Though a coroner’s office report said the fetus was not viable and had died in the womb, Watts’ case highlights the extent to which prosecutors can charge a woman whose pregnancy has ended – whether by abortion or miscarriage.

When she was first admitted to the Labor and Delivery Department at St. Joseph’s Hospital on September 19, “She was diagnosed with premature rupture of membranes and severe oligohydramnios,” the report states.

But for hours doctors and officials mulled the ethics of inducing labor for a woman who had been diagnosed with preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), had no detectable amniotic fluid, was bleeding vaginally and had advanced cervical dilation, the Post reported.

“Near the side of the garage, next to a large trash can, there was a pile of tissue, blood and what appeared to be paper towels in the weeds,” the coroner’s office investigator, Alaina Jamison, wrote in the report.

“As citizens, we are outraged that the criminal justice system is being used to punish Ms. Watts who, like thousands of women each year, spontaneously miscarried a non-viable fetus into a toilet and then flushed,” the group said in an open letter to the Trumbull County prosecutor.

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