(PatriotWise.com) — An Ohio grand jury is considering whether to indict a woman who was charged with abuse of a corpse after she flushed her miscarried baby down the toilet, the New York Times reported.
Brittany Watts, 34, miscarried in September 2022 and passed the unviable fetus in the bathroom of her Warren, Ohio, home and flushed the remains.
Watts then went to the hospital, where she underwent dilation and curettage (D & C) to remove the placenta. The hospital notified the Warren City Police about “the need to locate the fetus.”
Watts told police that she placed the miscarried fetus in a bucket in the backyard. However, police found the fetus clogged in the toilet. They removed the toilet and took it to the morgue, where it was dismantled to retrieve the fetus.
Watts was charged on October 5 with felony abuse of a corpse under a state law adopted in 1996.
A Trumbull County grand jury has had the case since November and was expected to release its final report on January 3. However, a spokesman for the Trumbull County prosecutor said the case had been postponed for a couple of weeks.
While the medical findings show that Watts spontaneously miscarried and she hasn’t been charged with aborting the fetus, the case has come under scrutiny by pro-abortion advocates and attorneys, who argue that the charges against Watts are baseless and could deter other women from obtaining medical attention if they miscarry.
Traci Timko, the attorney representing Brittany Watts, told Warrant County Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak that Watts was being “demonized” for something that happens every day.
However, the judge, who has since retired, determined that there was probable cause to send Watts’ case to a grand jury for consideration.
If Watts is formally indicted and found guilty, she could face up to one year in prison.
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