Friends and family have planned a rally in support of Brittany Watts, the Warren woman facing felony charges after she suffered a miscarriage at home.
Watts, 34, faces one count of abuse of a corpse, according to Trumbull County court records.
The rally is planned for Thursday at 4 p.m. at the square outside the courthouse in Warren.
Lea Dotson, one of the rally’s organizers, said the charges against Watts are unjust.
“We have such empathy for her going through this in a public way and that we can imagine how isolated she can feel with the whole nation talking about something so, so deeply personal to her," Dotson said. "And we just understand that she deserves better.”
Tiffany Stanford, Warren Ward 5 Councilmember, said she believes Watts is being targeted unfairly.
“I don't know how you can look at someone who is in pain, who is bleeding profusely, and criminalize them. I don't know the heart of the person who would do that," Stanford said, adding there is broad support for Watts in the community.
According to the Associated Press, Watts became pregnant and began passing heavy blood clots around her 22nd week of pregnancy in September. She visited a doctor, who said her water had broken early and her fetus would not survive, advising her to visit the hospital for an abortion to deliver the nonviable fetus.
After several hospital trips, Watts miscarried in the bathroom of her home and attempted to flush and plunge the fetal remains down the toilet, the Associated Press reported.
PBS reported that Watts was arrested in October and charged two weeks later. The fifth-degree felony is punishable by up to a year in prison.
Prosecutors said Watts violated an Ohio law against abusing a corpse, in part because the fetus was near the state’s 24-week viability threshold when she miscarried and disposed of the remains after first seeking medical treatment.
Watts' case was sent to a grand jury to decide on indictment in November, where the case remains. Meanwhile, the case has also received national attention in the conversation on reproductive rights and the treatment of pregnant women.
Watts was charged just weeks before Ohio voters enshrined reproductive rights in the state constitution under the passage of State Issue 1, or the Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety amendment. The amendment includes protection for abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care and continuing pregnancy.
Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, the group of doctors behind Issue 1, expressed support for Watts in a letter sent to Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins.
“We believe that she has committed absolutely no crime—but rather this has become a crime that’s being committed against her," Dr. Lauren Beene told Ohio Statehouse News Bureau reporter Jo Ingles.
"This very case is in opposition to our now constitutional protection for reproductive freedom," Beene added.
