WARREN — Since Brittany Watts’ miscarriage has led to criminal charges against her, there’s been a national spotlight on her case, as many activist groups worry her case represents the worst of their fears of pregnancy being criminalized.

Since then, her attorney said she has been flooded with an outpouring of support for Watts.

The GoFundMe account, “Justice for Brittany Watts,” has since been started on behalf of the 33-year-old who was charged with abuse of a corpse after a police investigation found that Watts tried flushing the fetal remains of her miscarriage down the toilet.

The fundraising campaign looks to help Watts pay for legal fees, medical bills, trauma counseling and home repairs, after her toilet was removed by police to collect the remains of Watts’ stillbirth that had lodged in the piping.

On Sept. 22, 2023, Watts, at 22 weeks into her pregnancy, told Warren Police detective Nick Carney that she, “felt the baby come out and there was a big splash,” while using the restroom that morning.

Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri said the police investigation found that Watts miscarried the baby while using the restroom and tried to plunge and flush the remains down the toilet, where it got stuck in the pipes.

Hours after being admitted to the hospital, Warren police removed the toilet from Watts’ home and took it to the Trumbull County Coroner’s Office, who then had to chisel away at the pipes to remove the fetal remains, according to Guarnieri.

During an early November court hearing, the court heard from forensic pathologist Dr. George Sterbenz, whose testimony concluded that Watts’ water had broken early and the fetus was “nonviable,” because the baby was too young to be delivered.

Sterbenz testified that no injuries had been committed to the fetus, further stating that the fetus had died naturally before passing through the birth canal.

At 21 weeks, Watts’ attorney, Traci Timko, said her client went to her physician who told Watts that her pregnancy, “could not survive, and she would miscarry,” which she wrote on the GoFundMe page.

“When the bleeding and the pain from the impending miscarriage got severe, she did the same thing that many women who miscarry at home do. Brittany went into her bathroom, miscarried into her toilet and flushed.”

A nurse from St. Joseph Warren Hospital called 911 after Watts came there suffering “life-threatening hemorrhaging,” later leading to police investigating and charging Watts, who had no previous criminal history, with a felony offense.

Guarnieri argued in favor of having the case move forward in court, saying that the state did not have to prove fetal viability, citing a portion of Ohio Revised Code that reads, “no person, except as authorized by law, shall treat a human corpse in a way that would outrage reasonable community sensibilities.”

Warren Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak agreed, determining there was probable cause for the case to be bound over to the grand jury.

The judge stated during the hearing, “There are better scholars than I am to determine the exact legal status of this fetus, corpse, body, birthing tissue, whatever it is.”

Timko previously said that no law requires a mother suffering from a miscarriage of a nonviable fetus to bury or cremate the remains.

“Women miscarry into toilets everyday. If the state of Ohio expects these women to fish those remains from the toilet and deliver them to a hospital, funeral home or crematorium, the laws need changed,” Timko said, adding that “we aren’t there yet.”

She further stated, “Regardless of politics or religion, this matter hinges on the law. It is a travesty that Brittany (Watts) was charged and we will continue to fight.”

Her client’s fate now rests in the hands of a grand jury that will determine whether to indict Watts on felony charges, which would take case to the next step of being presented to a Trumbull County Common Pleas court judge.

Over the past few months, Watts has seen one of most private, intimate moments of her life become the center of a national debate over the criminalization of pregnancy, but also has been met with thousands of people showing support.

“The outpouring of love and support has been humbling, healing and empowering. Thank you to each and every person that reached out. There are no words to convey my gratitude or express how much it means to me,” Watts said.

The story reached the eyes of civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who retweeted Watts’ story to his more than 600,000 followers on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, and it received more than 40 millions views, with people voicing their outrage.

Many women also shared similar stories of having miscarried into a toilet, wondering out loud on the social media platform whether they too could’ve been prosecuted for their miscarriage.

“The global response to Brittany’s situation has been extraordinary, marked by an overwhelming influx of emails from women who have experienced similar circumstances. These women, who have endured the heartache of miscarriages leading to outcomes akin to Brittany’s, have found a resonance in her story,” Timko said.

Watts’ attorney shared some of the stories from women who have identified with Watts.

A New York woman told Timko via text message that at 12 weeks, she had gone to a Syracuse hospital with her miscarried baby wrapped in toilet paper. When a nurse refused to handle the remains, the woman said she also tried flushing them down the toilet, an experience she told Timko has left her suffering from PTSD.

In another text message, a Warren County woman told the attorney that in 2021, she miscarried at between 12 and 14 weeks. Having bled out over a toilet, she felt her baby pass through and grieved it, she told the attorney, “I had no idea how to proceed and proceeded with disposal through the toilet and then was rushed to the hospital for an emergency D&C to stem the bleeding,” she wrote.

“The establishment of a GoFundMe campaign will enable Brittany to leverage her story as a powerful tool for advocacy. This initiative aims to foster legal reforms and enhance educational efforts, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that women in the future are spared from enduring similar experiences,” Timko said.

A link to the GoFundMe can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice-for-brittany-watts. As of Friday afternoon, the fundraiser has raised $2,850 of its goal of $20,000.