Ohio woman who suffered a miscarriage is accused of abusing the corpse

An Ohio grand jury is expected to decide Wednesday whether to indict a woman who miscarried a nonviable fetus at home and has been charged with abuse of a corpse. Experts say this is an extremely rare interpretation of a state law.

The woman, Brittany Watts, 34, of Warren, Ohio, was arrested in October after passing a fetus in her bathroom and attempting to flush the remains down the toilet. The case has been before a Trumbull County grand jury since November. If convicted, Ms. Watts, who is black, could face up to a year in prison. She has pleaded not guilty.

Although records show that Ms. Watts spontaneously miscarried, a finding the state has not challenged, the case has come under scrutiny from attorneys and reproductive health advocates, who say prosecuting her is baseless and other women who Having had a miscarriage can prevent you from seeking medical help. need.

The indictment came within weeks of Ohio voters enshrining the right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability, 22 weeks in Ohio, as well as the right to contraception, fertility treatment and miscarriage care. The measure, which one came into force was part of a series of victories for abortion rights groups in early December following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Ms. Watts is being “demonized for something that happens every day,” said her attorney, Traci Timko, previously Municipal Judge Terry Ivanchak Warren court last month. But Judge Ivanchak, now retired, found probable cause to send the indictment to a grand jury for consideration.

Neither Ms. Watts nor Ms. Timko returned multiple requests for comment.

What happened?

According to a report from the Trumbull County Coroner’s Office, Ms. Watts was 21 weeks and five days pregnant when she was admitted to St. Joseph Warren Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio, on September 19 with vaginal bleeding. Doctors determined that her waters broke. prematurely and her cervix became dilated; Mrs Watts also had a significantly elevated white blood cell count.

Doctors were able to detect cardiac activity but “recommended that she undergo induction and deliver the fetus despite non-viable status,” the report said, because she was at significant risk of maternal death, sepsis or “complete placentation.” abruption with catastrophic bleeding’.

During her first visit to the hospital, Ms. Watts left after waiting eight hours for a hospital ethics panel to determine whether her pregnancy should be induced without legal consequences because she was on the cusp of Ohio’s viability timeline, 22 weeks . Ms. Timko told The Associated Press. The hospital declined to comment.

Ms Watts went home to “process the information she was told”, the coroner’s report said. She returned the next day with the same symptoms and left a second time without treatment.

On September 22, Ms. Watts passed the fetus alone at home in her bathroom and returned to the hospital, where she received a dilation and curettage, known as a D and C, to remove the placenta, the report said. The hospital notified Warren City police of the miscarriage and “the need to locate the fetus.”

Police found the fetus hiding in her bathroom toilet, the report said, noting that Ms. Watts told police she had likely discarded the remains in a bucket in her backyard. Police then removed the entire toilet from the home and took it to a morgue, “where it was broken open” to retrieve the fetus, the report said.

The autopsy report revealed that the fetus had died in utero – before delivery – due to complications resulting from premature rupture of the membranes.

Police charged Ms Watts with abuse of corpse as a crime a law passed by the Ohio Legislature in 1996. The case is being prosecuted by the Warren City Attorney’s Office.

What is the law in Ohio?

The law in question prohibits the treatment of “a human corpse in a manner which the person knows would cause outrage,” either “reasonable family sensitivities,” resulting in a misdemeanor, or “community sensitivities,” resulting in a misdemeanor charge.

“From a legal perspective, there is no definition of ‘corpse,’” Ms. Timko, Ms. Watts’ lawyer, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Can you be a corpse if you never breathe?”

Ohio law states that fetal viability begins at 22 weeks. Mrs Watts arrived at hospital at 21 weeks and 5 days.

Joshua Dressler, a former criminal justice professor at Ohio State University, said the statute used by prosecutors is “rarely enforced” and typically involves abuse or mutilation of a human being. But under common law, a fetus only becomes a human at birth, he said, and since the fetus died in the womb, “this wouldn’t be a human corpse to me.”

“This is a very different way of understanding the meaning of the term corpse,” he said. “I think this is a serious, serious problem with prosecution on these grounds.”

Jessie Hill, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University who has worked on abortion rights cases, said Ms. Watt’s case is part of the debate over fetal personhood.

“Using something like abuse of a corpse as a basis to prosecute this case more or less presupposes the conclusion that this fetus was a person or the equivalent of a born person,” she said. “That is definitely a disturbing aspect of the case.”

Ms. Hill also noted that “the pregnancy outcomes of people of color are much more likely to be questioned and lead to criminalization.”

If Ms. Watts had suffered a miscarriage in hospital, Ms. Hill said, the fetus would not have been treated like a corpse.

Why are they being prosecuted?

Last month, Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, a Democrat, said his office was “obligated” to follow Ohio law and move forward with a grand jury proceeding.

But Michael Benza, a criminal law professor at Case Western, said it was up to the prosecutor to decide. He said there are “many problems” with the prosecution’s case, including the definition of a human corpse. But the prosecutor’s biggest challenge may lie in the vagueness of the language.

“If my students wrote this statute,” he said, “they would fail.”

First, prosecutors must argue why the remains constitute a human corpse. They will also have to convince the jury that Ms Watts’ actions provoked “outrage” from the public.

The prosecutor’s interpretation of the statute exceeded his intentions, Mr. Benza said, but public pressure may have pushed the prosecutor to file charges.

Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights sent a letter to the accuser, Mr. Watkins, “protesting the unjust prosecution” of Ms. Watts and urging him to dismiss “the baseless” charges. More than 4,000 healthcare workers and community leaders signed the letter.

Ms. Hill, the reproductive health care attorney, said Ms. Watts’ case could be a sign of what’s to come in Ohio in the wake of the constitutional amendment protecting reproductive health care, and said there could be more efforts to prevent miscarriages and criminalize other pregnancies. outcomes.