cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9769214
An Ohio woman who had sought treatment at a hospital before suffering a miscarriage and passing her nonviable fetus in her bathroom now faces a criminal charge, her attorney told CNN.
Brittany Watts, 33, of Warren, has been charged with felony abuse of a corpse, Trumbull County court records show.
“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,” her attorney, Traci Timko, told CNN in an email.
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Though a coroner’s office report said the fetus was not viable and had died in the womb, Watts’ case highlights the extent to which prosecutors can charge a woman whose pregnancy has ended – whether by abortion or miscarriage.
Didn’t the corpse technically abuse her, instead?
I’m not sure how the hell this is even happening in Ohio with the new state constitutional amendment they passed.
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Remember how we all said this exact shit would happen and conservatives fell over themselves to say we were just being dramatic and that nobody would ever mistake a miscarriage for an abortion?
Pepperidge Farm remembers
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An Ohio woman who had sought treatment at a hospital before suffering a miscarriage and passing her nonviable fetus in her bathroom now faces a criminal charge, her attorney told CNN.
Though a coroner’s office report said the fetus was not viable and had died in the womb, Watts’ case highlights the extent to which prosecutors can charge a woman whose pregnancy has ended – whether by abortion or miscarriage.
When she was first admitted to the Labor and Delivery Department at St. Joseph’s Hospital on September 19, “She was diagnosed with premature rupture of membranes and severe oligohydramnios,” the report states.
But for hours doctors and officials mulled the ethics of inducing labor for a woman who had been diagnosed with preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), had no detectable amniotic fluid, was bleeding vaginally and had advanced cervical dilation, the Post reported.
“Near the side of the garage, next to a large trash can, there was a pile of tissue, blood and what appeared to be paper towels in the weeds,” the coroner’s office investigator, Alaina Jamison, wrote in the report.
“As citizens, we are outraged that the criminal justice system is being used to punish Ms. Watts who, like thousands of women each year, spontaneously miscarried a non-viable fetus into a toilet and then flushed,” the group said in an open letter to the Trumbull County prosecutor.
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Nah. You didn’t read the article. It discusses at length why what she did isn’t wrong, especially the part where pregnant women are exempt from those types of laws specifically for this reason.