Brittany Watts, the woman at the center of an Ohio “miscarriage” controversy, will have all charges against her dismissed after a grand jury refused to indict her.
Late last year, Watts’ story quickly went viral; media has largely implied she had been arrested for having a miscarriage. In actuality, Watts was charged with “abuse of a corpse” under Ohio law:
(A) No person, except as authorized by law, shall treat a human corpse in a way that the person knows would outrage reasonable family sensibilities.
(B) No person, except as authorized by law, shall treat a human corpse in a way that would outrage reasonable community sensibilities.
(C) Whoever violates division (A) of this section is guilty of abuse of a corpse, a misdemeanor of the second degree. Whoever violates division (B) of this section is guilty of gross abuse of a corpse, a felony of the fifth degree.
Watts did not have a miscarriage, but a stillbirth. A miscarriage is the death of a preborn child in the womb before 20 weeks, whereas after 20 weeks, it is classified as a stillbirth.
As Live Action News previously noted, “Forensic pathologist Dr. George Sterbenz testified an autopsy found no injury to the fetus, and that the unborn fetus had died before passing through the birth canal. He said Watts’ medical records showed she visited the hospital twice before the delivery,” and claimed the child was “going to be non-viable… because she had premature ruptured membranes — her water had broken early — and the fetus was too young to be delivered.”
However, babies at 22 weeks gestation have been delivered and have survived in increasing numbers.
Live Action News also noted (emphasis added):
Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri argued that the issue is not Watts’ having a miscarriage; it’s that she tried to plunge the baby’s body into the toilet. “The issue isn’t how the child died, when the child died — it’s the fact that the baby was put into a toilet, large enough to clog up a toilet, left in that toilet and she went on [with] her day,” he said.
Yet Traci Timko, Watts’ defense attorney, said that because the baby died in Watts’ womb, it doesn’t matter what happened to his or her body. “Women miscarry into toilets everyday. If the state of Ohio expects these women to fish those remains from the toilet and deliver them to a hospital, funeral home or crematorium, the laws need changed,” she said, adding, “We aren’t there yet.”
While it may seem unreasonable to expect women to fish smaller, earlier fetal remains out of the toilet, in Watts’ case, she was 22 weeks pregnant. At 22 weeks, a preborn child is the size of a papaya and weighs roughly one pound — this was not a tiny baby that would easily get lost in a toilet. Indeed, when Watts tried to flush the baby down the toilet, the pipes were clogged so completely that police had to remove them in order to retrieve the body.
Watts had reportedly already begun passing blood clots before she delivered into the toilet at home. Later media reports claimed her court records state she had a “’significant risk’ of death” – though it is unclear if her life was at immediate risk in this situation. And therefore, questions remain, due in large part to the media’s vague reporting on this case: Did Brittany Watts receive proper instructions from hospital staff on what to do if she began to deliver her child at home? Did she receive proper instructions on how to handle the remains of her deceased child under state law?
A rally was going to be held for Watts today, but it has now been changed to one of celebration of the ruling, as well as calling for “women’s rights,” likely meaning abortion — despite the fact that a ballot measure recently passed in Ohio to make abortion a constitutional “right.” When Watts’ stillbirth occurred, Ohio’s more protective pro-life laws were not in effect; they had been blocked by the courts. Abortion law in the state at the time allowed for elective abortions to 22 weeks.
Yet the abortion industry has wasted no time in exploiting Watts’ case to push for abortion while demonizing the pro-life movement.
“The grand jury’s decision is a firm step against the dangerous trend of criminalizing reproductive outcomes,” Marcela Azedo, president of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “This practice must be unequivocally halted. It not only undermines women’s rights but also threatens public health by instilling fear and hesitation in women seeking necessary medical care during their most vulnerable moments.
“Reproductive outcomes” is a significantly broad term that many believe could be legally problematic with regard to actions such as infanticide.
But Watts had sought medical care; therefore, the real question in this situation is, was proper medical care and advice provided to Brittany Watts?
