“Pregnancy Criminalization in the Three Years Post-Dobbs.”
The full webinar is now available on our YouTube channel, and you can view our data center here.
In addition, here are the resources from the webinar chat:
- Unpacking Fetal Personhood: The Radical Tool That Undermines Reproductive Justice
- Birth Rights: A Resource for Everyday People to Defend Human Rights During Pregnancy and Birth
- Legislative and Policy Blueprint: Challenging Pregnancy Criminalization and Moving Toward Dignity
- After Pregnancy Loss: An Analysis of How State Laws Could Target Postpartum People
- Interrupting Punitive Responses to Substance Use and Pregnancy
- The Role of the Viability Line in Pregnancy Criminalization
- Confronting Pregnancy Criminalization: A Practical Guide for Healthcare Providers, Lawyers, Medical Examiners, Child Welfare Workers, and Policymakers
- A webinar explaining and challenging the use of drug tests in legal cases and related fact sheets: Drug Testing in Pregnancy and Parenting
We also recommend these additional resources:
- Bridges, K. M. (2019). Race, pregnancy, and the opioid epidemic: white privilege and the criminalization of opioid use during pregnancy. Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository (University of California, Berkeley), 133(3), 771–851. https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1129151
- Dunham, R. (2025, June 10). Surge in U.S. executions exhibits huge White-Victim preference. The DP3 Substack (Death Penalty Policy Project). https://dppolicy.substack.com/p/surge-in-us-executions-exhibits-huge
- Dorothy E. Roberts, Punishing Drug Addicts Who Have Babies: Women of Color, Equality, and the Right of Privacy, 104 Harv. L. Rev. 1419, 1435-36 (1991). https://repository.law.upenn.edu/Documents/Detail/393189
- Wendy A. Bach, Prosecuting Poverty, Criminalizing Care (Cambridge University Press, 2022). https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108693783
And thank you to our panelists for their time and expertise. You can follow Women’s Rights Empowerment Network (WREN) at @wrenetwork and Palmetto State Abortion Fund at @palmettostateabortionfund.
We hope you will stay connected with us by signing up for our newsletter and following us at @pregnancyjust across social media. If you or someone you know is facing criminal charges related to their pregnancy or pregnancy outcome, contact us at: https://www.pregnancyjusticeus.org/get-help/. We can’t take every case, but we may be able to help.
In solidarity,
The Pregnancy Justice team
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NEW DATA: Pregnancy as a Crime: An Interim Update on the First Three Years After Dobbs — Pregnancy loss criminalization is accelerating
Yesterday, we released our new data on post-Dobbs pregnancy criminalization. The report documents 902 cases in which people were charged with crimes related to their pregnancy, pregnancy loss, or birth. This ongoing study, conducted by the Pregnancy Justice research team and co-Principal Investigators Professors Wendy Bach and Madalyn Wasilczuk and Dr. Kendra Hutchens, painstakingly unearthed these cases to provide the most comprehensive dataset of pregnancy criminalization ever documented. This represents a likely significant undercount.
The report documents 902 cases in which people were charged with crimes related to their pregnancy, pregnancy loss, or birth. Each of these 902 cases represents a woman who faced an invasive investigation, arrest, and trauma. They may have sought healthcare for a medical emergency, prenatal care, or pregnancy loss, only to have police called. Many were jailed or separated from their babies.
Most of the reported cases came out of three states: South Carolina (381), Oklahoma (222), and Alabama (204) = total 807
This research is essential to inform our legal and policy strategy and to determine where resources need to be directed.
SEE: The Terrifying Future of States’ Criminalizing Pregnant People Is Already Here | The Nation