Local media reported Thursday that an American woman who had a miscarriage will ultimately not be prosecuted for “undermining the integrity of her remains.” The case caused a stir in the United States, where the right to abortion is no longer enshrined in the constitution.
Brittany Watts, a 34-year-old African American woman near Cleveland, Ohio, was initially charged by a judge in the northern US state after police discovered a fetus in the pipes at her home.
She was accused of failing to treat the remains with dignity, highlighting tensions over the status of fetuses between supporters and opponents of abortion rights in the United States.
The young woman faced a prison sentence of up to one year.
According to Brittany Watts' attorney, quoted by local station Fox 8, her pregnant client went to the hospital in September due to bleeding. A doctor then declared that her fetus was not viable at 22 weeks of pregnancy.
The miscarriage occurred at her home a few days later and she subsequently went to a Catholic hospital for further bleeding. A nurse then called the police and said: “I have a mother who gave birth at home and came without the baby.”
Investigators went to Brittany Watts' home and seized her toilet as evidence.
A grand jury, a panel of United States citizens with investigative powers, decided not to prosecute the young woman, Fox 8 reported Thursday.
Since the Supreme Court overturned the ruling guaranteeing American women's federal right to abortion in the summer of 2022, the question of abortion rights has returned to the jurisdiction of the states.
Ohio then passed a law banning most abortions – even those involving rape or incest – once a heartbeat can be detected. That means around six weeks, often before a woman even knows she is pregnant.
But in November, a few weeks after the indictment of Brittany Watts, voters approved a referendum to add abortion rights to the Ohio Constitution.
The prosecution of Brittany Watts sparked an outcry in the United States, where abortion activists viewed her case as criminalizing miscarriages.
“Brittany should never have gone through this. And no one should have to suffer it again,” the abortion rights group If/When/How said on X Thursday.