Girls who miscarry in West Virginia must be ready to face potential felony prices, a county prosecutor warned a neighborhood information outlet final week, saying different legislation enforcers have raised the chance with him.
Raleigh County Prosecuting Lawyer Tom Truman told WVNS 59News on Friday that whereas he wouldn’t take any such motion, a lot of different prosecuting attorneys in West Virginia have mentioned with him their willingness to cost girls who miscarry and eliminate their very own fetal stays, equivalent to by flushing or burying them.
The fees can be underneath a state legislation associated to the disposal of human stays. Although abortion is very restricted in West Virginia, state legislation says girls can not face felony prices for their very own abortions.
“The sort of felony jeopardy you face goes to rely upon quite a lot of elements,” Truman informed the information outlet. “What was your intent? What did you do? How late have been you in your being pregnant? Had been you attempting to cover one thing, have been you simply so emotionally distraught you couldn’t do anything?”
A miscarriage is commonly simply heavier-than-normal bleeding. It generally includes handed tissue that appears like blood clots or a fluid-filled sac.
Girls also needs to be cautious of what they share with others earlier than miscarrying, Truman suggested.
“Should you have been relieved, and also you had been telling folks, ‘I’d relatively get ran over by a bus than have this child,’ which will play into legislation enforcement’s considering, too,” he warned.
Whereas there’s no state legislation requiring girls to inform authorities a couple of miscarriage, it might be finest apply to take action anyway, Truman added.
“Name your physician. Name legislation enforcement, or 911, and simply say, ‘I miscarried. I would like you to know,’” he advised.
There’s precedent for a girl dealing with felony prices associated to how she handles her miscarriage. In 2023, an Ohio lady named Brittany Watts was charged with abuse of a corpse after she flushed the fetal stays from her miscarriage at 21 weeks of being pregnant.
“This 33-year-old woman with no felony file is demonized for one thing that goes on each day,” Watts’ lawyer Traci Timko stated at certainly one of her court docket hearings.
A grand jury in the end determined final yr that Watts ought to not be charged.
In April, a Georgia lady was arrested for allegedly throwing away fetal stays from her miscarriage and spent two nights in jail earlier than being launched on bail.
Her case “impacts each single lady on the market of reproductive age, who is aware of she will be able to get pregnant, who is aware of she will be able to miscarry,” Georgia state Sen. Sally Harrell told HuffPost on the time. “It makes each lady of reproductive age afraid.”
