jennifer Fox, 19, claims that she was three months pregnant when she was struck in the stomach by a policeman's foot and again by an officer's bicycle as police tried to remove marchers on November 15.

"I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in. I was screaming, 'I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out,'" Fox told the alternative Seattle news site The Stranger.

Shortly after this incident, Fox said a police officer raised his foot and hit her in the stomach before a second officer pushed his bicycle into the crowd, hitting Fox once again.

"Right before I turned, both cops lifted their pepper spray and sprayed me. My eyes puffed up and my eyes swelled shut," she said.

UC Davis Pepper Spray Victims to Have Medical Bills Paid by University

Fox went to the Harborview Medical Centre that night to have an ultrasound test. Although no problems were indicated at the time, a few days later she said she started to feel sick, experienced stomach cramps and thought she was going to pass out.

When she returned to the medical centre on 20 November, she was diagnosed with having suffered a miscarriage.

"They said the damage was from the kick and that the pepper spray got to it [the foetus], too," Fox said.

Fox said she is currently homeless and has been camping with the Occupy Seattle protesters since they began in Westlake Park.

Dominic Holden, the author of The Stranger, said that Fox did not provide him with any medical records to confirm that she had suffered a miscarriage but would request a copy from the medical centre.

A video of Fox taken shortly after she was pepper sprayed can be seen below: