World
A Black woman was criminally charged after a miscarriage. It shows the perils of pregnancy post-Roe
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio was in the throes of a bitter debate over abortion rights this fall when Brittany Watts, 21 weeks and 5 days pregnant, began passing thick blood clots.
The 33-year-old Watts, who had not shared the news of her pregnancy even with her family, made her first prenatal visit to a doctor’s office behind Mercy Health-St. Joseph’s Hospital in Warren, a working-class city about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Cleveland.
The doctor said that, while a fetal heartbeat was still present, Watts’ water had broken prematurely and the fetus she was carrying would not survive. He advised heading to the hospital to have her labor induced, so she could have what amounted to an abortion to deliver the nonviable fetus. Otherwise, she would face “significant risk” of death, according to records of her case.
That was a Tuesday in September. What followed was a harrowing three days entailing: multiple trips to the hospital; Watts miscarrying into, and then flushing and plunging, a toilet at her home; a police investigation of those actions; and Watts, who is Black, being charged with abuse of a corpse. That’s a fifth-degree felony punishable by up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
Her case was sent last week to a grand jury. It has touched off a national firestorm over the treatment of pregnant women, and especially Black women, in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump elevated Watts’ plight in a post to X, formerly Twitter, and supporters have donated more than $100,000 through GoFundMe for her legal defense, medical bills and trauma counseling.
Whether abortion-seekers should face criminal charges is a matter of debate within the anti-abortion community, but, post-Dobbs, pregnant women like Watts, who was not even trying to get an abortion, have increasingly found themselves charged with “crimes against their own pregnancies,” said Grace Howard, assistant justice studies professor at San José State University.
“Roe was a clear legal roadblock to charging felonies for unintentionally harming pregnancies, when women were legally allowed to end their pregnancies through abortion,” she said. “Now that Roe is gone, that roadblock is entirely gone.”
Michele Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, and author of “Policing The Womb,” said those efforts have long overwhelmingly targeted Black and brown women.
FILE – The U.S. Supreme Court is seen, with a carving of Justice in the foreground, April 19, 2023, in Washington. A Black Ohio woman who miscarried in her bathroom has been charged with abuse of a corpse and awaits grand jury action. Her case has sparked a national firestorm over the plight of pregnant women, especially women of color, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Even before Roe was overturned, studies show that Black women who visited hospitals for prenatal care were 10 times more likely than white women to have child protective services and law enforcement called on them, even when their cases were similar, she said.
“Post-Dobbs, what we see is kind of a wild, wild West,” said Goodwin. “You see this kind of muscle-flexing by district attorneys and prosecutors wanting to show that they are going to be vigilant, they’re going to take down women who violate the ethos coming out of the state’s legislature.” She called Black women “canaries in the coal mine” for the “hyper-vigilant type of policing” women of all races might expect from the nation’s network of health-care providers, law enforcers and courts now that abortion isn’t federally protected.
In Texas, for example, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton mounted an aggressive and successful defense against a white Texas mother, Kate Cox, who sued for permission to skirt the state’s restrictive abortion law because her fetus had a fatal condition.
At the time of Watts’ miscarriage, abortion was legal in Ohio through 21 weeks, six days of pregnancy. Her lawyer, Traci Timko, said Watts left the hospital on the Wednesday when, coincidentally, her pregnancy arrived at that date — after sitting for eight hours awaiting care.
It turned out the delay was because hospital officials were deliberating over the legalities, Timko said. “It was the fear of, is this going to constitute an abortion and are we able to do that,” she said.
At the time, vigorous campaigning was taking place across Ohio over Issue 1, a proposed amendment to enshrine a right to abortion in Ohio’s constitution. Some of the ads were harshly attacking abortions later in pregnancy, with opponents arguing the issue would allow the return of so-called “partial-birth abortions” and pregnancy terminations “until birth.”
The hospital did not return calls seeking confirmation and comment, but B. Jessie Hill, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, said Mercy Health-St. Joseph’s was in a bind.
“These are the razor’s edge decisions that health care providers are being forced to make,” she said. “And all the incentives are pushing hospitals to be conservative, because on the other side of this is criminal liability. That’s the impact of Dobbs.”
Watts had been admitted to the Catholic hospital twice that week with vaginal bleeding, but she left without being treated. A nurse told the 911 dispatcher that Watts returned no longer pregnant on that Friday. She said Watts told her, “the baby’s in her backyard in a bucket,” and that she didn’t want to have a child.
Timko said Watts insists she doesn’t recall saying the pregnancy was unwanted; it was unintended, but she had always wanted to give her mother a grandchild. Her lawyer believes Watts may have meant that she didn’t want to fish what she knew was a dead fetus from the bucket of blood, tissue and feces that she’d scooped from her overflowing toilet.
“This 33-year-old girl with no criminal record is demonized for something that goes on every day,” she told Warren Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak during Watts’ recent preliminary hearing.
Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri told Ivanchak that Watts left home for a hair appointment after miscarrying, leaving the toilet clogged. Police would later find the fetus wedged in the pipes.
“The issue isn’t how the child died, when the child died,” Guarnieri told the judge, according to TV station WKBN. “It’s the fact the baby was put into a toilet, was large enough to clog up the toilet, left in that toilet, and she went on (with) her day.”
In court, Timko bristled at Guarnieri’s suggestion.
“You cannot be broadcasting any clearer that you just don’t get it,” she said in an interview, suggesting Watts was scared, anxious and traumatized by the experience. “She’s trying to protect Mama. She doesn’t want to get her hair done. She wants to stop bleeding like crazy and start grieving her fetus, what she’s just been through.”
As chief counsel to the county’s child assault protection unit, Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor Diane Barber is the lead prosecutor on Watts’ case.
Barber said she couldn’t speak specifically about the case other than to note that the county was compelled to move forward with it once it was bound over from municipal court. She said she doesn’t expect a grand jury finding this month.
“About 20% of the cases get no-billed, (as in) they do not get indicted and the case does not proceed,” she said.
The size and stage of development of Watts’ fetus — precisely the point when abortion crossed from legal to illegal without exceptions — became an issue during her preliminary hearing.
A county forensic investigator reported feeling “what appeared to be a small foot with toes” inside Watts’ toilet. Police seized the toilet and broke it apart to retrieve the intact fetus as evidence.
Testimony and an autopsy confirmed that the fetus died in utero before passing through the birth canal. In regard to abuse, the examination identified “no recent injuries.”
Ivanchak acknowledged the case’s complexities.
“There are better scholars than I am to determine the exact legal status of this fetus, corpse, body, birthing tissue, whatever it is,” he said from the bench. “Matter of fact, I’m assuming that’s what … Issue 1’s all about: at what point something becomes viable.”
Timko, a former prosecutor, said Ohio’s abuse-of-corpse statute is vague. It prohibits treating “a human corpse” in a way that would “outrage” reasonable family or community sensibilities.
“From a legal perspective, there’s no definition of ‘corpse,’” she said. “Can you be a corpse if you never took a breath?”
Howard said clarity on what about Watts’ behavior constituted a crime is essential.
“For rights of people with the capacity for pregnancy, this is huge,” she said. “Her miscarriage was entirely ordinary. So I just want to know what (the prosecutor) thinks she should have done. If we are going to require people to collect and bring used menstrual products to hospitals so that they can make sure it is indeed a miscarriage, it’s as ridiculous and invasive as it is cruel.”
The new Commission is set to be approved by the European Parliament with a large majority, but how this majority is shaped will be worth watching.
A positive outcome is all but guaranteed when the European Parliament votes on whether to approve President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen’s new team of commissioners in its entirety, but there are good reasons to monitor Wednesday’s vote in the Strasbourg closely.
Parliament will vote to approve the incoming Commission, having previously endorsed all 26 commissioners through a backroom deal among centrist groups: the European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and Renew Europe.
The new Commission requires an absolute majority of votes cast to be approved and take office in December. While this outcome seems likely, who votes for and against it remains somewhat uncertain. This is significant because it could shape and influence the parliamentary majority for the entire legislative term.
A twist in the pro-EU majority?
In July, Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected with 401 votes. At that time, the vote was conducted by secret ballot, though groups had publicly declared their intentions. Beyond the three centrist groups, the Greens/EFA group also supported von der Leyen. The Left group and all right-wing political forces voted against or abstained, with a few exceptions among the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
The result suggested a majority in the European Parliament resembling that of the previous legislature: centrist pro-EU groups, with close cooperation from the Greens.
However, the situation now could be very different. Firstly, the new Commission lineup includes Raffaele Fitto, a vice president from the right-wing Brothers of Italy party.
While von der Leyen has emphasized collaboration with “pro-EU”, “pro-Ukraine”, and “pro-rule of law” political forces, the chair of her EPP group in Parliament, Manfred Weber, has hinted at a broader coalition. He envisaged a “broad centre in the European Parliament, from the Greens to ECR.”
“My majority, if I may say so, is becoming real. And that makes me happy because we need broader stability in the European Parliament,” Weber said during a press conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
Such a majority could shift EU policy significantly rightward on issues such as migration and the environment. However, it also remains to be seen how von der Leyen’s grand centrist alliance holds in the voting tomorrow.
Defections and Divisions
Spain’s centre-right Partido Popular (PP) has announced it will not support the Commission due to the inclusion of Spanish Vice President Teresa Ribera, a member of its rival centre-left PSOE (S&D) party, in the lineup, according to the Spanish press agency EFE. The PP has not clarified whether its MEPs will vote against or abstain.
Within the Socialists, several MEPs are also dissatisfied with the new Commission’s composition. Dutch and Belgian members plan to vote against it, while other delegations may abstain, according to sources from the group. French Socialists have already declared their opposition. “We do not accept a far-right executive vice president such as Raffaele Fitto. I will vote against his inclusion in this Commission,” MEP Claire Fita told Euronews.
The deepest divisions, however, are among the Greens/EFA group on the left and the Conservatives on the right.
The Greens claim to be part of a “four-group majority” in the European Parliament and are ready to “work constructively” while opposing the far right. However, the group itself is split, as revealed during a meeting on Monday evening. Only a slim majority, led by German MEPs, supports the Commission, while French, Austrian, and Italian members plan to vote against it, according to multiple sources.
On the right, some members of the ECR group are eager to join the new majority, while others remain firmly opposed.
The Brothers of Italy, the largest delegation in the group, will vote in favour, as the new Commission includes one of its members as vice president. Other ECR delegations are expected to follow suit, according to group sources.
ADVERTISEMENTHowever, Polish and French members will oppose the Commission, including prominent French MEP Marion Maréchal, niece of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has criticised the designated commissioners. “Beyond the lack of competence of [French commissioner] Stéphane Séjourné, we face a commissioner for energy transition known for her anti-nuclear stance, a commissioner for demography who views immigration as a solution to declining birthrates, and a commissioner for equality who champions a pro-LGBTIQ+ agenda,” she told Euronews.
As the vote will be cast openly, the new commissioners will see which MEPs they can rely on. Two thresholds will be critical for their success: the 401 votes von der Leyen secured in July and the 461 that approved the previous Commission in November 2019.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested Tuesday that Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own, after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% import duties on Mexican goods if the country doesn’t stop the flow of drugs and migrants across the border.
Sheinbaum said she was willing to engage in talks on the issues, but said drugs were a U.S. problem.
“One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” Sheinbaum said, referring to U.S. automakers that have plants on both sides of the border.
She said Tuesday that Mexico had done a lot to stem the flow of migrants, noting “caravans of migrants no longer reach the border.”
She also said Mexico had worked to stem the flow of drugs like the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, despite an influx of weapons smuggled in from the United States. She said the flow of drugs “is a problem of public health and consumption in your country’s society.”
Sheinbaum also criticized U.S. spending on weapons, saying the money should instead be spent regionally to address the problem of migration. “If a percentage of what the United States spends on war were dedicated to peace and development, that would address the underlying causes of migration,” she said.
Sheinbaum’s bristly response suggests that Trump faces a much different Mexican president than he did in his first term.
Back in late 2018, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was a charismatic, old-school politician who developed a chummy relationship with Trump. The two were eventually able to strike a bargain in which Mexico helped keep migrants away from the border — and received other countries’ deported migrants — and Trump backed down on the threats.
But Sheinbaum, who took office Oct. 1, is a stern leftist ideologue trained in radical student protest movements, and appears less willing to pacify or mollify Trump.
However, it’s not clear how serious Trump’s threat is. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement forbids just imposing tariffs on other member countries. And it’s not clear whether the economy could even tolerate sudden levies on imports: Auto plants on both sides of the border rely on each other for parts and components, and some production lines could screech to a halt.
“It is unacceptable and would cause inflation and job losses in Mexico and the United States,” Sheinbaum said, while offering to talk about the issues.
“Dialogue is the best path to achieve understanding, peace and prosperity for our two countries,” Sheinbaum said. “I hope our teams can meet soon.”
Late Monday, Trump said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, as one of his first executive orders.
The tariffs, if implemented, could dramatically raise prices for American consumers on everything from gas to automobiles to agricultural products. The U.S. is the largest importer of goods in the world, with Mexico, China and Canada its top three suppliers, according to the most recent U.S. Census data.
Trump made the threats Monday in a pair of posts on his Truth Social site in which he railed against an influx of illegal migrants, even though apprehensions at the southern border have been hovering near four-year lows.
“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” he wrote, complaining that “thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,” even though violent crime is down from pandemic highs.
He said the new tariffs would remain in place “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”
“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power,” he went on, “and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
- Six people were killed as supporters of imprisoned former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan clashed with security forces in Islamabad on Tuesday.
- Thousands of security personnel have been deployed to central Islamabad to control the protests.
- More than 4,000 Khan supporters have been arrested, with the government also suspending mobile and internet services, blocking major travel routes and banning rallies to suppress the unrest.
Supporters seeking the release of imprisoned Pakistani former Prime Minister Imran Khan broke through a ring of shipping containers blocking off the capital on Tuesday, and battled security forces despite a government threat to respond with gunfire. Six people have died in the violence.
Thousands of security forces have poured into central Islamabad in an attempt to quell protests in support of Khan that have gripped the capital and its surrounding areas since Sunday. The popular politician has been in jail for over a year and faces more than 150 criminal cases that his party says are politically motivated.
Authorities say only courts can order the release of Khan, who was ousted in 2022 through a no-confidence vote in Parliament. He has been imprisoned since his first conviction in a graft case, in August 2023.
FORMER PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER IMRAN KHAN SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON IN CIPHER CASE
On Tuesday, Pakistan’s army took control of D-Chowk, a large square in downtown Islamabad’s Red Zone, which houses key government buildings and is where visiting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is staying. Paramilitary rangers and police were also out in force and some fired warning shots into the air.
Paramilitary soldiers fire tear gas shells to disperse supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan during clashes in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Nov. 26, 2024. Supporters seeking the release of Khan broke through a ring of shipping containers blocking off the capital on Tuesday, and battled security forces despite a government threat to respond with gunfire. Six people have died in the violence. (AP Photo/Irtisham Ahmed)
Still, Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, who is leading the protests, made slow progress toward the square in a heavily guarded convoy, surrounded by well-wishers.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi threatened that security forces would respond with live fire if protesters fired weapons at them.
“We have now allowed police to take any decision according to the situation,” Naqvi said later while visiting the square.
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Protester Shahzor Ali said people were on the streets because Khan had called for them to be there. “We will stay here until Khan is among us. He will decide what to do next,” Ali said.
“If they again fire bullets, the bullet will be responded with the bullet,” he said.
Protester Fareeda Bibi, who is not related to Khan’s wife, said people have suffered greatly for the last two years.
“We have really suffered for the last two years, whether it is economically, politically or socially. We have been ruined. I have not seen such a Pakistan in my life,” she said.
Paramilitary soldiers fire tear gas shells to disperse supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan during clashes in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Irtisham Ahmed)
Police so far have used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowds. The dead include four members of the security services and one civilian who were killed when a vehicle rammed them on a street overnight into Tuesday. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack, saying an “anarchist group” was deliberately targeting law enforcement personnel. There was no claim of responsibility for the ramming. A police officer died separately.
Scores of people have also been injured, including journalists who were attacked by demonstrators. Dozens of Khan supporters beat a videographer covering the protest for The Associated Press and took his camera. He sustained head injuries and was treated in a hospital.
VISITATION PRIVILEGES REVOKED FOR IMPRISONED EX-PAKISTANI PM IMRAN KHAN AFTER REPORTS OF POSSIBLE ATTACK
Pakistani media have mostly stopped filming and photographing the rally, instead focusing on the security measures and the city’s deserted streets.
By Tuesday afternoon, fresh waves of protesters made their way unopposed to their final destination in the Red Zone. Most demonstrators had the flag of Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, around their shoulders or wore its tricolors on accessories.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is pictured at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on Oct. 9, 2019, in Beijing, China. (Parker Song-Pool/Getty Images)
Naqvi said Khan’s party rejected a government offer to rally on the outskirts of the city.
Information Minister Atta Tarar warned there would be a severe government reaction to the violence.
He said the government did not want Bushra Bibi to achieve her goal of freeing Khan. “She wants bodies falling to the ground. She wants bloodshed,” he said.
In a bid to foil the unrest, police have arrested more than 4,000 Khan supporters since Friday and suspended mobile and internet services in some parts of the country and messaging platforms were also experiencing severe disruption in the capital.
Khan’s party relies heavily on social media to demand Khan’s release and uses messaging platforms such as WhatsApp to share information, including details of events. The X platform, which is banned in Pakistan, is no longer accessible, even with a VPN.
On Thursday, a court prohibited rallies in the capital and Naqvi said anyone violating the ban would be arrested. Travel between Islamabad and other cities has become nearly impossible because of shipping containers blocking the roads. All educational institutions remain closed.
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