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 Brittany Watts, 34, of Warren, resolving a case that sparked national attention for its implications for pregnant women as states across the country hash out new laws governing reproductive health care access in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.
The announcement came hours before about 150 supporters gathered for a “We Stand With Brittany!” rally on Warren’s Courthouse Square. The event had been planned before Thursday’s announcement of the grand jury’s decision.
“I want to thank my community — Warren. Warren, Ohio. I was born here. I was raised here. I graduated high school here, and I’m going to continue to stay here because I have to continue to fight,” she said.
Watts’ lawyer said an outpouring of emails, letters, calls, donations and prayers from the public helped her client endure the ordeal of being charged with a felony punishable by up to a year in prison.
A municipal judge had found probable cause to bind over Watts’ case after city prosecutors said she miscarried — clogging the toilet and removing some of its contents to an outdoor trash area — then left the house, leaving the 22-week-old fetus lodged in the pipes.
Due to delays and other complications, her attorney said, she left each time without being treated. After she miscarried, she tried to go to a hair appointment, but friends sent her to the hospital. A nurse called 911 to report a previously pregnant patient had returned reporting “the baby’s in her backyard in a bucket.”
That call launched a police investigation that led to the eventual charge against Watts.
Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri told Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak the issue wasn’t “how the child died, when the child died” but “the fact the baby was put into a toilet, was large enough to clog up the toilet, left in the toilet, and she went on (with) her day.”
