‘We are not done fighting,’ Brittany Watts says she will speak for women with miscarriages
.jpg "Brittany Watts, right, stands with her attorney during a rally supporting her Thursday afternoon at Warren Courthouse Square.")
Brittany Watts along with her family and supporters held a rally Thursday at Warren Courthouse Square after the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office announced that a grand jury decided not to charge her with felony charges of abuse of a corpse after having a miscarriage.
“We’re thrilled and grateful,” said Rev. Todd Johnson, president of ACTION, a group that is supporting Watts. “We’re still determined to advocate for women when these situations happen.”
Brittany Watts’ reaction to not being indicted
What Brittany Watts’ attorney Traci Timko said
Statement from Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins
What happened in the case?
Watts miscarried at home on Sept. 22, days after a doctor told her that her fetus had a heartbeat but was nonviable.
She twice visited Mercy Health-St. Joseph’s Hospital in Warren and twice left before receiving care.
A nurse called police when Watts returned that Friday, bleeding, no longer pregnant and saying that her fetus was in a bucket in the backyard.
Police arrived at her home, where they found the toilet clogged and the 22-week-old fetus wedged in the pipes.
Authorities seized the toilet bowl and extracted the fetus. Watts was ultimately charged with abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
The case touched off a national firestorm over the treatment of pregnant women, particularly those like Watts who are Black, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision overturning federal abortion protections.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
This story was originally published January 11, 2024 at 1:36 PM.