Latest news with #post-Roe
Tom's Guide
4 days ago
- Health
- Tom's Guide
Exclusive: I spoke to Apple about its cycle tracking features and how it has the potential to change lives
I've been writing about fitness tech long enough to remember when menstrual tracking was first added to a device. It was the Fitbit Versa back in 2018. At the time, it seemed groundbreaking. Seven years later, the gender gap in female healthcare still exists all over the world, but thankfully, cycle tracking is no longer seen as an add-on. Smartwatch developers have realized that for the 1.8 to 2 million users who menstruate each month, cycle length and regularity are key indicators of their overall health. But where does Apple, the creator of one of the most popular smartwatches on the planet, come into things? Apple added a skin temperature sensor to its Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra, giving users more accurate ovulation data. More recently, Apple added a new pregnancy feature, allowing wearers to get useful insights until they're 12 weeks postpartum. Plus, as a company, Apple prides itself on keeping its users' data private — something more important than ever in a post-Roe era. To find out more, I sat down with Apple and spoke to the medical professionals behind the cycle tracking feature, as well as those working with patients on the frontline, to hear how the data collected has the potential to change lives. We've rated the Apple Watch 10 as the best Apple Watch for most people, with all of Apple's health tracking features, a skin temperature sensor, and the option to choose from two different bezel sizes. Your menstrual cycle can be a key indicator of your overall health. Cycles that are unusually long (more than 40 days) or irregular, for example, have been linked to infertility, coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Far more than just knowing when to expect your period, keeping track of your cycle can help users notice any changes and get help faster. Both heart and wrist temperature can help with ovulation predictions. First temperature, because you do change post-ovulation. We rely on heart rate data a little less, but you can also see some deviation and get more accurate data Once you've set up cycle tracking on your Apple Watch, you can review your cycle history at the click of a button, and export it or send it to your doctor should you need. Dr Asha Chesnutt, who works on Apple's clinical team, explains how the cycle tracking is at the heart of the health app. Heart health data, for example, improves the device's cycle predictions, although you'll need to turn this on if you'd like to use it. 'Both heart and wrist temperature can help with ovulation predictions. First temperature, because you do change post-ovulation, and you can usually see that. We rely on heart rate data a little less, but you can also see some deviation and get more accurate data,' says Dr Asha. Doctors like Dr Asha work with Apple's development team, helping to give users information about their health in an understandable format. 'You wouldn't believe how much time went into deciding on those colors,' Dr Asha says, talking about the different colors reflecting your period predictions and ovulation estimate on the Health app. 'I've taken care of patients for long enough to make it a thing I always ask — 'how is my patient going to use this? What's helpful to them? What's not helpful to them?' We're always thinking about that.' Understanding what's normal for you and your body can help you spot patterns. If your Apple Watch notices a pattern of irregular cycles, infrequent periods, prolonged periods, or persistent spotting, you might receive an alert or notification about a possible cycle deviation. Cycle deviations might be down to stress or lifestyle changes, as well as medical conditions such as PCOS, thyroid disorders or conditions such as endometriosis. Cycle deviations might be down to stress or lifestyle changes, as well as medical conditions such as PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome), thyroid disorders or conditions such as endometriosis. U.K.-based Dr Raj Arora explains how this data is helping women get life-changing diagnoses faster: 'I always say to patients, don't wait for it to happen. Actively get involved. Track your cycles. When we're talking about something like endometriosis, which has a 10-year wait time for a diagnosis normally, we're now seeing patients coming to us saying I've tracked all my symptoms on my Apple Watch, I have regular periods but they're really heavy, I'm in a lot of pain and I'm missing work, my mind is already going straight into should we scan or do bloods for this. "Without that data, as doctors we'd be sending patients away for two months, and asking them to bring back a diary of symptoms. It's just expediting things. It's helping patients advocate for themselves. ' I'd be remiss to talk about Apple's cycle tracking without mentioning its long-term research study into menstrual health and its relationship to other health conditions. Recent data from this study looked at the current trend of cycle syncing — the idea of syncing your exercise routine to your menstrual cycle. The study looked at more than 22 million workouts across more than 110K participants and found that daily exercise minutes were similar, no matter the cycle phase. Participants who reported regular menstrual cycles did more exercise minutes per day overall, compared to participants with irregular cycles. Participants with regular cycles typically had 20.6 minutes of exercise per day. Participants with irregular cycles typically had 18.6 minutes per day. This study is the first long-term research study of this scale into menstrual cycles. The study aims to advance the understanding of the relationship between the menstrual cycle and gynecologic health conditions like infertility, menopause, and PCOS, to inform the development of new products, as well as early screening for conditions. I'll admit, spending time with Apple looking behind the scenes at the development of these health features was an eye-opener. Far from being a device you wear to track your steps or answer a phone call, the watch on your wrist has the power to give you a deeper insight into your overall health. But where does Apple hope to be in the future? Dr Asha answers, 'What I hope it changes is the narrative from being just a bystander when it comes to your health. Up until now, you have waited until you have symptoms before you see a doctor. We want you to be totally driving your narrative, and driving the fact that you want to check your vitals and stay healthy for longer. I want people to think about what they can do today to keep their body healthy and more active for longer.' The overriding message I was left with after a morning with Apple was that the health features on its devices aren't just ticking a box. They are cleverly constructed algorithms, designed by doctors, for patients. The most powerful message, however, is that the data sitting in the Health app on your iPhone can help you stay healthy for longer, get a diagnosis faster, and allow you to advocate for yourself in an appointment with your healthcare provider.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Ali Velshi: Creatively cruel: GOP's abortion crackdown means losing a pregnancy could land you in jail
This is an adapted excerpt from the May 24 episode of 'Velshi.' As the journalist and author Jessica Valenti recently wrote, 'We don't need to imagine a dystopian future where women are being used as incubators and arrested for miscarriages, because that future is already here.' It's been almost three years since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, ending the constitutional right to an abortion, and post-Roe America is turning out to be much worse than most of us imagined. It's not just the inhumanity of denying women rights over their own bodies and futures, or the deadly danger of forced birth. What we're witnessing is the criminalization of women's bodies. Women aren't just being arrested and jailed for their miscarriages; they are being pursued in creatively cruel ways that are a direct result of the radical anti-abortion ideology of fetal personhood. If a fetus is legally a person, then law enforcement is empowered to criminally investigate pregnancies. Let that sink in for a moment: If a fetus is a person in the eyes of the law, any miscarriage — which, by the way is not uncommon, 10% to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriages — if you live in the wrong state, can be treated as a potential homicide. This isn't theoretical. Consider the case of Mallori Patrice Strait, a Texas woman who was released from jail last week after spending nearly five months in custody for miscarrying in a public bathroom. Strait was arrested for 'corpse abuse' and accused of trying to flush fetal remains down the toilet. Ultimately, the medical examiner found she had, in fact, miscarried — that her fetus died in utero — and prosecutors found 'no direct evidence' that she tried to flush anything. But what she experienced cannot be undone: the compounded trauma of being criminalized after suffering something as emotionally and physically taxing as a miscarriage. Strait was dealt punishment when what she really needed was care. In Ohio, Brittany Watts was also arrested on corpse abuse charges after she had a miscarriage in a toilet; Watts' charges were also dropped. In Georgia, Selena Maria Chandler-Scott had a miscarriage and was arrested for disposing of the fetal tissue. Law enforcement accused her of 'concealing a death' and 'abandoning a dead body.' But just like the other cases, her charges were eventually dropped. According to the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice, there were at least 210 pregnancy-related prosecutions in the year after Roe was overturned, the highest number to ever be documented in a single year. It's important to note that low-income women and women of color have been disproportionately targeted. It's only expected to get worse as more states pass fetal personhood laws, declaring that fertilized eggs have the same legal rights as people, even though they cannot survive outside the womb. According to Pregnancy Justice, at least 24 states now include some form of personhood language in their anti-abortion laws. Seventeen already have laws on the books, and several others are considering extreme expansions, including Florida, where the University of Florida newspaper points out: If state lawmakers have their way, a simple sip of wine or a single cigarette — taken before a woman even knows she is pregnant — could become a criminal offense. Anything a woman does that could potentially injure a fetus, whether that be accidental or intentional, could be deemed as child abuse and neglect according to the proposed fetal personhood bill. Meanwhile, as the push to police and criminalize pregnant women intensifies, the Trump administration has been working to decriminalize activists who target abortion providers and their patients. One of Trump's first presidential actions was to pardon nearly two dozen people who'd been convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (known as FACE), a federal law that protects patients from violence, threats and obstruction when seeking reproductive care. Then, the Justice Department announced that, moving forward, it would limit enforcement of the FACE Act. The FACE Act was passed 30 years ago with bipartisan support amid a wave of extremist violence against abortion providers. According to the National Abortion Federation, the violence has continued in post-Roe America. Over the past two years, there have been more than 700 incidents of obstruction, over 600 trespassing attempts, nearly 300 violent threats and over 128,000 protests aimed at abortion providers across the country. Despite this reality, Republicans in Congress are now pushing legislation to repeal the FACE Act altogether. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Missouri lawmakers move to repeal abortion protections enacted by voters
Missouri lawmakers passed a voter referendum Wednesday that, if approved, would repeal protections for abortion rights and restore a ban on nearly all abortion care in the state. The move comes just six months after Missouri voters approved an amendment enshrining the right to reproductive freedom, including abortion care, in the state constitution, effectively overturning a near-total abortion ban that was in effect. A circuit court affirmed the right to reproductive freedom in December. The bill now heads to the governor's desk, but does not need his signature to appear on a ballot. MORE: Fighting for their lives: Women and the impact of abortion restrictions in post-Roe America The initiative will appear on the November 2026 ballot unless Gov. Mike Kehoe calls a special election sooner than that. If it passes, HJR 73 would prohibit abortions, except in cases of medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape or incest. If the abortion is due to rape or incest, it must occur no later than 12 weeks' gestation, according to the bill. "Senate Republicans are overturning the will of the voters and pushing to bring an Abortion Ban back to Missouri," Missouri Senate Democrats wrote in a post on X Wednesday evening. "This new ballot item will ban abortion and take away a right that voters secured just six months ago." If approved, the amendment would also permit state lawmakers to enact legislation to regulate abortions and access to care. "These laws shall include, but not be limited to, laws requiring physicians providing abortion care to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital; laws requiring facilities where abortions are performed or induced to be licensed and inspected for clean and safe conditions and adequate instruments to treat any emergencies arising from an abortion procedure; laws requiring physicians to perform a sufficient examination of the woman to determine the unborn child's gestational age and any preexisting medical conditions that may influence the procedure; and laws requiring ultrasounds to be performed only by physicians or licensed medical technicians," the bill states. MORE: A state-by-state breakdown of where abortion stands after ballot initiatives pass State Sen. Adam Schnelting, who sponsored the bill, did not immediately return ABC News' request for comment. Anti-abortion right groups praised the bill, claiming it will "save lives." "We applaud the Missouri legislature for passing this pro-life amendment to save lives, protect parents' rights, and safeguard women and girls," Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion rights group Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, said in a statement. "We call on Missouri GOP leaders in Washington and across the state to offer their strong, vocal support of this measure." Since Roe v. Wade was overruled by the Supreme Court in June 2022, 12 states have ceased nearly all abortion services while four states have a six-week ban on books, according to an ABC News tally. Following the Supreme Court decision, Missouri enacted a trigger law banning most abortions in the state. However, Amendment 3, which enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution, passed in November 2024 with 52% of voters in favor of the amendment. Anti-abortion advocates, such as SBA, have argued that Amendment 3 is extreme and goes beyond what Missourians have supported. Abortion Action Missouri, the group that supported Amendment 3, released a statement on Wednesday criticizing lawmakers for attempting to reinstate an abortion ban. "Missourians support access to abortion. This past November more than 1.5 million Missourians made their voices heard at the ballot box -- voting to enshrine abortion rights into the Missouri constitution," Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, said. "And right now, thanks to Missourians, abortion is legal and available for the first time in years. Despite this, today anti-abortion politicians passed HJR 73, showing us they think Missourians are disposable. We know the truth -- Missourians are used to fighting back and are prepared to keep showing up. In the past 4 months, thousands of Missourians have shown up over and over again to defend the will of the people. Do not underestimate their determination." Missouri lawmakers move to repeal abortion protections enacted by voters originally appeared on
Yomiuri Shimbun
28-04-2025
- General
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Once an Abortion Clinic, It Now Offers Midwives, Formula and Housing Help
Charity Rachelle/For The Washington Post Tuscaloosa residents and visitors look for clothing at a giveaway organized by the West Alabama Women's Center in late March. TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Once, it was the sole abortion clinic in this half of the state. Then Roe v. Wade fell, the legislature's near-total ban on the procedure took effect, and the protesters who would mass in the parking lot vanished. Nowadays, the crowd that gathers when word goes out follows the handwritten signs for 'FREE STUFF.' Under towering pines, the front lawn of the West Alabama Women's Center turns into a rummage bonanza – with baby formula, children's clothes and shoes, toys and other donations spread out on blankets. 'It's hard to live paycheck to paycheck,' said Keilani Camara, a mother of three from rural Knoxville, as she perused the offerings at the most recent giveaway. Camara works at a trucking company; her husband is unemployed. 'We can't afford to buy all our kids' clothes at Wal-Mart. Diapers, wipes, food: The economy of it! It's so expensive to afford children.' In the post-Roe world, the clinic has become an unlikely safety-net provider in one of the reddest states – which has some of the country's lowest rankings for maternal and infant health. With billions of federal dollars for Medicaid and related programs threatened in Washington, staff are bracing for a cascade of cuts that would make their work even more challenging. 'What happens when we have a government that decides it doesn't need to take care of its poor?' Director Robin Marty said as she sat in the heart of the clinic, where donated baby dolls from a recently closed maternity home were stacked. 'We are a great net and we are very strong, but we can only hold so much.' Abortion clinics in the Deep South were once bastions of resistance and reproductive health care, especially in smaller cities like Tuscaloosa. The West Alabama Women's Center opened in 1992, hired 16 staff members and planned to become a full-service operation, Marty recounted. 'But there was so much need for abortion that we were never able to really expand.' When the U.S. Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to abortion in 2022, the several hundred patients whom the clinic scheduled monthly evaporated overnight and staffing was cut to just a few positions. Other abortion clinics went further. Reproductive Health Services of Montgomery, the longest-standing abortion facility in Alabama, shut its doors. Whole Woman's Health closed all of its Texas locations. A clinic in Jackson, Mississippi, was sold, while a few elsewhere relocated to blue states such as Illinois and New Mexico. In Tuscaloosa, Marty committed to remaining open and serving the most vulnerable female and LGBTQ+ patients, slowly rehiring and expanding services to meet their needs. The clinic employs eight people, including a community outreach coordinator, a mental health counselor, doulas and midwives – who later this year will be able to deliver babies in a birthing center converted from what was once an abortion recovery room. Many of the 150 patients seen monthly have multiple needs, and the staff test for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, counsel on substance abuse and even fund care for dental needs, a leading cause of miscarriages. They also keep gas cards on hand, since transportation issues often mean patients miss appointments, and help find emergency housing for those in need. A makeshift food pantry started in January is filled with boxes of macaroni and cheese, canned goods and baby food. 'We get a lot of unhoused population who come through here. How are you going to raise a child if you don't have stable housing?' Marty said. 'You can't take a baby home from a hospital if you don't have a car seat. What are you going to do? That's one of the reasons we make sure everybody has car seats.' Outside Alabama's major cities, low-income women have relatively few options. Local health departments often have small staffs, and the wait for basic care can last months. Tuscaloosa is home to a federally qualified health center, with satellite locations serving parts of western Alabama. Another FQHC serves central Alabama. The state's only Planned Parenthood clinic is nearly an hour away in Birmingham. Across much of the South, in fact, reproductive health care has contracted. 'The whole region is strained,' said Usha Ranji, associate director of women's health policy at the research nonprofit KFF. Marty and her staff regularly hold pop-up events offering blood pressure checks, ultrasounds and pregnancy tests to outlying rural towns such as Aliceville, Gainesville and Moundville. Depending on the season, they hand out holiday hams and turkeys. They appear at local health fairs and visit colleges, bringing emergency contraception where allowed. Last month, some clinic staffers were at the main campus of the University of Alabama, which is minutes away. While the schools have their own health services, 'we recognize that not every student is an affluent student who can afford all of that,' Marty said. Plus, with birth control, 'there are a lot of students who do not want to use the health center because that notification will go back to their parents.' Since its start more than three decades ago, the clinic has been tucked away in a sprawling, brown-brick office park. Inside, the waiting room for patients features a life-size cardboard cutout of a Black couple, with the reassurance that 'Breastfeeding is normal.' On another wall hangs a rainbow-colored painting of a woman's profile, captioned: 'To the world, you are a mother, but to your family, you are the world.' The only vestige of the past is a small sticker on the front-desk window: 'Need to be unpregnant?' 'We can't get it off,' Marty said. Midwife Nancy Megginson began working here last fall after seeking permission from the elders of her evangelical church. 'Is it in line with our values?' they asked. Yes, she told them. 'Would you be providing any abortions?' No, she assured them. Megginson, who had just had her fourth child, ended maternity leave a month early to join the clinic and at first brought her infant son with her. She relishes 'being able to problem-solve and address people being underserved.' A quarter of pregnant women in Alabama receive no prenatal care. As a former labor and delivery nurse, Megginson is well aware of the complications that can result. 'This job meant so much, to meet a greater need,' she said. One patient that day had come two hours from her home in rural Thomasville. 'There's nowhere else for me to go,' said Tawney Thurston, 28, and three months pregnant, as she sat in an exam room after getting an ultrasound. 'If this place wasn't open, I probably wouldn't have had an appointment.' Thurston, who will be a single mother, is living with her sister's family and supporting herself with a new retail job. She hadn't yet qualified for private insurance so was relying on Medicaid. Yet, what if federal cuts to the program affect her prenatal care? 'I am terrified. What am I going to do if I lose my insurance?' she said. Clinic staff are also bracing themselves for the future. Medicaid is the primary funder of women's reproductive health care nationwide, and a sharp decrease in Medicaid resources – as advocacy groups worry lies ahead during the Trump administration – would take a big toll on already overwhelmed county health departments. Food banks and other safety-net groups could face steep losses, too. In Tuscaloosa, all of it could send more patients to the West Alabama Women's Center, taxing its nearly $1.2 million annual budget. Twenty percent of its funding comes from services, according to its director, with the rest from private donors and grants. 'If there are cuts, that does have a domino effect on other providers and that can lead to more demand for a clinic like this,' Ranji of KFF noted. With every Medicaid patient it sees, the clinic takes a hit. Federal regulations require a facility seeking reimbursement for services through the program to have a physician with admitting privileges at a Medicaid-covered hospital. The clinic does not – because, Marty says, doctors and hospitals in the area refuse to work with it. 'We're still being punished for providing abortion services,' she added. Doula Crystina Hughes, who had brought friends to the clinic for abortions before the Supreme Court overturned Roe, is now its community outreach director. She started organizing mothers groups and food giveaways after one patient mentioned having nothing to eat but her children's leftovers. 'I'm creating all these events so people don't feel shame and come and get help,' Hughes said. 'If we're doing a visit and you're like, 'My lights might get cut off this month' or 'I don't have food to feed my kids,' those needs have to get met first.' The latest rummage event was a success, she thought. It drew several dozen people, most of them women of color. There were Black women – one was eight months pregnant – but also migrants from Guatemala and Mexico, some documented, some not. In the wake of federal immigration raids across the country, many said they had almost been afraid to come. But they heard clinic staff were trustworthy. Mariana Maldonado, 32, and four months pregnant, was at the event to look for items for her daughters, who are 11 and 14, and her 6-year-old son. 'We need clothes,' said Maldonado, a legal resident from Mexico who works as a house cleaner in Tuscaloosa. Her husband works in construction, but as she put it in Spanish, 'There's not a lot of work right now.' It's been hard finding nearby clinics that will accept her Medicaid coverage and have Spanish-speaking staff, she said. She worries about federal lawmakers cutting Medicaid. Her only alternative if they do? 'Work more.'
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
These states have investigated miscarriages and stillbirths as crimes
In late March, police in southern Georgia arrested a 24-year-old woman who had a miscarriage after a witness reported seeing her place the fetal remains in a dumpster. The coroner in Tift County determined it was a 19-week fetus from a naturally occurring miscarriage, but some legal experts consider the arrest a bellwether for the criminal suspicion that surrounds pregnancy loss in many states in post-Roe America. The Marshall Project previously examined how the way a person handles a pregnancy loss—and where it occurs—can mean the difference between a private medical issue and a criminal charge. Nationally, federal data shows that about 20% of pregnancies end in a loss, but only a small number are investigated as crimes. In several states, a positive drug test after a pregnancy loss can result in criminal charges for the mother, and even prison time. Prosecutions related to pregnancy appear to have increased since the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, according to Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for the legal rights of pregnant people. In the first year after the Dobbs decision—from June 2022 to June 2023—there were at least 210 pregnancy-related prosecutions, researchers for the group found. Here are some states where miscarriages and stillbirths have been investigated by the criminal legal system in recent years: Alabama Arkansas California Georgia Ohio Oklahoma South Carolina Alabama has a broad "chemical endangerment of a child" law allowing prosecutors to charge someone for drug use during any part of a pregnancy, whether the mother delivers a stillborn fetus or a healthy newborn. The Marshall Project's 2022 investigation with found that more than 20 women had been prosecuted after a miscarriage or stillbirth in Alabama. Some of the harshest sentences resulted in cases where a fetus was stillborn and the woman went to trial. The Pregnancy Justice report examining nationwide prosecutions related to conduct associated with pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth in the first year after the Dobbs ruling found that nearly half of the cases came from Alabama. Arkansas is among several states that still make it a crime to "conceal" a birth or stillbirth. Such laws date back to the 17th century, and were intended to shame and accuse women of crimes if they were pregnant and unmarried. In 2015, Annie Bynum walked into a hospital with a plastic bag containing the remains of her stillborn fetus and ended up going to jail—and eventually prison. She was accused under the concealment law. A jury originally convicted and sentenced Bynum to six years in prison. Later, an appeals court ruled that the jury shouldn't have been allowed to hear evidence that Bynum ingested medications to induce labor before the stillbirth or had previously had abortions—because the charge was that she had concealed the pregnancy, not tried to end it. While pregnant, Bynum had planned to quietly let a friend adopt the baby, and she eventually pleaded guilty to a legal violation for the attempted adoption. In 2022, the state passed a law banning investigations and prosecutions of pregnancy loss. But prior to that law, at least two California women had already served time in jail and prison for stillbirths that prosecutors had alleged were related to drug use. Adora Perez had served nearly four years of an 11-year sentence before a judge ruled her plea agreement—to a charge of voluntary manslaughter of a fetus—was unlawful, and overturned her conviction in 2022. That only happened after the case of then-26-year-old Chelsea Becker garnered international outrage. Becker was charged with "murder of a human fetus" in 2019, but the case was dismissed in 2021 and led to Perez's case getting a second look. Anger about the prosecutions of both women led to the change in state law, to avoid punishing "people who suffer the loss of their pregnancy." At least one woman who had a miscarriage has been arrested under a state law that makes it a crime to conceal a dead body, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. On March 20, police in Tifton, Georgia, issued a press release announcing that a dead fetus had been found in a dumpster at an apartment complex, after an ambulance was called for a woman who was found bleeding and unconscious. The next day, the Tifton Police Department announced it had arrested the woman who miscarried that fetus, accusing her of one count of concealing the death of another person and one count of abandonment of a dead body. It's unclear whether prosecutors in Tifton will pursue the criminal charges despite the coroner's ruling that the miscarriage was naturally occurring. Ohio's abuse of a corpse law allows a fairly broad interpretation, if applied to fetal remains: "No person, except as authorized by law, shall treat a human corpse in a way that would outrage reasonable community sensibilities." In 2023 in Warren, Ohio, Brittany Watts was arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse after experiencing a miscarriage at home in her toilet. She had been to a hospital prior to her miscarriage but left when she felt she was getting inadequate treatment, according to news reports. When she went back to the hospital after her miscarriage, a nurse called police and reported that Watts had given birth at home and did not want the baby—an assertion Watts' lawyer denied. A grand jury declined to move forward with the criminal case in 2024. Earlier this year, Watts filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging medical professionals conspired with a police officer to fabricate criminal charges against her. Criminal charges related to drug use while pregnant—in cases of pregnancy loss or infants born healthy—have become increasingly common in recent years in Oklahoma. Kathryn Green gave birth to a stillborn baby in Enid, Oklahoma, in 2017. She was struggling with meth addiction at the time and scared. She cleaned her stillborn son's body, wrapped him in a blanket and put him in a box. Police later found the remains in the trash and arrested her. Prosecutors initially charged her with second-degree murder, alleging that the stillbirth happened because of "meth toxicity." But medical tests later showed otherwise: Green's stillborn son had an infection that had caused his death, records show. In 2022, Green decided to enter an Alford plea—a guilty plea in which the defendant maintains innocence. At her sentencing hearing, a judge said he wasn't convinced that prosecutors had proven Green willfully and knowingly harmed her baby by using methamphetamine while pregnant, but he was bothered by her "lack of maternal instinct." South Carolina was the first state to prosecute a woman for a stillbirth allegedly due to drug use. In 2001, Regina McKnight was sentenced to 12 years in prison for giving birth to a stillborn baby who tested positive for cocaine. McKnight served eight years before the state Supreme Court overturned her conviction, in part because her trial lawyer didn't present witnesses to challenge prosecutors' claim that her drug use definitively caused the stillbirth. The state charged at least 200 women between 2006 and 2021 with unlawful neglect of a child or homicide by child abuse for alleged perinatal drug use. In March 2023, a college student in Orangeburg, South Carolina, named Amari Marsh went from miscarrying a fetus in her bathroom to being investigated for a homicide. She told investigators she didn't realize she was pregnant until she went to an ER with severe pain. She left the hospital and miscarried later in a toilet at home (which medical experts say is common). Her boyfriend at the time called 911. Police became suspicious that she may have sought to end the pregnancy or not called 911 fast enough, records show. She was jailed and accused of homicide by child abuse—before the fetus was autopsied. An autopsy showed later that the fetus died of natural causes due to an infection that Marsh was unaware of, her lawyer said. In South Carolina, police can arrest someone on a criminal complaint without approval from local prosecutors (called solicitors). After a grand jury reviewed all of the evidence in the case, the charges against Marsh were dismissed. This story was produced by The Marshall Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
