According to a county prosecutor who told a local news source last week, other law enforcement officials have brought up the idea of criminal charges against women in West Virginia who miscarry.
While he would not take any such action, several other West Virginia prosecutors have told Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman that they would be willing to charge women who miscarry and dispose of their own fetal remains in ways like flushing or burying them, he told WVNS 59News on Friday.
The accusations would fall under a state law pertaining to the interment of human remains. Despite West Virginia’s harsh abortion restrictions, state law states that women cannot be charged with a crime for performing their own abortions.
“The kind of criminal jeopardy you face is going to depend on a lot of factors,” Truman told the news outlet. “What was your intent? What did you do? How late were you in your pregnancy? Were you trying to hide something, were you just so emotionally distraught you couldn’t do anything else?”
Most of the time, a miscarriage is simply heavier-than-normal bleeding. It occasionally involves passing tissue that resembles fluid-filled sacs or blood clots. Truman also suggested that women be cautious about what they disclose to others prior to miscarrying. “If you were relieved, and you had been telling people, ‘I’d rather get run over by a bus than have this baby,’ that may play into law enforcement’s thinking, too,” he warned.
West Virginia prosecutors will charge women who have a miscarriage—starting at 9 weeks.
Felony charges would be brought following an “involuntary abortion”—or miscarriage.
“If you were relieved, had been telling people, ‘I’d rather get ran over by a bus than have this baby,’… pic.twitter.com/D0CeHwg07n
— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨💻 (@LongTimeHistory) June 2, 2025
Although women are not required by state law to report miscarriages to authorities, Truman noted that it might be best practice to do so nonetheless. “Call your doctor. Call law enforcement, or 911, and just say, ‘I miscarried. I want you to know,’” he suggested.
Criminal charges against a woman for handling her miscarriage have happened before. After flushing the fetal remains after her loss at 21 weeks of pregnancy, Brittany Watts, an Ohio lady, was charged with abuse of a corpse in 2023. “This 33-year-old girl with no criminal record is demonized for something that goes on every day,” Watts’ attorney Traci Timko said at one of her court hearings.
West Virginia prosecutors think that women should have to call 911 and file a police report after experiencing a miscarriage.
Does this make any sense? pic.twitter.com/znSr3gwejU
— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨💻 (@LongTimeHistory) June 3, 2025
Last year, a grand jury finally ruled against charging Watts. A Georgia lady was arrested in April for allegedly discarding the fetal remains from her miscarriage. She was detained for two nights before being released on bond.
Her case “impacts every single woman out there of reproductive age, who knows she can get pregnant, who knows she can miscarry,” Georgia state Sen. Sally Harrell told HuffPost at the time. “It makes every woman of reproductive age afraid.”
