Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

West Virginia Prosecutor Warns Women Who Have Miscarriages Could Be Charged With Felonies

pregnant woman in handcuffs
Andrey Zhuravlev/Getty Images

Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman is warning women who miscarry in their homes that they could be charged with a felony if they dispose of any fetal remains after a miscarriage as early as nine weeks into a pregnancy.

According to the Mayo Clinic, 10%-20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, which is also known as spontaneous abortion or early pregnancy loss.

For people with infertility issues or other health concerns, the rate increases. And the overall miscarriage rate is also higher than 10%-20%, because many spontaneous abortions happen before people even know they're pregnant.


Conservative MAGA lawmakers across the nation have proven themselves scientifically and medically illiterate, so perhaps it's the medical terminology for miscarriage—spontaneous abortion—that has led them to target people who suffer such a devastating loss with prosecution up to and including felony charges.

West Virginia's Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman recently revealed his colleagues' plans to prosecute people who suffer a miscarriage at home after nine weeks of pregnancy if any "remains" are not immediately turned over to authorities for examination and proper burial. He says he has no plans to follow their lead and only wished to warn the people of West Virginia.

You can see local news coverage here:

Charges would be under a West Virginia law about the disposal of human remains.

Their plans fail to recognize that the majority of first trimester (0–13 weeks) spontaneous abortions happen outside of a medical facility, a 9-week fetus is only about 1.6" (4 cm) long, and experts often cannot determine the cause of an early pregnancy loss based on collected blood and tissue.

Many first trimester miscarriages occur on the toilet. A spontaneous abortion at that stage appears as heavier-than-normal menstrual bleeding that sometimes involves passed tissue that looks like blood clots to the untrained eye or may include a small fluid-filled sac.

The plan is to charge people who miscarry and dispose of their own fetal remains, such as by flushing them or burying them.

Truman made no mention if his fellow prosecutors plan to seek criminal charges against husbands, boyfriends, or other men who helped during a miscarriage or if they're only planning to target the person who suffered the miscarriage.

Truman told the press how his colleagues said they would decide to prosecute, saying:

"The kind of criminal jeopardy you face is going to depend on a lot of factors. 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?"
"If you were relieved, and you had been telling people, ‘I’d rather get ran over by a bus than have this baby,’ that may play into law enforcement’s thinking, too."

While Truman claimed people wouldn't be charged for having a miscarriage, the reasons for prosecution indicate otherwise.

It also points to an attitude that anyone capable of pregnancy has a duty to carry all fetuses to a full-term birth and anything else is a moral failing on their part, worthy of scrutiny and possible prosecution.

Truman advised, despite no law requiring it, that people notify authorities of any miscarriage.

He said:

"Call your doctor. Call law enforcement, or 911, and just say, 'I miscarried. I want you to know'."

Women in Ohio and Georgia have been targeted using similar "human remains" laws. Charges were eventually dropped in Ohio. The case in Georgia is still pending as of this writing.

People were appalled at Truman's revelation of his colleagues' plans.


@mindy0739365693/X







Researchers found between 50%–70% of first-trimester miscarriages are random events caused by chromosomal abnormalities in the fertilized embryo. Other common causes are an egg that doesn't implant properly in the uterus before fertilization or an embryo with structural defects.

Expecting parents often ask what they did wrong, but according to research, in most cases the fetus would never have been viable, the body recognized this, and spontaneously aborted the pregnancy.

Local doctors and even pathologists don't have the equipment or specialized training needed to determine a root cause of every miscarriage. 50% of couples suffering from multiple miscarriages (2–3 in a row) will have "no identifiable cause for their multiple losses despite thorough evaluation."

If most people never learn what caused their fetus to spontaneously abort, how will medically untrained prosecutors decide who to target? It's a recipe for bias and bigotry to determine who is and isn't charged with a crime after a miscarriage.

Further persecuting the victim of a biological event beyond their control, due to the ignorance of legislators, is cruel and unusual punishment.

And that's unconstitutional.

More from News/political-news

James Gunn: Trisha Paytas and, Aquaman Moses Paytas-Hacmon
Maarten De Boer/Getty Images; @trishapaytas/Instagram

James Gunn reacts to Aquaman baby

DC Studios co-head James Gunn had a candid and humorous reaction to YouTuber Trisha Paytas naming her newborn son “Aquaman.”

Paytas welcomed her third child, Aquaman Moses Paytas-Hacmon, on July 12. The baby joins her daughters, 1-year-old Elvis Paytas-Hacmon and 2-year-old Malibu Barbie Paytas-Hacmon. Needless to say, Paytas has a taste for bold, pop culture-inspired baby names.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lauren Boebert; Tyler Boebert
Alex Wong/Getty Images; Rifle Police Department/Facebook

Boebert Slammed After Brushing Off Son's Child Abuse Charge Against Her Grandson

Far-right Republican Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert is under fire after dismissing her son's criminal child abuse charge.

Boebert's 20-year-old son Tyler was cited for misdemeanor child abuse of his son in Windsor, Colorado, this week following a charge of criminal negligence where no death or injury occurred.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump; Beyoncé Knowles Carter; Kamala Harris
Brendan Smialowski//AFP via Getty Images; Edward Berthelot/Getty Images; Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET

Trump Demands Beyoncé Be Prosecuted For Debunked Accusation She Was Paid Millions To Endorse Harris

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so MAGA Republican President Donald Trump is now recycling some prior false claims to try to distract his supporters away from the debacle of his Epstein files cover-up that has taken over his presidency.

While in Scotland over the weekend, Trump regurgitated an already debunked claim about Beyoncé and called for her and other Black celebrities to be prosecuted for something that never happened and that wouldn’t be illegal even if it had.

Keep ReadingShow less
closed indefinitely sign on a chain link fence
Rob Martin on Unsplash

People Explain Which Things Were Ruined For Everyone By A Few Idiots

Did you know that you used to be able to walk unguided on the interior stairs to or from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.? My Mother did it twice in the early and mid 1960s.

The 896 steps of the Washington Monument's interior stairs were always intended to be seen, with commemorative stones—193 in total—on the walls along the route. States, cities, foreign nations, businesses, labor unions, and civic organizations provided stones as part of fundraising efforts to complete the monument or for later renovations.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ryan Walters
oklahoma.gov

Oklahoma State Superintendent Who Requires Bible Be Taught In Classrooms Accused Of Airing Porn During Meeting

The Oklahoma MAGA Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, is under investigation after pornography was seen on a TV in his office during a state Board of Education meeting.

Elected to his current position in 2022, Walters previously served as the Oklahoma Secretary of Education after being nominated by Oklahoma Republican Governor Kevin Stitt in 2020.

Keep ReadingShow less