When medical receptionist Brittany Watts arrived at Mercy Health Hospital bleeding and in pain, she expected prompt care and a swift recovery. Instead, the 33-year-old Ohian was met with neglect. After begging doctors to induce her miscarriage for two days to no avail, Watts decided to leave the hospital and pass the tissue on her own. But when she returned a few days later, the same nurse who had consoled and comforted her called 911, and officers charged Brittany Watts with felony “abuse of a corpse.” Despite the absurd scene of policemen circling Brittany’s hospital bed hours after her miscarriage, her story isn’t unique. Watts’ arrest is one of over 400 pregnancy-related prosecutions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, with this number continuing to climb. Pregnancy Justice explains that Fetal Personhood laws, which give fetuses the same legal status as born persons, allow for criminal feticide statutes that categorize miscarriage as homicide in 38 states and counting. Considering that 10 to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, it is imperative miscarriage treatment is a protected healthcare service. Through understanding why miscarriages have been increasingly criminalized and the dangerous effects this poses for pregnant people, much-needed solutions can be developed for those who miscarry. After all, those who miscarry have already experienced a tragedy. They don’t deserve to be punished for it. 

In March 2025, EMS received a 911 call from Georgia woman Selena Chandler-Scott, who was experiencing a medical crisis. Emergency services found the 24-year-old unconscious and bleeding in her apartment and rushed her to the hospital to treat the aftermath of her miscarriage. However, because one of Chandler-Scott’s neighbors reported that she disposed of fetal remains in their complex’s dumpster, the still-grieving mother faced charges of “concealing a death” and “abandonment of a dead body” upon waking from her hospital bed. She was forced to wait 4 days for her autopsy report to clear her of wrongdoing. Beyond denouncing the legal barriers miscarriage faces, Chandler-Scott’s case questioned how the judicial system became so intimately involved in the first place. There are two causes for the criminalization of miscarrying women like Selena: paralysis in the medical community and lack of miscarriage guidance. 

Fetal personhood laws force doctors to navigate legality when providing life-saving care. Laws in southern states threaten physicians with 10 years to life in prison for administering an abortion. Yet, standard tissue-clearing medication like Misoprostol or procedures like a dilation and curettage (D&C) (which is required in 1 in 4 miscarriage cases) can also be used to terminate pregnancies, leaving medical professionals reluctant to utilize any care that might be misperceived. In fact, healthcare providers face both possible licensure loss and imprisonment (and an additional $100,000 hospital fine in Texas) for providing standard care for premature membrane rupture or preeclampsia: two of the most common forms of miscarriage. Doctors are only offered the chance to justify their use of such procedures through an “affirmative defense,” or what ProPublica argues, “not unlike a murder suspect arguing self defense.” While Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Oz reiterated last June that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act ensures women are able to receive care for miscarriage and medical emergencies, many doctors say these reforms do not prevent states from cracking down on miscarriage procedures, or address the difficulty of determining when miscarrying patients’ expected bleeding evolves to critical condition. In fact, it can take weeks to conclusively document that a pregnancy has ended—all the while the patient is losing blood. As Dr. Lucier-Julian warned, “These laws create an environment of fear,” forcing doctors to side against the patients they serve. 

Unfortunately, neither states nor medical facilities equip women with miscarriage guidance. After publishing the details of Brittany Watts’ case, the Guardian announced that over 100 women reached out to share their fears about the utter lack of clear guidelines. A woman identified as “Rebecca” articulated that doctors never told her the steps for fetal disposal, so when she had her miscarriage, she flushed her fetus; the same method that got Watts arrested. Lack of knowledge is compounded by the stigma surrounding miscarriage, limiting the conversations women are having about this possibility until it occurs. As Texas OBGYN Dr. Tony Ogburn described, not even doctors know how to translate fetal personhood laws into medical practice. Given no information, women in the midst of a traumatic medical event are forced to decide whether taking steps to protect their own health is worth the risk of prison. 

Austin woman Sarah de Pablos Velez was sent home from the emergency room twice despite profuse bleeding during her miscarriage, forcing her to return a third time to receive transfusions for the immense amount of blood lost. Doctoral student Amanda Neagle underscores the risks to delaying treatment for women like de Pablos Velez. As Neagle puts it, “There’s a finite amount of blood…when it all comes out, you’re dead.” Miscarriage criminalization has two effects: pregnant people are denied life-saving care, and women face prosecution for pregnancy loss. 

First, legal uncertainty jeopardizes the health of pregnant people. Abortion ban complications caused dozens of pregnant women in medical distress to be turned away from emergency care. Dana Sussman, senior vice president of Pregnancy Justice, stated doctors now tell patients to complete their miscarriages at home—even when risks are high. For the women who do remain in the hospital, doctors’ fears of judicial punishment puts patients in limbo for treatment. Josseli Barnica was a 28-year-old mother who waited 40 hours to receive care for her miscarriage. As doctors stood by waiting for the fetus’ heartbeat to stop, Barnica lay helpless to deadly bacteria. Three days after she passed the fetal tissue, Josseli passed away from sepsis. Josseli Barnica’s story is all too common. The August 2025 Population Reference Bureau report highlights a more than 50% spike in sepsis among miscarrying women, with the lack of efficient treatment claiming dozens of women’s lives. The Gender Equity Policy Institute affirms this statistic: mothers living in states that banned abortion are nearly 2x as likely to die during pregnancy. Fetal personhood laws aren’t protecting the right to life. They’re ending it early. 

Outside the hospital, women face prosecution for pregnancy loss. Even with prosecutions spanning 16 states and 412 cases in two years, Pregnancy Justice states these figures are likely a severe undercount. Medical providers in 15 states are mandated to report any suspicion of harm to a fetus, viable or not, as care providers can be held criminally liable. This means upon signing discharge papers, doctors might tip off law enforcement. Of the 412 prosecutions Pregnancy Justice tracked, medical providers provided crucial information to the police in 264. Even women who avoid the hospital altogether can face prosecution. Texas woman Mallori Patrice Strait spent five months in custody for “corpse abuse” after miscarrying in a public bathroom—despite the medical examiner citing “no direct evidence” she attempted to flush anything. The majority of pregnancy prosecutions post-Dobbs utilize child neglect, endangerment, or abuse laws beyond their original intent, putting a target on every woman who doesn’t carry to term. And for minority women who already face higher rates of both infertility and reproductive criminalization, these risks are only compounded. In her Critical Criminology article, Robin O’Hanlon explains the policies and practices that police pregnancy loss are reinforced by race and class hierarchies, disproportionately impacting Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income women as a result. O’Hanlon argues pregnancy loss criminalization becomes a carceral regime due to the way systemic oppression intersects with this legal framework. As NPR stresses, pregnancy criminalization had been targeting Black women long before Roe v. Wade was overturned. The 2022 article warns of rising incarceration rates for mothers and a pregnancy landscape built by bars; a fate that appears to have come true less than 5 years later. 

When not fighting against a $2,500 fine and a year in prison, Brittany Watts was mourning the life of her child. This ever-complicating legal web catches vulnerable women in its trap. However, we are capable of building a better reproductive landscape. While it is true that we can (and should) work to elect representatives knowledgeable of reproductive freedoms, it is also true that political change is slow and uncertain. Until lawmakers can understand reproductive rights as human rights, there are more tangible solutions we can implement to protect pregnant people. 

First, we need to ensure that those in the medical community understand their options and how to navigate critical care. I’ve created a resource of guidebooks, past legal precedence, and general abortion laws for medical professionals in all 50 states, as well as general guiding questions produced by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). If you work in emergency medicine (or know anyone who does), I urge you to read these resources that you can access at https://linktr.ee/miscarriagemanagement and develop strategies for miscarriage care. The ACOG also reiterates the need for comprehensive legal support for doctors, often through medical-legal partnerships like Lawyers for Good Government. If you’re a law student or attorney, this group is accepting volunteers for national reproductive programs. If neither of these categories describe you, they also feature a donation page, so please consider supporting them however you can.

If you are pregnant, plan to be, or know someone who is, there are also steps you can take to ensure your physical safety and prevent criminalization. I’ve compiled miscarriage guidance and links that discuss where to turn, medical terms you should know, potential treatments, differences in reproductive access state to state (and how this can impact miscarriage care), and much more in case of the worst. You can find these resources in the aforementioned linktree. This database includes resources for women who have suffered a miscarriage, as well as comprehensive legal support in case you face undue criminalization. Those who miscarry should not be further punished for what is often one of the worst moments in their lives. By pushing for and enacting these solutions, we can help ensure their safety. 

When Brittany Watts was found not guilty last January, she walked out of the Ohio courtroom to a crowd of 150 people gathered in support. Calling out to the crowd, Watts said she was determined to ensure her history doesn’t repeat itself for women across the nation; an effort we all ought to echo. Thorough analysis of miscarriage criminalization makes it clear that the current abortion landscape prevents the same right to life they claim to protect. In a reproductive landscape characterized by chaos and restriction, it is important we continue to fight for personal autonomy in all its forms. Watts, and the thousands of people who’ve experienced pregnancy loss understand: when miscarriage gets misconstrued as murder, every woman is a target.