A West Virginia prosecutors affiliation stated it must make it “abundantly clear” that it doesn’t intend to suggest its members prosecute ladies within the state for a way they deal with their miscarriages.
In a press release Monday, the West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Affiliation stated the group wanted to set the document straight on these considerations, which began circulating in current weeks after one of many state’s county prosecutors instructed media shops he’d heard rumblings about such prices from his counterparts in different counties.
“The West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Affiliation needs to make clear that current public statements made concerning this topic don’t replicate the consensus, official place or authorized interpretation of the affiliation, its officers, board members or members of its Legislative Committee,” the assertion stated.
The group’s president, Luke Furbee, in an interview Monday clarified that this was the view of the group’s management.
However county prosecutors in West Virginia are elected by voters and presumably may act on their very own to determine prices.
Late final month, Raleigh County Prosecuting Lawyer Tom Truman told WVNS 59News that a variety of the state’s prosecuting attorneys had instructed him they have been open to charging ladies who miscarry and eliminate their very own fetal stays similar to by flushing or burying them.
The costs could be filed below a state regulation associated to the disposal of human stays, Truman stated, noting he wouldn’t be prepared to proceed with such prosecution. Whereas abortion is closely restricted in West Virginia, state regulation says ladies can’t be criminally charged for their very own abortions.
The WVPAA’s assertion, which doesn’t reference Truman instantly, says such prices have been by no means “broadly mentioned” amongst West Virginia prosecutors and that girls don’t want to guard themselves by calling 911 or different officers to report their miscarriages, as Truman recommended.
“The WVPAA needs to make abundantly clear that any assertion that people who expertise the unlucky occasion of a miscarriage in West Virginia ought to be notifying regulation enforcement or face potential legal prosecution is inaccurate and never supported by West Virginia regulation,” the WVPAA stated.
WV Free, a reproductive rights group within the state, thanked the group for clearing up the confusion.
“Having a miscarriage will not be legal!” WV Free govt director Margaret Chapman Pomponio stated in a statement, praising the WVPAA for “the crystal-clear assertion.”
The Raleigh County authorities didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from Truman or different officers concerning the WVPAA’s response to his warning.
When he spoke to native media late final month and later to CNN, Truman stated his considerations have been primarily based on conversations he’d had along with his fellow prosecuting attorneys and shared particular particulars about what could possibly be factored into prices.
“The type of legal jeopardy you face goes to rely on loads of components,” Truman instructed WVNS 59News. “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 the rest?”
These are actual dangers following the autumn of Roe v. Wade, he instructed CNN.
“It’s a special world now, and there’s loads of discretion that prosecutors have, and a few of them have agendas the place they want to make you an instance,” he stated.
It wouldn’t be the primary time a lady was criminally charged in connection along with her miscarriage. In 2023, an Ohio girl was charged with abuse of a corpse after she flushed the fetal stays from her miscarriage at 21 weeks of being pregnant. And in April, a Georgia girl was arrested for allegedly throwing away fetal stays from her miscarriage. She spent two nights in jail earlier than being launched on bail.
