pregnancy criminalization

Reproductive rights group urges Ohio prosecutor to drop criminal charge against woman who miscarried

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Beene said Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights fears the case will deter other women from seeking miscarriage care. The organization also shared its letter, dated Dec. 15, with the Warren mayor, law director and city council members, in hopes of building support for dropping charges against Watts. Read more at The Hill  

Black Ohio woman’s arrest after pregnancy loss begs the question, ‘What do you do after a miscarriage?’

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Despite expert testimony advocating the pregnancy was not viable, the case went viral this weekend when a judge decided that she will face a grand jury. This is another story contributing to the trend of pregnancy-related criminalization continuing across the country. Read more at Cleveland.com

California woman cleared of murder charge for baby’s death in home birth

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The case, national advocates said, highlighted growing concerns about the criminalization of women across the US, who have increasingly faced surveillance, arrest and prosecutions for abortions, as well as miscarriages, stillbirths and other actions that law enforcement have claimed “endangered” their fetuses. It was also an example of how punitive responses to drug addiction can … Read more

We’re Not Going Back to the Time Before Roe. We’re Going Somewhere Worse

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We have entered an era not of unsafe abortion but of widespread state surveillance and criminalization—of pregnant women, certainly, but also of doctors and pharmacists and clinic staffers and volunteers and friends and family members, of anyone who comes into meaningful contact with a pregnancy that does not end in a healthy birth. Those who … Read more

They were prosecuted for using drugs while pregnant. But it may not have been a crime.

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Some local investigators and prosecutors are pursuing similar cases in Alabama, Oklahoma and South Carolina. They are policing pregnant people under an expanded interpretation of child abuse and neglect laws — even if parents birthed healthy babies, according to an investigation by The Marshall Project, Mississippi Today, AL.com, The Frontier and The Post & Courier. … Read more