Girls who miscarry in West Virginia must be ready to face potential felony expenses, a county prosecutor warned an area information outlet final week, saying different regulation enforcers have raised the likelihood with him.
Raleigh County Prosecuting Lawyer Tom Truman told WVNS 59News on Friday that whereas he wouldn’t take any such motion, plenty of different prosecuting attorneys in West Virginia have mentioned with him their willingness to cost girls who miscarry and get rid of their very own fetal stays, reminiscent of by flushing or burying them.
The costs could be beneath a state regulation associated to the disposal of human stays. Although abortion is extremely restricted in West Virginia, state regulation says girls can not face felony expenses for their very own abortions.
“The sort of felony jeopardy you face goes to rely on quite a lot of elements,” Truman instructed the information outlet. “What was your intent? What did you do? How late have been you in your being pregnant? Have been you attempting to cover one thing, have been you simply so emotionally distraught you couldn’t do the rest?”
A miscarriage is commonly simply heavier-than-normal bleeding. It typically includes handed tissue that appears like blood clots or a fluid-filled sac.
Girls must also be cautious of what they share with others earlier than miscarrying, Truman suggested.
“If you happen to have been relieved, and also you had been telling individuals, ‘I’d reasonably get ran over by a bus than have this child,’ which will play into regulation enforcement’s pondering, too,” he warned.
Whereas there’s no state regulation requiring girls to inform authorities a couple of miscarriage, it might be finest observe to take action anyway, Truman added.
“Name your physician. Name regulation enforcement, or 911, and simply say, ‘I miscarried. I would like you to know,’” he recommended.
There may be precedent for a girl dealing with felony expenses associated to how she handles her miscarriage. In 2023, an Ohio girl 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 lady with no felony file is demonized for one thing that goes on on daily basis,” Watts’ lawyer Traci Timko stated at one among her court docket hearings.
A grand jury finally determined final yr that Watts ought to not be charged.
In April, a Georgia girl 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 girl on the market of reproductive age, who is aware of she will get pregnant, who is aware of she will miscarry,” Georgia state Sen. Sally Harrell told HuffPost on the time. “It makes each girl of reproductive age afraid.”
