More than 400 people have been charged with pregnancy-related crimes in the first two years since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, according to new research from the reproductive justice group Pregnancy Justice. The study, released on Tuesday, found that the vast majority of the 412 cases occurred in the US south, targeted low-income women, and involved allegations of child abuse, endangerment, or neglect.
Nearly 300 of the prosecutions took place in Alabama and Oklahoma, both hubs for the growing fetal personhood movement. In 16 cases, women were charged with homicide. The group believes the tally is likely an undercount due to the lack of a national database of US arrest or court records.
Almost 400 of the cases involved allegations of substance use during pregnancy. In one example, a woman was arrested for felony child neglect after her umbilical cord tested positive for marijuana, despite having a medical marijuana card. Pregnancy Justice noted that the laws used are typically meant to protect children, not fetuses, and that prosecuting pregnant women under them cements the legal doctrine of fetal personhood.
“That is the ultimate goal of the anti-abortion movement,” said Dana Sussman, senior vice-president at Pregnancy Justice. “It wasn’t just to overturn Roe. It is to establish full personhood, full rights for embryos and fetuses.” Sussman warned that Donald Trump’s recent claim that pregnant women taking Tylenol may cause autism, which lacks scientific support, could fuel further stigmatisation and criminalisation.
Only 31 of the documented cases involved a stillbirth or miscarriage, while nearly 300 led to a live birth. In one case, a woman who did not realise she was pregnant until she began giving birth was charged with abuse of a corpse after delivering a stillbirth. The report highlights that many cases of miscarriage criminalisation do not make national headlines, such as those in Ohio and Georgia where women faced charges for concealing a death or abandoning a dead body after miscarrying.
