Civil rights attorney Ben Crump recently spoke out in support of an Ohio woman who’s been charged with abuse of a corpse after having a miscarriage.
Brittany Watts, 33, is being accused of the felony because she plunged a toilet after suffering from a miscarriage delivery at 22 weeks while using the restroom.
Previously, Watts had visited the doctors twice before her miscarriage to receive help. An autopsy report also already found that there was no injury to the fetus.
According to a report shared with the local CBS-affiliate news channel, the fetus had already passed away before moving through the birth canal.
“This fetus was going to be non-viable,” said Dr. George Sterbenz, the forensic pathologist on the case, per video footage provided by WKBN-TV. “It was going to be non-viable because she had premature ruptured membranes — her water had broken early — and the fetus was too young to be delivered.”
Last month, it was announced that the case will still be moving forward to a grand jury despite the reports verifying that no harm was caused to the fetus by Watts.
In a post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, Crump called the case “heartbreaking” as he shared the facts of the case.
Watts’ inability to receive care before miscarrying is indicative of a nation-wide increase in challenges for women when going to receive reproductive health care.
In a study released in April through JAMA Network Open, 45% of women involved in the study reported that, in 2021, they had at least one barrier when attempting to receive reproductive health care, marking a 10% increase from 2017.
Almost 19% of women said that they had three barriers to overcome for help, marking a 16% increase from 2017.
With the latest decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, reproductive health care in the form of abortion rights specifically are continuing to be attacked.
Earlier this September, a group of women took legal action against the states of Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee after they were denied abortions despite having life threatening issues during their pregnancies.
Per the lawsuit, one of the women was denied advice on abortion care, leading to her developing a risk of sepsis and severe blood clots.
Although all women are at risk with the strengthening anti-abortion laws being passed, Black women are amongst those that are most at risk as the reproductive health of Black women has historically been impacted by structural and institutional racism.
Per the National Partnership for Women & Families’ latest report on the material health of Black women, they are twice as likely as white women to be refused when going to receive help despite recording higher rates of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia and hemorrhages.
Black women are also more likely to live in states that have abortion restrictions with 61% of Black women reporting that they’ve become mothers in these states.
“While abortion restrictions are harmful for everyone, people of color, especially Black women, are disproportionately harmed, and will likely continue to be harmed, by barriers to quality and timely care, largely due to the current maternity care climate,” wrote the nonprofit per their report. “Indeed, the policy changes unleashed by Dobbs are expected to worsen Black maternal mortality, although the data may take years to reveal the true toll.”
