The Ohio grand jury is expected to decide on Wednesday whether to indict a woman who was charged in October with abuse of a corpse after suffering a miscarriage at home.
Brittany Watts, 34, was reportedly 21 weeks and five days pregnant when she was admitted to the hospital — where doctors determined her water broke, her cervix was dilated, and she had an elevated white blood cell count. Doctors recommended she give birth to the nonviable fetus, which had a heartbeat, as she was at high risk of death, sepsis, or “complete placental abruption with catastrophic bleeding,” The New York Times reported.
Watts allegedly left the initial hospital visit after waiting for an ethics panel to decide whether she could be induced without legal consequences as a fetus is considered viable at 22 weeks under state law. The New York Times reported that Watts miscarried at home, but returned to the hospital to undergo a dilation and curettage and to remove the placenta.
However, hospital staff contacted Warren City police about Watts’ miscarriage and to find the fetus. The New York Times reported that Watts miscarried in her bathroom and tried to flush the fetus down the toilet. Police allegedly recovered the fetus from the pipes.
Watts reportedly suffered a spontaneous miscarriage a month before Ohio voted to enshrine abortion and other reproductive health protections — including miscarriage care — in its constitution. The measure went into effect in December, after Watts’ miscarriage, and Warren Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak sent the case to a grand jury.
Trumbull County prosecutor Dennis Watkins said his office is legally obligated to present the felony case to a grand jury.
Watts pleaded not guilty to abuse of a corpse. If convicted, she faces up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
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