In the ever-changing reproductive landscape, one West Virginia prosecutor warns that people with miscarriages in his state are suffering from law problems.
Prosecutor Tom Truman said he is a Raleigh County prosecutor. He personally doesn’t charge anyone for the murder, but says he made the proposal from a wealth of caution after hearing the voices from other prosecutors.
Truman suggests that people may want to let local law enforcement know if they have a miscarriage. Several reproductive law experts say people across the country are actually facing accusations related to miscarriage, but they still don’t recommend contacting law enforcement.
Truman first appeared during a chat with other West Virginia prosecutors at a meeting several years ago, and has been a conversation going on ever since. At the time, the American woman was Roev. The initial conversation was theoretical because he had a constitutional right to abortion under Wade. However, some prosecutors believed that they could request a person using state laws related to the disposal of human bodies.
“I thought these guys were just biting something like dreams,” Truman said. However, he added that West Virginia’s legal law includes a definition that is “very extensive.”
method Prosecutors can interpret the law. This means that a miscarriage could face criminal charges, including felony, he said.
“It’s a different world now, and there’s a lot of discretion that prosecutors have, some of whom have an agenda that wants to model you,” Truman told CNN.
“What’s changed is that Law isn’t there anymore, so in some cases the prosecutor could get involved,” he said. “I’m just trying to say ‘take care’. ”
According to the American university of obstetricians and gynecologists, early pregnancy losses are common. This often occurs in around 10 known pregnancies, as the embryo is not developed properly. And some reproductive law experts say it’s probably not a good idea to call police when they happen.
“Inviting law enforcement into your reproductive life is always a mistake,” said Kim Muckerson, a law professor at Rutgers Law School, specializing in reproductive justice.
Calling police could prompt unwanted investigations, she says.
“No, it wasn’t actually a miscarriage, this was someone who took pills,” or if it was something they wanted to remind them, suddenly, from “this poor woman who had a miscarriage here” to “here we’re trying to start prosecutors,” Mutchersers said.
“I understand the idea that you’ll be more careful than getting caught up in something you didn’t expect, but it’s hard to imagine a situation you think is safe for someone who calls the police,” she added.
Dr. Christine Brandy, an OB/GYN in New Jersey and a fellow at the University of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said the hospital has a process around the organization from miscarriage. For example, they can be further tested, treated as medical waste, or sent to AA funeral homes depending on the patient’s desires.
“But in the real world, there’s no setting process,” Brandi said. Patients can pass through tissue and dispose of it in trash or toilets. In rare cases, people rarely offer organizations for further testing. Their doctors may be able to answer the questions, or Brandi said they can reach an M&A hotline that supports people experiencing miscarriage or abortion.
“By reporting miscarriages and perhaps having the organisation gather, it’s disrupting a process that’s been happening honestly for thousands of years,” Brandi said. “There is nothing in the pregnancy organization that can be found in formal investigations as a miscarriage or an abortion.”
Abortion is illegal in West Virginia, with exceptions in cases of medical emergency or inability to survive, or in cases where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
Kulsoom Ijaz is a senior policy lawyer for pregnancy justice, a nonprofit focused on human rights during pregnancy, and said he doesn’t think there is anything in West Virginia’s law that criminalizes miscarriage.
“I think the law is pretty clear,” she said. “There is nothing in the law that could lead to criminal charges related to loss of pregnancy or behaviour during pregnancy.
According to a report from the IJAZ organization, the US Supreme Court, which revoked the federal rights to become pregnant following the DOBBS decision, has seen an increase in the US Supreme Court’s decision that raised the risk that pregnant people could face criminal prosecution for a variety of reasons.
According to Pregnancy Justice, there were over 200 cases in the US when DOBBS was taken over during June 2022 and in June 2023. This number is likely to be shortfall, Ijaz said.
There were at least three cases in West Virginia related to pregnancy prosecutors. In one case, the state’s Supreme Court found that the state could not collect accusations of criminal child abuse against anyone for prenatal conduct, including substance use during pregnancy.
Despite strict abortion bans in place, Ijaz said “people still have protections when they’re pregnant.”
In states like Alabama, Ijaz is a little different in states that have fetal personality laws that grant fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses “the same rights as you and me.” “We face decades of incarceration for substance use during pregnancy, and we are seeing the fetus they carry as children,” she said.
Last year in Ohio, a woman who miscarried at her home was charged with a felony in response to advice from Warren City Prosecutors, but the large ju court dismissed the case.
Ijaz said she doesn’t think she has an appetite for these kinds of cases among the public, but no matter where someone lives, she invites the law into their lives right after a miscarriage is not wise.
The legal landscape for reproductive justice “seems to be almost changing on a daily basis” – not generally a favorable way for pregnant people, said Brittany Fonteno, CEO of the National Federation of Abortion, a professional association of abortion providers.
“The law, rhetoric, the culture we live in within the United States has become very hostile to those experiencing pregnancy,” she said.
“I think the intersection of healthcare and criminalization is a very dangerous path,” Fonteno added. “As a country, we should support our ability to access people and the health care they need, rather than conducting invasive and traumatic investigations into our reproductive lives.”
Fonteno recommends that anyone experiencing pregnancy loss reach out to a qualified healthcare professional rather than law enforcement.
“We live in a very different country than our previous country, but we still believe this is an individual experience and healthcare decision,” she said. “Most providers believe it too.”
Mutcherson also says that the American reproductive justice landscape is “terrifying” for those who are pregnant, want to get pregnant, or have a bad outcome. If there’s a silver lining to the discussion about criminalizing miscarriage, she said, it’s good for people to know that something like that could happen.
“Women have been criminalised for pregnancy for decades, but as long as there is a wider, broader conversation about the meaning of treating embryos and fetuses as humans, and how to reduce the personality of pregnant people, that’s actually valuable, right?” Mutcherson said. “Maybe this is actually going to take us into a better space.”
CNN’s Meg Tirrell contributed to this report.