The 33-year-old Watts, who had not shared the news of her pregnancy even with her family, made her first prenatal visit to a doctor’s office behind Mercy Health-St. Joseph’s Hospital in Warren, a working-class city about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Cleveland.
The doctor said that, while a fetal heartbeat was still present, Watts’ water had broken prematurely and the fetus she was carrying would not survive. He advised heading to the hospital to have her labor induced, so she could have what amounted to an abortion to deliver the nonviable fetus. Otherwise, she would face “significant risk” of death, according to records of her case.
That was a Tuesday in September. What followed was a harrowing three days entailing: multiple trips to the hospital; Watts miscarrying into, and then flushing and plunging, a toilet at her home; a police investigation of those actions; and Watts, who is Black, being charged with abuse of a corpse. That’s a fifth-degree felony punishable by up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
I’m not seeing the narrative on Democrats trusting SCOTUS here, Roe was decided in 1973 under the Ford administration. The next Democrat president Jimmy Carter was highly christian & saw only to uphold the law despite disagreeing with it & only viewed expect in the life of the mother. Congress from the 70s-90s still depended on Southern Democrats for any Democratic majority & they were very much opposed to supporting Roe. Even as you get to Bill Clinton he later loses congress to a Republican majority.
Best cases were first term Democratic presidents Clinton & Obama who were both in no position to swing for the fences on large issues that would split their own party(Untested in Obama’s time) & who would both see Republicans sweep majorities in congress at re-election time . We are only at this level of support due to hard work of Democrats over the years to rebuild after losing southern voters but it comes at great risk of losing the Senate. Clinton & Obama use to be able to count Ohio & Florida as blue states.
The game of getting consensus & then even winning a legislative victory is tough out there.
Appreciate you adding this context, I was a child in Clinton’s administration so the nuance escaped me.
I read, before replying, that Dems made very loose efforts to codify but it didn’t get the support (on the same side of the aisle) it should have.