WASHINGTON, D.C. — Brittany Watts of Warren, Ohio, spent 19 hours in the hospital waiting for doctors to induce her after her 22-week fetus was declared nonviable. She eventually left the hospital and went home, where she later miscarried.

To her surprise, the 34-year-old was charged with felony abuse of a corpse when she sought follow-up care at a hospital. Her arrest sparked national protests, and in January, a grand jury dismissed the charges.

“After that,” Watts said, “I made the conscious decision that I wanted no other woman to go through what I went through because I wanted my vindication to speak as loud as the accusation.”

Watts attended President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday as a guest of Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio. Beatty said she wanted to highlight a trend of more women being subjected to criminal investigations due to their pregnancy outcomes after the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022.

“I think it is important that we’re hearing her story and so many other stories across the country because we know with all the lawsuits, with the Dobbs decision, that we have a lot of work to do,” Beatty said, adding that she thought that work included restoring a federal right to abortion.

Biden outlined the same goal in his speech:

“If you the American people send me a Congress that supports the right to choose I promise you, I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again.”

Watts was among the guests that lawmakers bring to the State of the Union address in order to showcase issues they want to see addressed.

Another guest was Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn, who traveled to the southern U.S. border last November with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. There, the pair met with border agents to learn about the best strategies to combat illicit fentanyl smuggling.

Brown invited the sheriff to the State of the Union to highlight his support of the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which would target the illicit fentanyl supply by imposing sanction and anti-money laundering penalties, as well as providing additional resources to law enforcement.

The measure was included in the Bipartisan border security bill that has stalled in Congress because of opposition from former President Donald Trump.

“I want Congress to pass the bipartisan bill, but political games were played,” Brown said. “I want us to get money to the border for the detection equipment, to go after the money in Mexico and China, and I want help for local communities, the police officers, the sheriffs, the deputies that are doing this work.”

Wasylyshyn said the FEND Off Fentanyl Act would help his department deal with the countless negative effects of the opioid epidemic.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to do this and I am really excited that Sen. Brown has this FEND Off Fentanyl bill and I’m really excited about what that’s going to do,” he said.

Biden used the State of the Union to call on Congress to pass the bill.

“What are you against?” Biden said. “One-hundred more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles smuggling fentanyl into America, that’s killing thousands of children. This bill would save lives.”

Biden highlighted his focus on abortion rights by inviting as one his guests Kate Cox, a Texas woman at the center of a high-profile abortion case. Biden hopes to make abortion rights a centerpiece of his rematch with Trump this fall.