The case of a Warren woman who was criminally charged after having a miscarriage is prompting an effort by Democrats on Capitol Hill to urge the Biden Administration to protect women against what they say is the criminalization of pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes.

A letter to President Biden from the Democratic Women’s Caucus signed by 159 members of Congress, cites the case of 33-year-old Brittany Watts who was charged last October in Warren Municipal Court with abuse of a corpse after having a miscarriage at home.

Although a grand jury cleared Watts in January, the Women’s Caucus chaired by Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida, claims that Watts’ experience is common for Black women.

A portion of the letter reads as follows:

Her experience is all too common for Black women, who disproportionately experience adverse pregnancy outcomes due to inadequate health care, and disproportionately experience disrespect, abuse, and punitive responses when they seek pregnancy-related care. Instead of being given the care and support that any person who has experienced a miscarriage deserves, Ms. Watts was interrogated by law enforcement and had her home invaded by the police. She was then arrested and wrongly charged with abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony in Ohio punishable by up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine. While the grand jury ultimately refused to allow a case against her to proceed, the fact that Ms. Watts faced degrading law enforcement interrogation and that such a case was even brought forward at all is alarming and cruel.

Against Criminalization of Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes

Today, Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) White House Liaison Rep. Joyce Beatty (OH-03), Chair Lois Frankel (FL-22), and Vice Chairs Nikema Williams (GA-05) and Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03) led over 150 House Democratic colleagues in urging the Biden-Harris Administration to protect Americans from the criminalization of their pregnancies and pregnancy outcomes, in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The representatives claim that a “pattern of criminalization of people based on their pregnancies and pregnancy outcomes has intensified” since the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of the Roe v. Wade abortion decision.

In addition to calling for Investigations into any prosecutions of people’s pregnancy or pregnancy outcomes as an unlawful form of sex discrimination, the letter wants it made clear that hospital and medical staff must maintain patient privacy and to investigate any potential violations of that privacy.

The letter also calls for enforcement of a provision of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination in health care, against any federally funded health care provider whose staff improperly reports patients’ pregnancies or pregnancy outcomes to law enforcement.

The letter has the support of the National Women’s Law Center, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Center for Reproductive Rights, Physicians for Reproductive Health, If/When/How, Pregnancy Justice, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda.

The letter may be read below: