"The paramedics arrive-and with them, police. The questions come before the care: How far along were you? How long did you wait before calling 911? Did you get regular prenatal care? Were you excited to be pregnant? Have you taken any drugs? Instead of prioritizing your physical and emotional well-being, you're suddenly facing criminal charges, worried about losing your kids, and trying to find a lawyer you can afford."
"This is pregnancy criminalization: when someone is charged with a crime because of their behavior during pregnancy, or because of a pregnancy loss, such as miscarriage or stillbirth. These charges are typically not for abortion-specific crimes; in fact, at least for now, most states cannot charge the pregnant person with an abortion-related crime. Instead, prosecutors misuse and misapply various statutes to charge pregnant people with anything from "child" abuse, neglect, or endangerment, to murder, manslaughter, or abuse of a corpse."
Pregnant people across the United States face criminal investigations and prosecutions after miscarriages, stillbirths, and pregnancy-related emergencies. More than 400 prosecutions across 16 states have been documented in the two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Police and prosecutors are often alerted by hospitals and healthcare workers when someone seeks care, and they apply unrelated statutes — including child abuse, neglect, endangerment, murder, manslaughter, and abuse of a corpse — to charge pregnant people. Legal protections that once limited criminalization have weakened, creating a framework that prioritizes investigation and punishment over medical care and patient well-being.
Read at The Nation
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