A prosecuting attorney warns women to get ahead of law enforcement in a state where abortion is all but banned
“911. What’s your emergency?”
“Hello, I would like to report the fact that I am having a very heavy period. Can you send a police officer over right away to collect my menstrual matter and check whether I’ve broken any laws?”
The above is not a transcript of an actual conversation in West Virginia but, the way things are headed, it could be a glimpse of what’s to come. The Raleigh county prosecuting attorney Tom Truman recently warned that women who have a pregnancy loss in West Virginia could face criminal charges. To protect themselves, Truman said, women should call local law enforcement and report a miscarriage – which is the loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week. “Call your doctor. Call law enforcement, or 911, and just say: ‘I miscarried. I want you to know,’” Truman told the outlet WVNS 59News.
Truman said he was personally opposed to prosecuting women who miscarry. But he warned that other prosecutors in West Virginia had indicated that they would be willing to file criminal charges against women who had lost a pregnancy via state laws related to the disposal of human remains. “I thought these guys were just chewing on a Dreamsicle,” Truman lamented. But, he added, West Virginia’s laws include definitions that are “pretty broad-ranging” and give law enforcement a lot of discretion to go after women who have had a pregnancy loss.
