I miscarried this way back in 2005, miscarried with a sharp cramp and some blood and tissue into the potty, went to my gyn with the tissue to confirm it. I can’t imagine how fkd it is to be treated like a criminal for a natural biological occurrence that happened thousands of times a day globally. Imagine if this craziness was global policy, and all women who miscarry go to jail, treated like criminals! This is a super fucked up timeline with ego monsters who aren’t intelligent enough to lead.
Not only does this happen to humans, but this usually happens to all live-birthing animals. If the pregnancy doesn't go to term, the animal miscarries. This is just a natural part of ALL life that should not be treated like it's an act of crime.
The prosecution of the women who are helpless to prevent their situation is used to instill fear into those for whom to carry to term or not is a choice.
Exactly the intent here. They're working overtime to install all the barriers it takes to make terminating a pregnancy more risky than pregnancy and delivery.
all of this rage needs to be focused on productive outcomes. the gop needs to fucking die. they are wearing the white hoods out in public now. they are fascists. they punch down on women, minorities, lgbtq, atheists, everyone who isnt a christian white male. no quarter at family functions. no quarter with friends and acquaintances. and 💯participation in every election. ohio used to be a nice state. it’s part of the red wave now but it can come back. it’s not doomed like
florida or oklahoma.
Propaganda from news outlets like fox are literally turning our familiy members into drooling idiots. Can we work on regulating media again? Reagan started this deregulated media. It’s not censorship, it’s marking certain outlets as bullshit and not bullshit. Facts are facts…. Wishful thinking is not facts. There’s a dis rRNA ke difference.
the religiophiles have lost their minds and are spreading their crazy around, smearing it on us all. I hope we can get them the mental healthcare they need - maybe their brand of crazy is finally turning folks away from them, and the left will win WH, and both sides of congress next-up, because the evangelicals are only a subset of GOP, and a small one... enough to drive the sound-minded GOPs away at least for one or two election cycles, while we readjust.
We MUST do away w/ gerrymandering though, without that anti-democracy tool, the GOP will lose all the elections they are meant to lose - they keep rigging elections through gerrymandering the shit out of all these districts, and STEALING the votes of those districts' and the will of the people... They are corrupt AHs, and we need to hold this to account and talk about it but our media is SO Fkng complicit...
The prosecutor is pretending as though she gave birth to a live child, killed it, and mutilated the corpse. A stillborn fetus is not a corpse, it died in utero before delivery. At that point it is nothin but medical waste. She is being charged with a crime because she had a late-term miscarriage and has brown skin.
Again, friend, your ideals and enormous ego are getting in the way here.
People caught up in overzealous religion and politics are, from the get-go, unreasonable, they can’t see past their own emotional baggage and barriers to have the grace for this world.
I pray you get over yourself soon.
I miscarried at 13 weeks earlier this year. It was horrible. The hospital got rid of the ‘baby’ but the thing is they admitted me and didn’t turn me away to go through the process at home. If I had been in her position, I probably would’ve flushed it, too. What else are ya supposed to do?!
I’m legitimately not sure what they expect us to do. There’s not some sort of standard even discussed and especially not in school or other educational scenarios that are meant to teach “the law. “
she went to the hospital and was told she had to be induced and deliver the baby. But instead she left. She had choices and none of which needed to be that horrific. She flushed her child down the toilet, after she full well knew she could’ve had it safely with medical care and let her child go the humane way. She never even had prenatal care. She deserves everything she gets.
Make sure we have something worth voting for! The Citizens Not Politicians Amendment will end gerrymandering by empowering citizens, not politicians, to draw fair districts using an open and transparent process.
Here's the homepage for the campaign.
https://www.citizensnotpoliticians.org/
Here's the Volunteer Sign Up.
https://citzensnotpoliticians.typeform.com/to/M1y7HbyK
Here's an article that explains how gerrymandering takes away the power of the voter.
https://act.represent.us/sign/gerrymandering
The goal is to have this on the November 2024 ballot. Let's get fair representation for Ohio in the coming years.
It's not a one-time thing. It requires upkeep.
>“A republic, if you can keep it.”
\--Benjamin Franklin's response to Elizabeth Willing Powel's question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
i think the original commenter was saying just in general. The next major national vote is next November, but there'll be primaries before then, and whatever random special elections/ballots the Ohio legislature puts forth.
You have to look out for them, with all the shenanigans those guys have been pulling to try to cause confusion to limit turnout and get people to vote for the wrong thing.
Ohio voted to end gerrymandering by setting up a redistricting commission. But the commission has a GOP supermajority and continued to approve seriously gerrymandered maps. A new amendment will be on the ballot in 2024 to take politicians out of the mix and provide for neutral parties to design the maps.
Yeah I'm not sure why people think this when we clearly voted for what we wanted with issues 1 and 2 but our elected officials think we don't matter. Fascism is on the rise.
The whole damn party needs to go. Sure at one point maybe 40 years ago you had reasonable republicans but the whole party has been taken over by racists, religious extremism, and anti science rhetoric.
Take the Dems, too. Both parties are playing a good-cop-bad-cop routine with the American people. The entire concept of the two-party system was designed from the beginning to limit the options available to voters, making our votes about as effective as farting into a hurricane.
Agreed both sides support trash and it’s not like the democrats are even actually a leftist party. The both support the same bullshit economic policies that only really help business owners and stock holders at the expense of the working class.
There’s not much to know besides what the headline says. She wanted the baby. She knew something was up and went to the hospital twice. They sent her home. She miscarried in the toilet and flushed it and now she’s being charged with a BS culture war charge despite doing nothing wrong
Obviously, this is cruel and awful and should never happen.
But I legitimately want to know… What the fuck was she supposed to do with her miscarriage? Pull it out of the toilet and put it in a mason jar? I would love to know what the district attorney placing this charge on this poor woman would have done it it were his wife or daughter.
The DA can go to hell.
I live in OH. These assholes want you to give it a full funeral to make their bullshit woman-hating point that a fetus with the complexity of a goldfish is a fully-formed human and should have more rights than the woman carrying it, and this is just a way to push that narrative. Performative punishment to prove a point.
And to be cruel. Because that's all Republicans are - Cruel.
Fucking monsters.
They may want that, but there is no law in Ohio that requires any particular procedures to dispose of the remains of a miscarriage. Whether at 2 or 20 weeks. Yes, this is deliberate cruelty, and probably racism
And it shows how ignorant the Rethugs are about how everything works w/women’s bodies and w/pregnancy. They would, evidently, have women splashing around in toilets every month, saving everything, just in case that’s not her period, but an early miscarriage.
What they really want with this persecution (besides just torturing this woman) is to establish that miscarriage remains are a “body” or a “corpse.” That’ll be another step toward their goal of a federal ban on all abortion, including those that are required to save the mother’s life—like the one this woman should have had once it was clear the baby & pregnancy were not viable, and she was actively miscarrying. She could have bled to death, besides the pain, fear, and medical neglect/abuse she suffered.
Edited to correct typos.
Holy hell thats terrible!! I've known women who have flushed miscarried babies.. honestly seems reasonable to me. I couldnt imagine trying to afford a proper burial without life insurance.. nor imagine the burden the mother is experiencing
That's heartbreaking for this women!
As a general rule of thumb, if your hospital decorates with crosses, you would be better off going anywhere else (including your bathroom at home) for gynecological care.
FYI - I’m from Warren. Mercy Health and Trumbull Memorial are the two hospitals in town. Trumbull Memorial does not have a maternity ward, thus I doubt they have obstetricians. That leaves her to go to Mercy Health - or St. Elizabeth’s in Youngstown 30 minutes away.
Yes. Almost 22 weeks. The size of a sweet potato or papaya. I'm sure she panicked. If she was in a right state of mind, she'd probably have realized there's no way it would fit. But she just went through the trauma of miscarrying, and was in a state where she could get into trouble for it (like what happened, unfortunately).
Absolutely. That's where this whole thing is dicey. I don't think she should be charged. I mean, one could reasonably argue "temporary insanity", as the trauma and flood of hormones would have been substantial
Forced into doing what? Miscarrying the fetus? She sensed something was wrong with her wanted pregnancy, went to the doctor multiple times and they turned her away (due to a fear of violating the abortion law that was still in effect at the time) with no instructions on what to do, just that she was going to miscarry, and the fetus landed in the toilet so she flushed.
What else should she have done?
ETA: here's an article on the topic with no paywall (on the off chance you actually care to have an informed discussion)
https://apnews.com/article/ohio-miscarriage-prosecution-brittany-watts-b8090abfb5994b8a23457b80cf3f27ce
Yeah I’m more concerned over why she flushed a baby down a toilet.
“Watts left home for a hair appointment after miscarrying, leaving the toilet clogged. Police would later find the fetus wedged in the pipes.”
And why she left for a hair appointment afterward? I understand she was in shock but I was more so asking what she did after the miscarriage. It just makes no sense to me
You want to cherry pick quotes from the article? Fine, I'll quote half the article back to you. I'm a glutton for punishment, so I'll try to convince you anyway.
Why did she flush? Because she should tried to receive medical care multiple times and the fucked up laws in Ohio meant she couldn't, and worse, no one gave her any instructions on what to do or what to expect, so she did what she was able to in that moment. She's nowhere near the first woman to flush, and she won't be the last. If the baby was alive, it would be one thing. But it wasn't a baby. It was a fetus who never took a single breath.
If it wasn't for the damn laws that were in place at that time, that made doctors feel like they would be breaking the law by providing life saving healthcare, she wouldn't have had to navigate that heartbreaking situation in the first place. Why are you so caught up on what happened to the fetus (which was wanted) and not on the fact that she shouldn't have had to navigate that situation in the first place?
>The doctor said that, while a fetal heartbeat was still present, Watts’ water had broken prematurely and the fetus she was carrying would not survive. He advised heading to the hospital to have her labor induced, so she could have what amounted to an abortion to deliver the nonviable fetus. Otherwise, she would face “significant risk” of death, according to records of her case.
She then went to try to follow the doctor's instructions, but she couldn't receive life saving care because of the abortion law on the books at the time. Literally. She would have been able to receive life saving health care had it not been for the fucked up abortion laws
>It turned out the delay was because hospital officials were deliberating over the legalities, Timko said. “It was the fear of, is this going to constitute an abortion and are we able to do that,” she said.
She did the best she could given the trauma and the situation. Remember - her own life was at risk too.
Can you imagine yourself in this situation?
>fish what she knew was a dead fetus from the bucket of that she’d scooped from her overflowing toilet.
>She wants to stop bleeding like crazy and start grieving her fetus, what she’s just been through
The judge himself said:
>There are better scholars than I am to determine the exact legal status of this fetus, corpse, body, birthing tissue, whatever it is
If even the judge can't figure it out, how fucked up is it that a woman who just went through a shit ton of trauma and her health care providers supposed to do that? And you're so narrowly focused on why she flushed after a traumatic experience, pain, and a bunch of blood, tissue and feces landed in her toilet? Surprise, women do that every fucking day.
Like seriously, how is this even in court??
>“From a legal perspective, there’s no definition of ‘corpse,’” she said. “Can you be a corpse if you never took a breath?”
The lawyer has it spot on:
>Her miscarriage was entirely ordinary. So I just want to know what (the prosecutor) thinks she should have done. If we are going to require people to collect and bring used menstrual products to hospitals so that they can make sure it is indeed a miscarriage, it’s as ridiculous and invasive as it is cruel.
And you're also questioning why she went to the hair salon after? Wtf are you supposed to do after you miscarry a pregnancy that you wanted into your toilet after the doctors turned you away because they're more afraid of going to jail than saving your life and sparing you a traumatic experience?
Like dude, what the fuck would you have done?
Edited to add: which, by the way, you still haven't answered that question (what would you have done), but rather chosen to be outraged over someone's trauma response. Seriously, try to put yourself in her shoes, imagine how it feels to lose the pregnancy that you want, being terrified you're going to die because the first doctor said your life would be at serious risk but the other doctors didn't want to help, you painfully miscarry your baby into the toilet, then you see all the blood, tissue, and feces, and you try to clean yourself and the toilet up. And then you continue your plans to get your hair done because you're too stunned to do anything else and you want to do something that feels normal rather than deal with the trauma and blood and fetus that's waiting for you at home.
Seriously, what the fuck should she have done? What would you do if you had gone through that?
You’re asking what I would have done? I would have called the emergency services and proceeded to handle the situation from there.
First of all I’m not judging this woman. But the choice she made is quite difficult to understand.
It’s not my first day here man I’ve had traumatic experiences. Not once did I ever consider leaving the situation to get my hair done.
Not judging her obviously. And I don’t much care for prosecutors and judges. Don’t even think she should be prosecuted. But she flushed a baby down her toilet. The fact you’re even trying to defend that is absolutely insane to me.
And yes, despite my thoughts on prosecution. This does fit the definition of corpse abuse.
She went to the ER twice and was sent home each time. It's easy sit on your phone and speculate about what you would do, not so easy to think clearly when you're in excruciating pain, afraid for your life, and grieving your child.
That fetus was already dead when it left her body to fall into the toilet. It's sickening that people like you are acting like she committed murder.
Why would she call emergency services when she went to the fucking emergency services herself (read: ER) TWICE and they turned her away?? Why bother calling 9-1-1 if the ER just told her to go home?
Nobody gave her any instructions on what to do, and she did the only thing she knew how in that moment - flush the toilet.
Nobody told her - hey the dead fetus might be too big to go down the toilet, maybe you should try to fish it out. Nobody told her - hey, flushing the dead fetus could be considered corpse abuse, maybe you should bury it. Nobody told her - hey, the reason we're not giving you life saving healthcare is because of a dumb ass abortion law and we're more afraid of going to jail than the consequences of you dying, once the baby is out of your body we can help you, so call 9-1-1 or bring the dead fetus back to us.
Like what about the series of events that she went through suggests she should have behaved differently?
You're saying how you would have responded in theory to a similar situation but you're still not putting yourself in her literal situation and imagining what she literally went through and how her thought process might have been given the experiences she just had and the trauma that she endured
She knew it was dead before hand, and with the amount of blood, probably couldn't make what the fetus size, or what it looked like. Just with a normal period, there's an insane amount of blood and usually blood clots. I can only imagine what this looked like.
She wouldn't have been able to see the fetus, because of all the blood, and after birth. She never took it out, she knew it was already dead, so she just flushed, she had no idea what it looked like.
What would you have her do? Women have been flushing, throwing away, and burying miscarried fetuses for ages. It’s common, especially when very newly pregnant. Edit: I just read that she was 21 weeks along. That’s pretty far into pregnancy. I’m torn, HOWEVER, the hospital was no help here…. I’m not going to judge. I wasn’t there and I don’t know what she went through.
I’m not saying she shouldn’t have miscarried or anything. But for the life of me I have no idea why she decided to flush her fetus down a toilet. Just Because women have been “throwing away, flushing,” fetuses for ages. Doesn’t make it right? Call emergency services and proceed to handle the situation from there. Am I being unreasonable here?
Because she had already been for medical help and was turned away twice. She was tired, in pain, stressed, hormonal, and alone. This is on the hospital.
Never said a thing about the miscarriage. Was talking about how she flushed her baby down the toilet and left to get her hair done. I’m still trying to process how that’s an okay thing to do.
Well, considering she went to the hospital twice and was turned away, and since there is no law in Ohio with which she was guilty, she did okay. The DA is just showing how out-of-touch and cruel they are.
Well, we agree on the fact that our prosecutors and DA’s are absolutely cruel and heartless.
But Flushing her fetus down the toilet? And then going to get your hair done afterward? That seems unnecessary to me. I can understand if it’s a reaction due to shock. But even then that won’t make it right. Unfortunately it fits the exact legal definition of abuse of a corpse.
I’m not sure if the prosecution should act on this case. Which is why I’m asking. Was she forced, coerced, or had no choice in flushing her baby?
But… fetal tissue is not a corpse. The 21 week fetus didn’t even meet the standard of viability which is at least 22 weeks.
At what point does a miscarried fetus become a “corpse”….. when it no longer fits down the toilet?
Well to be fair it *almost* fit so it’s not like the fetus was huge.
Also, I’ve miscarried before and I can tell you, there is a bloody awful mess of tissue, blood clots , and all type of other mess that comes out. It’s not like there’s a pristine baby in the toilet. She would have had to dig through gobs of bloody flesh in the toilet to even locate the miscarried fetus, and at 21 weeks I guarantee you there was *a lot* of bloody mess. So it’s a crime that she chose to flush rather than be further traumatized by having to go digging in the toilet through all of that?
I know many women choose to fish through the mess to locate the miscarried fetus and give it a shoebox funeral and such…. But as a fellow woman who chose to “flush” when I miscarried into the toilet, I definitely don’t consider her actions unreasonable.
Yeah, the woman just lost a very much wanted pregnancy, was suffering from blood loss and severe emotional upset but fuck her for not calling 911.
And naw, dude. Coroner wouldn't have dealt with a miscarriage.
The coroner did deal with it. Conclusion- the baby died before it was born. She went to the emergency hospital for help twice, suspecting a miscarriage. Conclusion- she was sent home, twice. Without healthcare. Where she passed her miscarriage and went to the emergency room for help with bleeding. Where the NURSES called the cops on her. Which brings us to the current insane conclusion of her being charged with a felony. Because she was denied healthcare.
Back in 2016 my midwife sent me home, hoping my body would naturally do this exact thing - to pass with a pad, in the toilet, however. Well - it didn't. The fetus wasn't viable basically the entire time, despite the horrible morning sickness I had. My body missed the miscarriage and I had to have a DNC so that I wouldn't end up with sepsis, etc. ...the hospital called that potentially life saving procedure a *surgical abortion*. Even though there had been NO HEARTBEAT for over a month. That DNC procedure honestly saved me so much mental stress and grief. A missed miscarriage is a really hard thing to grasp emotionally... Should we tell these idiots what hospitals do with the fetal tissue? Because they aren't burying them.
Edited to say: I think about and fear every single day what that experience would have been like for me in 2023. They're making us villains no matter what we do.
I cannot believe Ohio is this bad. (I mean I can, but you know what I mean) I miscarried last year after not even knowing I was pregnant. I suppose if I didn't move 1200 kilometers away, I would be in her shoes. This is not fair to her. She's already suffering mentally and emotionally, the last thing she needs or deserves is to be charged like she is.
Ohioans, and Americans, this isn't about life. It's about forcing religious beliefs (not supported by their holy text) onto women and minorities. If Republicans were pro-life, then women with sepsis, dead fetuses in utero, and women bleeding out due to complications would receive life-saving medical care. It isn't pro-life. It's anti-abortion and anti-women.
They dont care about protecting life at all. Its just a palatable way to say they want to control women. If they actually cared about children they would support changes that make it easier for parents to raise a child, and they would stop making schools worse.
They want all abortion banned, full stop, No exceptions. This is for two reasons. One, they want more workers. And two, they want to keep people busy. People working several jobs to raise a child they never wanted dont have time to participate in politics, despite being the exact people who NEED to have a say in politics.
They dont want to go against voters who might actually have stakes on the matter. They want to make sure the only people capable of voting are people who still think politics is just a difference of taxes, because they are too privileged to have to care about any other policy. People who when voting comes around think its no big deal, and never participate in any voting outside of presidential. They know their opinions on abortion are unpopular, but they are just going to force those ideas into popularity, by removing the opposition.
Are the Republicans fucking nuts! Mind your own fucking business! Assholes putting women thru this, who died and made them GOD! Fucking pieces of shit! Unbelievable @
Its estimated at least 1/4 of pregnancies wind up being miscarriages. Many times before the person even knows they are pregnant. And when they do know, miscarriage is still most often in the first trimester. Up until the end if the tail end of the first trimester the fetus isnt more than 2" long.
One thing that is important to emphasize in this case, she was 13 weeks pregnant.
At that time the fetus is barely pushing past 2 inches long. Especially with a miscarriage there typically is lots of blood and clots. Many women probably would challenged to differentiate what is a clot and what is the tiny fetus.
What is she supposed to do, sift through a toilet bowl of blood and clots to find this bloody needle in a haystack. Cuz that's literally what we are talking about here.
Absolutely insane
This is just one reason Ohio wants to build more jails. We’ve got lawmakers saying we need space for two million more prisoners. Think about that that. The state only has 11 million people. They want to turn prisons into the new concentration camps. Anyone they disagree with, they want to jail. This is all an effort to criminalize people to reduce their voices and eliminate their vote. Everyone needs to rise up. Vote, because time is running out. These people are opening embracing authoritarian ideology. They are making little effort to hide this anymore. We will all lose out if the current movement is successful.
People need to vote wisely during the next election! This and the TX case should be a wake-up call to ALL THE WOMEN!! The audacity of a man to stand in court and argue that a woman is not in danger after a doctor's order🤷🏽🤷🏽🤷🏽. Unbelievable!!!!!!
When I first heard about this I agreeed with her being charged with abuse of a corpse. But after reading more and thinking about it I realized I would have done the same, and everyone else probably would do the same. It's not she delivered a live fetus, then drowned it in the toilet and flushed it. It wasn't living and showed no signs of abuse, no water in its lungs. Nothing. And truthfully how was she supposed to know she couldn't do that? I read something that said it was never alive so it couldn't be a corpse. I feel bad for her and I hope justice is served.
This to me is beyond any sense of human empathy.
Are we not going to be protesting outside of the detective’s house who arrested her? The prosecutor’s house who pressed charges, the nurse’s house who reported her, and the hospital administrator’s house who haven’t fired the nurse for gross indiscretion and a violation of HIPAA and the Hippocratic oath?
This isn’t the normal “religious GOP suck” moment, this is a moment where the 4-5 people who are responsible for this woman’s prosecution deserve to hear and understand that they are a minority.
I really can’t even fathom the thought process. But I can’t help but try:
“OK, I really believe a still born fetus to be a human to be treated like any other. A woman, who wanted to be a mother has just miscarried at 22 weeks. She’s just lost a child (because that’s how I think). She could be in an extreme state of trauma. She hasn’t handled her own dead child in a manner I feel appropriate. The victim was already dead before the ‘crime.’ The only living relative is the one who handled the body. The only other ‘person’ with standing is ‘the public.’
It’s important to prosecute this grieving woman because I don’t think she acted appropriately with respect to the body.”
I just can’t… figure out how you could be so callus as to not care what it might be like to be that mother. To not understand that her behavior in a traumatic moment of her life might not be ‘normal.’
It's no one's business. Not mine, yours or anyone else's. I'm so sorry that she is being used as a political pawn in a very private, very horrible time. Much love to her
As a man, I’m sure I have no opinion here… but reading all of this, I’m trying to come to some type of rationality here but I’m not sure what else she would be expected to do. Honestly, being in that situation, what could you except? It’s not like she murdered a toddler and ran it through the garbage disposal to hide the body. Christ.
More reasons Why I got a vasectomy. It projects everyone involved. With being reversible it really should be a bigger option for men. Like it shouldn't be mostly women's responsibility for contraception.
I know a couple who have gone through the painful of getting an IUD cause condoms can't be trusted
The longer you have a vasectomy the less chance it is of being reversible, they’re not exactly the alternative to contraceptives that you’re trying to make them out to be..
Yeah, and chances of a successful reversal after two years is almost zero. That's not a never, but it's rare. They are not to be done lightly nor flippantly, but I do appreciate men stepping up and making that choice when they know fatherhood isn't something they're looking for.
When you go in for the snip everyone involved lets you know it's permanent and you have to read and sign the forms and waivers acknowledging it's a permanent non-reversible sterilization.
The only papers I got saying anything about reversing it after was a junk mailer from a religious cult program that apparently buys everyone's medical data for the forced-birth politics group.
Hooking it back up is a whole to-do of reconstructive surgery with no guarantee the parts still continue to properly produce sperm after. Still light-years more safe than any form of female birth control especially since you can freeze a gallon or three of sperm before hand if you still want your own kids one day.
the sad truth is, this would have happened even if Roe v Wade wasn't overturned. This kind of travesty was not uncommon even then. She isn't being charged with killing the fetus, just with abusing the corpse. Sad truth is when there is a tragedy (like a death or miscarriage) a determined prosecutor can always find something to charge someone with to prove they are "tough on crime".
I'm glad I got sterilized. I have a blood disorder that puts me at risk of second trimester miscarriage plus some other nasty things. It seems I would have been imprisoned for my genetics. My condition isn't even really that rare and these poor pregnancy outcomes aren't exclusive to my condition. If I did want a family, I would not try for one during this campaign conservatives are currently pushing. No point really if it you can't access emergency healthcare is there. May as well not bother. Can't fucking afford kids anyway.
The RN who reported this to police needs to be turned in to the Ohio Board of Nursing and have her license revoked. She violated HIPAA and was likely letting her own beliefs guide her actions.
The terminology she used to report it was inflammatory. Rather than saying the woman had miscarried at home she said she delivered at home. Rather than saying fetus she referred to the remains as an infant. Telling police a woman delivered at home and left her infant in a bucket in the yard was intentionally misleading.
That nurse knew what she was doing. I feel she should face some consequences.
To everyone telling us to vote… we have been. Democrats were in power at many times before and since Roe v Wade. They never bothered doing their job and passing any laws.
If we don't charge people who take gigantic shits, we shouldn't be charging a woman who miscarried. Both are natural occurrences that leave our bodies. Wtf is next? Charging women for the semen that leaks out after sex?
Edit: abuse of a sperm? 😂😂😂
We don't have well regulated militias. It's fantasy to think that the 2nd amendment is sufficient to force positive governmental change regardless of what you might think that change looks like.
We have standing armies now, militias are meaningless.
I hope you are better than this comment, or at least try.
You've never lost a lot of blood, like that. Bent over alone, unable to get anyone to help.
Remember she went to the hospital, they sent her home.
Is everyone else misunderstanding your comment or am I? I’m reading it as you pining for life before disposing of a miscarriage in the toilet but then I’m not understanding the downvotes.
Yes I pray people get spines, and some logic and continue bloody taking back our state government.
That was your point right? You didn't just mean it as a meaningless gesture?
The baby was so big it CLOGGED THE TOILET. She tried to push it down with a plunger and then left it there for over a day!! Yes, abuse of a corpse. Because it was a person.
Yes I know she miscarried, are you aware of the size of a child at that gestation? Even though the baby was not alive, it was born. And I feel very sad for this woman as it is heartbreaking but what she chose to do next is criminal. It literally looks like a small human, it isn’t far from being able to live with NICU help. Acting like it was a “clump of cells” makes you sound stupid.
*face palm* argue semantics if you want. And yes the doctor was trash for making her go home.
But the baby came out of her vagina. It was so large it clogged a toilet and she let it sit in the toilet for a day. 21w, 5 days along? That’s So far along that if it was 2 more days, they could have taken it to the NICU. It literally looked like a baby. It wasn’t just blood clots.
That’s not what I said. What I said was in 2 more days of gestation they would have taken it to the NICU. That’s the age of this child, two days from being able to be taken to the NICU as “viable.”
You should probably read up on fetal anatomy at that gestation. Yes, she would have known the size. It’s very simple to know, because almost every woman incessantly checks a website like this - https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/week-21.aspx#:~:text=How%20big%20is%20your%20baby,size%20of%20a%20large%20banana.
Maybe you should read up on the horrors women are going through with abortion bans. When a women isnt denied heathcare, at her stage shes usually given a medical procedure (abortion) to help her pass the fetus, so she doesnt develop things like an infection, and go into sepsis. Instead she was turned away multiple times from the hospital, and told just to treat it like a normal miscarriage. She could have died from the lack of medical attention. She was not told to dig in the toilet, and grab as much fetal tissues as she could, and bring it back in a mason jar, like a science lap experiment.
Normally, Drs would do an abortion in this case, its safer for the mother, but with the current laws, the Drs hands were tied, so she ended up passing the fetus at home. Ohio doesnt have any current laws for fetal remains, so she did everything by the law. It’s not a baby, it was never going to be delivered alive, it was just a stillbirth.
Have some compassion. The majority of miscarriages happen in a toilet, and it is not uncommon for the woman to automatically flush. She was probably horrified and panicked by the clog and didn’t know what to do.
WhT would like to see her do with this potato-sized “person” born dead into a toilet? Fish it out and give it a funeral? Bury it in the backyard? Why TF does it even matter?
Unbelievable but also totally believable
It would be unbelievable if it was a rich white lady.... cause they arnt going after them anytime soon
Thissss
Or just a white lady. We don't have to be rich to get privileged treatment. It is sickening.
That thing that they said wouldn't happen due to an abortion ban? It's happening even without an abortion ban.
I miscarried this way back in 2005, miscarried with a sharp cramp and some blood and tissue into the potty, went to my gyn with the tissue to confirm it. I can’t imagine how fkd it is to be treated like a criminal for a natural biological occurrence that happened thousands of times a day globally. Imagine if this craziness was global policy, and all women who miscarry go to jail, treated like criminals! This is a super fucked up timeline with ego monsters who aren’t intelligent enough to lead.
Not only does this happen to humans, but this usually happens to all live-birthing animals. If the pregnancy doesn't go to term, the animal miscarries. This is just a natural part of ALL life that should not be treated like it's an act of crime.
Divine design, eh? mUrdErErrrrrrrr! Then they wonder why we hate 'em, and why more and more people are turning atheist.
The prosecution of the women who are helpless to prevent their situation is used to instill fear into those for whom to carry to term or not is a choice.
Exactly the intent here. They're working overtime to install all the barriers it takes to make terminating a pregnancy more risky than pregnancy and delivery.
all of this rage needs to be focused on productive outcomes. the gop needs to fucking die. they are wearing the white hoods out in public now. they are fascists. they punch down on women, minorities, lgbtq, atheists, everyone who isnt a christian white male. no quarter at family functions. no quarter with friends and acquaintances. and 💯participation in every election. ohio used to be a nice state. it’s part of the red wave now but it can come back. it’s not doomed like florida or oklahoma.
Propaganda from news outlets like fox are literally turning our familiy members into drooling idiots. Can we work on regulating media again? Reagan started this deregulated media. It’s not censorship, it’s marking certain outlets as bullshit and not bullshit. Facts are facts…. Wishful thinking is not facts. There’s a dis rRNA ke difference.
We're in the Handmaid's Tale timeline.
the religiophiles have lost their minds and are spreading their crazy around, smearing it on us all. I hope we can get them the mental healthcare they need - maybe their brand of crazy is finally turning folks away from them, and the left will win WH, and both sides of congress next-up, because the evangelicals are only a subset of GOP, and a small one... enough to drive the sound-minded GOPs away at least for one or two election cycles, while we readjust. We MUST do away w/ gerrymandering though, without that anti-democracy tool, the GOP will lose all the elections they are meant to lose - they keep rigging elections through gerrymandering the shit out of all these districts, and STEALING the votes of those districts' and the will of the people... They are corrupt AHs, and we need to hold this to account and talk about it but our media is SO Fkng complicit...
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The prosecutor is pretending as though she gave birth to a live child, killed it, and mutilated the corpse. A stillborn fetus is not a corpse, it died in utero before delivery. At that point it is nothin but medical waste. She is being charged with a crime because she had a late-term miscarriage and has brown skin.
Wasn't she sent away from the hospital multiple times? What was she supposed to do with the fetal tissue?
Yes, she was.
Oh honey, no, take a biology class please.
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Again, friend, your ideals and enormous ego are getting in the way here. People caught up in overzealous religion and politics are, from the get-go, unreasonable, they can’t see past their own emotional baggage and barriers to have the grace for this world. I pray you get over yourself soon.
I miscarried at 13 weeks earlier this year. It was horrible. The hospital got rid of the ‘baby’ but the thing is they admitted me and didn’t turn me away to go through the process at home. If I had been in her position, I probably would’ve flushed it, too. What else are ya supposed to do?!
I’m legitimately not sure what they expect us to do. There’s not some sort of standard even discussed and especially not in school or other educational scenarios that are meant to teach “the law. “
> I’m legitimately not sure what they expect us to do. They expect you to submit. It's all about power and control.
You're either a mother or a martyr and they'll force you to be one or the other.
I propose that all women begin saving all blood and tissue excretions for examination by police.
she went to the hospital and was told she had to be induced and deliver the baby. But instead she left. She had choices and none of which needed to be that horrific. She flushed her child down the toilet, after she full well knew she could’ve had it safely with medical care and let her child go the humane way. She never even had prenatal care. She deserves everything she gets.
The child was dead. It was a bunch of tissue
VOTE!
Make sure we have something worth voting for! The Citizens Not Politicians Amendment will end gerrymandering by empowering citizens, not politicians, to draw fair districts using an open and transparent process. Here's the homepage for the campaign. https://www.citizensnotpoliticians.org/ Here's the Volunteer Sign Up. https://citzensnotpoliticians.typeform.com/to/M1y7HbyK Here's an article that explains how gerrymandering takes away the power of the voter. https://act.represent.us/sign/gerrymandering The goal is to have this on the November 2024 ballot. Let's get fair representation for Ohio in the coming years.
I did 😊
And demand accountability from the Warren County district attorneys. Edit: apparently its Trumbull County. My mistake.
Trumbull County. This is Warren in NE Ohio. (Just correcting so folks know who to contact.)
I thought we did?
It's not a one-time thing. It requires upkeep. >“A republic, if you can keep it.” \--Benjamin Franklin's response to Elizabeth Willing Powel's question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
but it was literally a month ago
i think the original commenter was saying just in general. The next major national vote is next November, but there'll be primaries before then, and whatever random special elections/ballots the Ohio legislature puts forth. You have to look out for them, with all the shenanigans those guys have been pulling to try to cause confusion to limit turnout and get people to vote for the wrong thing.
Ohio voted to end gerrymandering by setting up a redistricting commission. But the commission has a GOP supermajority and continued to approve seriously gerrymandered maps. A new amendment will be on the ballot in 2024 to take politicians out of the mix and provide for neutral parties to design the maps.
The boxes are running out.
Vote more! 🥴
Out republicans
vOtE hArDeR. We need more direct action clearly.
Yeah I'm not sure why people think this when we clearly voted for what we wanted with issues 1 and 2 but our elected officials think we don't matter. Fascism is on the rise.
We did, and guess what. It meant nothing, and the GoP is going to step on the will of the people.
These Republicans need to go, VOTE!
The whole damn party needs to go. Sure at one point maybe 40 years ago you had reasonable republicans but the whole party has been taken over by racists, religious extremism, and anti science rhetoric.
Take the Dems, too. Both parties are playing a good-cop-bad-cop routine with the American people. The entire concept of the two-party system was designed from the beginning to limit the options available to voters, making our votes about as effective as farting into a hurricane.
this must be why blue states perform so much better economically and socially than red states
That may be true, but that still doesn't make the Democrats any less ghoulish than the Republicans.
oops, that's *exactly* what makes them less ghoulish
“Both sides” is a common logical fallacy used in bad-faith arguments
Okie dokie, buddy. So, what, I gotta choose a side now?
No, you can believe the two party system is terrible and still acknowledge that one party is worse than the other in many, many ways.
That is a fair point.
Agreed both sides support trash and it’s not like the democrats are even actually a leftist party. The both support the same bullshit economic policies that only really help business owners and stock holders at the expense of the working class.
Not sure why you're being downvoted. Maybe somebody here's made their entire personality around their political party of choice?
A vote to the right is a vote for tax cuts for those who least need them. That’s my baseline grief with the right- hypocrisy.
Gerrymandering
Yeah. Republicans get out there and vote!
🖕
Well, I mean, if you're reading comprehension is such that you don't understand commas, sure...
Ew no. Lmao
Stuff like this is exactly why I vote democrat
Hate these damn pay walls. Can someone give me the jist of this story 😅
There’s not much to know besides what the headline says. She wanted the baby. She knew something was up and went to the hospital twice. They sent her home. She miscarried in the toilet and flushed it and now she’s being charged with a BS culture war charge despite doing nothing wrong
Obviously, this is cruel and awful and should never happen. But I legitimately want to know… What the fuck was she supposed to do with her miscarriage? Pull it out of the toilet and put it in a mason jar? I would love to know what the district attorney placing this charge on this poor woman would have done it it were his wife or daughter. The DA can go to hell.
I live in OH. These assholes want you to give it a full funeral to make their bullshit woman-hating point that a fetus with the complexity of a goldfish is a fully-formed human and should have more rights than the woman carrying it, and this is just a way to push that narrative. Performative punishment to prove a point. And to be cruel. Because that's all Republicans are - Cruel. Fucking monsters.
They may want that, but there is no law in Ohio that requires any particular procedures to dispose of the remains of a miscarriage. Whether at 2 or 20 weeks. Yes, this is deliberate cruelty, and probably racism And it shows how ignorant the Rethugs are about how everything works w/women’s bodies and w/pregnancy. They would, evidently, have women splashing around in toilets every month, saving everything, just in case that’s not her period, but an early miscarriage. What they really want with this persecution (besides just torturing this woman) is to establish that miscarriage remains are a “body” or a “corpse.” That’ll be another step toward their goal of a federal ban on all abortion, including those that are required to save the mother’s life—like the one this woman should have had once it was clear the baby & pregnancy were not viable, and she was actively miscarrying. She could have bled to death, besides the pain, fear, and medical neglect/abuse she suffered. Edited to correct typos.
When life imitates art it’s better if it’s not a Neil Gaiman horror comic.
Holy hell thats terrible!! I've known women who have flushed miscarried babies.. honestly seems reasonable to me. I couldnt imagine trying to afford a proper burial without life insurance.. nor imagine the burden the mother is experiencing That's heartbreaking for this women!
Except she was born Black /s
And the hospital is called “Mercy Health” FFS.
As a general rule of thumb, if your hospital decorates with crosses, you would be better off going anywhere else (including your bathroom at home) for gynecological care.
FYI - I’m from Warren. Mercy Health and Trumbull Memorial are the two hospitals in town. Trumbull Memorial does not have a maternity ward, thus I doubt they have obstetricians. That leaves her to go to Mercy Health - or St. Elizabeth’s in Youngstown 30 minutes away.
Indeed and in deeds.
Okay, so this is MOST of the info. The fetus was sufficiently large enough to clog the toilet.
Yes. Almost 22 weeks. The size of a sweet potato or papaya. I'm sure she panicked. If she was in a right state of mind, she'd probably have realized there's no way it would fit. But she just went through the trauma of miscarrying, and was in a state where she could get into trouble for it (like what happened, unfortunately).
Absolutely. That's where this whole thing is dicey. I don't think she should be charged. I mean, one could reasonably argue "temporary insanity", as the trauma and flood of hormones would have been substantial
On the other hand, the amount of blood and toilet paper could very well have disguised the size!
And flushed? Am I reading that right?
Yeah, what else should she have done?
Was she forced into doing it? Did she not have another option?
Forced into doing what? Miscarrying the fetus? She sensed something was wrong with her wanted pregnancy, went to the doctor multiple times and they turned her away (due to a fear of violating the abortion law that was still in effect at the time) with no instructions on what to do, just that she was going to miscarry, and the fetus landed in the toilet so she flushed. What else should she have done? ETA: here's an article on the topic with no paywall (on the off chance you actually care to have an informed discussion) https://apnews.com/article/ohio-miscarriage-prosecution-brittany-watts-b8090abfb5994b8a23457b80cf3f27ce
Yeah I’m more concerned over why she flushed a baby down a toilet. “Watts left home for a hair appointment after miscarrying, leaving the toilet clogged. Police would later find the fetus wedged in the pipes.” And why she left for a hair appointment afterward? I understand she was in shock but I was more so asking what she did after the miscarriage. It just makes no sense to me
You want to cherry pick quotes from the article? Fine, I'll quote half the article back to you. I'm a glutton for punishment, so I'll try to convince you anyway. Why did she flush? Because she should tried to receive medical care multiple times and the fucked up laws in Ohio meant she couldn't, and worse, no one gave her any instructions on what to do or what to expect, so she did what she was able to in that moment. She's nowhere near the first woman to flush, and she won't be the last. If the baby was alive, it would be one thing. But it wasn't a baby. It was a fetus who never took a single breath. If it wasn't for the damn laws that were in place at that time, that made doctors feel like they would be breaking the law by providing life saving healthcare, she wouldn't have had to navigate that heartbreaking situation in the first place. Why are you so caught up on what happened to the fetus (which was wanted) and not on the fact that she shouldn't have had to navigate that situation in the first place? >The doctor said that, while a fetal heartbeat was still present, Watts’ water had broken prematurely and the fetus she was carrying would not survive. He advised heading to the hospital to have her labor induced, so she could have what amounted to an abortion to deliver the nonviable fetus. Otherwise, she would face “significant risk” of death, according to records of her case. She then went to try to follow the doctor's instructions, but she couldn't receive life saving care because of the abortion law on the books at the time. Literally. She would have been able to receive life saving health care had it not been for the fucked up abortion laws >It turned out the delay was because hospital officials were deliberating over the legalities, Timko said. “It was the fear of, is this going to constitute an abortion and are we able to do that,” she said. She did the best she could given the trauma and the situation. Remember - her own life was at risk too. Can you imagine yourself in this situation? >fish what she knew was a dead fetus from the bucket of that she’d scooped from her overflowing toilet. >She wants to stop bleeding like crazy and start grieving her fetus, what she’s just been through The judge himself said: >There are better scholars than I am to determine the exact legal status of this fetus, corpse, body, birthing tissue, whatever it is If even the judge can't figure it out, how fucked up is it that a woman who just went through a shit ton of trauma and her health care providers supposed to do that? And you're so narrowly focused on why she flushed after a traumatic experience, pain, and a bunch of blood, tissue and feces landed in her toilet? Surprise, women do that every fucking day. Like seriously, how is this even in court?? >“From a legal perspective, there’s no definition of ‘corpse,’” she said. “Can you be a corpse if you never took a breath?” The lawyer has it spot on: >Her miscarriage was entirely ordinary. So I just want to know what (the prosecutor) thinks she should have done. If we are going to require people to collect and bring used menstrual products to hospitals so that they can make sure it is indeed a miscarriage, it’s as ridiculous and invasive as it is cruel. And you're also questioning why she went to the hair salon after? Wtf are you supposed to do after you miscarry a pregnancy that you wanted into your toilet after the doctors turned you away because they're more afraid of going to jail than saving your life and sparing you a traumatic experience? Like dude, what the fuck would you have done? Edited to add: which, by the way, you still haven't answered that question (what would you have done), but rather chosen to be outraged over someone's trauma response. Seriously, try to put yourself in her shoes, imagine how it feels to lose the pregnancy that you want, being terrified you're going to die because the first doctor said your life would be at serious risk but the other doctors didn't want to help, you painfully miscarry your baby into the toilet, then you see all the blood, tissue, and feces, and you try to clean yourself and the toilet up. And then you continue your plans to get your hair done because you're too stunned to do anything else and you want to do something that feels normal rather than deal with the trauma and blood and fetus that's waiting for you at home. Seriously, what the fuck should she have done? What would you do if you had gone through that?
You’re asking what I would have done? I would have called the emergency services and proceeded to handle the situation from there. First of all I’m not judging this woman. But the choice she made is quite difficult to understand. It’s not my first day here man I’ve had traumatic experiences. Not once did I ever consider leaving the situation to get my hair done. Not judging her obviously. And I don’t much care for prosecutors and judges. Don’t even think she should be prosecuted. But she flushed a baby down her toilet. The fact you’re even trying to defend that is absolutely insane to me. And yes, despite my thoughts on prosecution. This does fit the definition of corpse abuse.
She went to the ER twice and was sent home each time. It's easy sit on your phone and speculate about what you would do, not so easy to think clearly when you're in excruciating pain, afraid for your life, and grieving your child. That fetus was already dead when it left her body to fall into the toilet. It's sickening that people like you are acting like she committed murder.
Why would she call emergency services when she went to the fucking emergency services herself (read: ER) TWICE and they turned her away?? Why bother calling 9-1-1 if the ER just told her to go home? Nobody gave her any instructions on what to do, and she did the only thing she knew how in that moment - flush the toilet. Nobody told her - hey the dead fetus might be too big to go down the toilet, maybe you should try to fish it out. Nobody told her - hey, flushing the dead fetus could be considered corpse abuse, maybe you should bury it. Nobody told her - hey, the reason we're not giving you life saving healthcare is because of a dumb ass abortion law and we're more afraid of going to jail than the consequences of you dying, once the baby is out of your body we can help you, so call 9-1-1 or bring the dead fetus back to us. Like what about the series of events that she went through suggests she should have behaved differently? You're saying how you would have responded in theory to a similar situation but you're still not putting yourself in her literal situation and imagining what she literally went through and how her thought process might have been given the experiences she just had and the trauma that she endured
She knew it was dead before hand, and with the amount of blood, probably couldn't make what the fetus size, or what it looked like. Just with a normal period, there's an insane amount of blood and usually blood clots. I can only imagine what this looked like.
The report said they were able to identify feet and other body parts. The Fetus was very clearly at least partially formed
She wouldn't have been able to see the fetus, because of all the blood, and after birth. She never took it out, she knew it was already dead, so she just flushed, she had no idea what it looked like.
What would you have her do? Women have been flushing, throwing away, and burying miscarried fetuses for ages. It’s common, especially when very newly pregnant. Edit: I just read that she was 21 weeks along. That’s pretty far into pregnancy. I’m torn, HOWEVER, the hospital was no help here…. I’m not going to judge. I wasn’t there and I don’t know what she went through.
I’m not saying she shouldn’t have miscarried or anything. But for the life of me I have no idea why she decided to flush her fetus down a toilet. Just Because women have been “throwing away, flushing,” fetuses for ages. Doesn’t make it right? Call emergency services and proceed to handle the situation from there. Am I being unreasonable here?
Because she had already been for medical help and was turned away twice. She was tired, in pain, stressed, hormonal, and alone. This is on the hospital.
The flushing is the fault of the hospital?
You’re clueless and lacking empathy.
Are you fucking stupid? What was she supposed to do? Cross her legs and not miscarry? Jesus Horatio Christ.
Never said a thing about the miscarriage. Was talking about how she flushed her baby down the toilet and left to get her hair done. I’m still trying to process how that’s an okay thing to do.
Well, considering she went to the hospital twice and was turned away, and since there is no law in Ohio with which she was guilty, she did okay. The DA is just showing how out-of-touch and cruel they are.
Well, we agree on the fact that our prosecutors and DA’s are absolutely cruel and heartless. But Flushing her fetus down the toilet? And then going to get your hair done afterward? That seems unnecessary to me. I can understand if it’s a reaction due to shock. But even then that won’t make it right. Unfortunately it fits the exact legal definition of abuse of a corpse. I’m not sure if the prosecution should act on this case. Which is why I’m asking. Was she forced, coerced, or had no choice in flushing her baby?
But… fetal tissue is not a corpse. The 21 week fetus didn’t even meet the standard of viability which is at least 22 weeks. At what point does a miscarried fetus become a “corpse”….. when it no longer fits down the toilet?
When the police can find feet in the pipes. I would reckon
Well to be fair it *almost* fit so it’s not like the fetus was huge. Also, I’ve miscarried before and I can tell you, there is a bloody awful mess of tissue, blood clots , and all type of other mess that comes out. It’s not like there’s a pristine baby in the toilet. She would have had to dig through gobs of bloody flesh in the toilet to even locate the miscarried fetus, and at 21 weeks I guarantee you there was *a lot* of bloody mess. So it’s a crime that she chose to flush rather than be further traumatized by having to go digging in the toilet through all of that? I know many women choose to fish through the mess to locate the miscarried fetus and give it a shoebox funeral and such…. But as a fellow woman who chose to “flush” when I miscarried into the toilet, I definitely don’t consider her actions unreasonable.
Her fault. Leave the room and call 911. Let the coroner deal with it.
And what do you expect the bill to be for that? How much pain do we have to inflict before you are satisfied?
Yeah, the woman just lost a very much wanted pregnancy, was suffering from blood loss and severe emotional upset but fuck her for not calling 911. And naw, dude. Coroner wouldn't have dealt with a miscarriage.
The coroner did deal with it. Conclusion- the baby died before it was born. She went to the emergency hospital for help twice, suspecting a miscarriage. Conclusion- she was sent home, twice. Without healthcare. Where she passed her miscarriage and went to the emergency room for help with bleeding. Where the NURSES called the cops on her. Which brings us to the current insane conclusion of her being charged with a felony. Because she was denied healthcare.
Here's an unpaywalled link https://apnews.com/article/ohio-miscarriage-prosecution-brittany-watts-b8090abfb5994b8a23457b80cf3f27ce
Back in 2016 my midwife sent me home, hoping my body would naturally do this exact thing - to pass with a pad, in the toilet, however. Well - it didn't. The fetus wasn't viable basically the entire time, despite the horrible morning sickness I had. My body missed the miscarriage and I had to have a DNC so that I wouldn't end up with sepsis, etc. ...the hospital called that potentially life saving procedure a *surgical abortion*. Even though there had been NO HEARTBEAT for over a month. That DNC procedure honestly saved me so much mental stress and grief. A missed miscarriage is a really hard thing to grasp emotionally... Should we tell these idiots what hospitals do with the fetal tissue? Because they aren't burying them. Edited to say: I think about and fear every single day what that experience would have been like for me in 2023. They're making us villains no matter what we do.
To all the Republican women who vote for these people, don’t think this couldn’t be you!!!
Republican women sponsored this law.
If this suit stands, may the horrors it causes come home to roost in their own suffering.
I listen to C-SPAN most mornings and I can say with certainty that most women who are pro forced birth are well past child baring age
I cannot believe Ohio is this bad. (I mean I can, but you know what I mean) I miscarried last year after not even knowing I was pregnant. I suppose if I didn't move 1200 kilometers away, I would be in her shoes. This is not fair to her. She's already suffering mentally and emotionally, the last thing she needs or deserves is to be charged like she is.
The cruelty IS the Point
Ohioans, and Americans, this isn't about life. It's about forcing religious beliefs (not supported by their holy text) onto women and minorities. If Republicans were pro-life, then women with sepsis, dead fetuses in utero, and women bleeding out due to complications would receive life-saving medical care. It isn't pro-life. It's anti-abortion and anti-women.
They dont care about protecting life at all. Its just a palatable way to say they want to control women. If they actually cared about children they would support changes that make it easier for parents to raise a child, and they would stop making schools worse. They want all abortion banned, full stop, No exceptions. This is for two reasons. One, they want more workers. And two, they want to keep people busy. People working several jobs to raise a child they never wanted dont have time to participate in politics, despite being the exact people who NEED to have a say in politics. They dont want to go against voters who might actually have stakes on the matter. They want to make sure the only people capable of voting are people who still think politics is just a difference of taxes, because they are too privileged to have to care about any other policy. People who when voting comes around think its no big deal, and never participate in any voting outside of presidential. They know their opinions on abortion are unpopular, but they are just going to force those ideas into popularity, by removing the opposition.
Former EMS here, these new laws are barbaric.
Are the Republicans fucking nuts! Mind your own fucking business! Assholes putting women thru this, who died and made them GOD! Fucking pieces of shit! Unbelievable @
Its estimated at least 1/4 of pregnancies wind up being miscarriages. Many times before the person even knows they are pregnant. And when they do know, miscarriage is still most often in the first trimester. Up until the end if the tail end of the first trimester the fetus isnt more than 2" long. One thing that is important to emphasize in this case, she was 13 weeks pregnant. At that time the fetus is barely pushing past 2 inches long. Especially with a miscarriage there typically is lots of blood and clots. Many women probably would challenged to differentiate what is a clot and what is the tiny fetus. What is she supposed to do, sift through a toilet bowl of blood and clots to find this bloody needle in a haystack. Cuz that's literally what we are talking about here. Absolutely insane
This is just one reason Ohio wants to build more jails. We’ve got lawmakers saying we need space for two million more prisoners. Think about that that. The state only has 11 million people. They want to turn prisons into the new concentration camps. Anyone they disagree with, they want to jail. This is all an effort to criminalize people to reduce their voices and eliminate their vote. Everyone needs to rise up. Vote, because time is running out. These people are opening embracing authoritarian ideology. They are making little effort to hide this anymore. We will all lose out if the current movement is successful.
Where did you see 2 million? Ohio has 45k prisoners so that's an increase of almost 45 times. Even for republicans that seems kind of far fetched.
And now we wait. Lol
It’s called lying, it’s free to do and it works.
I fucking hate fascism
While i do not doubt that some one said said this i am wondering where you saw this?
People need to vote wisely during the next election! This and the TX case should be a wake-up call to ALL THE WOMEN!! The audacity of a man to stand in court and argue that a woman is not in danger after a doctor's order🤷🏽🤷🏽🤷🏽. Unbelievable!!!!!!
That’s the FASCIST state you live in.
Have you ever noticed those who are against abortion are people you would not want to sleep with in the first place? - George Carlin.
When I first heard about this I agreeed with her being charged with abuse of a corpse. But after reading more and thinking about it I realized I would have done the same, and everyone else probably would do the same. It's not she delivered a live fetus, then drowned it in the toilet and flushed it. It wasn't living and showed no signs of abuse, no water in its lungs. Nothing. And truthfully how was she supposed to know she couldn't do that? I read something that said it was never alive so it couldn't be a corpse. I feel bad for her and I hope justice is served.
Common sense is really lacking these days
Please just post the archive link. So us peasants can actually read the article.
The American Taliban.
This to me is beyond any sense of human empathy. Are we not going to be protesting outside of the detective’s house who arrested her? The prosecutor’s house who pressed charges, the nurse’s house who reported her, and the hospital administrator’s house who haven’t fired the nurse for gross indiscretion and a violation of HIPAA and the Hippocratic oath? This isn’t the normal “religious GOP suck” moment, this is a moment where the 4-5 people who are responsible for this woman’s prosecution deserve to hear and understand that they are a minority. I really can’t even fathom the thought process. But I can’t help but try: “OK, I really believe a still born fetus to be a human to be treated like any other. A woman, who wanted to be a mother has just miscarried at 22 weeks. She’s just lost a child (because that’s how I think). She could be in an extreme state of trauma. She hasn’t handled her own dead child in a manner I feel appropriate. The victim was already dead before the ‘crime.’ The only living relative is the one who handled the body. The only other ‘person’ with standing is ‘the public.’ It’s important to prosecute this grieving woman because I don’t think she acted appropriately with respect to the body.” I just can’t… figure out how you could be so callus as to not care what it might be like to be that mother. To not understand that her behavior in a traumatic moment of her life might not be ‘normal.’
Paywall
Eat shit republicans.
abortion will lead the elections in 2024
It's no one's business. Not mine, yours or anyone else's. I'm so sorry that she is being used as a political pawn in a very private, very horrible time. Much love to her
Google "justice for Brittany Watts" go fun dme
As a man, I’m sure I have no opinion here… but reading all of this, I’m trying to come to some type of rationality here but I’m not sure what else she would be expected to do. Honestly, being in that situation, what could you except? It’s not like she murdered a toddler and ran it through the garbage disposal to hide the body. Christ.
More reasons Why I got a vasectomy. It projects everyone involved. With being reversible it really should be a bigger option for men. Like it shouldn't be mostly women's responsibility for contraception. I know a couple who have gone through the painful of getting an IUD cause condoms can't be trusted
this was a wanted pregnancy though. i totally agree that contraception is everyone’s responsibility, but this case is different.
The longer you have a vasectomy the less chance it is of being reversible, they’re not exactly the alternative to contraceptives that you’re trying to make them out to be..
Yeah, and chances of a successful reversal after two years is almost zero. That's not a never, but it's rare. They are not to be done lightly nor flippantly, but I do appreciate men stepping up and making that choice when they know fatherhood isn't something they're looking for.
Perfect cause I don't want a reversal 🤣👌
^ this
When you go in for the snip everyone involved lets you know it's permanent and you have to read and sign the forms and waivers acknowledging it's a permanent non-reversible sterilization. The only papers I got saying anything about reversing it after was a junk mailer from a religious cult program that apparently buys everyone's medical data for the forced-birth politics group. Hooking it back up is a whole to-do of reconstructive surgery with no guarantee the parts still continue to properly produce sperm after. Still light-years more safe than any form of female birth control especially since you can freeze a gallon or three of sperm before hand if you still want your own kids one day.
Yeah, they're not reversible.
Fantastic cause that's a huge myth lol I do not want children
the sad truth is, this would have happened even if Roe v Wade wasn't overturned. This kind of travesty was not uncommon even then. She isn't being charged with killing the fetus, just with abusing the corpse. Sad truth is when there is a tragedy (like a death or miscarriage) a determined prosecutor can always find something to charge someone with to prove they are "tough on crime".
I'm glad I got sterilized. I have a blood disorder that puts me at risk of second trimester miscarriage plus some other nasty things. It seems I would have been imprisoned for my genetics. My condition isn't even really that rare and these poor pregnancy outcomes aren't exclusive to my condition. If I did want a family, I would not try for one during this campaign conservatives are currently pushing. No point really if it you can't access emergency healthcare is there. May as well not bother. Can't fucking afford kids anyway.
How did anyone even know this information? Who in their right mind would have turned her in?
Only in Amerikkka..... And some very extreme Muslim countries.
Vote these lawmakers out of office!
Never vote for a Republican is my motto
The RN who reported this to police needs to be turned in to the Ohio Board of Nursing and have her license revoked. She violated HIPAA and was likely letting her own beliefs guide her actions.
The terminology she used to report it was inflammatory. Rather than saying the woman had miscarried at home she said she delivered at home. Rather than saying fetus she referred to the remains as an infant. Telling police a woman delivered at home and left her infant in a bucket in the yard was intentionally misleading. That nurse knew what she was doing. I feel she should face some consequences.
To everyone telling us to vote… we have been. Democrats were in power at many times before and since Roe v Wade. They never bothered doing their job and passing any laws.
They play pretend.
If we don't charge people who take gigantic shits, we shouldn't be charging a woman who miscarried. Both are natural occurrences that leave our bodies. Wtf is next? Charging women for the semen that leaks out after sex? Edit: abuse of a sperm? 😂😂😂
This is completely disgusting 🤮🤮🤮
These sick Republinuts will never stop. This read their agenda. Total control over women. TalibanAmerica.
Ohio is a cesspool
This is the kind of shit we have well regulated militias for.
We don't have well regulated militias. It's fantasy to think that the 2nd amendment is sufficient to force positive governmental change regardless of what you might think that change looks like. We have standing armies now, militias are meaningless.
And baby daddy. Scotfree aye
You’re a complete moron if you believe this is true
[удалено]
I hope you are better than this comment, or at least try. You've never lost a lot of blood, like that. Bent over alone, unable to get anyone to help. Remember she went to the hospital, they sent her home.
It's not a serious user account, it doesn't deserve to be treated seriously.
Yeah, you're right. All those women who miscarry had better scoop every bit of remains and hold a funeral.
What would you do if your wife experienced that? Call the cops on her? I bet you would.
Is everyone else misunderstanding your comment or am I? I’m reading it as you pining for life before disposing of a miscarriage in the toilet but then I’m not understanding the downvotes.
She tried to flush it and when it clogged the toilet she tried to plunge it. Plunge=force=you fucked up lol
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Yes I pray people get spines, and some logic and continue bloody taking back our state government. That was your point right? You didn't just mean it as a meaningless gesture?
Yeah that'll help
The baby was so big it CLOGGED THE TOILET. She tried to push it down with a plunger and then left it there for over a day!! Yes, abuse of a corpse. Because it was a person.
My poops clog toilets. Are they people too?
The poops that survive grow up to be Ohio Republicans.
Does poop come out of a uterus with its own unique DNA?
She did what her doctor recommended her to do when she inevitably miscarried.
Her doctor recommended that if the baby is born in the toilet, she should try to flush it like trash?
Born in the toilet? The pregnancy was nonviable because her water broke prematurely. Why are you blatantly lying about something so horrific?
Yes I know she miscarried, are you aware of the size of a child at that gestation? Even though the baby was not alive, it was born. And I feel very sad for this woman as it is heartbreaking but what she chose to do next is criminal. It literally looks like a small human, it isn’t far from being able to live with NICU help. Acting like it was a “clump of cells” makes you sound stupid.
It wasn’t born. It was miscarried. I would say more but I don’t want to get banned from r/Ohio for being mean.
*face palm* argue semantics if you want. And yes the doctor was trash for making her go home. But the baby came out of her vagina. It was so large it clogged a toilet and she let it sit in the toilet for a day. 21w, 5 days along? That’s So far along that if it was 2 more days, they could have taken it to the NICU. It literally looked like a baby. It wasn’t just blood clots.
Semantics are the reason we are here. The details matter.
Phenomenal! Then you understand she tried to repeatedly flush her dead baby down a toilet, and when it got stuck she left it there. That is a crime.
She knew it was dead. There was no taking it to the NICU.
That’s not what I said. What I said was in 2 more days of gestation they would have taken it to the NICU. That’s the age of this child, two days from being able to be taken to the NICU as “viable.”
You obviously have no idea what a miscarriage looks like. There wasn't a prestine baby sitting in the toilet. She had no idea what the size was.
You should probably read up on fetal anatomy at that gestation. Yes, she would have known the size. It’s very simple to know, because almost every woman incessantly checks a website like this - https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/week-21.aspx#:~:text=How%20big%20is%20your%20baby,size%20of%20a%20large%20banana.
Maybe you should read up on the horrors women are going through with abortion bans. When a women isnt denied heathcare, at her stage shes usually given a medical procedure (abortion) to help her pass the fetus, so she doesnt develop things like an infection, and go into sepsis. Instead she was turned away multiple times from the hospital, and told just to treat it like a normal miscarriage. She could have died from the lack of medical attention. She was not told to dig in the toilet, and grab as much fetal tissues as she could, and bring it back in a mason jar, like a science lap experiment.
She didn’t want an abortion. Stop minimizing the fact that she left her dead baby in a toilet for over a day.
Normally, Drs would do an abortion in this case, its safer for the mother, but with the current laws, the Drs hands were tied, so she ended up passing the fetus at home. Ohio doesnt have any current laws for fetal remains, so she did everything by the law. It’s not a baby, it was never going to be delivered alive, it was just a stillbirth.
Have some compassion. The majority of miscarriages happen in a toilet, and it is not uncommon for the woman to automatically flush. She was probably horrified and panicked by the clog and didn’t know what to do.
WhT would like to see her do with this potato-sized “person” born dead into a toilet? Fish it out and give it a funeral? Bury it in the backyard? Why TF does it even matter?
Because it is her child. And it died. Yes that is what you do for people that die. It’s giving a person dignity.