New Pregnancy Justice Report Shows High Number of Pregnancy-Related Prosecutions in the Year After Dobbs

At least 210 pregnant people faced criminal charges for conduct associated with pregnancy 

NEW YORK – Today, Pregnancy Justice, an organization dedicated to defending pregnant people’s rights, released its latest report, Pregnancy as a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs. The report documents that in the first year after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, at least 210 pregnant people faced criminal charges for conduct associated with pregnancy, abortion, pregnancy loss, or birth. The report finds that in the one-year period from June 24, 2022 to June 23, 2023, there was the highest number of pregnancy-related prosecutions documented in a single year. 

Pregnancy Justice’s research shows that, from 1973 to 2023, more than 2,000 individuals across the United States faced prosecution and punishment for circumstances surrounding their pregnancies and pregnancy outcomes. Pregnancy as a Crime shows that in the post-Dobbs environment, pregnant people are under increased surveillance and are getting arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated for any actions that have a perceived risk of harm to the pregnancy.  

“Our new report shows how the Dobbs decision emboldened prosecutors to develop ever more aggressive strategies to prosecute pregnancy, leading to the most pregnancy-related criminal cases on record,” said Lourdes A. Rivera, president of Pregnancy Justice. “This is directly tied to the radical legal doctrine of ‘fetal personhood,’ which grants full legal rights to an embryo or fetus, turning them into victims of crimes perpetrated by pregnant women. To turn the tide on criminalization, we need to separate health care from the criminal legal system and to change policy and practices to ensure that pregnant people can safely access the health care they need, without fear of criminalization. This report demonstrates that, in post-Dobbs America, being pregnant places people at increased risk, not only of dire health outcomes, but of arrest.”

The majority of cases uncovered in Pregnancy as a Crime took place in states that have enshrined fetal personhood in their civil and criminal laws, such as Alabama (104 cases), Oklahoma (68 cases), and South Carolina (10 cases). These states also have near-total abortion bans and some of the worst maternal and infant health outcomes in the country.

The report finds that 22 women were criminalized for experiencing a pregnancy loss. Five cases included the mention of abortion, an attempt to end a pregnancy, or that the defendant researched or explored the possibility of abortion. 

The majority of charges cited in the report alleged substance use during pregnancy, for legal and illegal substances alike. In the vast majority of cases (191), the charges brought against the pregnant person did not require any “proof” of harm to the fetus or baby, but merely a perceived risk of harm.  

The vast majority of defendants were low-income. The charges ranged from child neglect, abuse, or endangerment to murder. In 121 of the 210 cases, information was obtained or disclosed in a medical setting, and 114 cases indicated involvement by the family policing system.

“Following the Dobbs decision, we set out to answer the question, how would criminal laws be used to prosecute acts associated with pregnancy,” said Wendy Bach, principal investigator of the report and professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law. “We learned that prosecutions in the year after Dobbs represent a high-water mark in pregnancy criminalization, following from increased suspicion and surveillance of pregnant people. With this report, we hope to see both more attention on pregnancy-related prosecutions and more advocacy to reverse course on the criminalization of pregnant people.”

Pregnancy as a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs is the first report of a three-year study in partnership with researchers from the University of Tennessee, the University of South Carolina, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Alabama. In the coming years, the research team will refine the research and methodology to fully capture the scope of pregnancy criminalization in the three years after Dobbs.  

This report builds upon and refines the methods used in Pregnancy Justice’s past reports. With significantly more research resources and new analysis, the current data should not be directly compared with the prior data as the definitive “biggest increase” in pregnancy-criminalization in a year.

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Pregnancy Justice works to ensure that no one loses their rights because of pregnancy or because of their capacity for pregnancy, focusing on pregnant people who are most at risk of state control and criminalization: those who are low-income, of color, or use drugs.