Posted on 12/31/2023 5:02:16 PM PST by Morgana
An Ohio woman faces felony charges related to the abuse of a corpse after she suffered a miscarriage at home and attempted to flush the fetus down the toilet.
Brittany Watts, 33, miscarried in the bathroom of her Warren home during the third week of September. It was her first pregnancy.
Earlier that week, she was admitted twice to Mercy Health St. Joseph Warren Hospital when she experienced agonizing cramps and bleeding.
However, she left both times after waiting hours to see a doctor.
‘I was distraught, heartbroken, empty - literally and figuratively,’ Watts told WCMH-TV. She did not tell anyone in her family about the pregnancy. Following the miscarriage, which she suffered at just over 22 weeks pregnant, Watts flushed the toilet.
When the toilet overflowed, she used a bucket to clean up. As she did not want anyone to know about the pregnancy, Watts then went to the salon for a hair appointment.
But the hairdresser was concerned and called her mother. Watts was taken to the hospital, where a nurse phoned 911.
According to transcripts, the nurse told a dispatcher that Watts was sent to the hospital earlier that week with bleeding and left ‘against medical advice.’
‘She came back in on Wednesday still bleeding and said, “Maybe I do need to be seen.” So we readmitted her and we were talking her through everything and she disappeared,’ the nurse continued.
She said Watts admitted to placing the fetus in a bucket and putting it outside her home, as well as saying that she did not want the baby.
However, Warren police found the fetus still lodged in the toilet. Watts was later arrested and charged with gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
22 weeks is about 2 weeks short of viability. This baby very well could have been saved but for a mentally defective mother.
After 20 weeks, the death of a child in utero is usually called a stillbirth, not a miscarriage, and some states issue death certificates.
The CDC also keeps track of fetal death statistics. Whether or not a death certificate is issued, the CDC records the death and the cause.
She ought to ask for a trial with a jury of her peers
At what point is a dead fetus considered a ‘corpse’?
There are no ‘instructions’. Women have probably flushed fetuses many, many times without ever knowing they were pregnant, or knowing they were miscarrying.
You have my sympathy for going through that, losing two precious children. So sorry. They are with Jesus now.
I take great comfort in the knowledge that I will one day be reunited with them.
For His reasons, God called them home. I accept His wisdom and am grateful He gave them to me, even if it was only for a little while.
I don’t know about charging her with a felony, but a miscarriage at that point, 22 weeks, with the baby at that size and point of development is more of a stillbirth, as someone mentioned, and should be treated accordingly. From the story, the mother seems not quite in her right mind, for whatever reason. Maybe that will be a consideration.
Her stillborn baby needed to be reported and properly taken care of, for her sake physically, emotionally, and spiritually, as well as for others. People around her had a duty to find out what happened to her pregnancy, at that point. And her child’s remains could be found by someone, too, and that shouldn’t happen either. So for whatever reason, she did not do right, but perhaps she was disturbed or just despondent and physically very unwell from the miscarriage.
I take great comfort in the knowledge that I will one day be reunited with them.
.......................................................
Yes! AMEN, AMEN!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.