A Black Ohio woman who miscarried in her bathroom has been charged with abuse of a corpse. Thirty-three-year-old Brittany Watts, of Warren, awaits grand jury action.

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.

  • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
    30·
    11 months ago

    You’re making it sound like it’s definitely the parent who is somehow being cruddy.
    Lawsuits over tax interpretation don’t happen until years after the fact and they’re initiated by the IRS.

    Alternative explanation: someone’s kid was kidnapped, so they took their taxes to a tax prep person and told them to deal with it. Tax prep person checked the boxes for the credit and submitted the taxes.
    Later, the IRS says you can’t claim them as a dependent and that they don’t live in your house without providing an alternative address.
    The IRS sues HR block as the agent of the taxpayer and five years later a judge says that you actually can, so the code is updated and a new checkbox added.

    • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
      2·
      11 months ago

      You bring up a good point. Unfortunately I don’t have access to case law research to trace the origins of the statute.

    • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
      89·
      11 months ago

      Nah, I’m pretty sure it was the parent of a kidnapping victim who lobbied their congressperson to make sure their missing kid didn’t increase their tax burden.

      I mean, if the kid hadn’t been so obsessed with free candy, it wouldn’t have even been an issue.