A grand jury is set to hear the case of an Ohio woman who miscarried her baby in her bathroom at home. Doctors told Brittany Watts, 33, that her fetus would not survive, but she was unable to get an abortion since she was 22 weeks pregnant.
Watts visited her hospital twice in the days leading up to the miscarriage, complaining of cramping and vaginal bleeding. She left the facility after not receiving care for more than eight hours.
According to court documents, Watts’ doctor told her that her fetus had a heartbeat but was non-viable. Watts’ water had broken, and doctors said she would ultimately miscarry.
Watts was ineligible for a safe, legal abortion, as abortion at the time was against the law in Ohio after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Days later, on Sept. 22, Watts passed her non-viable fetus in her bathroom at home.
Watts then proceeded to attend a hair appointment and was later taken to the hospital. After arriving, a nurse called the police and told dispatch that Watts had been to the hospital earlier in the week and left after being advised not to. The nurse said Watts then showed up to the facility on Sept. 22, no longer pregnant.
According to the call, the nurse also told police that Watts said she placed the fetus in a bucket outside of her home. According to investigators, they found the fetus stuck in the pipes of the toilet when they went to the home. Police took the toilet in for evidence. Weeks later, law enforcement arrested Watts.
WKBN News in Youngstown, Ohio, covered the preliminary hearing in November.
At the hearing, forensic pathologist Dr. George Sterbenz testified that the autopsy found no injury to the fetus and that the baby had died before passing through the birth canal.
“This fetus was going to be non-viable,” Sterbenz testified. “It 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.”
Lewis Guarnieri, an assistant prosecutor for Warren, Ohio, argues the case should move forward.
“The issue isn’t how the child died [or] when the child died,” Guarnieri said. “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.”
Watts’ attorney, Traci Timko, argues that Watts is being demonized for “something that goes on every day,” and that Ohio law does not require women who have miscarried to bury or cremate fetal remains, according to CNN.
During the preliminary hearing, the judge bound the case over to a grand jury, which will decide if Watts should be indicted for “abuse of a corpse” — a federal charge that could put Watts behind bars for a year.
In the time since Watts miscarried, Ohio voters passed Issue 1 in the November election. The vote enshrines reproductive rights into Ohio’s Constitution, and declares a person has the right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions.”
During the week of Dec. 17, the Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights sent a public letter to the lead prosecutor urging him to drop the charges against Watts. The letter stated that the charges go against the “spirit” of Issue 1.
Women in Ohio can now receive an abortion up to “fetal viability,” defined as “a significant likelihood of survival” outside of the womb.
