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  In Ohio, a grand jury decided to not charge Brittany Watts with abuse of a body in relation to her handling of an at-home miscarriage.
  
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  This case has gained national attention because of its possible implications for reproductive health care and the legal status fetuses.
  
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  Watts visited a Catholic Hospital twice before her miscarriage. Her doctor recommended inducing labour due to the nonviable fetus, and the risk of harm.
  

A grand jury ruled Thursday that a Ohio woman who was facing criminal charges for handling a miscarriage at home will not face any charges.

The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office announced that grand jurors refused to return an indictment against Brittany Watts of Warren for abuse of a body. This case had attracted national attention because of its implications for women who are pregnant, as states around the country debate new laws regarding reproductive health care.

Her supporters had planned to hold a rally called “We Stand With Brittany” just hours earlier. The rally was held on Warren’s Courthouse Square.

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A municipal judge found probable cause in Watts’s case. The city prosecutor said that Watts miscarried and then flushed the toilet. She left the house after leaving it with the 22-week old fetus in the pipes. Her lawyer told the judge Watts was “demonized” for a daily occurrence. The autopsy revealed that the fetus had died in utero, and there were “no injuries recent.”

Watts visited Mercy Health St. Joseph’s Hospital twice in the days before her miscarriage. The Catholic hospital is located in Warren, a working-class suburb about 60 miles south of Cleveland. According to her medical records, her doctor told her that she was carrying an unviable fetus. She should have labor instigated or face a “significant risk” to her life.

Her attorney stated that she was not treated each time due to delays or other complications. She tried to get a haircut after miscarrying, but her friends sent to hospital. A nurse called 911 and reported that a patient who had been pregnant before returned to say, “the baby is in her backyard in bucket.”

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This call sparked a police probe that eventually led to Watts being charged.

Lewis Guarnieri, an assistant prosecutor for the Warren County District Attorney’s Office, told Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak that the issue was not “how or when the child was killed” but rather “that the baby was placed in a toilet and was large enough to block the toilet. She left the baby there, then went about her day.”

Traci Timko, her attorney, said in an article that Ohio’s statute on abuse of corpses lacks definitions. This includes what constitutes a “human corpse”, and what would be considered “outrageous” by a reasonable family or community.

Ivanchak said that there are better scholars to determine the legal status of the fetus or corpse.