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

In the year Roe v Wade was overturned, at least 200 people in the US were💥 prosecuted for conduct relating to their pregnancies 💥
– the highest number of cases in a single year ever recorded,
according to a new report released on Tuesday.

The report, compiled by the advocacy group #Pregnancy #Justice, is the first comprehensive accounting of pregnancy-related #criminal #charges between June 2022 and June 2023
-- but researchers warn that it is still likely an #undercount.

“To be perfectly honest, I think we’re scratching the surface of what is happening,” said Wendy Bach, a University of Tennessee law professor and the report’s principal investigator.

The vast majority of prosecutions documented in the report do not involve abortions. However, five cases mention allegations of an abortion, an 🔸#attempted abortion, or 🔸“researching or exploring the #possibility of an abortion”, according to the report.
Only one was charged under a statute meant to 🔸criminalize abortions.
The rest involved a bevy of other laws, such as a statute that bans the 🔸“abuse of a corpse”.❗️

Four of those cases took place in states that #ban abortion or are hostile to the procedure.

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 the person carrying them.

More than 100 prosecutions recorded by Pregnancy Justice took place in #Alabama, a state whose supreme court recently ruled that embryos are 🔸“extrauterine children”.

Most of the cases also involved statutes where⚠️ prosecutors do not need to prove that any harm was done to a fetus or infant.
Rather, prosecutors must show that a defendant posed some “risk” to the pregnancy
– which could lead to 🔸criminalization of behavior that is not actually dangerous, advocates say.

theguardian.com/us-news/2024/s…

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

Study finds highest yearly number of prosecutions related to pregnancy – and experts say that is likely an undercount

^{Carter Sherman (The Guardian)}