Stop Criminalizing Black Women for Pregnancy Outcomes: A Public Letter to Warren Municipal Court Judge Terry Inavchak

Stand with Ohio Women’s Alliance, Abortion Fund of Ohio, and ROOTT to call on Warren Municipal Court Judge Terry Inavchak to stop using his courtroom to criminalize Black women for their pregnancy outcomes!

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In September, a 33-year-old Black woman of Warren, Ohio, survived a traumatizing stillbirth delivery in her bathroom after being sent home from the hospital not once, but twice. Now, she is being charged with abusing a corpse and a grand jury will try her. 

Despite the passing of Ohio’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment, the fight for Reproductive Justice is far from over in Ohio and nationally. Black women will never receive full protection in our state injustice system, with continued attacks to punish us disproportionately for our pregnancy outcomes—like Warren Municipal Court Judge Terry Inavchak, who’s using his courtroom to criminalize and further traumatize a Black woman for having a stillbirth after she was denied medical care.

Once again, the outcome of a Black woman’s pregnancy is being criminalized by the racist, sexist system that has been trying to strip us of our rights and our humanity for centuries.

Once again, we see that the outcomes of abortion bans and all bans on reproductive care result in less and less autonomy and access to life-saving care.

We call on doctors, nurses, and medical practitioners everywhere to LISTEN TO BLACK WOMEN. We know what our bodies are telling us. We know when we need medical care. We are not criminals for having miscarriages. BELIEVE US.

Ohioans have spoken: pregnancy, abortion, and miscarriage are personal matters that the government has no business cruelly interfering with.

We stand together as Black women and Ohioans to call on Warren Municipal Court Judge Terry Inavchak to dismiss this case immediately, and we call on elected officials and courts across Ohio to stop criminalizing the pregnancy outcomes of Black women and to accept the Reproductive Freedom Amendment.

We demand Reproductive Justice and liberation. Please join us.

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Mary Ellen Madden