Saturday, December 23, 2023

And People Worry About Trump Echoing Hitler

Just hours after Watts, 33, was admitted to a hospital for a life-threatening hemorrhage after she miscarried in her bathroom Sep. 22, police removed her toilet from her home and searched it for fetal remains, according to a GoFundMe set up to fund her legal expenses and home repairs. 
"Ms. Watts suffered a tragic and dangerous miscarriage that jeopardized her own life. Rather than focusing on healing physically and emotionally, she was arrested and charged with a felony and is fighting for her freedom and reputation," her attorney, Traci Timko, said in a statement. 
Timko argued in court that there is no law in Ohio that requires a woman suffering a miscarriage to bury or cremate those remains. 
The Ohio Revised Code specifies that women should "in no case" be criminalized for the death in utero of an unborn child.
But, you know: small town Ohio, black woman, hospital:
Police investigated Watts' home after they received a call about the miscarriage from the hospital, Warren Police Department Chief Eric Merkel said. Police sent the case to prosecutors, who he said allowed the charge to be filed. 
Warren is 60 miles southeast of Cleveland. 
Watts knew she was going to miscarry because doctors told her days before that her fetus could not survive outside her womb because of gestational age, Timko said. 
When the bleeding and the pain from the impending miscarriage got severe, she did the same thing that many women who miscarry at home do. Brittany went into her bathroom, miscarried into her toilet, and flushed," a statement on Watts' GoFundMe said.
I left out "not rich."
Watts is being charged under a section of Ohio law that punishes those who treat a human corpse in a “way that the person knows would outrage reasonable family sensibilities” or “community sensibilities.” 
The charge is a felony in the fifth degree, which is punishable by up to a year in prison, and a $2,500 fine. 
Watts was arrested Oct. 5, and released on bond the same day after she pleaded not guilty, Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said in a press release Tuesday. 
On Nov. 2, Watts appeared in court for a preliminary hearing of the case, during which a medical examiner testified that her fetus died in utero and showed no signs of injury, Timko said. 
Judge Terry Ivanchak ruled that there is "probable cause to find the accused guilty," and sent the case to the Trumbull County Grand Jury, according to the Trumbull County prosecutor, where Watts’ case will be heard to determine whether there is enough evidence for a felony indictment. 
“The issue isn’t how the child died or when the child died. It’s the fact that the baby was put into a toilet large enough to clog up the toilet, left in that toilet, and she went on her day,” Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri said during the preliminary hearing. 
Guarnieri could not be reached for comment. 
“Brittany sobbed as she sat in a courtroom listening to police officers describe the details of the most intensely personal moments of her life and then vilify her to the world, all while being recorded by local news media,” a statement on the GoFundMe page said.
One wonders what the prosecutor would charge if this woman had simply stood up from the toilet and said: “Well, that’s done! Guess I’d better call a plumber!”

People don’t matter. Things matter. Ideas matter.
"In a case like this where there's no threat to public safety involved and it's a low-level felony, the question is why bother targeting this woman who is clearly grieving for this offense that almost never gets prosecuted on its own?" Ziegler said. "There's a social movement that wants a fetus to be recognized as a rights holding person, and Brittany Watts is seen as a vehicle for moving closer to that reality."
Black woman. Small town. Not rich. Sounds perfect.👍 

This is a Christian country, right?
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