Ohio City Tries to Prosecute Woman for Having Miscarriage in Toilet

iluvatar5150 said:

There's a surprising amount of detail regarding the sequence of events:

Brittany Watts, Ohio woman charged with felony after miscarriage at home, describes shock of her arrest

Brittany Watts, the Ohio woman charged with a felony after a miscarriage, says she doesn't want "any other woman to go through what I had to go through."

www.cbsnews.com

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RestoreTheJoy said:

The charge was dropped, as it should be.

There is a lot of fault here and it does not belong to Ms. Watts:

"When Brittany Watts woke up at her Warren, Ohio, home on Sept. 22, 2023, she knew she was miscarrying.

Her 22-week-old fetus had been declared nonviable by doctors several days prior. Bleeding and in pain, she spent a total of 19 hours in the hospital over a span of two days, begging to be induced.

But an ethics group at Mercy Health - St. Joseph Warren Hospital had concerns about Ohio's abortion laws and how they applied to Watts' case, ultimately resulting in hours of delayed care.

Watts, frustrated with the lengthy wait times, said she left the hospital both days against medical advice. She said she miscarried alone in her own bathroom."

The doctors determined it was a nonviable fetus. End of story. So you do what needs to be done in that case.
Here, the "Ethics" group decided to play politics instead of "first do no harm", perhaps as a political football, with this woman as the unwitting player.

If the baby is dead or irreversibly dying, there is no issue that involves ethics.
"
I don't understand this part at all: Watts' doctor informed her that the fetus was unviable, and sent her to Mercy Health – St. Joseph Warren Hospital, just across the parking lot from her office. Despite it being a short, walkable distance, she required Watts to travel by ambulance. That's when it really set in for Watts that the situation was very serious."

Her doctor said it was imperative AND she was still within the time limit of Ohio's abortion law. How was there any issue whatsoever?

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The IbanezerScrooge said:

It's interesting to me how you place the blame for this situation on the doctors and other people who would be prosecuted by these ridiculous laws for the decisions they make in cases like this, accusing them of "playing politics" and not on the legislators, activists and other actors who are most definitely and undeniably "playing politics" that pushed these ridiculous laws that created the situation in the first place.

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RestoreTheJoy said:

I'm actually analyzing the facts correctly. The dismissal of the charge only substantiates my view.

Once the doctor has spoken, (and if I recall, there were at least two here legitimately confirming the non viability of the fetus), that's the end of it.

Ohio's law permitted abortion up until 22 weeks. She was not yet 22 weeks pregnant, so that is a moot point as well.

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The IbanezerScrooge said:

And yet she was charged. While those charges were correctly dropped and should have never been brought in the first place, the fact that they were is because of these barbaric laws. This woman was treated like a criminal even though, as you point out, she had literally broken no law. Why is that? Do you think it was based on the facts? Because we all know how fact-based and completely non-emotionally these laws are brought into the legislatures.

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The IbanezerScrooge said:

And yet she was charged. While those charges were correctly dropped and should have never been brought in the first place, the fact that they were is because of these barbaric laws. This woman was treated like a criminal even though, as you point out, she had literally broken no law. Why is that? Do you think it was based on the facts? Because we all know how fact-based and completely non-emotionally these laws are brought into the legislatures.

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rjs330 said:

That's nonsense. The so called barbaric law says nothing about charging someone in this case. It's VERY specific and the charges were dropped. You know why? Cause barbaric law said so.

Laws have to be followed according to the law itself. If the law says I have to turn my lights on after sunset it's not a barbaric law. Even if some cop writes me a ticket for not having my lights on at noon. The cop was wrong.

And in this case 22 weeks is the cutoff line. And she lost the child before then. So obviously the law was not followed which is not the laws fault. And does in no way make the law barbaric.

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JSRG said:

Your post is contradicting yourself. You say she was treated unfairly because of "barbaric laws". Yet you also simultaneously admit that she hadn't broken any laws. So the law is "barbaric" for criminalizing something it doesn't criminalize? That doesn't make sense at all.

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The IbanezerScrooge said:

And yet she was charged. While those charges were correctly dropped and should have never been brought in the first place, the fact that they were is because of these barbaric laws. This woman was treated like a criminal even though, as you point out, she had literally broken no law. Why is that? Do you think it was based on the facts? Because we all know how fact-based and completely non-emotionally these laws are brought into the legislatures.

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The IbanezerScrooge said:

I agree that it's nonsense that she was charged. If a cop writes you a ticket incorrectly guess what.... you still have to either pay it or go to court to have it thrown out. You agree you shouldn't have to deal with that right? This woman still had to deal with being accused and in the system unnecessarily. The law is indeed barbaric and ridiculous. The law shouldn't exist. Controlling what women do with their own bodies should not be a law. This just shouldn't be a concern for women to have. At all.

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The IbanezerScrooge said:

The existence of this law caused this situation. A situation that should not have happened. At all. But it did BECAUSE these laws do in fact exist. They should not. They are barbaric and ridiculous.

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CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN said:

This should have never been an issue. Since it should be nobody's business.

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Ohio woman charged after miscarriage sues city of Warren, Mercy Health in federal court​

essentialsaltes said:

Ohio woman charged after miscarriage sues city of Warren, Mercy Health in federal court​

Brittany Watts filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division claiming violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment, along with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a law that establishes the right for anyone to be admitted to a hospital in an emergency situation regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status, and for them to receive “necessary stabilizing treatment,” according to Watts’ attorneys from the firm Loevy & Loevy.

Watts also accused law enforcement of malicious prosecution and false arrest, and health care professionals with medical negligence, unauthorized disclosure of confidential medical information, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to the lawsuit filed Jan. 10.

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