The announcement came hours before about 150 supporters gathered for a planned “We Stand With Brittany!” rally for Brittany Watts on Warren’s Courthouse Square.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio woman facing a criminal charge for her handling of a home miscarriage will not be charged, a grand jury decided Thursday.
The Trumbull County prosecutor’s office said grand jurors declined to return an indictment for abuse of a corpse against
When Ivanchak bound the case over, he said, “There are better scholars than I am to determine the exact legal status of this fetus, corpse, body, birthing tissue, whatever it is.”
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said in a statement that county prosecutors “respectfully disagree with the lower court’s application of the law,” after their follow-up investigation found Watts committed no crime.
In Our Own Voice, a Black reproductive rights group, expressed relief Thursday at the case’s outcome.
“What happened to Brittany Watts is a grave example of how Black women and their bodies face legal threats simply for existing,” president and CEO Dr. Regina Davis Moss said in a statement. “Her story is one that is becoming alarmingly common: in states with abortion restrictions, Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people are being surveilled, arrested, prosecuted and punished for pregnancy loss.”
Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, a key backer of Ohio’s successful fall amendment protecting access to reproductive health care, had lobbied Watkins to drop the charge against Watts, which Watkins insisted was not within his power.
On Thursday, the group commended the grand jury and called for the “dangerous trend” of criminalizing reproductive outcomes to be halted.
“It not only undermines women’s rights but also threatens public health by instilling fear and hesitation in women seeking necessary medical care during their most vulnerable moments,” President Dr. Marcela Azevedo said in a statement.
Watts hopes her story can be an “impetus to change,” Timko said.
“Through education and legislation,” Timko said, “we can make sure no other woman must set her grief and trauma on a back burner to muster the strength to fight for her freedom.”
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