this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
768 points (99.0% liked)

News

23259 readers
3374 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 23 points 10 months ago (3 children)

This is obviously a dumb question, but what the fuck are the legal requirements of a miscarriage? I can imagine her thinking she was glad she didn't have any more appointments or have to pay a huge hospital bill. What else was she supposed to do, and would she have known?

I once passed a kidney stone and they didn't say to do anything special with it so I threw it away. Same thing, right?

[–] Blackbeard@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah that's the crux of the argument the lawyer is making:

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.”

She'd already been in and out of the hospital, and so when she got home I'm sure she was so traumatized and confused that she probably thought she just had to release whatever was left and move on. Kinda like what happens in a period. The blood comes out, you flush it and clean up, end of story.

I would imagine the "proper" protocol would be for the doctor to "perform" the procedure in a hospital and dispose of it the same way they do of all biological waste. There is absolutely no way she would have an intimate knowledge of Ohio's corpse desecration laws. I buried my cat in the back yard and that was that. She should be afforded the same dignity here, since the fetus died in utero.

[–] awesomesauce309@midwest.social 12 points 10 months ago

If it cost but a penny, republicans wouldn’t afford dignity for their own mothers.

And they couldn’t afford it without a bailout from California.

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 8 points 10 months ago

The legal requirement seems to be not to have one.

Stuff like that if people who have not a single clue about pregnancy make laws regarding pregnancy.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This has nothing to do with the case above, but it's a really bad idea to just throw away a kidney stone. It needs to be analyzed so you can come up with a treatment plan with your doctor to help you avoid future problems.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I've had several. I guess they figured they'd analyzed enough of them.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I missed the part where you said they didn't say to do anything special with it. Sorry.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In fairness they asked every other time. They might've just forgotten, but in any event I had nothing to do with it. No little bottle or anything. Which I'd guess they didn't give her one either since she wasn't sent home to pass it. So anyway it went down the toilet in both cases. Maybe I left too much originally unsaid in that parallel.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I just hope you haven't had to deal with them too often. I had one kidney stone last year, not even a huge one, and they gave me fentanyl in the hospital to deal with the pain, so I definitely sympathize.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago

Four times confirmed, I think with a fifth that passed without needing to go to the hospital (had leftover Vicodin at home thankfully from back in the days they weren't quite as stingy with it - for good reasons I understand but I always used my meds responsibly and stopped taking them as soon as I could to save the leftovers for when they were really needed). Thankfully none have needed surgery but they were all nearly that size. I appreciate the empathy and send some of my own. It's the worst and they just send you home with pain meds and well wishes.

[–] admiralteal@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

Oh man and that's free?