2y ago

A Black woman in Ohio was charged after miscarrying in her bathroom. Experts warn of the dangerous precedent.

www.nbcnews.com

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.

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2y ago

A Black woman in Ohio was charged after miscarrying in her bathroom. Experts warn of the dangerous precedent.

www.nbcnews.com /news/us-news/black-woman-ohio-was-charged-miscarrying-bathroom-experts-warn-dangero-rcna130649

49 comments

police removed her toilet from her home and searched it
Everything about this is insane and exactly what sensible people thought would happen.
- That's what it took to get to the fetus and remove it. And they're blaming her for not doing it. There she was with a partially retained placenta, in danger of bleeding out, and she had the nerve to leave her toilet intact in order to obtain timely life saving health care.
  And don't forget, she'd been to the hospital multiple times and left because she wasn't receiving care...all hospital caregivers and 'legal teams' were too busy trying to figure out if they could legally remove a dead fetus; they wouldn't do what needed to be done. Just left her sitting there while they argued intent of the law versus letter of the law.
  "She put the fetus into the toilet." No, she didn't. The fetus was expelled into the toilet, along with bodily waste. She tried to get everything out, but she couldn't.
  "She then went about her day." No, she didn't. She went to the hospital. She was bleeding (probably heavily) due to part of the placenta being left attached.
  That's just two of the twisted statements the prosecutor has made in order to make this woman look like a heartless SOB.
  It's gone too far, and short of removing Republicans from office and justices from the court, I don't know what we can do. They are prosecuting this woman to punish her for miscarrying in an inconvenient place.
  It's worth mentioning that just 11 days earlier, had her miscarriage happened at the hospital, it would have been disposed of as medical waste...incinerated. 11 freaking days, and the state is criminalizing her.
  
  If there is a God.....
  Firstly he's a piece of shit for creating this universe the way it is
  Secondly he's a piece of shit of allowing all this to happen
  Thirdly, he, in all his emptiness and nothingness, deserves all the aholes that firmly believe that they should live in eternity with him.
  
  This is one of the many reasons that I hate people: "10 days and you're fine, 12 days and you're a murderer". People that follow the law to the number are a scourge on humanity.
- Facts. The people loudly freaking out at the Supreme Court were right all along. Innocent women will be punished during a traumatic experience that is more than punishment enough. The amount of shame for this and other consequences of Conservative legislation will need to be applied for generations. They have proven to be a lice or bedbug infestation and proper treatment is necessary.
  
  It was already happening in places with severe abortion restrictions like El Salvador:
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-61798330
  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/salvadoran-women-jailed-decades-miscarriages-stillbirths-warn-us-abort-rcna33035
  https://theconversation.com/el-salvadors-abortion-ban-jails-women-for-miscarriages-and-stillbirths-now-one-womans-family-seeks-international-justice-156484
  The abortion ban is so broadly enforced that even women who suffer miscarriages and stillbirths can be prosecuted for murder. Now an international court will decide for the first time whether these laws violate the human rights of Salvadoran women.
  Hmm... the US is a member of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and signed but never ratified the treaty. Great. The court did actually determine that El Salvador needed to change their policies, which were basically the same as the ones the Christian Fascists have come up with in Texas, Ohio, etc.
  https://reproductiverights.org/case/manuela-v-el-salvador-inter-american-court-of-human-rights/
- I heard she did something a few years back that really upset Baby Jesus and made him cry! I'm certain God knows what he's doing!!
  
  That “mysterious ways” argument has rationalized an incalculable amount of unnecessary pain.
- These are the images the Democrats need to sear into the minds of all voters. This is pure 1984 dystopian bullshit.
- Wait until they hear about what happens to nazis
Man whenever I bring up these kind of things to my parents, it’s always like, “well there’ll surely be an exception for it”. The reality is there’s never an exception for it. The exception has to be fought for at the expense of the victim
- Just look at the "life of the mother exceptions." There was a recent case where the fetus was all but dead and the woman's life was in danger. She actually wanted the child, but carrying it to term and delivering it could have killed her.
  Seems like an ideal life of the mother situation, right? Except the doctors said she wasn't close enough to death. So she sued in court to get the law overturned. She won the right to have an abortion, but then the AG threatened the hospitals/doctors. Then the Texas Supreme Court ruled that she was at risk of dying, but she wasn't CLOSE ENOUGH to death to qualify. So basically she had to be actively dying to get an abortion and even then it might not be good enough.
  It's ridiculous.
  
  All the exceptions are fake. How long does a rape conviction take to secure, assuming the perp is actually found guilty at all? Longer than a few weeks, that’s for sure!
"This is what's going to happen if you repeal Roe"
"nuh uh that's insane you fucking extremist LiBrUlZ that'd never happen stop spreading fear"
this is like the third case of this this month
what a shit hole country.
- Eh more shithole state in this example but.. yeah
  
  shithole country to allow it
- america is the earth's toilet, it's all shit down there
Need a real life Bruce Wayne. Someone to spend their fortune fighting for women like this. Hire the 5 best defense attorneys in the country and start embarrassing the shit out of these hateful fucks.
- We need to reinvent the angry mob for rescuing people from the police instead of lynching them
I don’t know what to say to this……. I’m lost for words. Except the ones I’ve written here obviously…
Welcome to Honduras!
- 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.
- How do you know she refused treatment? It sounds like she wanted treatment and wasn't given it.
- deleted by creator
- 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.
- You are so willfully ignorant it hurts me.
Not an American. Please explain why her skin colour is relevant in the headline. I have noticed this a lot in American news, and it seems intentionally divisive to me.
- In America, people of color are poorly treated by police, the justice system, and the healthcare system. It is important to point out examples of this when we see it, because our system usually starts treating marginalized groups unfairly as a test to see how badly they can treat everyone.
  It is very common for police to look for chargabe offenses they pin on a Black person, but not so much for white people. Once there are charges, prosecutors typically focus on conviction at all costs, especially for Black defendants.
  Here we have the trifecta: a Black woman has a miscarriage and call for help, and the police show up and immediately look for reasons to arrest her. While she's recovering from a miscarriage, she's hit with charges of abusing a corpse because she had the audacity to miscarry in a toilet. Now she's facing felony charges related to a miscarriage in a state that has passed such draconian anti-abortion laws that even miscarrying could lead to murder charges.
  So we absolutely have to say exactly what is happening, because if we don't, this woman and countless others will end up locked in cages with their rights stripped away from them for daring to exist in a way that didn't satisfy the white supremacist / christofacist factions in this country.
- Black women face unique discrimination at the hands of the justice system. Not just in America, either. Canada and the UK (among many other nations) both have institutions of systemic injustice towards women of color.
  
  "Not every black man is abused in the US. Some are abused outside the US" Les Luthiers.

49 comments