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Statement

Moms Applaud Ohio Grand Jury for Refusing to Indict Brittany Watts, Exercising the Compassion and Sense Officials Lacked

January 12, 2024
Maternal Health, Maternal Mortality

Lisa Lederer, 202/371-1996

Statement of leaders of MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the Ohio grand jury’s refusal to indict Brittany Watts:

“After suffering a devastating miscarriage, Brittany Watts has been mistreated and abused by a system anti-abortion leaders designed intentionally to inflict pain and punishment on women. Thankfully for Watts, that ended yesterday evening when a grand jury refused to indict her on the ridiculous charge of abuse of a corpse in the wake of the miscarriage she suffered.

“From start to finish, this case has been an atrocious abuse of power, from the time Watts – a mother of three – was forced to wait for 8+ hours in the hospital for the care she needed, to police bringing charges after she miscarried a nonviable fetus, to being forced to endure the grand jury process while facing possible imprisonment for a felony. This is not how anyone should ever be treated.”

-Statement of Beatriz Beckford, National Director, Youth and Family Justice, MomsRising

“The parade of horribles unleashed by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization continues to traumatize and devastate the country, with women of color, low-income women, young, rural and immigrant women, people with disabilities, and those who are LGBTQIA+ suffering the most.

“Every day anti-abortion zealots intrude in women’s reproductive health is a day when moms and pregnant people are abused and endangered, and when our maternal mortality crisis gets even worse. America’s moms will remain in this fight for as long as our autonomy is challenged, our privacy violated, and our access to reproductive health care threatened or denied. Reproductive rights are fundamental human rights.”

-Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO, MomsRising

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, stop discrimination against women and moms, and build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: www.MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.