{"id":304989,"date":"2024-01-11T16:41:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T22:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=304989"},"modified":"2024-01-11T23:24:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T05:24:04","slug":"grand-jury-refuses-indict-misrepresented-miscarriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/grand-jury-refuses-indict-misrepresented-miscarriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand jury declines to indict Ohio woman at center of misrepresented ‘miscarriage’ controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brittany Watts, the woman at the center of an Ohio “miscarriage” controversy, will have all charges against her dismissed after a grand jury refused to indict her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Late last year, Watts’ story quickly went viral<\/a>; media has largely implied she had been arrested for having a miscarriage. In actuality, Watts was charged with “abuse of a corpse” under Ohio law<\/a>:<\/p>\n

(A) No person, except as authorized by law, shall treat a human corpse in a way that the person knows would outrage reasonable family sensibilities.<\/em><\/p>\n

(B) No person, except as authorized by law, shall treat a human corpse in a way that would outrage reasonable community sensibilities.<\/em><\/p>\n

(C) Whoever violates division (A) of this section is guilty of abuse of a corpse, a misdemeanor of the second degree. Whoever violates division (B) of this section is guilty of gross abuse of a corpse, a felony of the fifth degree.<\/em><\/p>\n

Watts did not have a miscarriage<\/em>, but a stillbirth<\/em>. A miscarriage is the death of a preborn child in the womb before 20 weeks, whereas after 20 weeks, it is classified as a stillbirth.<\/p>\n

As Live Action News previously noted<\/a>, “Forensic pathologist Dr. George Sterbenz testified an autopsy found no injury to the fetus, and that the unborn fetus had died before passing through the birth canal. He said Watts\u2019 medical records showed she visited the hospital twice before the delivery,” and claimed the child was “going to be non-viable… because she had premature ruptured membranes \u2014 her water had broken early \u2014 and the fetus was too young to be delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, babies at 22 weeks<\/a> gestation have been delivered and have survived<\/a> in increasing numbers.<\/p>\n

Live Action News also noted<\/a> (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri argued that the issue is not Watts\u2019 having a miscarriage; it\u2019s that she tried to plunge the baby\u2019s body into the toilet. \u201cThe issue isn\u2019t how the child died, when the child died \u2014 it\u2019s 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<\/strong>,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet Traci Timko, Watts\u2019 defense attorney,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that because the baby died in Watts\u2019 womb, it doesn\u2019t matter what happened to his or her body<\/strong>. \u201cWomen miscarry into toilets everyday. If the state of Ohio expects these women to fish those remains from the toilet and deliver them to a hospital, funeral home or crematorium, the laws need changed,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cWe aren\u2019t there yet.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

While it may seem unreasonable to expect women to fish smaller, earlier fetal remains out of the toilet, in Watts’ case, she was 22 weeks pregnant. At 22 weeks, a preborn child is the size of a papaya and weighs roughly one pound \u2014 this was not a tiny baby that would easily get lost in a toilet. Indeed, when Watts tried to flush the baby down the toilet, the pipes were clogged so completely that police had to remove them in order to retrieve the body.<\/p>\n