‘I didn’t know what I was supposed to do’: US women who miscarry are in dangerous legal limbo post-Roe

With near-total bans on abortion in 14 states, the laws on miscarriage are vague – stoking fears of criminal consequences and leaving women desperate

For a long time after her miscarriage, Rebecca sat on the toilet, trying to figure out what to do.

“I thought about fishing it out of the bloody water,” she said. “I didn’t really want to hold it in my hand. I also didn’t know what I would do with it afterwards. Am I gonna put it in the trash? Am I gonna dig a hole in the backyard? What the hell am I supposed to do? I had no idea.”

It was around 3 or 4 in the morning; her husband was trying to get some sleep before work. She was exhausted and in shock.

“Ultimately, I flushed it. I didn’t want to,” Rebecca said. As she thought about it all again, she kept repeating herself: “I didn’t know what I was supposed to do.”

Rebecca, who is from Ohio, experienced that miscarriage in fall of 2014. Nine years and one supreme court decision later, another distraught woman would also miscarry into a toilet in Ohio – but after she tried to flush, she would have a very different experience. Her case would ultimately land a national spotlight on the anguish, uncertainty and even danger that millions of women, like Rebecca, have experienced in the minutes and hours after a miscarriage.