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.
I grew up in Ohio.
Don’t live in Ohio.
I live in Ohio and I vote.
I understand why people leave Ohio, for the same reason I understand why people leave Florida and Texas.
If you’re fleeing for refuge, I’m with you. A lot of the US isn’t safe for women, people of color, or trans individuals. But if you actually want to make a difference, you have to stay and vote.
Ohio just codified abortion access in our constitution and legalized recreational marijuana in a non-presidential election, by a sizable majority.
This speaks volumes. Use the voice you have. And when they stop listening, we’ll burn it to the ground and start over.
