A woman who had a miscarriage is now charged with abusing a corpse as stricter abortion laws play out nationwide

3 years ago by MicroWave to c/news

An Ohio woman who’d 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.

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.

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.

Garbanzo 160 points 3 years ago

Every woman in Ohio should call the coroner to report their monthly discharge, just in case

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Illustrious_Luck5514 43 points 3 years ago

No! That’s what they want!

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rivermonster 30 points 3 years ago

Every person in Ohio should recognize that when the rule of law is corrupted and broken, then [logical corrilary omitted bc it violated group rules].

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SCB 25 points 3 years ago

We did, and we amended our constitution to protect women's reproductive health in general and right to abortions in specific

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Chakravanti 3 points 3 years ago

Apparently you didn't do it well it enough.

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SCB 8 points 3 years ago

This event

A) is from before the vote

B) is not about abortion, but about prosecutorial overreach

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pinkdrunkenelephants 7 points 3 years ago

...it justifies overthrowing the government and instituting a new one, and the people have the moral responsibility to do it.

There. FTFY

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calypsopub 27 points 3 years ago

Mail it to them for autopsy just in case

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Jerusalemspiderman 1 point 2 years ago

No, everyone in Ohio should rise the fuck up and stop this stupidity.

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Drusas 135 points 3 years ago

A huge percentage of pregnancies end in miscarriage, very often before the woman even knows she was pregnant. This is the same. She should have to take special care of the mass her body rejected just because it was in there a little longer? What's the cutoff for having to report that you had a miscarriage, then? Every period? Every time you have a period that's a week or two late, because that is reasonably likely to have been a miscarriage?

This was a non-viable fetus. It was never going to be a person. It's not a corpse.

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Strawberry 27 points 3 years ago

The nurse that called 911 on her should be deeply ashamed of themselves

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Shou 19 points 3 years ago

You jest, but imagine if every women spammed any govement instance with "I'm on my period."

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NocturnalEngineer 23 points 3 years ago

Go further... If men reported every "deposit" too

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abbotsbury 8 points 3 years ago

Do I report every time or just give the total at the end of the day?

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Lemminary 4 points 3 years ago

Look at Mr Loads over here humble-flexin'

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GladiusB 3 points 3 years ago

Is this not how you use Facebook? Is my family seeing my feed?

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Drbreen -21 points 3 years ago
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Drusas 16 points 3 years ago

Vials? What?

Are you okay?

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Drbreen -19 points 3 years ago
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IronKrill 16 points 3 years ago

Please take your meds I'm begging you

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Rapidcreek 134 points 3 years ago

This is what the “pro-life” movement is all about. Punishing women

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itscozydownhere 112 points 3 years ago

Right wing is cancer

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lolcatnip 44 points 3 years ago

Ah, but cancer isn't malicious, so it's technically better than the right.

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LufyCZ 22 points 3 years ago

It is, it just doesn't know it.

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PoolloverNathan 4 points 3 years ago

Still technically better than the right.

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DarkMessiah 88 points 3 years ago

More and more, we see direct evidence as to why Roe vs Wade was necessary.

Because rabid birthers will do anything to punish women who don’t give birth.

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TheMusicalFruit 54 points 3 years ago

Ohio continuing its slow march onto the list of places I won’t travel to anymore. I’ve stopped voluntarily traveling (and spending money in) states I find politically abhorrent, and it feels great. Texas made the list last year, and Florida this year. Cancelled our FL vacation and decided to go to California instead.

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evidences 64 points 3 years ago

The real fucked up part of this is Ohioans just voted to codify abortion and reproductive rights into the state constitution. This is just some assholes trying to find ways around that amendment.

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superduperenigma 50 points 3 years ago

We also voted to legalize weed and Republicans are trying to kneecap it by removing the right to grow any plants at home, limiting the amount you can carry, and limiting the concentration of THC allowed in any product.

Republicans hate democracy.

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Riccosuave 8 points 3 years ago

To be fair these are some of the same legal courses of action states like Washington have taken as well. Even legal cannabis is still a web of suppressive government bureaucracy, monopolistic tax structures, and punitive legal frameworks. We aren't even close to what I would consider a just or equitable system, and every year it gets more heavily gentrified in favor of corporations who don't give a single fuck about anybody who has suffered due to the war on drugs.

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nova_ad_vitum 1 point 3 years ago
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whofearsthenight 4 points 3 years ago

Tangential, but I feel similarly and one of my bucket list items is a motorcycle trip across the country. At this point, do I just ride up to Canada, cross back over around New York? Or down to Tijuana, ride over until I hit ocean and swim around to Jersey? Serious question, should I pack mittens or water wings?

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UziBobuzi 43 points 3 years ago

Too bad medical science can't invent a killer virus that takes out right wing fundamentalists with pinpoint accuracy.

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samus12345 49 points 3 years ago

They did a decent job on their own thinning their numbers with Covid.

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Son_of_dad 30 points 3 years ago

Not enough sadly.

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andrew_bidlaw 2 points 3 years ago

Maybe HIV, AIDS and other veneric syndroms then? If they would indeed stop using contraceptives themselves like they preach for others to do, there's a lot of awful illneses coming from that shortsighted pro-birth position. I won't wish anyone to endure them, yet, I'm all for putting one's genitals where one puts one's ballot.

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Patches 7 points 3 years ago

This implies most of them are having sex. They ain't.

Nobody wanna fuck them. That's part of the reason they hate women.

https://www.nbcnews.com/...

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AeroLemming -11 points 3 years ago
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UziBobuzi 10 points 3 years ago

The day they stop trying to shove their own personal religious choices down everyone else's throat and criminalizing what should be a woman's own bodily autonomy is the day I stop feeling this way.

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AeroLemming -3 points 3 years ago
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ASeriesOfPoorChoices 7 points 3 years ago

They're trying to genocide black and lgbt+ people and oppress women.

So, no, it isn't a bit much.

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AeroLemming 0 points 3 years ago
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UziBobuzi 5 points 3 years ago

I seem to have misplaced my violin as it's so tiny.

But to quote their ridiculous ancient book of nonsense, you reap what you sow.

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ASeriesOfPoorChoices 1 point 3 years ago

Why did you try to list people who aren't right wing fundamentalists?

You're making a strawman so you can be outraged.

Go back to fox news grandpa, your need for rage has you fapping at strangers on lemmy.

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ininewcrow 40 points 3 years ago

Who the hell would want to get pregnant in the US at this point?

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lolcatnip 27 points 3 years ago

People who think politics doesn't affect them.

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ElBarto 17 points 3 years ago

The laaaaaaaaand of the freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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whoisearth 15 points 3 years ago

She's black so the point is it's supposed to be ok.

I wish I was joking.

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Macropolis 12 points 3 years ago

Wtf....

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DragonTypeWyvern 12 points 3 years ago

Conservatives are fascists.

Why are people still surprised at how cruel they will be?

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thisisawayoflife 10 points 3 years ago
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ShaggySnacks 10 points 3 years ago

The hospital staff notified the Warren Police Department, which responded to Watts’ home, the coroner’s office report says.

CNN reached out to the hospital for comment about why staff notified police. Maureen Richmond, vice president of integrated communications at Mercy Health – a Catholic health care system that includes St. Joseph Warren Hospital – sent the following statement to CNN:

“The safety and security of every patient who comes to us for care is our highest priority. Out of respect for patient privacy, we will not discuss individual specifics of care.

Except when it comes to snitching on people.

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ZzyzxRoad 9 points 3 years ago path: 0 6155805, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 0
electric_nan 8 points 3 years ago
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Facebones 4 points 3 years ago

Agreed. I'd join the curb stomping brigade.

metaphorically, this is for legal purposes a sarcastic expression of anger

for practical purposes, no it isn't

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electric_nan 1 point 3 years ago

I knew my comment would get removed by some coward. Yours probably will too.

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chatokun 2 points 3 years ago

I can still see it... maybe an instance thing?

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electric_nan 2 points 3 years ago

Yeah idk. It got deleted by two different lemmyworld mods lol

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Lophostemon 3 points 3 years ago

Damn this poor woman needs support not legal bullshit.

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Nurse_Robot -15 points 3 years ago

So there are some weird parts to this one. First of all, she could legally get an abortion, and when she went to the doctor initially for PROM and oligohydramnios (water broke at 21 weeks, and there was little/no amniotic fluid), the doctor recommended an abortion. She left AMA. Then came back, again an abortion was recommended, and she was told the fetus wasn't viable, and again she left AMA. She ended up delivering in a toilet, then collected blood / clots and tissue in a bucket that she left by the garage outside, but left the fetus in the toilet.

I'm not going to judge what a woman does after a miscarriage, and I'm not going to pretend to know what it feels like to be told your fetus isn't viable and an abortion would be best. But this sounds like a much more complex case than the title makes it out to be, in fact it seems like it has next to nothing to do with abortion restrictions, which I'm a huge proponent against, as every woman should have autonomy over her body.

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Caradoc879 35 points 3 years ago

Sounds like a woman CHOOSING WHAT TO DO WITH HER OWN BODY. Fucking shame on you for victim blaming. If she wanted to have that baby and chose to try despite medical suggestions, THAT IS HER CHOICE!

Then it sounds like she had a mental health crisis because she miscarried in a fucking bathroom.

Think of the emotional state of that woman and tell yourself charging her with a crime is the right thing to do. If you can't pretend to know what she was going through you certainly have no fucking right to judge her actions.

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spider 23 points 3 years ago

Then it sounds like she had a mental health crisis because she miscarried in a fucking bathroom.

And the prosecutors are holding her to a standard they likely couldn't follow themselves under these circumstances.

Also, she's black, which I'm sure has nothing to do with this. /s

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shalafi 12 points 3 years ago

She was perfectly in the clear to get an abortion. She ignored medical advice twice. So yeah, there's more to this than the headline.

OP didn't say charging her with a crime was right. OP said nothing like that. OP even went out of his way (2nd paragraph for those with low reading comprehension) to state that he wasn't making any sort of judgement. Merely that this didn't seem the result of abortion restrictions and it's an odd case with some unanswered questions.

Honestly though, it's all OP's fault for reading the article and not reacting emotionally. Do better OP!

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asteriskeverything 11 points 3 years ago

Actually it has everything to do with abortion restrictions because these are the predicted consequences of overturning roe v wade. Suddenly everything is put into question

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Nurse_Robot 6 points 3 years ago

Thank you, I'll be sure not to read the article in the future. I can do better!

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shalafi 2 points 3 years ago

React emotionally to the headline, read nothing further. Do you not know how to score points around here?!

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Caradoc879 -6 points 3 years ago

You're also fucking scum for victimizing a woman for choosing what to do with her own body, then. Abortions are trauma. Having a baby is trauma. The entire sutuation is trauma, and it boils down to Her body, her choice. Fuck off.

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shalafi 9 points 3 years ago

She ignored medical advice. Walked away. TWICE. Were you OK with anti-vaxxers doing that because it was "their body their choice"?

This woman was clearly traumatized by the whole thing, and acted foolishly because of said trauma. Nothing to condemn her for. And no one has.

Again, this situation doesn't seem to have anything to do with abortion laws. But you insist OP and I are condemning her to score your point.

At some point do you say, "Sorry. I was emotional on this thing and misunderstood."? Or you want to double-down and argue some more when we both fucking agree?

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Nurse_Robot 2 points 3 years ago

Fuck off, I'm not victim blaming at all. You clearly read what you wanted to instead of what I wrote.

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agissilver 20 points 3 years ago

Seems like her mental state wasn't the best throughout her whole ordeal.

Regardless, the important thing here is that they are charging her with mutilation of a corpse when there's no guidelines in OH for how to handle fetal remains.

How is anyone supposed to know what to do in that situation, even if they are more clearheaded?

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halferect 0 points 2 years ago

And then she went back to get a abortion and the hospital waxed intellectually on the ethics of abortion for hours and hours before she left and miscarried in her toilet.

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Nurse_Robot 0 points 2 years ago

Why are you making shit up?

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halferect 0 points 2 years ago

It's in the article

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