More and More Pregnant People Are Facing Pregnancy Criminalization 

So far in 2025, Pregnancy Justice estimates 151 known cases of pregnancy-related prosecutions. But without a centralized way of counting arrests or accessing court records, that number is considered an undercount. According to the 2024 numbers, the original estimate was 210, which was later updated to 261. That same report says 2023 saw the most pregnancy-related prosecutions on record.

“Every one of these 412 cases represents a woman who faced investigation, arrest, and trauma—often after seeking health care,” the organization’s president, Lourdes Rivera, told Jezebel. “Instead of investing in maternal and reproductive health, prosecutors are weaponizing the law against pregnant people, especially in states already facing maternal mortality and infant health crises.”

Of the 412 cases, 399 involve accusations of substance use during pregnancy, 31 target people who lost their pregnancies, and nine involve abortion-related allegations. Alabama, Oklahoma, and South Carolina account for the majority of cases.

According to Sussman, substance-related criminalization is the clearest manifestation of the fetal personhood movement. “That’s the most common kind of pathway to pregnancy criminalization, and it all comes down to this idea that, again, you can apply a child abuse or child endangerment charge to a pregnant person by designating, by redefining their pregnancy to be another, entirely separate, individual.”

Still, policies that criminalize substance use during pregnancy have long been denounced for hurting pregnant people, and have disproportionately impacted marginalized communities. The American College of OB-GYNs and the American Medical Association have advised against such legislation. As a result, over the last two years, some states, including Massachusetts, New York, and—surprisingly—Tennessee, have considered passing legislation that requires informed consent from pregnant people before they are tested for drugs.

Pregnancy Justice has been tracking pregnancy-related prosecutions since at least the 1980s, so this is hardly a uniquely post-Dobbs phenomenon. But after the Supreme Court essentially declared open season on pregnant people, abortion bans have advanced and empowered the fetal personhood movement, thus making pregnancies a prime target for surveillance and needless litigation.

Since January, at least 11 states have introduced bills that would treat fetuses as humans, thereby criminalizing abortion as homicide. On Wednesday, South Carolina held a hearing about Senate Bill 323, which would completely ban abortion by eliminating exceptions and would charge abortion patients with homicide. If passed, it would be the most extreme abortion ban in the country.

“This is a very tangible outcome of what happens when we give embryos and fetuses personhood rights,” Sussman continued. “Not only does it create a situation where women are not able to get [emergency care] before they bleed out and lose their uterus or potentially lose their life, not only does it mean that they can’t get abortion fundamentally, because fetal personhood and abortion rights do not—cannot—coexist.” 

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