Brittany Watts: Ohio woman charged with corpse abuse for flushing fetus down toilet after miscarriage won't be indicted

Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.

WARREN, OHIO: A grand jury determined that an Ohio woman who was being investigated for her handling of a home miscarriage will not face any charges.

Grand jurors in the case of Brittany Watts, 34, of Warren declined to return an indictment for corpse abuse, according to the Trumbull County prosecutor's office.

This decision resolved a case that garnered national attention due to its implications for pregnant women as states around the nation work out new laws governing access to reproductive health care.

Brittany Watts was 'demonized for something that goes on every day'

Hours before her supporters were scheduled to hold a We Stand With Brittany! demonstration in Warren's Courthouse Square, the announcement was made.

A municipal judge determined that Watts' case had probable cause to proceed.

That came after the miscarried woman, according to city prosecutors, flushed and emptied the toilet before leaving the house and leaving the 22-week-old fetus lodged in the pipes.

Watts had no criminal history, according to her lawyer, who also claimed that Brittany Watts was being "demonized for something that goes on every day."

After an autopsy, it was concluded that the fetus had died in utero with "no recent injuries."

Reproductive health and justice advocates used Watts's case to illustrate how pregnant women can easily face criminal charges, particularly in the wake of Roe v Wade being overturned. This led to widespread shock and outcry.

“This decision does not erase the harm that Watts has experienced as the result of this case. Brittany should have been able to focus on taking care of herself after her pregnancy loss,” according to Yveka Pierra, senior litigation counsel at the reproductive justice advocacy group If/When/How.

“Cases like Brittany’s show us that, depending on your identity, the state treats some losses as tragedies and other losses as crimes,” according to The Guardian.

Brittany Watts was charged after nurse reported an unviable fetus

In the days preceding her miscarriage, Watts had twice visited Mercy Health-St Joseph's Hospital, a Catholic institution in working-class Warren, roughly 60 miles southeast of Cleveland.

According to case records, her doctor had informed her that she was carrying an unviable fetus and that she needed to undergo labor induction to avoid a "significant risk" of death.

Her attorney said that each time she left without receiving treatment, it was because of delays and other issues. She attempted to go to a hair appointment after miscarrying, but friends sent her to the hospital instead.

When a patient who had previously been pregnant returned, the nurse called 911 to report that "the baby's in her backyard in a bucket."

The police investigation that resulted in Watts's eventual charge was started by that call.

The problem, according to Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri, was not "how the child died, when the child died," but rather "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."

In an interview, her lawyer Traci Timko stated that Ohio's abuse-of-corpse statute is vague on what exactly qualifies as a "human corpse" and what "outrage" means to a reasonable family and community.

"There are better scholars than I am to determine the exact legal status of this fetus, corpse, body, birthing tissue, whatever it is," Ivanchak remarked after binding the case.