Why do some health care workers report miscarriages to police?

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     January 29, 2024 Did you catch [Brittany Watts' interview on CBS]( on Friday? If you recall, she's the 34-year-old Ohio woman who made national headlines after being charged with a felony in October over how she handled miscarrying a pregnancy at home. The case sparked an outcry from reproductive justice advocates, who have long been concerned with the criminalization of pregnancy and have argued the post-Dobbs landscape presents new threats targeting pregnant people—even those who aren't seeking abortions. Watts' CBS Mornings appearance marked her first television interview since a grand jury [declined]( to indict her earlier this month, closing the case. And when I saw coverage of it over the weekend, [something jumped out at me](: Watts said it was a nurse at the hospital who reported her to the police. That made me think about a story my colleague Katie Herchenroeder and I [reported]( back in November, on how research from the national legal advocacy nonprofit If/When/How shows health care providers were the group of people most likely to report pregnant people for having self-managed abortions even before the fall of Roe. (Self-managed abortions, or SMAs, occur when someone ends a pregnancy without clinical supervision or support, most often through [abortion pills](; unintentional miscarriages can sometimes be mistaken as intentional SMAs.) I didn't see news coverage of Watts' interview that made this connection, but I think you can learn a lot by looking at the broader context of [why health care professionals make these kinds of reports despite having no legal requirement to do so](. Even though Watts wasn't ultimately convicted, cases like hers can still have a chilling effect. As If/When/How said in a [post on X]( today about Watts’ latest revelation: “When care providers police their patients, they only make people afraid to get the care they need.” —Julianne McShane Advertisement [Disillusioned]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [A Nurse Called Police After a Black Woman Miscarried—There’s a History to That]( Brittany Watts, a 34-year-old Black medical receptionist, made the revelation in her first TV interview with CBS on Friday. BY JULIANNE MCSHANE SPONSORED CONTENT BY PENGUIN PRESS   Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America's Suburbs Through the stories of five American families, award-winning reporter Benjamin Herold offers a masterful and timely exploration of how hope, history, and racial denial collide in the suburbs and their schools. [Get Disillusioned here.]( [Trending] [Pelosi wants the FBI to investigate pro-Palestinian protesters]( BY INAE OH   [Arab and Muslim American leaders in Michigan just canceled a meeting with the Biden campaign]( BY ALI BRELAND   [Why the United States halted funding to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency]( BY INAE OH   ["The algorithm" does not exist]( BY KEVIN MUNGER Advertisement [Disillusioned]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [There is a very good reason why Donald Trump thinks everything is rigged]( In business, he was a master of gaming the system. BY DAVID CORN [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755