'It's involuntary!' CNN host alarmed by prosecutor's ominous warning to women
CNN's Pamela Brown was shocked by a West Virginia prosecutor's warning that people who have miscarriages could face criminal charges under the state's abortion laws.
Raleigh County prosecuting attorney Tom Truman said he would not personally prosecute anyone for a miscarriage — but he added that other prosecutors in the state believe they could charge someone under West Virginia laws related to the disposal of human remains if they did not notify authorities of their miscarriage.
"I will say that there are probably people in West Virginia that would share their philosophical outlook on things, and that's a concern," Truman said.
Brown asked for more specifics and pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned abortion rights in the Dobbs decision nearly three years ago.
"I mean, Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago," she said. "I think a lot of people might be watching this and wondering, why are you talking about this now? You know, it was three years ago. Why are you talking about this now, and people want to know, are there actually prosecutors in West Virginia who are going to bring these cases?"
Truman pointed to a case in nearby Mercer County where a man threw out a sealed container containing miscarried remains during a domestic dispute with an ex-girlfriend. He was later charged with disinterment/displacement of a dead body after later running over the container with an ATV, causing it to break and expose the remains.
"I'm not acquainted specifically with the facts of that," Truman said, "but that's what triggered the question to me, because I was available and was willing to talk about it."
Brown asked what the legally proper way for a person to dispose of the remains after a miscarriage was, and the prosecutor said the law wasn't clear.
"You know, that's a medical question., I don't really have a good legal answer," Truman said. "I was just trying to sound an alarm that there are people out there that are looking for opportunities. You know, the law changes when people push on it, and if that's your philosophical view it would be an opportunity, given the case law and the statutes to do so."
Brown asked why law enforcement would be involved in a medical matter, and Truman said the law frequently encroaches on personal matters, but the "Situation Room" co-host wasn't satisfied with his answer.
"But, you know, a miscarriage," Brown said. "It's spontaneous, it's involuntary, you know, a woman has very little control over that, and this idea that she could be prosecuted for how she handles that is, I think, really alarming to a lot of women is the reason underpinning this, to ensure women won't get an abortion illegally in West Virginia because of the strict abortion ban there. Is that your summary of these conversations?"
"That's a very good question, for which I don't have an answer," Truman conceded. "There's been a steady march in the West Virginia legislature of tightening up abortion. You'll notice that since Roe was reversed, there was a call for a statewide referendum, which has been refused. I'm not sure why. If that's the view of the population like they did in Ohio, why we couldn't do that here. I don't know."
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