US: Jury decides not to indict Ohio woman for abuse of corpse after miscarriage

The case filed against Brittany Watts – a woman from Ohio – who had suffered a miscarriage and was facing indictment for abuse of a corpse, will not be taken forward, decided the grand jury on Thursday (Jan 11).

The grand jury of Trumbull County, Ohio, refused to indict Watts, against whom a case was filed by the police after she suffered a miscarriage in September. The judges cancelled the indictment by returning a “no-bill” in Watts’s case.

The casehas led to nationwide shock and outcry. It is beingheld as an example by experts in reproductive health and justice of how pregnant women can easily face criminal consequences, since the overturning of Roe v Wade.

In a statement on Thursday (Jan 11), reproductive justice advocacy group If/When/How's senior litigation counsel Yveka Pierra said, “This decision does not erase the harm that Brittany has experienced as the result of this case. Brittany should have been able to focus on taking care of herself after her pregnancy loss.”

“Cases like Brittany’s show us that, depending on your identity, the state treats some losses as tragedies and other losses as crimes,” Pierra added.

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Watts suffered a miscarriage inside the toilet

As per reports, Watts had suffered a miscarriage in the toilet in September when she had completed only 22 weeks of her pregnancy. She then made efforts to remove the mass which had clogged the toilet and visited the hospital, where a nurse reportedly called the police.

Earlier, Watts had visited the hospital and was showing signs that her water had broken prematurely. Such a condition makes it impossible to carry on with pregnancy and if the woman is not treated, she can slip into deadly sepsis.

Ohio’s “abuse of a corpse” charge depends on whether a corpse was treated by someone in a way that would “outrage reasonable community sensibilities”. If Watts had been convicted of the fifth-degree felony, she would have been in prison for a year.

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Before the jury decided on Thursday, an open letter was sent by Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights to Trumbull County prosecutor Dennis Watkins, on Watts’s behalf.

“By seeking to indict her, you are clearly implying that anyone who miscarries at any point in pregnancy in our state must retrieve the fetal tissue whether they are at home, at work, at school, at a restaurant or other public place and preserve it until the tissue can be disposed of properly even though Ohio law does not define what a proper disposal method would be nor require that this non-existent method be used,” wrote the group.

“We have no doubt that women facing the threat of jail time and hefty fines will conceal the fact that they have miscarried and refuse to seek treatment,” they added.

(With inputs from agencies)