criminalizing pregnancy outcomes

Republicans don’t care if women die from abortion bans – but they don’t want you to know about it

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This censorship effort doesn’t just impact the data about abortion ban-related deaths, either. Before 2022, both Texas and Georgia had some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. There’s been an eye-popping 56% rise in pregnancy-related deaths in Texas over the past few years. Anyone who actually cared about women or “life” would want … Read more

“A wounding disappointment”: Why Kamala Harris’ defeat cuts so deep for women

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I can’t agree to disagree about doctors refusing medical attention for ectopic pregnancies, and women being arrested for their miscarriages. Have you ever had a miscarriage? I have. It’s physically and emotionally devastating enough without the fear that you and your healthcare provider may be questioned, scrutinized, penalized, that you may have your life endangered, … Read more

Trump’s return to White House means abortion rights face new chapter of peril

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Project 2025, which was primarily crafted by the influential thinktank the Heritage Foundation but backed by more than 100 conservative groups, includes a laundry list of anti-abortion policies. It suggests rolling back the FDA’s approval of abortion pills, increasing CDC “surveillance” of abortion and pregnancy loss to police ban violations, and stripping federal funding from … Read more

Some states are turning miscarriages and stillbirths into criminal cases against women

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States across the country have been using a series of laws and court rulings in the past decade to criminalize how women react to pregnancy loss. Legal experts say the fear and suspicion following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that allowed states to ban abortion may be making things … Read more

There’s No Coming Back From Dobbs

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Recent legal fights in Ohio provide a glimpse of how even sweeping abortion protections don’t automatically undo the effects of restrictions, and could lead to new ones. Last year, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment enshrining the right to an abortion. But pro-abortion-rights advocates in the state are still fighting to throw out the state’s … Read more

More than 200 pregnancy-related prosecutions in first year post-Roe

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More than 200 of the 210 recorded prosecutions involve allegations of substance use during pregnancy. In almost 200 of the cases, prosecutors charged people using statutes that criminalize child abuse, neglect, or endangerment – charges that treat an embryo or fetus as a person, complete with rights and protections that may compete with that of … Read more

These Moms Smoked Weed Legally. Then Their Kids Were Taken Away

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In a post-Dobbs world — and in an era of so-called fetal personhood, the conservative ideology that grants legal rights to infants not yet born — that risk becomes more real every day. States like Mississippi and South Carolina are already using “chemical endangerment” laws to prosecute women criminally for prenatal drug use. In Oklahoma … Read more

The Racist War On Drugs Has Come For Abortion Care

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This near-total abortion ban pushed through by far-right local politicians will only exacerbate Louisiana’s dire maternal mortality crisis, which has seen low-income Black Lousianians suffer a disproportionately high rate of preventable deaths. In effect, this ban has ushered the War on Drugs into the realm of abortion care, sentencing pregnant people—particularly Black pregnant people—to profound, … Read more