Brittany Watts, 33, was charged after police searched her toilet following her miscarriage in September.

Brittany Watts, 33, was charged after police searched her toilet following her miscarriage in September.

A Black woman in Ohio has been charged with a felony for abuse of a corpse after she miscarried into her toilet, according to a criminal complaint, and reproductive rights experts are warning that it could set a dangerous precedent if she is convicted.

The attorney for Brittany Watts and a campaign organized on her behalf called the charges against her unjust, saying they feared the case could open the door to similar prosecutions and lawsuits over miscarriages nationwide.

Just hours after Watts, 33, was admitted to a hospital for a life-threatening hemorrhage after she miscarried in her bathroom Sep. 22, police removed her toilet from her home and searched it for fetal remains, according to a GoFundMe set up to fund her legal expenses and home repairs.

“Ms. Watts suffered a tragic and dangerous miscarriage that jeopardized her own life. Rather than focusing on healing physically and emotionally, she was arrested and charged with a felony and is fighting for her freedom and reputation,” her attorney, Traci Timko, said in a statement.

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    654·
    11 months ago

    Y’all, she refused medical treatment, twice. Abortion law was never on the table. This story omits those facts, others do not. I’ve read three stories about this case, and this one happily skips over a few pertinent details. And I’m always happy to be proven wrong, have a chance to learn.

    This was a women under extreme stress who made a few bad choices. And no, there should have been no charges given the circumstances. But at no point was she refused an abortion, and at no point were doctors considering the law.

    This sad tale was nothing like what happened to the woman in Texas.

    • derf82@lemmy.worldEnglish
      342·
      11 months ago

      There was a well publicized case where a raped 10 year old in Ohio had to leave the state for an abortion. Of course she would not seek an abortion, it was well documented they were not available in Ohio.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
      302·
      11 months ago

      How do you know she refused treatment? It sounds like she wanted treatment and wasn’t given it.

    • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      181·
      11 months ago

      You keep repeating this on multiple related posts, without sources, when every single account I have read says she was in and out of the hospital miscarrying before she finally did at home, and then went back to the hospital afterward, where she was inpatient for days. She left the hospital because she wasn’t getting any help; they were all stuck on the new law while her body was unable to expel the fetus quickly. They did NOT offer her any abortion or assistance with moving the miscarriage along at all, which is why she kept going home AMA.

      December 15
      https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/12/15/ohio-woman-miscarriage-abuse-of-corpse-grand-jury/
      Archive link: https://archive.is/2rSiE

      December 16
      https://apnews.com/article/ohio-miscarriage-prosecution-brittany-watts-b8090abfb5994b8a23457b80cf3f27ce

      December 19
      https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/19/us/brittany-watts-miscarriage-criminal-charge/index.html

      From WaPo, linked above:

      Brittany Watts was still hooked to an IV, sick for almost a week from a potentially fatal miscarriage, when a detective from the Warren Police Department in Ohio stepped into her hospital room. He assured her that she wasn’t in any trouble.

      For more than an hour, Detective Nick Carney interviewed Watts, 33, about the details of that morning and the whereabouts of the nearly 22-week-old fetus that was declared nonviable two days earlier. As Watts described miscarrying in her bathroom, a nurse at Mercy Health — St. Joseph Warren Hospital rubbed her shoulders and told her everything would be okay, Watts told The Washington Post in a series of text messages. Two weeks later, Carney arrested Watts on charges of felony abuse of a corpse for how she handled the remains from her pregnancy. If indicted and found guilty, she faces up to a year in prison along with a fine of up to $2,500, her lawyer said.

      To describe Watts’s experience, The Washington Post reviewed police reports, call recordings and more than 600 pages of medical records, interviewed her lawyer, and spoke to Watts via text message. (emphasis mine)

      Again, you don’t need to make anything up. If you find yourself having to lie, maybe your point is not as worthy as you think it is.

    • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
      16·
      11 months ago

      Maybe if health care wasn’t hidden behind a pay wall and maybe if health care in America didn’t have a history of abusing minority women. And any treatment she received wouldnt have saved the fetus. Also, she was afraid any treatment would have resulted in her being imprisoned anyways. Abortion bans make an already complicated situation like pregnancy even more complicated for no reason. Maybe you should read up on this situation.