More Women Face Pregnancy-Related Charges After Roe’s Fall, Report Finds

What’s the story?

• A report released by Pregnancy Justice, a women's health advocacy group, found that women have been increasingly charged with pregnancy-related crimes since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
• The group reported that at least 210 people in the U.S. were prosecuted for conduct relating to their pregnancies—the highest number of cases recorded in a single year. Researchers warn that this is probably an underestimate of 2022 to 2023 charges.
• Pregnancy Justice’s report is the first comprehensive account of pregnancy-related crimes since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

The details of the report

• The majority of the cases did not involve abortion and rarely accused women of violating an abortion ban. Nevertheless, women’s health experts and advocates are concerned that this trend illustrates the growing attempt to control, regulate, and criminalize women’s bodies and pregnancies. 
• Five cases mentioned allegations of an abortion, an attempted abortion, or “researching or exploring the possibility of abortion.” One of the cases involved a woman delivering a stillborn baby in her home. When the woman attempted to make funeral arrangements, the authorities were alerted, and she was charged with homicide. She is not alone in this, as many other women have reported a similar experience—over three-quarters of the cases in the report involved fetal or infant loss. President of Pregnancy Justice, Lourdes Rivera, said:

“It’s an environment where pregnancy loss is potentially criminally suspect.”

• More than 95% of the prosecutions involved allegations of substance use during pregnancy, with charges of child abuse, neglect, or endangerment. In these cases, the fetus or embryo is legally treated as a person, potentially competing with the rights of the person carrying them. Over 100 cases included in the report were in Alabama, where the state's Supreme Court ruled that embryos are “extrauterine children.”

What they’re saying

• Advocates are noting how prosecutors, in these cases, must prove that the defendant posed some risk to the pregnancy, which could lead to criminalization of behavior that is not actually dangerous. Zenovia Earle, media and communications director for Pregancy Justice, said:

“It’s ultimately, a lot of the time, based on someone’s perception of risky behavior, however they might define it, and it’s often based on stereotypes or outdated notions.”

• In more than half of the reported cases, information used against the defendant was obtained in a medical setting, shining a light on social workers or health care providers that tip off police to a suspected interest in, or self-managed, abortion. Wendy Bach, a University of Tennessee professor and the report’s principal investigator, said:

“[N]ow we have people all over the country hiding real healthcare needs and not reaching out for help. That’s the effect of this. I would like a society in which people who need care, seek care. But if this is what’s going to happen, then it is totally rational to not seek care.”

Want to protect abortion access nationwide? Tell your representatives to take action.

-Jamie Epstein

(Photo credit: Flickr/Matt Hrkac)