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@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

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

  • Drusas@kbin.social
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    11 months 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.

  • DarkMessiah@lemmy.world
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    11 months 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.

  • TheMusicalFruit@lemmy.world
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    11 months 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.

    • evidences@lemmy.world
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      11 months 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.

      • SuperDuper@lemmy.world
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        11 months 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.

        • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
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          11 months 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.

    • whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
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      11 months 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?

  • UziBobuzi@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

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

        • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months 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.

            • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              It’s not true, many of them are married and have kids.

              That’s just propaganda you bought into because it reinforces a preconceived notion of yours.

              • Isthisreddit@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Yeah, exactly. Plenty of women lining up to fuck these assholes too for some strange reason (well I do know the reason, they figure these laws don’t apply to them, etc. Inb4 law that binds quote)

            • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              Just like Fox Mulder, I want to believe. I’ve seen news about that, or rather opinion pieces mostly, but they are so ideally in line with my thoughts I can’t break my sense of disbelief. I find that a comforting fiction.

              There’s a part of a population that have abusive, irrational behavior in their relationships as a part of their ‘culture’. Take eastern countries, take overly religious dens sparking across Europe. There women are kind of happy to serve the predestined role of full-body-covered sex and child-giver because they just don’t know better.

              I don’t usually chat with conservative people from the US, but I have a lot of women at home who can normalize everything, even explicit and regular domestic violence. Growing up in such a household can stun a person from knowing there’s a life better than that. And I’m sure even the worst pieces of shit can have their prefered genitals on a plate if they find the right person who has a history of such abuse.

              And having women protest their reproductive rights in the US kinda rings the bell that’s there’re many persons who’d be okay to lay with an idiot who’d want to strip them of all rights. It’s depressing, but pointing out the problem is a first step to solve it.

              So they are indeed endangered by veneric stuff.

      • UziBobuzi@kbin.social
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        11 months 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.

          • UziBobuzi@kbin.social
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            11 months 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.

          • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
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            11 months 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.

  • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

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

    I wish I was joking.

  • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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    11 months 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.