It became more common for authorities to charge women with crimes related to their pregnancies after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, a new study found — even if they’re almost never accused of violating abortion bans. In the year after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion, at least 210 women were charged with crimes related to their pregnancies, according to Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy organization. That’s the highest number the group has identified over any 12-month period in research projects that have looked back as far as 1973, the Associated Press reports. Wendy Bach, a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law and one a lead researcher on the project, said that one woman delivered a stillborn baby at her home six or seven months into pregnancy. When the woman went to make funeral arrangements, the funeral home alerted authorities and the woman was charged with homicide.
It was one of 22 cases in the study that involved the death of a fetus or infant. “It’s an environment where pregnancy loss is potentially criminally suspect,” said Lourdes Rivera, president of Pregnancy Justice. The researchers caution that the tally of cases from June 24, 2022, through June 23, 2023, is an undercount, as were earlier versions. As a result, they can’t be positive there wasn’t a stretch between 1973 and 2022 with as many cases as after the Dobbs ruling. During the earlier period, they found more than 1,800 cases — peaking at about 160 in 2015 and 2017. Most of the cases since Roe’s end include charges of child abuse, neglect or endangerment in which the fetus was listed as the victim. Most involved allegations of substance use during pregnancy, including 133 where it was the only allegation. The group said most of the charges do not require proof that the baby or fetus was actually harmed.
Comments